The Results Are In!

Here's a quick and dirty listing of the shows that were selected through our first come/first serve and lottery process to take part in the 2012 Chicago Fringe Festival. Color us intrigued!

LOCAL

The League of Miscreants	The Miscreants Kill An Hour And Go To Cuernavaca II
J L Rumberger	Persephone
Allen Green	Life After Death
Terra Mysterium	The Alembic
Kate Healy	Lie Light
Mary Redmon	The Granny Diaries
Kim Morris	Running to Light
eric bjorlin	Hi, I'm Awkward
Small Fish Radio Theatre and Thespinarium	The Adventures of Skater Girl
Trini/David	In My Own Defense
Hallow Tree	Sleeping Beauty
The Island	The War to End War
Rebecca Kling	You Say Transgender Like It's A Bad Thing
Jeri & Ed	No Stopping, No Warping, No dying
The Comic Thread	Catcher!
Amrita Dhaliwal / Dal Vivo	Lady Love
Cheater	Cheater
Lizanda	Lizanda Presents
Strangeloop Theatre	Shadows and Lust
White Elephant	Pink Milk
Stars of Art	This space intentionally left blank
Wishbone Theatre Collective	To Be Determined
Area IV	TBA
Imagicanary	Black and White and Read All Over
Henry Keyser	Dawn on a Splintered Heart

NON LOCAL

Yes Theatre Co.	Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-Latino	IN
George Contini	Put It In the Scrapbook	GA
The Broken String Theatre Ensemble	An Autobiography of Our Lives, As Told By a Sandwich	MD
Schedule C Productions	Where Is My Mind?	IN
Howard Petrick	Breaking Rank!	CA
Tim Lee	Scientist Turned Comedian Tim Lee	CA
SHARP Dance Company	Kinetic Concoction	PA
Martiark Art Theatre	Alarum/Transfiguration	AUSTRALIA
LA PETITE FAMILLE	DEMAIN L'AURORE	FRANCE
Company Snail	Naughty Princess	SERBIA
The Interpreters	Moksori	SOUTH KOREA
Twilight Productions	Ashes to Ashes	IN
Not Quite Opera Productions, Inc.	Absolutely San Francisco	CA
Modal Kombat	Modal Kombat	NY
Aron wolde	BiPolar-bear	MN
Michelle Glick-Wolter	Asian Belle	NY
Curt...from Detox	UnMasked	OH
Messenger Theatre Company	As We Like It	NY
Jude Treder-Wolff	Crazytown	NY
Dr. Pete	Feel the Power of the Dork Side	GA
John Leo & Jay Dunn	Handshake Uppercut	NY
Fat Violet Theater	Ivan and the Dogs by Hattie Naylor	NJ
Robert JM Productions	Beneath the Zipper	OK
Reverend Nuge	Preacherman	MI
Jaded Optimist Productions	55 Minutes of Sex, Drugs and Audience Participation	MN

Neverland at Dream

Fiction is full of Fringes.

Places that are off the beaten path, outside the mainstream, hard to find, hard to leave, with their own (il)logic and skewed beauty.

Wonderland.

Narnia.

And of course . . . Neverland.

Dream Theatre, one of the Chicago Fringe Festival venues, is currently exploring the mysterious origins of this mysterious place in the riveting "Neverland," the first part of Jeremy Menekseoglu's trilogy "Peter Pan's Shadow."

Think happy thoughts.

Rhinofest is ON!

Facts about the rhinoceros, courtesy of the San Diego Zoo:

1) The word rhinoceros comes from the Greek word for nose ("rhino") and for horn ("ceros").

2) There are five types of rhino: black, white, greater one-horned, Sumatran and Javan.

3) All rhinos have poor vision but great hearing.

4) White rhinos are actually brown-gray, but might be called white because Dutch settlers in Africa called it the "wijde," or "wide," rhino.

Facts about the Rhinoceros Theater Festival, courtesy of rhinofest.com:

1) It is a curated multi-arts festival started 23 years ago by Curious Theatre Branch.

2) The 2012 installment runs between January 13-Feb 12 at the Prop Thtr.

3) 2012 show titles include "The American Drink Book," "Civil War Dad," "Samuel Beckett, Andre the Giant, and the Crickets" and "The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs."

4) Tickets cost $12 online or $15 (or what you can) at the door.

What rhinos have in common with Rhinofest, courtesy of the Chicago Fringe Festival:

Both are totally radical and likely to leave you muttering, "Whoa, amazing."

Tips for CFF 2012 Applications!

Applications for the 2012 Chicago Fringe Festival go live on December 12! To successfully complete it:

You WILL NOT need a No. 2 pencil, because the application is not a standardized test! While you DO have to meet the basic requirements for participation to take part in the Festival, you will NOT be scored or otherwise judged on the contents of the application, because the Fringe is an unjuried festival. This ensures the Festival is truly diverse, not just a reflection of a selection committee’s tastes!

You WILL NOT need a copy of your tax returns, because the Fringe does not care how much money you have to sink into your show! All you have to pony up is the application fee and, if chosen, the participation fee. This ensures the Festival is accessible to all sorts of artists!

You WILL NOT need to furnish your references or resume, because the Fringe does not care what you’ve done in the past! Our productions are a mix of established and award-winning troupes, up-and-coming artists and performers just starting out. This makes the Festival a great opportunity for artists to reach new audiences and for audiences (including critics! producers!) to discover new talent.

You WILL need to provide some basic information about who you are. This might not be as easy as it seems. For example, last year’s production The Night of the Living Dead: The Puppet Show might have questioned whether a brown skinned zombie puppet counts as a minority cast member. (Hint: it doesn't.)

Answer honestly and do your best, and if you find yourself pondering something like the zombie puppet question, congratulate yourself on finding the perfect festival to demonstrate your madcap, anything but standardized theatrical sensibility. So get ready to break your pencils, tear up your resumes and fill out the application!

Tidings of Tap!

The Fringe offered up some Christmas in September, thanks to the Miscreants' "The Roast of Santa Claus, or: The Miscreants Kill an Hour and Go to Cuernavaca." But now that the holiday season is actually here, perhaps you're looking for a more, er, family friendly holiday show?

Look no further: Chicago Tap Theatre's "Tidings of Tap" promises to be just the ticket! And by entering promo code FringeTap11 and wearing your Fringe button to the show, you can save $5 on an adult ticket! Click here for tix.

Laura Molzahn of SeeChicagoDance.com wrote, "Never preachy and rarely predictable, 'Tidings of Tap!' doesn't provide the sentimental glow of self-approval that so many other holiday shows do. Nor does it trash the season or the human race for enjoying it. Instead it takes us on a mashed-up tour of holiday cliches, borne on the easy, breezy wings of tap-dancing."

"Tidings" is being performed on the UIC campus, so while you're in the area to see the show, you could easily revisit some of your favorite Pilsen hotspots like Decolores, Honky Tonk, Simone's and the Miscreants' watering hole of choice, Cuernavaca.

Artist Spotlight and 9/11 Event

Tomorrow morning, Fringe will commemorate 9/11 with a special event at Meridian Stage at 11 am. This event will feature speakers, artists, performers and will be recorded for WBEZ's Chicago Amplified. Please join us, and to participate, please make a ribbon at Fringe Central.

On the eve of this anniversary, Les Kurkendaal (Nightmare in Bakersfield) reminds us that Fringe artists are part of a worldwide community:

CHICAGO FRINGE 2011: ON THE MAP, UNDER THE RADAR

DAY NINE

9/11 Primer: Epoch of the Peacemakers. ...inside my Kaleidoscope. Neither Transparent nor Opaque. Let Me Count. Clean Start. Little Ivory Fingers. Spandex. Mother Tongues. Camelot is Crumbling. The Man in the Arena. From the Nightshade Family. My Salvation has a First Name: A Wienermobile Journey. Acrobat Daredevils. Bedbugs. Nightmare in Bakersfield. No Gender Left Behind. Jesus, Shakespeare and Lincoln Walk in a Bar. Alone Apart. Miss Fortune. Evolution. Nearly Naked. Othello's Furies. Strangerland. The Roast of Santa. Motherbanking Bankhole.

. . . and the Closing Ceremony at Fringe Central!