Knee Jerk

Venue: Dream Theatre

Showtimes (click to purchase):

Wednesday September 01, 2010	5:30 PM
Thursday September 02, 2010	7:00 PM
Friday September 03, 2010	8:30 PM
Saturday September 04, 2010	10:00 PM
Sunday September 05, 2010	4:00 PM

Description:
YOU COULD DIE RIGHT NOW! In a society that tip-toes around dangerous behavior to avoid its mortality, come visit the underbelly of that world that everyone ignores: The reality that, at any moment, the most trivial actions and most immediate, instinctive reactions can lead to our end.

Company:
The Consortium Project (Chicago, Illinois) began as a group of distinct individuals with different theatre skills/goals/backgrounds that wanted to collaborate with the intention of creating a truly balanced mental collective, so that we may explore all types of theatre and all types of audience demographics. The CPT's goal is to donate 100% of our ticket proceeds to charities and other non-profit organizations. From our first show, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, we started operating under this altruistically risky business model; our proceeds went to mental health organizations. We will continue this with CFF, and fight to make "altruistically risky" the norm.

www.consortiumproject.org
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Consortium-Project/175517266179?v=wall&ref=ts

*Show contains Language, Nudity, Violence, Drugs, Drinking

Grind: The Musical

Venue: Dream Theatre

Showtimes (click to purchase tickets):

Wednesday September 01, 2010	10:00 PM
Thursday September 02, 2010	4:00 PM
Friday September 03, 2010	5:30 PM
Saturday September 04, 2010	7:00 PM
Sunday September 05, 2010	8:30 PM

Description:
A neighborhood coffee shop serves as a haven for all types of people, from hardworking baristas, to homeless evangelists to aspiring musicians. "Grind" uses slam poetry, shadow puppetry and lots of music to explore what happens when a shop like this is due for demolition.

Company:
Theater Undeclared (Burnsville, Minnesota)

Get Rich Cheating

Venue: Casa Aztlan

Showtimes (click to purchase tickets):

Wednesday September 01, 2010	5:30 PM
Thursday September 02, 2010	7:00 PM
Friday September 03, 2010	8:30 PM
Saturday September 04, 2010	10:00 PM
Sunday September 05, 2010	1:00 PM

Description:
Wanna get rich? Colbert meets Tony Robbins in this wealth-building seminar exposing the proven path to obscene wealth - ethics be damned. Based on the bestselling book. Everyone's cheating: Why not you?

"You'll be laughing all the way to the bank" - Rachel Maddow
"Very funny" - Terry Jones (Monty Python)

Company:
Jeff Kreisler & Up Top Productions (Long Island City, New York)
Winner of the Bill Hicks Spirit Award for Thought Provoking Comedy, author of HarperCollins' bestselling satire "Get Rich Cheating," writer for Comedy Central, Huffington Post, TheStreet.com, and The Independent Film Channel, cast member of Shoot The Messenger (from the co-creator of "The Daily Show"), executive editor of "My Wall Street Journal," and star of several hit international festival shows (incl. Glasgow, Edinburgh, Calgary, New York, San Francisco Fests), Jeff Kreisler's performed on international TV, radio, and stage, with passion, absurdity, and hope. A graduate of Princeton, Exeter, and Virginia Law - biting the hands that fed him - Jeff now lives in New York City.

http://GetRichCheating.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63458436527&ref=ts

The Fugitives

Venue: Dream Theatre

Showtimes (click to purchase tickets):

Wednesday September 01, 2010	4:00 PM
Thursday September 02, 2010	5:30 PM
Friday September 03, 2010	7:00 PM
Saturday September 04, 2010	8:30 PM
Sunday September 05, 2010	10:00 PM

Description:
A mute Orestes and disturbed Elektra grapple with ghost and memory in a wasteland of dreams. 6000 years on the run. One terrible choice. La Rinascita’s The Fugitives “will make your heart pump harder and the sweat bead on your forehead.”

Company:
La Rinascita (Valparaiso, Indiana)

*Show contains violence

Finding Eleusis

Venue: Chicago Art Department

Showtimes (click to purchase tickets):

Wednesday September 01, 2010	8:30 PM
Thursday September 02, 2010	10:00 PM
Friday September 03, 2010	4:00 PM
Saturday September 04, 2010	5:30 PM
Sunday September 05, 2010	7:00 PM

Description:
In the dark heart of the earth, a single pomegranate seed burns like a star, and a Goddess is born. Terra Mysterium presents this apotheosis in Finding Eleusis, a contemporary drama illuminating the ancient story of Golden-Haired Demeter and her beloved daughter Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.

The Company:
Terra Mysterium (Chicago, IL)

Warnings: Partial Nudity, Depictions of Violence, Drinking

Exhausted Paint: The Death of Van Gogh

Venue: Simone's Bar

Showtimes (Click to purchase tickets):

Wednesday September 01, 2010	5:30 PM
Thursday September 02, 2010	10:00 PM
Friday September 03, 2010	4:00 PM
Saturday September 04, 2010	5:30 PM
Sunday September 05, 2010	8:30 PM

Show Description:

Van Gogh, alienation, wine! What more do you need? A tender play about harshness, “Exhausted Paint” explores Vincent van Gogh’s desperate struggle to mean something in a world that devalues art and its artists, forever asking the question: Why does humanity devalue what humanizes us?


About the Company:

Opium, Fireworks, and Lead Theater formed last year to bring a show to Minneapolis and NYC. As it begins to grow, it will help move innovative work between different theater communities. OFL’s work risks chaos, failure, and destruction by teasing, twisting, and ignoring traditional theatrical structures starting from a belief that catharsis is not fundamentally tied to plot and character. We take on the effective role of the jester, while staying unrepentantly and unremittingly smart.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Exhausted-Paint-The-Death-of-van-Gogh/120367724669431?ref=ts&v=wall

Cabinanalysis...or, Build Your Own Damn Cabin!

 
Venue: Simone's Bar

Showtimes: click to buy tickets
Wednesday September 1, 2010 8:30 p.m.
Thursday September 2, 2010 6:00 p.m.
Friday September 3, 2010 5:30 p.m.
Saturday September 4, 2010 4:00 p.m.
Sunday September 5, 2010 10:00 p.m.

A middle-aged psychiatrist wants to develop closer relationships with his four teenage kids to create something meaningful with them before they grow up and leave home. Following a visit to Walden Pond, he decides to build a replica of Thoreau's cabin together...in their suburban backyard. His search for answers takes him to Frank Lloyd Wright's school of architecture, the Log Doctor's clinic, and finally to a psychiatrist who treats psychiatrists. When the half-built cabin floods and begins to sink into the mud, he learns his real lessons about creativity and the cost of living your unlived life.


Lawrence Kerns, M.D. - real-life psychiatrist, 2nd Story contributor and Moth StorySLAM winnerhas read and performed at 2nd Story Monthly Series and Annual Festivals, WORDSTOCK - The Portland Literary Festival, Victory Gardens, Live Bait, This Much Is True, and SpeakEasy, SpeakHard. 2nd STORY is a performance organization dedicated to bringing people together through story.
Learn more at www.CABINALYSIS.com.