~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last of the Red-Hot Dadas

by Kerry Reid

Preview article for Rhino Fest in the Chicago Daily Herald
Home / Now Playing & Coming Soon / Back to Media List / To email us

From the Fringe

Rhino Fest still going strong after 14 years
By Jack Helbig Daily Herald Correspondent
Posted August 29, 2003

The New York Fringe Festival has been getting a lot of press recently, mostly because one of the hits from the 1991 Fringe, "Urinetown," is now a hot show on Broadway.

But Chicago has its own annual fringe festival, the Annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival, and even though it is not nearly as large as the New York Fringe, it is large enough to give audiences a cross section of Chicago's "fringier" performers and theater companies.

Even more remarkable is that the festival has been going strong for 14 years. The fest was the brainchild of Beau O'Reilly and Jenny Magnus, co-founders of the Curious Theatre Branch and fellow performers in the late, lamented cabaret band, Maestro Subgum and the Whole.

At the time the festival began, the Curious Theatre was in a storefront in the then-edgy Wicker Park neighborhood, at a place that is now a bike shop. Back then, Wicker Park and Bucktown, neighborhoods bounded by Ashland to the east, Western to the west, Division to the south and North Avenue to the north, was a hotbed of theatrical activity, with no fewer than six theaters going at any given time.

The first festivals were spread among these Wicker Park theaters, though they also included participants from other companies, most notably the often homeless Theater Oobleck. As an audience member in those early festivals, I clearly remember the heady feeling that these companies were onto something amazing.

It really seemed like they all were "changing the world one imagination at a time," to quote the motto on the Curious Theatre's home page.

Change did come, but not in the way they envisioned it. Wicker Park became too hot and expensive for artists and marginal theaters. Some companies folded, others pulled up stakes. The Curious Theatre moved into a building in a totally different neighborhood on Lincoln Avenue near Diversey, taking with it the Rhino, as it was sometimes affectionately called.

Curious Theatre was a part-time tenant of a funky music venue called the Lunar Cabaret, a beat little storefront space with a small stage in back and a tiny coffee bar in the front. When the Curious folks weren't doing theater or hosting the Rhino, the Lunar Cabaret hosted various odd and interesting musical acts.

Throughout the early '90s, I remember O'Reilly announcing that each year's Rhino was going to be the last, that it "took too much work, too much time, too much planning," and that it was always done with less money than they needed. Remarkably, the Rhino Fest continued being done every year. Some years, there were even two Rhinos, one at the end of summer, and a smaller one after the holidays, dubbed "The Rhino in Winter."

When asked by Perform Ink, Chicago's theater industry newspaper, why he continued to put the Rhino together year in and year out, O'Reilly could quip dryly, "A foolish heart." An equally valid answer might be Magnus's observation that "Amazing and brilliant artists live here."

O'Reilly and Magnus are known for their amazing soft touch. A surprising number of writers, performers and directors with little more than a good idea and a modicum of enthusiasm have found a place on The Rhinoceros Festival roster.

The list of past Rhino participants reads like a who's who of Chicago's fringe and performance scene, among them David Kodeski, Frank Melcori, Sue Cargill, Jeff Dorchen and Julie Laffin.

This year, Curious Theatre moved yet again, this time to a storefront in Rogers Park, near the Morse el stop on the Red Line. Once again, the Rhino traveled, too, and much, but not all, of this year's Rhino will be performed in the new space. The rest of the fest will be staged at the nearby No Exit Café and in the Chicago Loop, at the Chicago Cultural Center.

This year's six-week long festival will include a new play by Shawn Reddy about the Lincoln Assassination, called "My Name is Mudd;" something new from the hilarious performance clown troupe, 500 Clown, "500 Clown Frankenstein;" and a solo piece by Kerry Reid, "Last of the Red Hot Dadas," which garnered great reviews earlier this summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

As noted above, the festival has never allowed itself to become just a celebration of recognized artists. Also on the bill is a three-person group, the Casual Family, presenting short plays with music; a new dark comedy by an obscure writer Paula Gilovich, "The Rat Bush: A California Gothic;" and something called the O Theater, doing a play called "With Love in Your Arms and a Knife in Your Heart" by Joe Meno.

Finally, for those who like to talk about theater there will be panel discussion Oct. 6 on the timeless fringe subject, "Theater and Resistance."

These few paragraphs have only scratched the surface of this remarkable and eclectic festival. For a full schedule, check out the Web site (www.rhinocerostheaterfestival.com) or drop by the Curious Theater, at 7001 N. Glenwood, and pick up a copy of the brochure.

14th Annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival

Where: The new Curious Theatre Branch, 7001 N. Glenwood; the No Exit, at 6970 N. Glenwood; and the Chicago Cultural Center, at 78 E. Washington Blvd., all in Chicago.

When: Friday through Oct. 26

Admission: varies, see schedule

Information: (773) 274-6660 or www.rhinocerostheaterfestival.com

Home / Now Playing & Coming Soon / Back to Media List / To email us