Spotlight: Lifeline Theatre promotes storytellers, artists at annual Fillet of Solo Festival

Posted January 09, 2024 1:42 pm

Storyteller/creator/producer Nestor Gomez showcases fellow immigrants in “Eighty Minutes Around the World: Immigrant Stories“ as part of Lifeline Theatre's 27th annual Fillet of Solo Festival. Courtesy of Lifeline Theatre

Fillet of Solo Fest

Lifeline Theatre hosts its 27th annual Fillet of Solo Festival celebrating Chicago-area storytellers, solo artists and collectives whose performances span comedy and drama. Highlights include “Eighty Minutes Around the World: Immigration Stories,” created and produced by Nestor Gomez; the storytelling variety show “I Love Everything”; the Sweat Girls in “United We Sweat”; comedian Elaine Golden’s “Golden Girls: An Intergenerational House Party,” about moving in with her 90-year-old grandmother; and writer/storyteller Julie Danis’ coming-of-middle-age story “Life’s Too Short and So Am I.”

Performances take place Fridays through Sundays from Friday, Jan. 12, through Jan. 21 at Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave., Chicago, and at South of the Border, 1416 W. Morse Ave., Chicago. Single tickets cost $12, $60 for a festival pass. (773) 761-4477 or lifelinetheatre.com.

Meghan Murphy stars as Reno Sweeney in Porchlight Music Theatre's revival of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes.” Courtesy of Joe Mazza

Taptastic tuner

Meghan Murphy plays Reno Sweeney, a nightclub singer who helps her friend Billy win the heart of a young debutante, in Porchlight Music Theatre’s revival of “Anything Goes.” Artistic director Michael Weber helms the Cole Porter musical about the romantic shenanigans that unfold during a transatlantic voyage, whose score includes such hits as “I Get a Kick Out of You” and “You’re the Top,” among others.

Previews at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13; 1:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 14; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17; and 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St., Chicago. The show opens at 7 p.m. Jan. 18. Tickets start at $20. (773) 777-9884 or porchlightmusictheatre.org.

A classic revived

Trap Door Theatre continues its 30th anniversary season with a revival of “Mother Courage and Her Children,” Bertolt Brecht’s epic indictment of war and capitalism that centers on an amoral, entrepreneurial matriarch with an unequaled instinct for survival. Max Truax helms the production starring Holly Cerney in the titular role.

Opens at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, at 1655 W. Cortland St., Chicago. $30 (two-for-one admission on Thursdays). (773) 384-0494 or trapdoortheatre.com.

Ginger Minj, left, and Gidget Galore salute Broadway in Minj's music and comedy show, “A Broad's Way” at Mercury Theater Chicago's Venus Cabaret. Courtesy of Fruit Wine Productions

Broads salute Broadway

Ginger Minj (from “RuPaul’s Drag Race”), who starred last year in Music Theater Works’ “La Cage aux Folles,” brings her music and comedy show “The Broad’s Way” to Mercury Theater Chicago’s Venus Cabaret. Gidget Galore joins Minj in her salute to Broadway, produced by Fruit Wine Productions.

Preview at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, at 3745 N. Southport Ave., Chicago. The show opens Jan. 19. $40-$75. (773) 360-7365 or mercurytheaterchicago.com.

Tix for unwanted gifts

Comedy fans can exchange an unwanted holiday gift for a $15 ticket to “Late Nite Catechism,” running this month at the Greenhouse Theater Center. Re-gifts will be donated to the Little Sisters of the Poor, who operate St. Mary’s Home in Chicago. Use the code “REGIFT” for the $15 tickets.

5 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Jan. 28 at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. (773) 404-7336 or greenhousetheater.org.

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