Around the Coyote Winter Festival
The organizers of the Around the Coyote arts festival, an annual Labor Day weekend event in the Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhoods, have put together a three-day winter festival to herald the new millennium. Like its fall counterpart, this weekend’s fest features theater, improv, and spoken-word performances at various venues. These are shown in the following schedule; see listings elsewhere in this issue for information on dance, visual art, film, and musical attractions. The Around the Coyote Winter Festival runs February 4 through 6: Friday from 5 to 11 PM, Saturday from 11 AM to 11 PM, and Sunday from 11 AM to 5 PM. The festival’s main sites are the Flat Iron Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee, and the Northwest Tower Building, 1608 N. Milwaukee. Admission to these sites is $5 per day; admission to theater and performance events at other venues is free, but donations will be requested after each show. For more information call 773-342-6777.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4
Poetry Performance
Effie Mihopoulos hosts the poetry performance groups Avant Retro, Church of the Living Bitch, and the Naughty Goddess Revue. Mad Bar, 1640 N. Damen, 6 PM.
Tanya White
The African-American actor-writer presents a performance piece created especially for the festival. Wing & Groove Theatre, 19351/2 W. North, 7 PM.
Join Girls & Their Art
The all-female dance/performance collective She presents an evening of original work. Flat Iron Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee, 7 and 9 PM.
Broken Buddha Productions
This movement collective blends martial arts, gymnastics, theater, dance, and circus arts in its site-specific performance. Flat Iron Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee, 8 PM.
My Grandma’s a Fat Whore in Jersey
The WNEP Theater Foundation presents Jen Ellison and Matt Kaye in a program of long-form improvisation based on audience suggestions. “The fact is, creating and sustaining a cohesive piece for upwards of an hour is a monumental challenge for a group of ten seasoned improvisers, let alone two. . . . As demonstrated by the surrealistic mime sequences that frame the show’s three improvised segments, [the players] are gifted physical comedians [who] have . . . book smarts and chemistry. . . . With more modesty and a less scattershot approach, My Grandma’s a Fat Whore in Jersey might meet its ambitious goals,” said Reader critic Nick Green when he reviewed the show’s original run. Wing & Groove Theatre, 19351/2 W. North, 8 PM.
Paper Monkeys
This comic look at contemporary life is the work of several local writers. Wing & Groove Theatre, 19351/2 W. North, 9 PM.
The Skinhead Hamlet and Stand Up Absurdity or, Hell With a Side of Pudding
This late-night program pairs two one-acts. The first, an unattributed work, replays Shakespeare’s Hamlet as it might have been reinterpreted by a group of 1970s British skinheads; Stand Up Absurdity or, Hell With a Side of Pudding, by Qui Nguyen, spoofs the absurdist oeuvre of Beckett and Ionesco. Wing & Groove Theatre, 19351/2 W. North, 10:30 PM.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5
Poetry Performance
Effie Mihopoulos and Thax Douglas host an “eclectic reading” by local poets Carol Anderson, Nina Corwin, John Dickson, Lily Gaines, Natalie Kenvin, Brian Gary Kirst, C.J. Laity, Elizabeth Marino, Carolyn Paprocki, Dan Pearson, Joe Roarty, John Starrs, Michael C. Watson, and Bob Weinberg. The program also features an open mike. Estelle’s, 2013 W. North, 6 PM.
Tanya White
See listing for Friday. Wing & Groove Theatre, 19351/2 W. North, 7 PM.
Join Girls & Their Art
See listing for Friday. Flat Iron Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee, 7 and 9 PM.
My Grandma’s a Fat Whore in Jersey
See listing for Friday. Wing & Groove Theatre, 19351/2 W. North, 8 PM.
Broken Buddha Productions
See listing for Friday. Flat Iron Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee, 8 PM.
Paper Monkeys
See listing for Friday. Wing & Groove Theatre, 19351/2 W. North, 9 PM.
The Skinhead Hamlet and Stand Up Absurdity or, Hell With a Side of Pudding
See listing for Friday. Wing & Groove Theatre, 19351/2 W. North, 10:30 PM.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6
Memorial for Loss: Epilogues, Variations 1-3
Singapore-bred performance artist Noor Effendy Ibrahim presents a performance and installation piece about ritual and memory. Flat Iron Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee, 2 and 4 PM.