This third annual showcase of solo performances, featuring more than 30 pieces, runs through 10/10 at the Athenaeum Theatre, third-floor studio, 2936 N. Southport. Tickets are $15 per show; “all access” passes cost $90. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster by calling 312-902-1500 or logging on to www.ticketmaster.com; single-show tickets are also available at the door. For more information call 312-371-4476 or see www.singlefilechicago.com. Following is the schedule through 9/30; a complete schedule is available online at www.chicagoreader.com.
THURSDAY 23
Debutante Balls and I Enjoy Being a Girl
Scott Turner Schofield takes on gender, class, and culture below the Mason-Dixon Line in Debutante Balls. I Enjoy Being a Girl charts Amy Rhodes’s search for identity. 7:30 PM
FRIDAY 24
Living Inside Myself, Debutante Balls, and Pop Culture Princess
Jamie Black’s Living Inside Myself recounts his experiences as a female-to-male transsexual. Black is brave to expose his experience onstage, but the show flounders. It seems he wants to cover his whole life, and that means skating on the surface of emotion rather than delving deeply into four or five stories. (JV) Elizabeth Whitney’s Pop Culture Princess is a “campy journey through our collective popular culture unconscious.” See listing for Thu 9/23 for Debutante Balls. 7:30 PM
Ghostlands of Urban NdN
Robert Greygrass examines his Lakota heritage. 9:30 PM
SATURDAY 25
My Dirty Little Secret Marianna Runge is both the epitome and the antithesis of the Chicago monologuist. Like hordes of her colleagues, she’s decided to turn her life story into a performance piece. But while many of her peers merely demonstrate their eagerness to get really upset in front of strangers, Runge thinks her way through her confusing life and leaves the emotional response to the audience. The premise of this hour-long piece is simple. Runge has hidden two aspects of her life from nearly everyone: her devout Catholicism and her work as a phone sex operator. Rather than separating the two sides into distinct acts, she lets them bleed into each other, which produces a hallucinogenic effect. Best of all, she uses her experiences to explore the archetypal quests for faith and identity, giving her tiny anecdotes a universal resonance. (JHa) 2 PM
Will Sell Out for Money and Slow Children Playing
Thea Lux uses an eight-piece band and “goofy slide presentations” in her examination of ambition, Will Sell Out for Money. Anna Marie Agniel takes on the character of a girl “incredibly different from you” in Slow Children Playing. 5 PM
Ghostlands of Urban NdN
See listing for Fri 9/24. 7:30 PM
Pop Culture Princess
See listing for Fri 9/24. 9:30 PM
SUNDAY 26
Ghostlands of Urban NdN
See listing for Fri 9/24. 2 PM
Homecoming and My Dirty Little Secret
Marc Warzecha discusses moving back in with the parents in Homecoming. He also promises comments on George W. Bush, John Kerry, and “a priest who takes confession from the audience.” See listing for Sat 9/25 for My Dirty Little Secret. 5 PM
Living Inside Myself
See listing for Fri 9/24. 7:30 PM
THURSDAY 30
We’ve Come Undone and Freedom of Speech
Six monologues convey the stories of Arab and South Asian women to explore the spirit of post-9/11 America in Kayhan Irani’s We’ve Come Undone. Eliza Jane Schneider explores the “real social emergencies facing America as a nation” in Freedom of Speech, a 25-character solo play. 7:30 PM