Photo: The 2015 First Floor Theater Literary Festival, Kafkapalooza

First Floor Theater has announced its fourth annual literary festival, FITZFEST, a festival of eight world premiere plays, inspired by the life and work of F. Scott Fitzgerald. FITZFEST will play August 5 – 13 at Collaboraction’s Pentagon Theatre in The Flat Iron Arts Building and will feature eight new short plays by Chicago and New York-based writers, marking the first time playwrights from both cities have participated in the festival.

“We are so excited to this year expand our Literary Festival beyond Chicago, welcoming back writers from New York whose full-length shows we premiered this season, alongside both new and returning Chicago writing talent,” says Artistic Director Hutch Pimentel. “It’s an honor to be solidifying our tradition of queer writers, female writers and writers of color interpreting the work of straight, white men for the 21st century.”

Over the past three years, LitFest has performed works by Chicago writers such as Seth Bockley, Philip Dawkins, Bonnie Metzgar, Ike Holter, and Brett Neveu, finding inspiration in The Brothers Grimm (Grimmfest 2013), Mark Twain (TwainsWorld 2014) and Franz Kafka (Kafkapalooza 2015).

This year’s FITZFEST will feature Ike Holter, Calamity West, Morgan McNaught, J. Julian Christopher, Ken Urban, Elise Spoerlein, and Company Members Sid Branca and Jesse Roth. All eight writers will take on Fitzgerald’s smart social commentary, razor-sharp dialogue, vivid imagery, and unflinching exploration of the American psyche resulting in eight world premiere short plays, all performed every night of the festival.

Tickets for FITZFEST are $15 general admission. firstfloortheater.com.
Show are Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 pm, Sunday, August 7 at 3 p.m.

First Floor Theater is a resident company with Collaboraction Theatre Company in the Flat Iron Arts Building.