Pictured: 2018 Solo Performer Shelby Marie Edwards

Lifeline Theatre Artistic Director Dorothy Milne and former Live Bait Theater Artistic Director Sharon Evans have announced the lineup for the 21st Annual FILLET OF SOLO Festival.

Billed as a celebration Chicago’s storytelling and live lit scene, the festival will feature 12 storytelling collectives and seven solo performers in a three-week, multi-venue production.

FEATURED PERFORMERS (from the press release): 

The 21st Annual FILLET OF SOLO Festival will feature solo performances by:

Lily Be: “No Hay Mal”
Ada Cheng: “Breaking Rules, Broken Hearts: Loving across Borders”
Shelby Marie Edwards: “Holly’s Ivy”
Julie Ganey: “Vacationing in the Moral High Ground”
Carly Jo Geer: “I Come From Hoarders”
R. C. Riley: “Wrong Way Journey”
Jameson Wentworth: “[Out of] Context”

Plus the work of the following storytelling collectives:

“Around the World: Immigrant Stories” curated and produced by Nestor Gomez.
Celebrated storyteller and 20-time Moth Slam winner Nestor Gomez has assembled a group of local performers to help illuminate the voices of immigrants in our city.

GayCo (gayco.com)
An ensemble that specializes in creating sketch-comedy revues based on gay/lesbian themes. Since starting as a lesbigay focused workshop at the Second City Training Center in 1996, they’ve performed for massive, enthusiastic, sexy gay audiences in Chicago and across the country

Featured performers, continued:

GeNarrations
A personal narrative story performance workshop hosted at Goodman Theatre and in senior centers around Chicago.

the kates
An all-female comedy showcase that provides an intimate night of comedy dedicated to showcasing talented and hilarious female-identified performers by creating inclusive and positive environments. Artists are encouraged to express their comic point of view in unique and non-apologetic ways – proving that women are equal in the eyes of comedy.

The Lifeline Storytelling Project
The Lifeline Storytelling Project produces live music & storytelling events designed to develop and showcase artists affiliated with Lifeline Theatre.

Sappho’s Salon
A monthly performance salon at Chicago’s Women and Children First bookstore featuring expressions of queerness, gender and feminism.

Serving the Sentence
Different storytellers take the same first sentence — each in their own direction. At the end of the show, a new sentence is drawn that the next show’s storytellers will embark from.

Stir Friday Night
A 22-year-old Asian-American theater company, specializing in sketch comedy and improv. Alumni include Danny Pudi from Community, and Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead.

The Stoop
The Stoop is hosted by Moth GrandSLAM champion Lily Be and Badass Clarence Browley. Featured storytellers are given a theme and each share a short story related to that theme. The Stoop is a platform to bring Chicagoans to a better understanding of each other and to inspire change. Performing regularly at Rosa’s Lounge in Humboldt Park, it is as much about community and survival as it is about entertainment.

Sweat Girls
With 24 years of shared history, the Sweat Girls represent the greying edge of Chicago’s Live Lit community. Known for their “contagious gusto” the Sweat Girls have been called “the undisputed tribal elders” of the solo performance scene (Chicago Reader, 2014).

Tellin’ Tales Theatre, featuring Tekki Lomnicki
Tellin’ Tales Theatre shatters the barriers between the disabled and non-disabled worlds through personal story — adult solo performances as well as “Six Stories Up,” a mentoring program and show featuring kids and adults, with and without disabilities. Tekki Lomnicki is a solo performer, playwright, director and educator.

You’re Being Ridiculous
“Good stories are better than good times!” A group of real people telling real funny stories about their lives with a theme as their guide. They laugh at themselves and with each other.

The FILLET OF SOLO Festival runs January 12th – 28th. For more information, including festival passes, visit lifelinetheatre.com.