By Venus Zarris

What I look forward to most during this holiday season (of traditions parlayed into nonstop ad campaigns) is not the standard stories, but rather those bizarre deviations that emerge from our collective perceptions of Christmas cheer. Who better to deviate than deviates? Mind you, the word deviate is a compliment rather than a pejorative. It represents those of us that jump the track from social convention and function outside of the mainstream. As we see more and more of Queer America morphing into something resembling everyone else, it is refreshing to catch a glimpse of that darling decadence that scares the ultraconservatives and dares to celebrate our own playfully twisted uniqueness.

We Three Lizas – A Holiday Bender is a fusion of faintly recognizable seasonal stories tossed into a martini shaker with queer pop culture references serving as the hard liquor. Playwright Scott Bradley mixes this signature cocktail up with a generous helping of wonderfully original songs, by composer Alan Schmuckler, and an infusion of FABULOUS to realize a phantasm of holiday escapism. We Three Lizas is a cabaret of camp that entertains with a to-die-for cast and not one, not two, but three sensational Lizas.

To be clear, this is not a Liza impersonation holiday concert. We Three Lizas tells a strange story set in a design shop where an aging phenom frantically laments his dwindling career. He implores Reggie, his right hand girl, to steal a spell book from witches in order to invoke the powerful Mystique; the Great Queen of Wishes who will grant him his heart’s delight. He demands youth, wealth and beauty. He gets incarnations of Liza Minnelli that sing, dance and enlighten as only Liza can.

Sound bizarre? Well sure it is. It’s convoluted and corny but so is the notion of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Frosty the Snowman or a baby born in a barn and then visited by kings from a foreign land. Don’t expect Dickensian profundity. Just order a drink, sit back and enjoy the heartwarming cray cray.

We Three Lizas seems to have two shows happening, the design shop drama and the Liza apparitions. While the ghostly Lizas are certainly the show’s highlights, what makes this mix marvelous is a killer cast that hits all the marks, no matter how off the wall.

Everyone brings something exceptional to the stage with more than one standout performance. Dana Tretta is terrific as Reggie; cute, vulnerable, determined to do what’s right while dutifully catering to someone who’s completely wrong. Tretta is an endearing princess of musical theater with old school chops and the ability to “sell it” better than a Black Friday bargain blow-out! Sean Blake is wicked, fierce and fabulous as Mystique. Scott Bradley is hysterical as the slightly sloppy and silly yet strangely sophisticated “mature” Liza, brilliantly keeping us in the loop of her eccentric one-line humor. Danielle Plisz is the explosively perfect Liza in her prime, eager to please and absolutely capable of knocking your socks off.

With gaytastically jazz-hands-eriffic choreography by Patrick Andrews, flamboyantly flattering costume designs by Mieka van der Ploeg and Robert S. Kuhn and a great pit band (Alan Schmuckler on piano, Jed Feder on drums and Brandon Mitchell on bass); director Scott Ferguson renders frenetically Liza-riffic holiday cheer that will delight the crowds both straight and queer.

With a spectacular ensemble that even Scrooge couldn’t help but love and plenty of gaudy fun to offset any shopping anxiety or family dysfunction, About Face Theatre delivers a holiday fantasy hit. Don you now your LGBTQ or straight apparel and hurry to Steppenwolf’s Garage Theater for this wonderfully wild word premiere of We Three Lizas – A Holiday Bender; where the bar is always open and the spirits are as sassy as the drinks are strong!

3 STARS

(“We Three Lizas” runs through December 23, 2012 at the Steppenwolf Garage, 1624 N. Halsted. 312-335-1650)

“We Three Lizas” Nov. 30, 2012 – Dec. 23, 2012 – Steppenwolf Theatre Company

We Three Lizas production photos by Michael Brosilow.

* Visit Theatre In Chicago for more information on this show. We Three Lizas – Steppenwolf Theatre – Play Detail – Theatre In Chicago

Steppenwolf Announces Companies for

3^rd Annual GARAGE REP:

The Inconvenience, LiveWire Chicago and Theatre Zarko

February 3 – April 8, 2012

CHICAGO (July 28, 2011) – Steppenwolf Theatre Company is pleased to announce the three Chicagocompanies selected for its third annual GARAGE REP: The Inconvenience, LiveWire Chicago and TheatreZarko. These innovative, exciting companies will present three productions in rotating repertory for a ten-week run February 3 – April 8, 2012 in The Steppenwolf Garage, 1624 N. Halsted St. Tickets will go on sale at a later date.

“These three companies bring an uncommon mix of talent and creativity to Chicago’s storefront scene – they’re at the cutting edge of what makes Chicago such an exciting theater town,” comments Steppenwolf Artistic Producer Rebecca Rugg.  “This year’s GARAGE REP productions are all in direct conversation with Steppenwolf’s season theme – Dispatches from the Homefront. We look forward to the ways these projects intersect with our broader consideration of how everyday lives are touched by war, coming home, winning and losing,” adds Rugg.

The GARAGE REP 2012 Productions & Companies:

LiveWire Chicago presents

Current Nobody

By Melissa James Gibson, directed by Lisa Portes

It’s a journalist’s assignment of a lifetime: document the entire Trojan War. Photojournalist Pen embarks upon the project with excitement, leaving behind her husband and daughter.  As Pen’s absence extends from weeks to years, her family grapples with the personal cost of her ambition. Their struggle is exposed by a relentless trio of indie documentary filmmakers who force their fractured home into the public eye.  An intimate look at love left behind, the Chicago premiere of Melissa James Gibson’s Current Nobody retells the classic epic tale of Homer’sOdyssey to reveal the cost of abandoning home for the glories of war.

LiveWire Chicago is a collective of artists who create theatre that reflects the current cultural landscape of our community through productions of original and contemporary works. www.livewirechicago.com

Theatre Zarko presents

He Who

Written and directed by Michael Montenegro

How do four brave and exhausted women share the burden of one grotesquely enormous baby? They struggle to nurture and restrain the giant darling. But the baby has an existential crisis, which sparks a fight for control. His tyrannical attempts to pit the women against each other ultimately test the limits of love. Darkly poetic and arresting, He Who brings together live performers, puppets, and original music for an intimate audience experience. Master puppeteer Michael Montenegro conceives and directs this world premiere.

Theatre Zarko explores puppet and mask theatre as an innovative, developing art form, with a focus on building strong artistic relationships within the community. Our work expresses a strong visual point of view that plays with scale, metaphor, integral live music and a surrealistic expression of images and themes.

The Inconvenience presents

Hit the Wall

By Ike Holter, directed by Eric Hoff

It’s the summer of ’69 and the death of music icon Judy Garland has emboldened her gay followers. A routine police raid on an underground Greenwich Village hotspot erupts in to a full-scale riot, the impetus of the modern gay rights movement. That’s the well-known, oft-rehearsed myth of Stonewall, anyhow. Smash that myth against the vivid theatrical imagination of playwright Ike Holter, add a howling live rock ‘n roll band, and you get the world premiere play, Hit the Wall.  Remixing this historic confrontation reveals ten unlikely revolutionaries, caught in the turmoil and fighting to claim “I was there.”

The Inconvenience is a community of interdisciplinary artists who seek to create a new way of experiencing art through a collaboration of music, theatre, dance, fine art and celebration. We create, produce, and curate work that challenges audience and artist perspectives and ignites social dialogue.

GARAGE REP HISTORY

Steppenwolf’s inaugural GARAGE REP, presented February 18 – April 25, 2010, included three productions in rotating repertory: Adore by XIII Pocket, punkplay by Pavement Group and The Twins Would Like To Say by Dog & Pony Theatre Company. The second annual GARAGE REP, presented February 11 – April 24, 2011, featuredHeddatron by Sideshow Theatre Company, The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen by The Strange Tree Group andSonnets for an Old Century by UrbanTheater Company.

The Steppenwolf Garage is dedicated to new plays, new artists and new audiences for the American theater.  It offers artists the opportunity to present their work with the scale, space and resources it merits.  For audiences, it provides opportunities to engage in multigenerational conversation about the new, provocative work emerging from Chicago’s diverse and vibrant theatre scene.

Support for the GARAGE REP comes through the “Leading for the Future Initiative,” a program of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago, IL (Martha Lavey, Artistic Director; David Hawkanson, Executive Director) is where great acting meets big ideas. Our passion is to tell stories about how we live now. Our mission is to engage audiences in an exchange of ideas that makes us think harder, laugh longer, feel more. The company was formed in 1976 by a collective of actors and is dedicated to an ethic of mutual respect and the development of artists through ongoing group work. Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned ensemble of 43 artists who represent a remarkable generation of actors, directors and playwrights.  For additional information, visit www.steppenwolf.org, www.facebook.com/SteppenwolfTheatre and www.twitter.com/SteppenwolfThtr.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company – Chicago Theater, World-Class Ensemble

Steppenwolf Announces Companies for

2^nd Annual GARAGE REP:

Sideshow Theatre Company, The Strange Tree Group

and UrbanTheater Company

February 16 – April 24, 2011

CHICAGO (June 30, 2010) – Steppenwolf Theatre Company is pleased to announce the three Chicago companies selected for its 2^nd annual GARAGE REP: Sideshow Theatre Company, The Strange Tree Group and UrbanTheater Company. These innovative, young companies will present three productions in rotating repertory for a ten-week run February 16 – April 24, 2011 in Steppenwolf’s Merle Reskin Garage Theatre, 1624 N. Halsted St. Tickets will go on sale at a later date.

“These are three companies with wildly different aesthetics, but who all bring an irresistible energy to their work,” comments Steppenwolf’s Director of Artistic Development Polly Carl. “These are the kind of companies and artists who we know we can learn from. At its core, the GARAGE REP is an opportunity for a dialogue between our respective companies and our audiences in hopes that we can build a fully multigenerational theater for the 21^st century. Sideshow, Strange Tree and UrbanTheater are already in a conversation with their own audiences that we’re anxious to listen in on,” adds Carl.

The GARAGE REP 2011 Production & Companies:

Sideshow Theatre Company presents

Heddatron

by Elizabeth Meriwether, directed by Jonathan L. Green

A book falls from the sky and a depressed Michigonian housewife is kidnapped by a clan of renegade robots, whisked away to the jungles of South America, and forced to perform the title role in a mechanical version of Hedda Gabbler.  As a documentarian searches for the truth about the abduction and the woman’s family mounts a search party, Ibsen himself enters the picture to defend his well-made play.  Sideshow is partnering with robotics experts across Chicago to present a cast of human actors and functioning robots in this bizarre and savagely funny Chicago premiere.

Sideshow Theatre Company was founded in 2007.  Sideshow’s mission is to mine the collective unconscious of the world we live in with limitless curiosity, drawing inspiration from the familiar stories, memories and images we all share to spark new conversation and bring our audiences together as adventurers in a communal experience of exploration. For more information, visit www.sideshowtheatre.org.

The Strange Tree Group presents

The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen

by Emily Schwartz, directed by TBA

A world premiere that resurrects what was once the most famous and fanciful criminal investigation the world has ever known: the calamitously comedic tale of Dr. H. H. Crippen, England’s most notoriously inept cellar murderer. Chased across the sea by destiny and Marconi’s wireless telegraph, this factual turn of the century tragedy explores three versions of the life and death of this homicidal homeopath. Three Crippens! Three tales! Three truths?

The Strange Tree Group is a collective of multifaceted individuals dedicated to creating intricate, intimate theatrical experiences that extend beyond the boundaries of a traditional stage. We produce works that inspire creativity not only in our actors but also in our audience. We Trees embrace the theatrically inherent in live performance and are committed to producing pieces that celebrate the strange and the magical; the dangerous and the fantastical; and the surprisingly usual nature of unusual behavior. The world is full of adventure… let us embark on this one together! For more information, visit www.strangetree.org.

UrbanTheater Company presents

Sonnets for an Old Century

by José Rivera, directed by Madrid St. Angelo in collaboration with Juan Castañeda and Ivan Vega

In a waiting room for the afterlife, we find a dreamscape filled with poignant, funny, lyrical and haunting monologues from recently deceased individuals. This Midwest premiere by Obie Award-winning playwright and Academy Award^®-nominated screenwriter José Rivera asks: “Where do we go when we die?” And if you were to offer commentary regarding the life that you’ve lived, “What would you say?”

UrbanTheater Company (UTC) is committed to the creation and exploration of urban-inspired works that convey, illuminate and empathize with the human experience. FROM the STREETS to the STAGE. For more information, visit www.urbantheaterchicago.org.

Steppenwolf’s inaugural GARAGE REP, presented February 18 – April 25, 2010, included three productions in rotating repertory: Adore by XIII Pocket, punkplay by Pavement Group and The Twins Would Like To Say by Dog & Pony Theatre Company.

GARAGE REP: three productions presented in rotating repertory in The Garage at Steppenwolf, from some of Chicago’s most innovative, young theatre companies.

The Garage is dedicated to new plays, new artists and new audiences.  It provides artists the opportunity to present their work with the scale, space and resources it merits. For audiences, it creates another opportunity to build a multigenerational conversation about the new, provocative work emerging from Chicago’s diverse and vibrant theatre scene. The Garage offers programming featuring new voices for the American theater – directors, writers, designers and actors.

Support for the GARAGE REP comes through the “Leading for the Future Initiative,” a program of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of a company of actors, directors and playwrights, Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s mission is to advance the vitality and diversity of American theater by nurturing artists, encouraging repeatable creative relationships and contributing new works to the national canon.  The company, formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, is dedicated to perpetuating an ethic of mutual respect and the development of artists through on-going group work.  Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned company of 43 artists whose talents include acting, directing, playwriting and textual adaptation. For additional information, visit www.steppenwolf.org, www.facebook.com/SteppenwolfTheatre and www.twitter.com/SteppenwolfThtr.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company – Chicago Theater, World-Class Ensemble

The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett As Found In An Envelope (partially burned) In A Dustbin In Paris Labeled “Never to be performed. Never Ever. EVER! Or I’ll Sue! I’LL SUE FROM THE GRAVE!!!”

ONE HOUR ONLY! – ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Saturday May 29th, 5pm – 6pm
Price: $15 or pay what you can

@ Steppenwolf Garage
1624 N. Halsted St. (near North Ave.)

Theater Oobleck and the Neo-Futurists collaborate on this show in which works “written” by the playwright Samuel Beckett are performed. Features Neo-Futurist founder Greg Allen, Oobleck co-founder Danny Thompson, and John Jughead Pierson

Tickets are $15. More if you’ve got it! FREE if you’re broke!
No reservations accepted. Just show up at the Steppenwolf Garage on Saturday (May 29th) before 5pm, give us a donation and you’re in!

Theater Oobleck: One show only: “Lost Works of Beckett” makes triumphant return!

EXPLORE: The World of Endgame

ONE NIGHT ONLY! – Friday, May 21, 2010

5:30pm – 7:30pm

@ Steppenwolf Garage Theatre

Neo-Futurists, Square the Circle, and Lucky Plush Productions will all be performing at the upcoming event, EXPLORE: The World of Endgame.

Samuel Beckett, the acclaimed author of Endgame and Waiting for Godot inspired many artists over the years, and Steppenwolf has some of the best lined up for this event. Dance troupe Lucky Plush Productions will perform Endplay, a vibrant dance piece inspired by one of Beckett’s short dramas, indie band Square the Circle will play a set inspired by Beckett’s work and members of the celebrated Chicago theatre collectives The Neo-Futurists and Theater Oobleck will team up to perform selections from their wildly acclaimed show The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett As Found In An Envelope (partially burned) In A Dustbin In Paris Labeled “Never to be performed. Never. Ever. EVER! Or I’ll Sue! I’LL SUE FROM THE GRAVE!!!” Also included is food, drink and a crash course in the world of Beckett.

To round out your experience, purchase a ticket to Steppenwolf’s production of Endgame on Friday, May 21. There are many great ticket options available:

–STUDENT TICKETS: Only $15! Now available online and in advance.
–20 FOR $20: $20 tickets available the day of the performance after 11am in person or by phone.
–2-FOR-1 TICKET OFFER: Special EXPLORE offer, valid only for Fri. 5/21. Use code 6914 when ordering.

• Read the 3 1/2 STAR review of Steppenwolf’s Endgame here: Endgame – REVIEW – Chicago Stage Review

EXPLORE: The World of Endgame is a FREE event, but you must RSVP to Steppenwolf Audience Services at 312.335.1650.

Friday, May 21, 2010

5:30pm – 7:30pm

Event: EXPLORE: The World of Endgame | Steppenwolf Theatre Company