THE 29TH ANNUAL RHINOCEROS THEATER FESTIVAL: SHOWLIST

Accidents

In Karen Fort’s play, set in 1973 Oregon, the hippies and the loggers are trying to get along on the forest fire fighting crew.

Bad Boy World

An original devised performance by Jiana Estes and Alex Hovi exploring what it means to be a boy, if anything at all.

The Belle of Austin

Rory Jobst imagines the unreciprocated correspondence of cult musician and manic depressive Daniel Johnston to his unrequited love.

Breaking Rules, Broken Hearts: Loving Across Borders

Storyteller Ada Cheng tackles issues about gender, culture, and feminism in this one-night-only solo performance.

By the Deep Blue Sea

PinkElephant’s family-friendly musical featuring all original songs composed by Giselle Greenberg, and starring talented Chicago teens

Cabaret Prop'd

Prop Thtr presents a late-night Variety Show featuring music, dance, burlesque, and more.

Cafe Neckbeard

Chris Bower shares stories about the past, present, and future of Logan Square’s most explosive, experimental, and expensive 24 hour cash-only eatery.

Charlotte Interviews Narcissists

In this dark comedy, Charlotte Hamilton tries to understand her subject by interviewing narcissists throughout history and from her own life.

Communist Basketball Game

Dan Nelson explores what happens when the search for the perfect game is suddenly threatened by a tyrannical basketball bully.

The Crooked Mouth

A band for the times, both good and bad.

Direct My Woyceck

There is a chance you will be the one tasked with the impossible in this new play by Chris Zdenek.

The Disconnected

El Bear stages a seemingly innocuous play hijacked by a group of mysterious, time-traveling freedom fighters calling themselves The Disconnected.

Full Moon Vaudeville

One night only opening celebration of the 29th Annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival, featuring The Crooked Mouth and Ian Belknap.

Heartbleed

Lon West’s play about a mysterious and dynamic young man, Augustus P. Heartbleed, who invades an old people’s home.

The Institution

Inspired by Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, a dark comedy by Lee Peters that examines marriage and the American Dream.

Jack the Dog

The experimental performance duo of Carrie Biolo and Jeff Kowalkowski will make music with many instruments, including the Icelophone.

Joan of Arc

Abaisses Theatre presents Alexandra Ranieri’s document-based play about the trial of Joan of Arc.

Josephine the Mouse Singer

An adaptation of Franz Kafka’s “Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk,”, created and directed by Dani Wieder & Itzel Blancas.

King Arthur: The Fall Of Camelot

Olivia Lilley directs Jake Green’s adaptation of the immortal story of Arthur and his knights.

Kyra & Friends

Kyra Leigh Greer offers two intimate concert evenings of performance, song and monologues, with guests Katie McClatchey and Zoe Pike.

May Day

A new, original adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s text creates a storytelling experience filled with movement and etude performed by a diverse ensemble.

The Near Future

Two plays by Julia Williams and Curious Theatre Branch on the utility of being two people instead of just one and the joys and limitations of the nuclear family.

Nearest the Broken

Crystal Rae’s one-time-only performance about the Bible’s less than reputable women.

PS Mustard

A new work by Josh Hoglund.

Rhinofest Lecture Series

Ira S. Murfin weaves interview and public address together in a weekly series on the topic Talking Animals: A Species Describes Its Own Survival.

Rhino Push

Every Saturday morning, Sherry Antonini and Jenny Magnus put their considerable boots into your tender asses, turning your creativity into focused work.

Remember the Ladies

Chloe Johnston and other NeoFuturists perform short pieces about some first ladies you have heard of... and some you have not.

Ripple

Choreographer Shalaka Kulkarni expands and deconstructs Bharatnatyam and Kathak to tell personal narratives.

Scheduled Demonstration of Virtual Reality with Guest Speakers from the Santa Monica Institute of Technology

A Post-Meridian play.

The Shupps

Bucket of Mistakes is a bunch of wacky kids writing wacky shows and sketches for wacky people. This one is about Orlando and his wacky friend, Jeffrey.

Sink or Swim

KellyAnn Corcoran brings her incisive and darkly humorous style to songs and stories of survival

Starrs Is Getting Up There

John Starrs performs a retrospective of his life in Chicago over these many years.

Steak Richardson

Steak is a found-text performance artist and comedian who creates evocative performances that dissect the language of 21st-century social media.

Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One

Adam Webster tells long tales short and short tales even shorter (or longer, if the feeling strikes).

Subjective Is Beauty

From Paul William Brennan, a former beauty finds herself trapped in a non-dimensional world where beauty is irrelevant.

The Texture of Water

A new work by Emily Mercedes Rich. Part of the SAIC Playwrights program.

These Violent Delights

A contemporary Romeo and Juliet cabaret adapted and directed by Kate Leslie.

The Threepenny Opera Concert

A concert version of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s 1928 classic adapted by Obie-award-winning playwright Rick Burkhardt.

The Unbelievable Beauty of Being Human

An intergenerational InterPlay performance with Wheeling HS Orchesis members and additional students from the Chicagoland area.

A Well

Triangle Collective presents a movement piece about one man and two women trapped in the bottom of a well when it’s about to rain.

Zone Rats: The Afterlives of the Fabulous Killjoys

The free Rhinofest art show, curated by Maci Greenberg and Vicki Walden.