When Brigid Murphy was 12 years old she competed in a run hosted by the city of Sycamore, Illinois. Though she won, the town fathers decided not to give her the first-place trophy because she lived a few miles outside Sycamore. So her mother had a trophy made with Brigid’s name engraved at the base and took her out to dinner. She told her daughter that it really didn’t matter what the town fathers thought–everyone knew she won.
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When Murphy told me this story, some months ago, she said it showed not only how much her mother loved her but how important it is to have an inner awareness, separate from society’s dictums, of the way things are. That awareness has informed Murphy’s work as a performance artist and as a producer–no one in this city has supported and influenced other artists quite like the irreverent, dynamic onetime Loyola physics major, who gathered all sorts of performers for her long-running Milly’s Orchid Show at Park West. Recently Murphy was diagnosed with lymphoma and is now undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment. To offset the costs, friends and local performers have organized a benefit, “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” on July 26.
