“Nontraditional cabaret theater” is how radical Renaissance man Warren Leming describes Out of Context, a two-day benefit for the quarterly publication Context: A Journal of Arts, Politics, and Community. Or in his other words, “The creme de la creme of the un-hyperfunded Chicago fringe.”
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Founded as the Near Northwest Arts Council Newsletter in 1985, the journal took the name Context in January of last year, expanding to include broader community arts coverage, local theater and art criticism, book reviews, and left-edged cultural commentary.
At the benefit Donna Blue Lachman of the Blue Rider Theatre will perform a monologue-in-progress about anti-Semitism. Doorika will present an excerpt from Dear, a play inspired by the family history of Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware’s cartoon character. Latino Chicago Theater Company members will present a piece from their currently running Lolita de Lares, playwright Migdalia Cruz’s story of Lolita Lebron, the Puerto Rican nationalist. Leming’s Cold Chicago Dance Theater will perform excerpts from a work-in-progress, The Seven Industrial Sins.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jon Randolph.
