Festivals, Burlesque and Allergies

Brian Posen

Whether you want to donate money to people raring to strip to their nipple tassels or attend a fantastic fourteen-day theatrical festival, this blog has something for you. If like me, you are suffering from seasonal allergies and want to tear out your eyes and flay yourself, I suggest an oatmeal bath. It wont actually help much, but youll become distracted trying to understand why sitting in a bathtub full of breakfast cereal is supposed to soothe your skin.

First the festival: Stage773 Artistic Director Brian Posen, a twenty-year veteran of the Chicago theater scene has created 14@Stage773, a two-week celebration of performing arts. Not only does the event feature vaudeville, solo performance, visual arts, children’s theater, music, film and comedy, but it also kicks off renovations on the Stage 773 space.

In curating the event, Posen was particularly concerned with providing a performance opportunity for acts that might not often have the opportunity to perform in venues like Stage 773. Says Posen, we are providing the space for free. We believe in the community and are a strong part of it, so ticket prices reflect that. They are stupidly low and Chicago loves that.

With only a few days of the festival remaining, Posen is excited about the closing night Graffiti Party, a lively night of performance and visual arts. We want the neighborhood to come and say good-bye to the old space and help us welcome the new and improved building.

As for what to expect of Stage 773s new incarnation, Posen says the theater will no longer be a place where you come and see a show and leave. We are striving to create a thriving, vibrant artistic home for all of the Chicago arts community. It’s going to be home for so many different theater companies and artistic events. [And with] four spaces, two of those turning around shows every two hours, [the space] will be alive!

Excuse me for a moment; Ive got to chew off the skin on my upper arm.

But what of the naked burlesquers you ask? Saturday August 20th, queer burlesque troupe Ties and Tassels presents Queerpocalypsee hosted by Chicago comedienne Cameron Esposito. For over a year the troupe has held monthly drag/burlesque variety shows in order to raise money for the event which will take place at The Abbey Pub. However, theyve not quite hit their goal and in order to make Queerpocalypsee a night to remember, theyre looking for Kickstarter supporters.

If you feel like helping but want some entertainment out of the deal, you can also attend Ties and Tassels July 16th performance at Lizard’s Liquid Lounge, funds from which benefit Queerpocalypsee.

Id write more but Lady Gaga is petting a goat in my living room. Either that or the Benadryl I took is making me hallucinate.

A writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum freelances for a number of web sites and print publications. Her debut novel, Herself When Shes Missing,” is forthcoming from Counter Point Press. She is also a figure model, Spinning instructor and teacher at Chicagos StoryStudio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She’s kind of looking forward to it actually.

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