Taking its name from the Tower Building at the intersection of North, Damon, and Milwaukee–commonly called the “Coyote Building” because it once housed the Coyote Gallery–this multimedia arts event includes a sizable theater and performance component (coordinated this year by Wm. Bullion, director of Sliced Bread Productions) that lays claim to being Chicago’s only entirely free theatrical festival. Running September 17 through 20 at a variety of venues in the Bucktown/Wicker Park area, the third annual Around the Coyote fest features 22 companies offering 27 different plays and performance pieces. Admission to all theater events is free; for more Information, call 342-6777.
The Poppy Garden
Dana Block performs this solo piece, based on historical documents, about a 17th-century German woman on trial for being a witch. (She claimed she was innocent at first, but never fear–the torturers got the truth out of her.) David Schein of Free Street Theater directs the Chicago premiere of this work by California monologuist John O’Keefe. Urbus Orbis, 1934 W. North. 8 PM.
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An unnamed AIDS-like plague, not family loyalty, is the tragic factor in Alan Bowne’s grim twist on Romeo and Juliet, in which two young people–one infected, one not–find and fight love in an urban ghetto. This staging from Bad Rep Productions was mounted especially for the Coyote fest. Urbus Orbis, 1934 W. North. 9 PM.
Stage Directions
The performance group, noted for its barrier-bending approach to dance and theater, acts as “living sculptures” in a sculpture garden. Jaffke Studio, 1757 N. Wilmot. 5 to 8 PM.
Yoko Ono’s conceptual-art book is the basis for this audience-interactive “minimalist carnival” by the Hidden Theatre. “[The] production is both bountiful and stripped-down, a low-tech amusement arcade filled with curious things to see and do….There is no denying the exhilaration of being drawn into this kind of naive, non-goal-oriented exploration,” said Reader critic Mary Shen Barnidge when she reviewed the show earlier this summer. At the Gallery-Chopin Theatre (downstairs), 1541-43 W. Division. 7:30 PM.
