Humankind has never lost the wish to understand and explore the unknown. Seared into our genetic code, curiosity has been the motivating force that stimulated the birth of civilizations.
Strangely that curiosity does not always include a desire to understand and appreciate each other. Here we continue to see differences in ourselves as threats and reasons to exclude. Those left on the outside or on the periphery can and do find themselves in either conscious or insidious peril because of who or what they are.
After Profiles Theater closed their doors last year, a group of theatrical artists recognized that a void needed to be filled where people who didn’t fit conventional norms of color or sexuality or size or physical completeness could express themselves. They wanted to create a haven where those voices could be unleashed. And they wanted to present those expressions in a space that would not only keep the story tellers free from harm, but would welcome their contributions to the artistic community.
The result is the Chicago Theater Marathon. Ambitiously spanning 26.2 hours of new works that ran from a Friday night (July 21st) to a Sunday afternoon (July 23rd), this festival of creativity proved moving, hilarious, at times refreshingly bawdy, and fascinating. What it did most well is display the astonishing level of inventive talent lurking in this colossus by the lake.
According to Artistic Director, Cassandra Rose, the collaborative telegraphed (via word of mouth and email) that they were looking for new works that coupled creativity to inclusion. Working from a stance of self-empowerment, applicants were asked what makes them indomitable; the marathon’s theme. Some answers were direct and others much more oblique. Virtually all of the applicants selected however were themselves or wrote stories about someone who has something about them that sets them apart.
One story might plunge into the emotional angst of being an immigrant; leaving the audience speechless from its intensity. Another would mount a bizarre and wildly entertaining performance about long distance relationships and quirky YouTube obsessions. You could be transported into fantasy through a story that takes place on a spaceship where all of the crew members are trans or gender non-conforming, doing shrooms and falling into “friendship”. And then again, you might find out what happens to a famous black author who’s questioned by the FBI when his novel on terrorism becomes reality.
Netting over 100 applications, marathon organizers selected twenty-six to produce. When it came to the work’s content, Rose and the rest of her curatorial crew remained as hands off as possible and simply focused on making sure the artists achieved their individual ideals for their work.
Set up so that the audience could easily flow from one show to another, often when one piece ended another began in either the main performance space, the Black Box, or in the lobby. Logistically, it was all extremely relaxed and well-organized.
So fresh that much of the material remained unapologetically in its formative stage while being performed, a good deal of what the marathon mounted will hopefully see another life as a web series, a fully staged production or riding some other vehicle profiling a polished finished product.
Chicago would do well to look forward to their development. No city can be considered vibrant without a thriving creative community and no artistic culture can thrive without a rich, complex tapestry of voices.
Chicago Theatre Marathon
July 21 – 23, 2017
1802 W. Berenice Ave.
