On Tuesday, Curious Theatre Branch and Prop Thtr announced the 30th annual Rhinoceros Festival. The lineup will include six weeks of new plays, dance, devised works, variety shows, comedy, live podcasting and more.
First organized in Wicker Park, “Rhinofest”is the longest-running multi-arts fringe festival in the city. Each year, programs are individually curated by a rotating selection committee composed of Curious and Prop artistic leaders, led by Beau O’Reilly — rather than selected on a lottery basis.
The series begins Saturday, Jan. 12 at 8 p.m. with “Full Moon Vaudeville,” featuring The Crooked Mouth, piloted by Curious co-founders Beau O’Reilly and Jenny Magnus with special musical guests Matt Test, Jeff Kowalkowski, Mac Modean Greenberg, Leo Brün and more.
This year also features many young performing companies including The Neighborhood Collective, El Bear and Uploose Odditorium. It will also bring back fest veterans including Chicago playwright Barrie Cole, animator Chris Sullivan, Susan Parenti and Mark Enslin, Charles Pike and Prop Thtr co-founder Scott Vehill.
Littlebrain Theatre will also premiere a new devised adaptation of Vittoria de Sica’s “Bicycle Thieves” directed by Zach Barr, while Tara Branham directs Tanuja Jagernauth’s new work Lockpickers, and Rob Onorato performs Night of a Million Barbras.
Tickets go on sale Friday, Dec. 21 at 12 p.m. Performances are $15 or pay-what-you-can, and run daily except Tuesdays. A complete performance schedule with performances, dates and times is available at RhinoFest.com. The fest runs Jan. 12 – Feb. 24 at Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston Ave.
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