Acting Irish International Theatre Festival in Chicago May 17-22

Where else can you enjoy nine Irish plays in six days? This is the first year Chicago's Irish American Heritage Center and Shapeshifters Theatre hosts this annual international event. Irish theater troupes from Dublin, Canada and the U.S. gather together under one roof to give their dramatic best to Chicago audiences.

The 2010 Acting Irish International Theatre Festival takes place from Monday, May 17 through Saturday May 22. The Irish American Heritage Center is located at 4626 N. Knox Ave. just off the Edens Expressway at Wilson Ave. For more information call: 773-282-7035 ext. 10.

Tickets are only $15 for each play, available at IAHC and online. Buffet suppers and spirited beverages are available at the fest between the Wednesday and Thursday matinee and evening performances, and the 5th Province Bar onsite is open on Friday and Saturday.

AIITF 2010 play schedule:

Monday, May 17 at 8 p.m.: And Neither Have I Wings to Fly, Shapeshifters Theatre, Chicago

Tuesday, May 18 at 8 p.m.: There Came a Gypsy Riding, Estuary Players, Dublin, Ireland

Wednesday, May 19 at 2 p.m.: The Patrick Pearse Motel, Gaelic Park Players, Chicago

Wednesday, May 19 at 8 p.m.: Moll, Irish American Theatre, Cincinnati

Thursday, May 20 at 2 p.m.: Portia Coughlan, Liffey Players, Calgary, Canada

Thursday, May 20 at 8 p.m.: The Passion of Jerome, Heads on Stage, Dublin, Ireland

Friday, May 21 at 2 p.m.: Close to Home, Irish Theatre of Florida

Friday, May 21 at 8 p.m.: The Cripple of Inishmaan, Rochester Irish Players, NY

Saturday, May 22 at 8 p.m.: The Factory Girls, Toronto Irish Players

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Acting Irish International Theatre Festival in Chicago May 17-22

Brenda Cardenas "Boomerang" Book Release Party in Chicago

Come to a new spoken word venue in Chicago, Dragonlady Lounge, on Sunday, May 30 at 7 p.m. You're invited to a book release party for and reading by Brenda Cardenas in celebration of her first full poetry collection, Boomerang, published by Bilingual Review Press. She will be joined by poet Roberto Harrison.

In Boomerang, Cardenas spins lyrically taut free verse, sculpts prose poems, sapphics, and sonnets, and punches the rhythms of spoken word in what Juan Felipe Herrera has called "a sonic calligraphy, hand-thrown spirals of spirit."

Open mic the first half hour. Arrive early to sign up. This free event, organized by March Abrazo, Inc., takes place at the Dragonlady Lounge, 3188 N. Elston Ave. (at Belmont & California). Come on by this special event the day before Memorial Day. Bonus: You won't have to get up early on Monday morning. For more info call: 773-597-5617.

Brenda Cardenas is the author of a poetry chapbook Tongues of Brick & Stones and co-editor of the women's anthology Between the Heart and the Land. She is an assistant professor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
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Brenda Cardenas "Boomerang" Book Release Party in Chicago