Crip Slam

The Victory Gardens Theater Access Project announces the return of Crip Slam Sundays - the innovative new series of Sunday night readings, presentations and live performances by and about persons with disabilities, formerly known as Disability Culture Sundays.

Victory Gardens' 2007 Crip Slam Sundays series kicks off January 28 at 7:30 pm with Clothing Optional, a solo performance by the incomparable Tekki Lomnicki.   When Lomnicki finds herself at a clothing optional hot springs commune in Northern California, she takes the audience on a hilarious tour, undressing her fears about her body image in the process.

Tekki Lomnicki, star of Clothing Optional, is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Tellin' Tales Theatre, where she co-wrote and starred in When Heck Was a Puppy: The Living Testimonies of Folk Artist Edna Mae Brice, Honor Thy Mother, Alchemy, Tall Tales & Small Miracles, Honor Thy Father, 2001: A Wedding Odyssey, Sibling Revelry, Detours and Blurred Vision, as well as all four productions of Six Stories Up. __ She has appeared in Lexis Praxis at Zebra Crossing, Activities of Daily Living with Remains/Blue Rider; Passing On and Twisted Richard at the Blue Rider and Genetic Material for the Live Bait Fillet of Solo Festival.  Lomnicki also adapted and directed Old Love Letters I Keep in my Underwear Drawer, produced at the Bailiwick Theatre.  In 1994 and 1995, Tekki directed the Tellin' Tales Magic City Theatre Camp for kids with and without disabilities, and for the past five years has taught Storytelling Theatre and Radio Drama for the Gallery 37 Connections Program. She is a member of The Theatre Access Coalition and was named one of the "100 Women Making a Difference in Chicago" by Today's Chicago Woman. She recently received an Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship in New Performance Forms.

Why the new name?   Chicago playwright, disability advocate and Access Project Coordinator Mike Ervin responds, "When we launched them last season as a new dimension of the Access Project, we called them Disability Culture Sundays.  This first series of readings, performances and other happenings on stage celebrated and explored disability culture, and was very well received.   So, we decided to come back this year, with a new, more bawdy name (and thanks to Access Project participants Sharon Snyder and Terri Thrower for thinking it up!)"

Other upcoming Crip Slam Sundays events (through May 2007) include:

Sunday, February 11, 7:30 pm  FREE!
Beautiful Wonderful Glorious Snow
A reading of Access Project Director Mike Ervin's new one-act play about two desperate men who hope shoveling out a parking lot after a blizzard will set their lives back on course.

Sunday, March 25, 7:30 pm  FREE!
Medieval Cripples
A presentation and discussion of two short comic medieval plays featuring characters with disabilities, The Boy and the Blind Man and The Blind Man and the Cripple, moderated by Professor Edward Wheatley, Surtz Professor of Medieval Literature, Loyola University.

Sunday, May 13, 7:30 pm  FREE!
The Nussbaum Perspective
Disability culture in Chicago begins with Susan Nussbaum.  She has brought her own and other's stories to life on stage for more than 20 years as a performer, writer and director. She will select and direct a reading of a play and lead a discussion.

Now in its 14th year, Victory Gardens' Access Project is a nationally recognized model outreach effort designed to involve people with disabilities in all aspects of theater, both on and off the stage.  Through the program, Victory Gardens has been Chicago's earliest adopter of assistive services including providing captioned and audio-described shows, large-print and Braille programs, pre-show Touch Tours of the theater and set, dedicated wheelchair seating, TTY phone lines, and Sign Language interpreted performances.

All Crip Slam Sundays events are held at the Victory Gardens Theater Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago.  Clothing Optional will be captioned, sign language interpreted, audio described and wheelchair accessible.  $10 tickets include a post-show reception.  Reservations are required.  Call the Victory Gardens box office - (773) 871-3000, (773) 871-0682 (TTY) - to reserve.