Stacey: Hi! Welcome to Black Box Chicago, the only video podcast about the chicago theater scene. I'm Stacey Atkins, and today we'll be talking about Solo Performance.

A lot of people don't realize it, but Solo Performance isn't just a one man or one woman show. It's actually a show where the playwright is the performer, or where actor has actually written and developed his or her own piece to present.

There have been a lot of really great solo performances over the years. Spalding Gray is probably known as the big innovator of the art form, with his piece, "Swimming to Cambodia". There's also Anna Deveare-Smith, who did "Fires in the Mirror" and "Twilight Los Angeles", where she actually interviewed live people and put it together as a solo performance. Then there's of course, Eve Ensler, who recently performed in Chicago at the North Light Theater, her new piece "The Good Body", but she's best known for her work, "The Vagina Monologues".

Chicago's actually been a great place for Solo Performance.

Live Bait Theater has for the past 9 years hosted a festival of Solo Performances called "Filet of Solo" which supports new Solo Performance artists. In addition, the Neo Futurists for the first time are hosting their own Festival of Solo Performances, called Neo Solo, which is running now through June.

We are lucky enough to have one of the Solo Performance artists with us today. This is Caitlin Savage, whose piece "God Don't Like Ugly", will be performed at the Neo Futurarium, opening May 11th through May 20th.