ROGERS PARK — The 27th annual Fillet of Solo Festival, a two-week affair celebrating storytelling and live lit, will kick off Friday at Lifeline Theatre in Rogers Park.
About 120 storytellers will take the stage over the course of about 50 events. They’ll tell audiences about sad, funny and dramatic moments from their lives with candor. Some will share a short story as part of a larger group’s 50-minute performance, while others will tell a single tale that lasts almost an hour.
The series runs Friday-Sunday this week and Jan. 19-21, and the events will be split between Lifeline, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave., and the bar and restaurant South of the Border, 1416 W. Morse Ave. Tickets are $15 for individual events or $63 for a pass to the entire festival, including all fees.
When Fillet of Solo launched in the ’90s, the now-closed Live Bait Theater ran the show — hence the fish-themed name, which is a pun on “fillet of sole.” Lifeline took over in 2010, which is when Dorothy Milne, a Lifeline ensemble member, began co-curating the festival.
Milne, who has been storytelling for about 30 years, said the medium appeals to her because it’s so effective at connecting performers with their listeners.
“What I love about it as an audience member is that I come in and I see a performer who looks nothing like me: different age, different cultural background, different gender,” she said. “Your first thought is, ‘This person is very different from me,’ but as soon as somebody tells a personal, specific story, it’s a very connecting experience. Because every human story — even the most specific human stories — always have universal human experiences in them.”
Nestor “The Boss” Gomez said storytelling has given him a creative outlet and helped him build bridges across communities.
Gomez gave his first festival performance at Fillet of Solo about seven or eight years ago. Not long after that, he founded storytelling group 80 Minutes Around the World to give immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, their descendants and their allies a place to share their stories.
“When I came to this country, I used to stutter. I didn’t know the language, and I was undocumented, so I didn’t have a voice,” Gomez said. “Now, as a storyteller, not only do I get a chance to stand in front of a mic and tell my stories to audiences, but I also have their blessing to bring other people to share their experiences.”
At Fillet of Solo, people take the stage to tell a wide variety of stories. Performers from Sweat Girls, the storytelling group that Milne helped found in 1993, will share stories about adventuring during a summer trip overseas, striking with Columbia College this fall and tackling a politically charged family Christmas. Others plan to reflect on their experiences with mental health as Black people in America. Yet another storyteller will talk about her experiences with middle age through the lens of “Doctor Who.”
The two Fillet of Solo venues help broaden the experience even further, Milne said. While Lifeline offers a more typical theatrical setting, people can also pop over to watch shows at the nearby South of the Border. There, they’ll be able to grab a drink and listen to stories while the frozen margarita machine whirs in the background, Milne joked.
“They’re very different experiences, but it’s fun to go back and forth,” she said. “A lot of audience members are … running back and forth up the street, ’cause it’s just around the corner, to see things at both venues.”
Milne said she hopes witnessing the broad range of Chicago’s storytelling scene might inspire audience members to join in next year.
The festival’s performers are not all or even mostly professional actors, she said, and while some are veterans of the storytelling scene, others are just getting started. Storytellers often talk about the texture and details of their everyday lives — and that is something anyone can do, Milne said.
“It’s regular people sharing a story, and that is really inspiring to me,” she said. “You don’t require training to do it. I mean, everybody has a fascinating story to tell. Everybody has 100 fascinating stories to tell.”
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