Maybe they would have looked askance had someone proffered a snake collection for their show, but other than that, Marssie Mencotti and Laura Hoofnagle were open to just about anything for “Beast Women ’98.”
As curators for the (almost) all-girl variety concoction, the offshoots of the Great Beast Theatre company were seeking, says Mencotti, “female-centered pieces that men could be in too.” They were open to song, dance, photography, short plays, and anything done in the undefinable genre of performance art. They got a bit of it all.
“A lot of the submissions came in varieties — we had `angry women’ pieces, `women in families,’ `women in love.’ It was odd the way it fell together,” Mencotti said.
What Mencotti and Hoofnagle wound up with was an eclectic assortment of 25 different pieces that involve close to three dozen women and Tom Lally, who is a collaborator with Mencotti in a number titled “Never Shake a Baby.”
Each night “Beast Women ’98” runs, a different hodgepodge of performers are on deck in the no-frills space a steep stairway down from Clark Street’s O’Bar and Cafe. Hoofnagle and Mencotti supplied actors, directors and tech people for the artists who needed them and set the “Beast ’98” schedule according to the performer’s schedules.
The one constant in “Beast Women ’98” is Lori Lee, who serves as the laid back Mistress of Ceremonies for all the performances. Charming enough to finagle beverages at intermission from good-natured hecklers and self-effacingly amiable enough to acknowledge it when her jokes have bombed past redemption, Lee is charged with keeping the wildly divergent bits of “Beast” rolling along in order.
Depending on which night one attends, that order could include a clever playlet by actress McKinley Carter, a tribute to Tina Turner from Beverly Reed, a poem accompanied by a knife-wielding actress or a few encore-inducing a capella gospel tunes.
Such variety the likes of the Beastie Boys could only dream of.
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“Beast Women ’98” runs through Aug. 30 at the O’Bar and Cafe, 3343 N. Clark St. 312-409-2876.
