Chicago Tribune - August 6, 2004
Chris Jones, Tribune arts reporter

That, in essence, is how and why an intriguing show called "The Glorious and Bloodthirsty Billy the Kid--The Greatest Serial Killer of Our Time! A Wild West Show & Cabaret" is showing up this weekend only at the Prop Thtr's newly renovated home at 3504 N. Elston Ave.

It's the work of the Tricklock Company of Albuquerque, N.M., a very highly regarded alternative theater troupe from a city where there aren't too many of those. Founded in 1993, Tricklock is hard-core alternative in that its mission statement says the theater is "committed to artistic risk, physicality, absurdism, and poetic work."

And it's got quite a following out West.

"Tricklock," says David Richard Jones, a professor of English at the University of New Mexico, "is the only theater in town where you can always find a young audience."

The people at Tricklock are embarking on a world tour this month. Their upcoming slate includes visits to Prague, Bucharest, Belgrade and Cologne. Their flight to Europe leaves from Chicago next week. And thus they are stopping at the Prop before check-in.

"It all came about because of a they-knew-somebody and a we-knew-somebody kind of thing," said Prop's Stefan Brun (a native of Germany who has contacts with the European avant-garde). "We knew they were flying out of Chicago, so we persuaded them to kick off their world tour right here."

So there you have it. Albuquerque comes to Elston Avenue.

According to the theater's artistic director (and most prominent actor), Joe Pesce, the touring show comes complete with circus acts, Native American drumming, gunplay, magic, acrobatics, and various other examples of neo-vaudeville theatrical entertainment. It all sounds rather like the kind of work that the Western-loving House Theatre has been doing in Chicago for the last year or two. It will be interesting to compare.

Tricklock's Pesce says his show celebrates classic Wild West culture but also "digs its heels into the American fascination with gunplay and reckless violence."

Jones saw the show in New Mexico and says he long has been fascinated with Tricklock's unusual fusion of Americana with very physical European experimentation.

"These guys," Jones says, "are a very curious combination of the American and the Polish. I'm grateful they are able to make this kind of theater in this desert."

Jones was speaking of artistic viability more than topography; we'll see how Tricklock does in these more fertile parts.

Job vacancy at Season of Concern

If you go to the theater regularly around the holidays, you're familiar with Season of Concern, the Chicago equivalent of Broadway's Equity Fights AIDS and the charitable organization behind those ubiquitous collections and curtain speeches that take place at area theaters in and around December.

Founded in 1988, Season of Concern has raised (and then given away to direct-care groups) more than $2.5 million. During 2003-4, for example, it raised more than $200,000 to improve the lives of persons living with AIDS and HIV.

Given all the recent medical advances, it has become harder for AIDS-related charities to stay in the public eye, even though both Equity Fights AIDS and Season of Concern argue that the need for financial support is undiminished.

Season of Concern announced this week that its long-time executive director, Brian-Mark Conover, is leaving and moving to Florida. Conover has been a controversial figure ever since an article in the Chicago Reader last fall made public his trifurcated career as a stripper, a performer in the adult film industry and the executive director of Season of Concern.

But despite some ensuing internal hubbub and controversy in the theater community over whether these careers were compatible, the Season of Concern board voted to allow Conover to keep his job.

Conover now is moving to Miami, leaving Season of Concern with a job vacancy.

Board president Barry Taylor says that Conover was an excellent administrator who always had "the full support of the board" and that his departure has nothing to do with the past controversy.

Conover concurs.

"I got so much support from everyone," he says. "I just want people to continue to support the organization that has made such a difference to me all these years."

So why's he leaving?

"I don't like the Chicago winter," Conover says, "even though I have lived here for 21 years. It felt like the right time to make a move."

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'The Glorious and Bloodthirsty Billy the Kid--The Greatest Serial Killer of Our Time! A Wild West Show & Cabaret'

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday

Where: 3504 N. Elston Ave.

Price: $15-$20; 773-539-7838

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