Solo Fest 2021 – Featuring Chris Steele!

It’s nigh time for the 4th Annual PlayGround Solo Performance Festival, celebrating the work of intrepid solo performers as they harness their immense imaginations to captivate our attention for close to an hour — no small feat for a solitary creative in front of an attentive audience. This year’s festival boasts an impressive roster of personal storytelling, free-wheeling fiction, and docudrama dives into histories public and private.  We encourage you to catch every show at least once for the full experience, but to help you sift through the embarrassment of riches and learn a little more about our creatives, we asked our performers (and writers!) a few questions about their relationships with Solo Performance and PlayGround!

Next up: PlayGround Writers Pool member, and queer-trans activist Chris Steele (they/them) and their piece The Bride, or, How to Take Every Wrong Turn and End in the Right Place!

PG: Why is Solo Performance important to you?
CS: As an actor and as a writer, often you must make compromises as part of collaboration and to fill a role in the larger production machine, for better or for worse. Drag and solo performance give me the full reigns to my own stories, and allow me to explore how my identity and community fit in the world without interference from outside judgements. It’s deeply fulfilling to craft your own story and speak it into being for an audience to witness.

PG: How is the PlayGround Solo Fest helping you reach your artistic goals?
CS: This is my first full Solo Show. I’ve done short form solo performances, and had a Solo Show planned to launch RIGHT as the shutdown happened (it’ll still happen to keep an eye out for Gaslit when we can safely congregate). Being able to create during this pandemic, and being financially supported as a solo artist is massively impactful.

PG: In one sentence, what should audiences expect from your show?
CS: A drag queen, lip-syncing fiercely, with beautiful visual effects and fashion, telling a very timely story about a 1930s horror film, and stripping away her clothes as she strips away the layers of its toxic mythology.

You have two chances to catch Chris’s show in the Solo Fest: opening weekend 1/22/2021 @ 7PM PT, and closing weekend 2/7/2021 @7PM PT!
Click either date to purchase tickets for that event, and check out the full schedule of performances in this year’s festival!