Working Group's Make it Better and Solo Festival Coming Soon

Iowa City - Working Group Theatre has two events coming this month. First up is Make it Better, Iowa on April 17th at 4pm at Hotel Vetro. Admission is free.

Working Group Theatre, supported by the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights, Prairie Lights Bookstore, Iowa Pride Network, and Hotel Vetro, presents Make it Better, Iowa, an evening of storytelling, music, and theatre to raise awareness of the issues facing LGBT youth in Iowa and encourage others to play a role in creating a better Iowa for all citizens. The event is linked with the release of Dan Savage's book “It Gets Better” and Mr. Savage will appear via skype. This will be the culmination of a two-month project that included workshops for those teacher, advisors, and advocates who are working with Iowa's LGBT youth. For more information go here.

Their second event begins April 22 and continues the following weekend. The Under Construction Solo Festival will be presented April 22, 23, 28, 29 and 30 at 7:30 and May 1 at 2 pm at Riverside Theatre. Admission is $12 for students, and $15 for adults. Working Group Theatre will feature seven performers in its first ever solo-show festival. Each weekend will have different offerings.

The first weekend will feature Solo Shorts – five short pieces from a diverse group of performers.

* Idris Goodwin (award-winning performer, playwright, author of These are the Breaks)
* Austin Bunn (Pushcart Prize winning author, playwright)
* John Kaufmann (author/performer of Starball, Johnny Lingers),
* Martin Andrews (Actor: All My Sons, Mary's Wedding, Midsummer Nights Dream)
* Jennifer Fawcett (author/performer of Goat Show, playwright of Atlas of Mud).

The second week will feature two nationally-recognized performers.

* Sean Christopher Lewis (Smith Prize winner, author/performer of Killadelphia), will perform his new solo show Just Kids which describes how his work helping troubled kids at a Kansas school forced him to deal with his own past.

* The second performer, Leslie Ishii, might be familiar to an audience from her recurring role on Lost as Laura Change, or her work on numerous other TV shows. She is an accomplished stage actress who will premiere her one-person show I Have a Spine which describes her search into her own family history in the post-internment camps.

For more information, go here.