Co-curated by Cynthia Castiglione

and Lynn R. Hull

Flat Iron Arts Building, 1935 W. North Ave.

Phone: (773) 346-6777;

$7 each performance,

$12 nightly pass, $20 all-weekend pass

Through Feb. 13

Playwright Philip Dawkins and director Eric C. Reda were friends before they started on a collaboration for the theater component of the 2005 Around the Coyote Winter Arts Festival. To their relief, their friendship has survived the artistic process so far.

‘It’s a drama. No, it’s a comedy,’ said Dawkins about his new gay adoption satire called Ugly Baby or 564 Things to Do with a Peanut. ‘Plot-wise, it’s about what happens when two men enter into an open adoption, but when they see the baby, it’s so ugly that they don’t want it.’

According to Reda, Dawkins has been very ‘hands-off’ with his casting and directing work, though they’ve been communicating after rehearsals and via e-mail. It’s a contrast to playwright Caitlin Montanye Parrish’s direct involvement with director Gemma Cooper-Novack on the play Suit, which concerns a gay couple in which one partner starts transitioning to become a woman.

‘Caitlin and I have a very well-balanced partnership,’ said Cooper-Novack about their working process on Suit. ‘I love having another presence in the rehearsal room to give direct comments and feedback.’

As co-curator of Around the Coyote Winter Arts Theater Festival, Cynthia Castiglione wants to help facilitate new artistic relationships between emerging Chicago playwrights and directors. So far, she’s been very pleased with the festival’s results.

‘Yes, [Dawkins and Reda] were friends before, but they weren’t working together in a professional setting,’ said Castiglione. ‘A lot of us have walked down the ugly road of losing friends while working in a theater setting, so it’s nice to work on something outside of yourself and to develop boundaries.’

Theater has had a larger role in Around the Coyote’s better-known Fall arts festival, but it hasn’t always figured prominently in the six previous Around the Coyote Winter Arts Festivals. Castiglione and theater co-curator Lynn R. Hull have tried to change that this year.

‘We worked with so many great theater professionals in fall that we wanted to continue working with them in winter,’ Castiglione said. ‘We’re more focused on the playwright and their creation and less on the actor this time around. The idea is that it is work-in-progresses we’re showing.’

Each of the festival’s eight plays is under 20 minutes and Castiglione and Hull both tried to pair playwrights with directors whose different approaches would be more in sync.

Just like visual artists in the festival, theater artists can use the Around the Coyote Festival as a launching pad to expand a work or to build new artistic relationships. Castiglione proudly notes how From Tel Aviv to Ramallah: A Beatbox Journey jumped from its Around the Coyote staging to a production at the Viaduct Theatre, while a previous Around the Coyote play called Prized Possession by Jenny Connell (who has a piece in the 2005 festival called Train) is now being developed in Stage Left Theatre’s Downstage Left play development program.

Cooper-Novack points out that Parrish already has plans to develop Suit into a larger work, while Reda and Dawkins have begun a collaboration on a musical.

‘This has given us an opportunity to find out the way we communicate and the way we create together really meshes well,’ Dawkins said. ‘It’s been a great springboard for us for the stuff that we’re writing together.’

The plays at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11 and 12, 3 p.m. Feb. 13:

King of the Road by Gregory Hardigan—One man’s journey through a Chicago winter on bike.

Funeral Critics by Adam Simon—What would happen if critics like Ebert and Roeper started critiquing funerals?

Train by Jenny Connell—An absurdity fairy tale about meeting at a train stop.

Common Intellect by Jill Elaine Hughes—A developing play about a Cockney homeless woman who meets a conservative banker on a train.

The plays at 9 p.m. Feb. 11 and 12, 4:30 p.m. Feb. 13:

Three Beautiful Children by William Jordan—An 81-year-old woman stranded by the side of a road suffers her youthful memories when a stranger tries to assist her.

Management Orientation by Adam Simon—An all-knowing manager communicates via speaker phone for a conference call.

Ugly Baby or 564 Things to do With a Peanut by Philip Dawkins—The perfect gay couple find flaws with their newly adopted baby.

Suit by Caitlin Montanye Parrish—A gay couple wonders whether you are what you wear, particularly when one starts transitioning for gender reassignment.