SPECIAL EVENT IN APRIL!
Please join us at The Get-Together, a hybrid retreat, conference, and house party in Chicago. Affordable, accessible, and fun for everyone. No experience necessary. Click here for full details! |
Solo Sunday is thrilled to present a wide variety of productions and performers, from Chicago and beyond. Every month brings an all-new show. You may take in an acclaimed touring fringe festival show, a stunning musical performance, a riveting account of Chicago history, a hilarious comedic monologue, a heartbreaking family story, and so much more.
On select Sundays, we gather in an upstairs dining room at Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro in North Center for solo performance in a space so intimate and personal that shows feel like private performances.
Arrive early for a pre-show meal from the bistro's acclaimed menu, often accompanied by a live Irish music session, or make an evening of it with post-show drinks and conversation.
Our Next Productions
Hidden Memory:
An American WWII Story Sunday, April 2nd @ 3:30 PM World War II was a very different experience for Japanese Americans. Racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership resulted in over 120,000 imprisoned for the crime of looking like the enemy. Join storyteller Anne Shimojima as she shares the inspiring story of her family’s journey from Japan and through the incarceration camps. Anne illustrates her talk with photos from her family and the National Archives, showing a journey of determination, perseverance, and strength. |
Anne Shimojima, a native Chicagoan, has been telling stories from her Asian heritage and around the world for forty years at festivals, schools, libraries, museums, and senior communities. Her venues include the National Storytelling Festival, Fillet of Solo, This Much is True, and as Teller-in-Residence at the International Storytelling Center. In 2019 she was invited to tell her family’s World War II incarceration camp story at three Tokyo high schools by the Japanese government and her CD Sakura Tales: Stories from Japan won a Storytelling World Honor Award in 2019. In 2022, Anne was decorated with the Order of the Rising Sun by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan for her outstanding contributions in promoting Japanese culture in the U.S. and promoting friendly relations and mutual understanding between Japan and the U.S.
God is a Firefly (or, God is a Word We Made Up)
Sunday, April 2nd @ 7:00 PM One reason to believe in a God, is sometimes you just need somebody to thank." This show from Charles Murphy is about looking for God (whatever God means to you) in weird places, from the Tennessee River, to your buried shame, to the disgraced planet Pluto, and trying and failing to find words for things that can't be explained. |
Charles Murphy is an Alabama-raised, Chicago-based musician who loves trees, Irish whistles, and the words “I don’t know.” He grew up a priest's kid in the Episcopal Church, the legacy of which (among other things) is that he loves the sound of a group of people singing more than just about anything in the world. He has played throughout Chicago's music scene as part of the folk duo Duck and Goose, and as part of the band The Diving Bell. He loves songs that have stories in them (especially the ones without words) and he believes that everyone is a musician. He can be found most days wandering around his house or Winnemac Park, making up songs about washing his hands too much and his late basset hound, Murray.
Our Location
Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro 3905 N. Lincoln Avenue Murphy's is a legendary Irish pub located in the North Center neighborhood. Our performances take place in a private dining room upstairs. The entire venue is fully accessible, with an elevator and all necessary accommodations. A free parking lot is located just south of the venue on Lincoln, and there is metered and free parking on surrounding streets. Food and drink is available throughout the afternoon. |