Bentertainment presents:
FUN LITTLE THING: Miami!
A Benefit Performance for Links Hall
FUN LITTLE THING features a mix of artists and mediums for an evening that is fun, little, and a thing. Variety is the spice of life. FUN LITTLE THING: Miami! features Matthew Benson, Maryam Faridani, Gail Harder, Michael McColly, and Elliot Schiff with Eliza Bent.
This performance is a benefit for Links Hall. In addition to our normal sliding scale ticket range, there are opportunities to purchase higher level tickets to further support Links Hall.
TICKETS
General Admission $15-$32
Links Super Fan $50
FEATURED ARTISTS
Mat Benson lives in Chicago. Mat likes the Winter because standing on the train platform on a January night bracing against the razor winds makes him feel as though the very act of living is an act of defiance, and maybe we are all beautiful anarchists performing active rebellion just by being alive. Mat doesn’t like the Summer because he gets sweaty.
Maryam Faridani is one of many lost souls raised on the Internet. In her quest to find answers to existential questions about who we are and what our beliefs mean in an ever-evolving online world, she shifted her focus from seeking a definitive answer to capturing the fleeting uncertainties of her generation in the chaotic spaces of the web. Her art practice is similar to hopping between open tabs on a browser. She is not bound to a specific medium or topic; instead, through video, installation, and performance, she humorously reflects on how the overwhelming feeling of being online has affected our understanding of selfhood, society, and security. Faridani was awarded the MacDowell Fellowship in 2023 and the Define American Fellowship in 2020. In 2022, she was named one of Chicago's Breakout Artists by NewCity Magazine. She has shown her work at Currents NewMedia Festival, Everson Museum of Art, and Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts among many others. She received her M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2019 and holds a B.F.A. in Theater from the Art University of Tehran. She is currently a resident at Chicago Artists Coalition.
Gail Harder is a multi-faceted performing artist currently residing in Chicago. She has her BFA in theatre from the University of Idaho. Gail has performed in plays and as a comic in the Midwest, up and down the west coast and in Moscow, Russia (far away from her home town of Kahlotus, WA.) She is so psyched to be here - she hopes you laugh your ass off! (Please laugh).
Michael McColly’s essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Review, and elsewhere. He is the author of the Lambda Award-winning memoir, The After-Death Room which reflects on his reporting on AIDS activism around the world. His most recent memoir, Walking the Coast of Chicago: A 63 Mile Journey to the Indiana Dunes comes out in September.
Elliot Schiff is a playwright, screenwriter, and comedian based in Chicago, where they are working towards their MFA at Northwestern. Before grad school, in summer 2023, they self-produced their first full production of a play here at Links Hall: I'M NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS (Dir: Shea Leavis).
Eliza Bent is the love-grandchild of Lily Tomlin, Pee Wee Herman, and Mr. Peanut and creates Bentertainments, unruly performance texts as outre as they are undefinable. Bent’s PENGUIN IN YOUR EAR will bow in Austin, TX on Feb 27. @getbentobox
Special thanks to all the folks at Links Hall and Northwestern University.