40 one-acts, 40 nights

Think of it as a biblical-scale short-play flood.

Adam Webster, artistic director of the Side Project, the tiny-but-unstoppable storefront troupe in Rogers Park that devotes its keyhole space and limited resources almost exclusively to new plays, announced yesterday that his company will try something this season to which no other theater can lay claim. The Side Project will produce 40 brand-new one-acts over the next year. Mounted in eight separate programs—the first half of them in November and December and the second batch in April and May—the series, called "Cut to the Quick," will include works by a host of usual Chicago storefront suspects, as well as writers throughout the country.

Among them are Mark Young (who penned New Orleans), Robert Tenges (playwright of Stranger Knocking), Brian Golden (artistic director of Theatre Seven and most recently seen as an actor in Boys & Girls) and ubiquitous fringe personality Sean Graney.

I would be remiss if I didn't note that our review of Graney's last play at the Side Project, Porno, is usually the most frequented article on TOC's website. And with all due respect to the Side Project and Graney, we're pretty sure the reason so many people click on that page has less to do with America's love of fringe theater than its habit of trolling the internet for porn. (Alas, Google searches don't always separate the wheat from the chaff.)

Only time will tell if this season of 40 one-acts will include anything salacious enough to warrant "most viewed" status.