The Muse Misfires — Ben Huizenga — Rhino Fest 2026

Ben Huizenga steps into territories that are obscured to most. Whether by nature’s design or the calls of a hidden power, his art pulls him to explore the subtle gradations of light and shadow that inform the human condition. For this, we are made both grateful and nervous, challenged but reassured. Will it be alright? It will not, and that is okay.

“Something there is that does not love Huizenga” - R. Frost

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit Huizenga” - W. Shakespere

“For Huizenga is the clothing and I am the essence” - J. De Burgos

“I shall rise and go, and go away from Huizenga” - W.B. Yeats

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Huizenga” - A. Ginsberg

“Huizenga cons me as he spurns me” - C. Bernstein

“How do you like your blue eyed Huizenga Mr Death” - e.e. cummings

Venue: The Labyrinth Club, 3658 N. Pulaski

Tickets: All Rhino Fest tickets are offered at sliding scale prices in an effort to make theater more accessible to more people in our communities. We say "pay what you can" and we mean it. Rhino Fest is co-produced by the Curious Theatre Branch and the performance venues. Additional donations are always welcome. 

About the venue: The Labyrinth Club is located at 3658 N Pulaski Ave, just north of Addison in the Irving Park neighborhood. Street parking is usually possible nearby. The venue is 0.5 miles south of the Irving Park Blue Line station, and 0.2 miles west of the Addison Blue Line station. Labyrinth Arts is a first-floor space with an accessible entrance, no stairs, and one single-stall restroom; the restroom doorway is slightly smaller than ADA standard, and may be difficult for some wheelchairs to navigate.

Note: Labyrinth is structured as a private club rather than a public venue. Visitors will be asked to sign a guestbook on entering, which confers a 24-hour membership at the club. There is no extra fee due at the time of ticket purchase or on arrival. For more information: https://www.instagram.com/labyrinthartsperformance/

About Rhino Fest: The event that became the Rhinoceros Theater Festival began in 1988 as an offshoot of the Bucktown Arts Fest, and in its first year featured just two days of performances, including work by Jenny Magnus and Beau O'Reilly. When the event's founder moved away from Chicago in 1990, he asked a ragtag group of local artists (including Beau O'Reilly and Theatre of the Reconstruction’s Scott Turner) to keep the festival going, and the Rhino Fest was born. The Curious Theatre Branch went on to produce the Rhino across many neighborhoods and venues over the years, with events variously taking place in Wicker Park/Bucktown, Rogers Park, Andersonville and Avondale; at spaces including the Lunar Cabaret and Full Moon Café, the Neo-Futurarium, the Society for New Things, The Garage, The Firehouse, Remains Theatre, and Prop Thtr. In the mid-2000s, Rhino Fest settled at Prop Thtr in Avondale as its long-term base, and Prop and Curious co-produced the festival among a shifting group of curators for many years. Following the closure of Prop's Elston Avenue space in 2020 and a year off during the height of the pandemic, Rhino Fest is once more itinerant, currently producing more than 30 shows at The Labyrinth Club, Chicago Danztheater, and Chicago Dramatists.

https://rhinofest.com/