Critic’s Notebook: Atlanta artists on the move

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? Viva Las Vegas, hooray for Hollywood ... and Chicago, that toddlin’ town. ?

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Well, Chicago probably needs a little work on its catch phrase, but nonetheless, we’ve been cheering along this month as some of our favorite Atlanta artists take their work on the road. ?? ?

Lauri Stallings’ dance company http://www.gloatl.org/gloATL is in Las Vegas this week as Stallings has been chosen to create a new work for glo and Cirque du Soleil artists as part of Cirque du Soleil Founder Guy Laliberté’s Annual Las Vegas fundraiser One Night for One Drop on March 20 at the Mirage Hotel. When the dancers return to Atlanta, they won’t be here for long: Stallings and her company will be creating an installation for New York’s Central Park entitled And all directions I come to you premiering May 15. The work, part of Creative Time’s Art in Central Park, will run through the end of June and includes a comprehensive catalogue of public initiatives throughout the city. ?? ?

In Chicago, Atlanta playwright Topher Payne’s play Angry Fags is having its regional premiere at the prestigious Steppenwolf as part of that theater’s Garage series, running through April 26. The provocative play, which certainly had Atlanta talking when it had its world premiere at 7 Stages in 2013, has Chicago talking, as well. Payne is now on his way to Anchorage, AK., for the regional premiere of his show Perfect Arrangement. Check out Keely L. Herrick’s http://clatl.com/atlanta/topher-payne-takes-his-shows-on-the-road/Content?oid=13782163profile on Payne and his travels in this week’s Loaf. ?? ?

And in Hollywood, Atlanta’s favorite drag queen with an 18-inch corseted waist, [http://violetchachki.tumblr.com/|Violet Chachki], is providing some pretty sickening (in drag terms, sickening is good btw) competition on “[http://www.logotv.com/shows/rupauls_drag_race/season_7/series.jhtml].” Only three episodes in, and she’s already got a reputation as the reigning queen of mean. That’s not especially easy to do on a show that features the nation’s fiercest drag queens in competition. The show airs on Logo on Monday nights, but through the magic of television, all the episodes have already been taped so Chachki herself is able to host a weekly viewing party right here in the ATL at Mary’s, which is obviously the coolest most sickening most toddlin’ place to be on Monday nights.??