Party Of One: Post Your Review
November 07, 2008 — November 24, 2008
Studio Theater
Presented by Noel Williams
Journey through the psyche of Captain Melisande Blue in Noel William’s award winning Pochinko clown and Bouffon style show. Packed and ready to go, Mel and her baggage find themselves at a train station exiled for “loving a little too much.” Her divine ride features a feisty turnstile, dinner dates with luggage, and a two and a half foot mini version of “Gone with the Wind.” A Fringe Festival favorite throughout the county, this will be the first time the full show has been seen in Chicago.
The Adventures of Captain Marbles and his Acting Squad: Post Your Review
November 01, 2008 — December 14, 2008
Storefront Theater
Presented by Provision Theater Company; Music by Alaric Jans; Lyrics by Alaric Jans and John Stasey; Book by William H. Macy and David Kovacs; Based on Characters Created by John Stasey; Directed by Tim Gregory
The classic musical for children and adults returns to Chicago! The Marble Squad (an Astronaut, a Ballerina, a Witch and other friends) love to act and dance and sing. They are led by a Captain who is always losing his fuzzy red marbles. Watch them take on the challenge of staging “Romeo and Juliet”—with hilarious results! Episode 1 features surprise celebrity cameos, and award-winning composer Alaric “Rokko” Jans at the piano.
In the Economic Maelstrom, the Gypsy is King
Chris Jones pens a quick entry on The Theater Loop exposing the result of a downturn in our economy on local theaters that bemoans the fate of those theaters that are “being forced to shack up with someone else” in order to produce their work (Click here to read the full article).
Given the economic downturn, sharing of space may turn out to the new paradigm for Chicago cultural institutions. But even though the benefits of splitting costs, pooling resources and putting arts venues to maximum productive use are obvious, sharing performance space is a lot trickier than it seems. Especially if it takes place on less-than-equal terms.
In the article, Chris trumpets both the Harris Theater for Music and Dance and The Theatre Building Chicago as examples of possible alternatives to owning a building (he, of course, cites The House Theatre as an example of one of the downtrodden in the financial melee, a fact that I’m certain makes the scores of Off Loop theaters that don’t have a Tribune cheerleader and a healthy budget smirk). Both examples are great spaces although both are essentially egalitarian rental houses.
What Chris misses in his overview of the situation are two major points: in the world of the homeless, the Gypsy is king and that the best program IN THE NATION for this specific problem resides at the corner of Randolph and Michigan Avenue.
One of the enduring truths of the Chicago Theater Scene has been that almost anyone with the desire and a few bucks can put up a show. Granted, this means that the pool is littered with floating turds but it also means that, unlike New Yawk, you don’t have to mortgage your future to get a show up for a nominal run and get some press coverage for it. While the larger (and even mid-sized) institutions in town have flourished or fallen due to finances, there are scores of tiny, motivated theater companies that have consistently managed to travel from place to place, “shacking up” in itinerant spaces, putting up productions of both original and previously produced work without ever receiving a major grant or relying on the fat wallets of the monied class to do it.
These Gypsy theater companies and artists will feel some of the pinch of our economic malaise but will still continue to, often unheralded or championed, crank out the art.
And while renting out a space is the Go To option, Chicago is home to one of the most amazing and supportive theater and arts programs in the entire country: The Chicago Cultural Center (and specifically the DCA Theater Program.) The catchphrase used by the program is so simple it reeks of the best possible mission statement to indicate exactly what it does: Keeping Off-Loop Theater in-the-Loop.
Come and Gone: Site Unseen 2008
After months of preparation by curators Julie Laffin and Dolores Wilber, six local artists, the staff of the Chicago Cultural Center, and countless others, the fifth-annual Site Unseen is now behind us.
The evening was fleeting, but magnificent--over 1,000 visitors to the Chicago Cultural Center enjoyed a range of performances and installations from Chris Sullivan’s quirky “passion play” in the Studio Theater to BJ Krivanek’s innovative sound and lighting installation in Sidney R. Yates Gallery. Visitors were also greeted by the mesmerizing puppetry and Celtic music of Matthew Owens in Preston Bradley Hall, hundreds of cardboard boxes that comprised Claire Ashley’s colorful “Fort” in the Randolph Cafe, and provocative video shorts by the likes of Wafaa Bilal and Catherine Sullivan. All pieces were centered loosely around the theme “occupation.”
Undoubtedly, the most ambitious piece was realized by philosopher-artist H. Peter’s Steeves. Housed in three major rooms on the second floor of the Cultural Center--GAR Hall, Rotunda and the Claudia Cassidy Theater--Steeves’ lecture/performance/installation entitled “You Are Here” explored, as he wrote, “the relationship between mapping and occupation [which mimics] the tone and context of an antiquated, traveling science sideshow and cartographic carnival of curiosities.” For the installation portion, Steeves incorporated such disparate materials as recycled barn wood, home-made robotics, a port-o-let ("Fountain II” he called it, after Duchamp), live satellite up-link, rotten fruit, kitchen knives, and mice made from maps to encourage the viewer to “think about the casual relationships that exist between mapping and colonialism, imperialism, war, greed, control and knowledge.” In his live lecture/performance he highlighted dance from Indonesia, India, Argentina, Turkey, Fance, and Spain.
As art historian Patricia Kelly wrote in her introduction to the program book, ”Site Unseen calls up many of the themes central to performance art from the late 1960s onwards, regarding specificity of place, the nature of embodiment, the terms of human experience, and the possibilities for individual interaction, yet in timely and unexpected ways.” This year’s timely theme “occupation” was explored through many different vehicles which resulted in an evening of interactive, thought-provoking, visually stunning, yet approachable art.
A tiny portion of the massive installation “You are Here” by H. Peter Steeves
Captain’s Blog--October 27, 2008
Written by Captain Marbles
Hi everyone! It’s great to be back!
All of us with the Acting Squad are busy rehearsing and getting ready for our opening at the DCA Storefront Theater on November 1. We’ve had some singing and dancing rehearsals already, and the Squad is sounding great. I have to work on a few things – it’s a little hard to dance when I keep losing my marbles – but that’s to be expected.
What’s been really fun has been telling people that we’re putting on a show again! Some of the kids who saw us in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s are parents – and grandparents – now. We’re hoping that this is just the beginning – and they’ll be able to see many more Marble Squad shows in the future. Special thanks to our great new friends at the DCA – they’re helping us in so many ways to get the marbles rolling.
We’re excited to have some special guests during the run of this first episode, too. Because we’re putting on our biggest show ever – “The Comedy of the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet”—Morey the Eel has decided to become a casting agent – and he’s lining up all the top name talent we’ll need. Depending on when you come to the show, you might see tap dancers, singers, trombone players – even pogo stick jumpers (I think Morey’s getting a little carried away). We’ll also have celebrities like Wayne Messmer, Tim Kazurinsky, Garry Meier and more. Morey says he’s looking for a cast of thousands – er, hundreds. I’m telling him to be thinking tens. Morey says he’s working it all out – his people are calling their people.
So, we really hope we’ll see you at the Storefront! When you come, be sure to stick around afterwards – we’d love to say hello to you after the show. And check back on this blog – we’ll be updating it through our run with the DCA.
Captain over and out – Doo-wah!
