Sideshow Theatre Company presents their work in progress

Posted by DCA Theater on October 26, 2010 in July-December 2010 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Sideshow Theatre

Sideshow Theatre Company entertained a crowd of about 60 people last night in the DCA Studio Theater with excerpts from their play in development, Strangerland.  Check out a video of some selected scenes above.

The event was presented as a part of INCUBATOR, a series designed to support the creation of new work by emerging Chicago theater companies. Utilizing Chicago DCA Theater space and resources, participants explore new projects, develop and refine styles, and share their process with the public during a special showcase event.

Don’t miss the next INCUBATOR series showcase performance for Tympanic Theatre Company on Monday, January 31 at 7:30pm!

Two Directors, One Direction

Posted by DCA Theater on October 22, 2010 in July-December 2010 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Sideshow Theatre

by Karie Miller, Outreach Coordinator for Sideshow Theatre Company and director-of-sorts of Strangerland

If I’m the director-of-sorts, it’s only because I spend the most time on the outside. When it comes to developing the performance moment to moment, I am still a member of a team.  When time got scarce and we needed to create many things all at once, groups would work on their own or I turned to Mike Steele (aforementioned “Stuff Guy” of Strangerland) and asked him to step in and coach parts of the play. Those moments where we divide up the play and work separately eventually turned into a dialogue where we work together…and have now become a partnership.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s sometimes been really frustrating to have two directors. After I did some preliminary work with the lover scene, I asked Mike to work with them to clarify the story and find the dialogue.  As as result, he developed it into a lovely scene. His style worked in a way mine was not working, and I had a moment of jealousy when I didn’t get to work more on that part of the play.

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Something out of Nothing

Posted by DCA Theater on October 18, 2010 in July-December 2010 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Sideshow Theatre

by Mike Steele, Strangerland ensemble member

At one point in time, I was not here.  I did not exist.  Furthermore, neither did you or him or her or any of us.  Every second of every day the past is eaten by the future.  Time, one might argue, is nature’s most bloodthirsty cannibal.  Not only do our cells get replaced by new ones over time but moments, thoughts, ideas, emotions are temporary as well – who I am in this moment is different from who I was in the last.  I never stop evolving.  Just like we entered this world, as something out of nothing, so too are we constantly creating originality in ourselves and in the world.  It’s not always easy to see, but the re-creation of ourselves is ceaseless until the day we die. 

Hi!  I’m Mike Steele.  This is a picture of a former version of myself from two days ago.

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Divine Dissatisfaction

Posted by DCA Theater on October 14, 2010 in July-December 2010 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Sideshow Theatre

by Jennie Winston, Strangerland ensemble member

The following is an excerpt form Jennie Winston’s rehearsal journal. She was writing after a particularly tense evening this past Monday.

Martha Graham spoke of the balance between pleasure and discontent involved in creation, using the term “divine dissatisfaction,” which I believe applies well to any person’s process of trying constantly to improve herself and/or anything she has a hand in.

Having never been a part of a devising process before, I’ve found myself working with a substantial learning curve. I love everything about learning, except that it often entails going through a stretch of having too much comprehension to be unaware of my nearsightedness but not enough to have already gotten past it.

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Notes from a Stranger

Posted by DCA Theater on October 14, 2010 in July-December 2010 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Sideshow Theatre

by Nate Wheldon, Sideshow Theater Company member and “Spaceman of Strangerland”

I improvise everyday.  Not me, Nate Whelden as an actor, wannabe clown, attempted musician, part time writer, full time dreamer moved to Chicago; but me, Nate Whelden, part time sleeper, full time farter, full time worker, breather, cog, heart beat, human being, member of the lonely crowd.  I improvise the cityscape and it kind of goes like this.

When I get up in the morning I hit the alarm.  I put clothes on, sometimes they are clean, sometimes, they are filthy. I walk or stumble out the door.  Sometimes I snag an apple.  Sometimes I see a rabbit cruising past the gate, under a bush, into the dark.  I ride the train.  Sometimes I have to swipe my card twice.  Sometimes I curse about that.  Sometimes I curse about the guy who runs the train and the way he barks, “Doors are closing”.  I get off the train.  I go to work.  I hate it.  I love it.  I leave it.  I linger.  I get back on the train.  I go home.  Sometimes I nap on the train.  Sometimes I pass out on the train.  I get off but sometimes I wake up on the other side of town and have to backtrack.  Sometimes I stare at the sunset or the rockets flying up, up, leaving streaks of white across the blue sky.  Sometimes I think about Lake Michigan and go fishing when I get home or how my grandpa used to swim in that lake.  Sometimes I stare at the floor or the guy next to me picking his nose.  At home I eat.  I drink a bottle of wine.  Sometimes I drink tea.  I read or I don’t.  I go to sleep.  Sometimes its cold and sometimes I can’t sleep.

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