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Magic and Mentalism at the Storefront Theater

Posted by DCA Theater on November 4, 2011 in July-December 2011 Season, The Spirit Play

Last week, DCA Theater hosted Contacting the Spirits: Magic and Mentalism in the 19th century.  Presented in conjunction with The Strange Tree Group’s world premiere production of The Spirit Play, the lecture focused on mentalism and spirit mediums in 1870s Chicago and included a magic demonstration. Local historian and author Ursula Bielski, founder of Chicago Hauntings, Inc., was on hand to share and answer questions about mediums and the Spiritualist movement, while magician Brett Schneider, who also designed the illusions in The Spirit Play, dazzled the audience with his knowledge and tricks.

Above: Schneider begins with an audience participation trick. After leading us through a series of hand movements and arm twists, we all ended up hopelessly in knots. Schneider’s arms came apart effortlessly - he is the magician after all.

The evening began with an introduction by Nate Brandt (below), Director of Theater and Dance for the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture. Brandt is the head of DCA Theater, and was excited to welcome everyone to the event. As part of its mission, DCA Theater creates and presents free events to accompany each of their productions, as a way to expand the reach of the programming and enrich the patron experience. 

Delia Baseman and Emily Schwartz (below) followed, providing amusing introductions to both of the evening’s presenters. Baseman, Associate Artistic Director of The Strange Tree Group, can be seen on stage in the production, and her talents are also highlighted in the costumes, of which she is the designer. Schwartz, The Strange Tree Group’s Artistic Director, is also the playwright of The Spirit Play.

It was a treat to hold the event on the set of The Spirit Play. Not only did audience members get an up close look at it, the set was a perfect backdrop for talk of Victorian ideals and attitudes. 

With an extensive background in Chicago’s supernatural folklore and the paranormal, Ursula Bielski (above) shared with us her take on what made the Spiritualist movement so appealing. Delving into Victorian attitudes towards sexuality and manners, it was fascinating to think of how taboo it would have been to publicly hold hands, and how the séance rooms provided a perfect outlet for such activities. Much discussion centered around the notion of whether the mediums were charlatans or had real powers, and what motives could lead people to either believe in their abilities or denounce them as frauds. 

Following the lecture, a practical demonstration of some of the mind tricks and magic that mediums or mentalists would use was done by Schneider.  Bringing to life some of the things Bielski had mentioned, Schneider correctly used facial and vocal clues to name the card of an audience member (Elizabeth Bagby, below). While he did (partially) reveal the trick of how he kept bringing out items from a seemingly empty cup, we never did learn the secret of the “ghost” in the show. A true magician, he kept us all guessing to the very end.

Since the evening was all about filling in the history of The Spirit Play, we decided to raffle off a pair of free tickets to the show as an unexpected treat (below).  Congratulations to our winner, Kathy!

We really enjoyed the event, and in case you missed it, we do always present free lectures or other events as part of each of our productions, so keep checking DCATheater.org for updates, or follow us on Facebook, facebook.com/dcatheater.