Collaboraction, which now bills itself as “Chicago’s social issue-driven contemporary theatre”, is launching PEACEBOOK, a new collaborative city-wide festival of theater, dance, music, visual art, and spoken word focused on cultivating peace in Chicago as part of the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks program.
Intended to engage new artists, audiences, and communities in creating and sharing art that envisions a more peaceful Chicago, each PEACEBOOK performance is a collection of seven original pieces of theater, dance, and spoken word uniting Chicago artists in creating connections with Chicagoans in communities around the city. Collaboraction has issued a city-wide call for submissions and is now accepting plays, devised theater, dance and spoken word performances of seven minutes or less, as well as directors, actors, community partners and volunteer applications. The submission deadline is May 8, 2016. Submission guidelines and applications are posted online at collaboraction.org.
Each piece will have its own director and cast and share a professional design team. To create PEACEBOOK, Collaboraction is marrying experience from 15 years of producing its annual SKETCHBOOK festival with its new focus on social activism. “From our 15 years of producing SKETCHBOOK, we know the power of an arts festival to build community, create artistic collaborations, and launch careers, so we are delighted to bring our proven SKETCHBOOK format to the Chicago Peace Movement,” said Collaboraction Artistic Director Anthony Moseley. “We hope Chicago theatre artists will find PEACEBOOK an exciting way for them to join the movement while cultivating new voices throughout the city. We’re confident through open submissions, personal and professional invitations, and community cultivation events, PEACEBOOK will be a showcase for a diverse set of voices from all over Chicago, and a multi-layered collection of 21 world premiere works of art that individually and collectively, envision a more peaceful Chicago,” Moseley added.
The PEACEBOOK festival is a result of the ongoing evolution of Collaboration and its participation in the Chicago Peace Movement. “We are committed to being a part of the solution by bringing more artists to this critical issue and giving new artistic opportunities to Chicago’s communities most affected by 200 years of segregation and economic disparity,” said Moseley.
Collaboraction is creating 21 short works for the festival, with seven pieces performing at each location, in a multidisciplinary festival atmosphere, free at the following Chicago parks this August:
PEACEBOOK South Side/Englewood
August 12 and 13
Hamilton Park, 513 W. 72nd St.
PEACEBOOK West Side/Austin
August 19 and 20
LaFollette Park, 1331 N. Laramie
PEACEBOOK North Side/Uptown
August 26 and 27
Clarendon Park, 4501 N. Clarendon Ave.
View the video announcement from Collaboraction below:
Abigail has worked as an actor/director in Chicago for over ten years, and along with husband Jason Epperson founded Lotus Theatricals in 2015, and PerformInk Chicago and Kansas City in 2016 (where she serves as Managing Editor of both publications). When not talking shop, Abigail is raising three padawans with Jason, drinking lots of coffee, converting school buses into RV's, and eating all the foods at Disney World. You can find her on Twitter @AbigailTrabue
