INSIDE LITTLE SHOP Part 3: Adventures in Tech
In our final days in the rehearsal space, we had a sitzprobe and a designer run which were both exciting and crowded. Between the cast, the band, and the creative/production team, there are more than 35 people involved in bringing this show to life.
Female-Driven ONE MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL Takes Stage This Week
When asked what led producing artistic director and founder of the ONE MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (or 1MPF) to focus this year’s Chicago festival on female-identified writers and directors, Dominic D’Andrea said “over the past couple of years the climate of the festival has been more women-forward, just organically.
2016 Merritt Awards Honor Chicago Designers and Technicians
Nationally-known Sound Designer and Composer Michael Bodeen will receive the 2016 Merritt Award. The Michael Merritt Award, a national award unique in its emphasis on excellence in both design and collaboration, is presented annually to a scenic, costume, lighting, sound, or other media designer.
Non-Equity Jeff Award Nominees Announced
The Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee announced the slate of nominees for this year’s Non-Equity Jeff Awards, celebrating the excellence of Chicago’s non-union theaters.
SENDER Will Reinstate Your Faith in Realism
Ike Holter’s modern day bohemians warn you before you step any closer: “Things are weird in here.”
Storefront’s Collective Impact
“I know that the work of arts service organizations and advocacy groups is hard and often thankless, but untangle faster please.”
Goodman to Open Doors of Alice Rapoport Center May 18th.
The Goodman Theatre will officially open the Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement May 18th in conjunction with the Goodman-curated Citywide Celebration of Chicago native playwright Lorraine Hansberry
INSIDE LITTLE SHOP Part 2: Puppet Power!
This week we began working with the two larger Audrey Two puppets and we were all surprised at how big they truly are. Sarah E. Ross (Puppet Designer and Producer Manager) had warned us that the largest was approximately 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide, but actually seeing a puppet that large come to life in person was both thrilling and intimidating (for comparison: Jim Henson’s Big Bird is 8 feet tall). There remain a handful of questions and concerns about how to best share the stage with the large puppets that won’t be able to be fully solved until we’re in the space. For now, it’s just exciting that they look so amazing and that Matthew Sitz is such a natural at operating them.
‘Code of Conduct’ Created by Chicago’s Non-Union Theaters
Several Chicago theater companies have banded together to create a “Non-Equity Theater Code of Conduct”, the draft document of which was released after an event Monday night at Theater Wit organized by Lori Myers, Laura T. Fisher, and the #NotInOurHouse community that was put together to address sexual harassment in Chicago theater, but has now grown to encompass a wider range of issues facing theater artists.
MARY PAGE MARLOWE: Masterful, Deeply Personal, Not to Be Missed
MARY PAGE MARLOWE is snippets from one woman’s life (played by six different actresses), a woman said to be ‘unremarkable’, a thrice-married CPA with two kids and a drinking problem. But I didn’t feel that I was watching a play about someone unremarkable, at all. I felt I was watching the story of a thousand women, of a hundred thousand women, maybe a million women — women who lost and found themselves a dozen times over, in their lifetimes. Women who can’t please their mothers, or become their mothers; who can’t please their children, or be their children; who can’t please themselves, or be themselves. Women capable of more, but lacking some essential element to make it so; like maybe equal footing, or a society that sees them as people.