Summer Reading Series, yo!

We're read the plays, we've deliberated and now we've made it official. The Summer Reading Series lineup can be found right here! Check back at the blog often for SRS bonus content soon!

No pants, no problem!

If CTC was a four-year-old we would have a lot of play dates with Sansculottes Theatre Company. Several of our company members to school with several of their company members at good 'ole DePaul University and quite often we find ourselves colliding with our pantless buddies at random northside bars at 2:30 in the morning. Point is, we enjoy one another.

So, I would be doing our companies a great disservice if I failed to mention Sansculottes upcoming 'No Pants, Just Shorts' festival.

(Shameless self-promotion alert!) Did I mention that my play, D.P. 2007, is one of the plays being presented? Well, it is and goodness you should come see it. It's so funny!

Here the info from the sanscu-folks:

NO PANTS, JUST SHORTS

Date: June 25th
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Feed the Beast at 4300 N. Lincoln Ave.
More: $5 suggested donation at door includes a raffle ticket. Food and drink are available to consume before during and after the show.

Actors interested in performing should arrive before 6:30 p.m. with four headshots to facilitate casting. The action gets started at 6:30 with the audition parade. Each actor will be randomly assigned a one-line audition piece (roughly ten seconds of performance material) at the door. No two actors will receive the same piece. Directors will announce casting decisions at roughly 7:00pm. Performance of the plays will begin at 8:00pm.

The Line-Up:

• The Room is on Fire by the Sansculottes Collective, directed by Ronan Marra (Signal Ensemble Theater)
  
  
• Leap Frog by Timothy Matos, directed by Sansculottes own Dan Kerr-Hobert
  
  
• Iowa by Megan Breen, directed by Libby Ford (Collision Theater)
  
  
• D.P. 2007 by Seth Unger, directed by Jimmy McDermott (Writers Theater)

This Will Probably Be Worth Your $10

My friend Ellie Heyman has directed a show called Dead Letters: An Exploration of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" that is opening this weekend. Ellie is an amazing director and artist and her work is always really unique and full of wonder. See description and show details below:



Big Theater turns a classic on its head with its newest work, Dead Letters: An Exploration of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya". Diving into the inner lives of the four main characters from Chekhov's play, Dead Letters juxtaposes the playwright's text with original fear and fantasy sequences. Utilizing the natural architecture of an Andersonville bookstore and a Bucktown tutoring center, Dead Letters features a quartet of Chicago actors whose intimate, yet fierce playing style that will turn Russian realism inside out. The result is a piece that lays bear the things that haunt us: the secret letters we never sent and the dead shadows of what might have been.

At The Boring Store (in the 826 Chicago Tutoring Center)
1331 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL
Friday and Saturday nights, May 25 - June 16
Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm

CHANGING LOCATIONS JUNE 23!

At Women and Children First
5233 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL
Saturday nights, June 23
Friday and Saturday night, June 29 and 30
Fridays at 9pm, Saturdays at 8pm

For tickets at both locations:
Call 773-484-8126
$10, general admission

Prodigy?

I normally try to keep my random posts theatre related but I'm gonna go on an arts-related tangent to bring you this clip of a 3 year old finger artist.



This kid is sick with his phalanges! At age three I was still in diapers (which I explained to my friends by letting them know that "God made me to wear diapers until I was three and he made you not to wear diapers when you are three.") and this kid is producing brilliant TMNT portraiture!

I understand that most humans aren't showing any signs of brilliance by the age of three, in fact, most of us will never exhibit any Howser-like propensity toward accelerated learning. Still, it makes me wonder where a gift like this comes from. Did this kid just wake up one day with this great ability, was he born this way, was he taught to paint? Or is he some kind of mutant, the next shift in human evolution, one step away from walking though walls or cell regeneration? Whatever the case, he's special and I'm jealous.

...so maybe I was four when I stopped wearing diapers, so what!! I also spent many hours wholeheartedly trying to wrap my little brain around concepts of telekinesis, levitation and teleportation, I didn't have many any triumphs with those experiments, but it never hurts to try.

Enjoy your non-genetically-enlightened day!