This week Unscripted Moments is covering Sketch Comedy with a brand new group on the Chicago scene – Adults! This is the first Sketch show that I’m covering and I am very excited to be able to expand to a new genre in live theater. When I went to view the show, this time I was able to sit in on more of a rehearsal process…and let me tell you, it was so much fun watching this crew work and collaborate together.
In this installment of Unscripted Moments, we get to sit down with director Tony Lifonti to talk about The James Downing Theater’s production of the Neil Simon comedy classic “Come Blow Your Horn”. [Read more…]
(Photos by : Christopher Semel)
For this Segment of Unscripted Moments, we’re sitting down with Julia Rohed the director of The Bird Girl a brand new play. The show was written by resident playwright EJC Calvert, and is being put up by Mercy Street a new company in their first season here in Chicago.
Living a life of solitude in a remote asylum, Amity’s world is shaken when she’s scooped up by an enterprising ringmaster and finds herself the centerpiece of a traveling freak show. …..The Bird Girl is a look at the intense pressure of public gaze, how it effects self-image and becomes a driving force in Amity’s life. The play was developed in workshop with Jon Robin Baitz at the New School for Drama in 2009, and had a reading with NYAC’s Casual Reading Series in August 2010.
(Mercy Street Website)
(photo by Stephanie Vera)
For this segment of Unscripted Moments, we sat down with playwright Ray Nelson and director Alexander St. John to talk about the world premiere of the new play of Norma and the Maniac. The show is being produced by The Orchard, in association with Red Twist Theater’s guest company series.
Unscripted Moments is a continuing Addison Recorder series highlighting Chicago storefront theatre by Leigh Yenrick. Leigh is an actress who has worked in Toledo and the Twin Cities, and who currently resides in Chicago.
For this installment of Unscripted Moments, I sat down with Tosha Fowler, the Artistic Director of Cor Theater. We talked about their current production, A Map of Virtue, for which Fowler is also wearing the hat of director.
This week’s article is a little bittersweet to write, because it is about a production that is close to me. We are taking a look at Waltzing Mechanics’ seventeenth edition of EL Stories: The New Kids in Town. As a member of this particular production, I wanted to shine a light on the wonderfully talented cast and crew that I have had the pleasure to work and learn from.
To give a little history Waltzing Mechanics was founded in 2010 by Thomas Murray, Keely Leonard, and Zachary Florent. The Mechanics work “to create original documentary theatre inspired by real people telling stories about their lives. Using methods of performance ethnography, we facilitate dialogues among our audiences and within our communities.” EL Stories is part of that endeavor, and is exactly what it sounds like: stories about being on the EL Train and the other public transportation around Chicago.
For this interview I sat down with the director of this edition of EL Stories, Rebecca Willett, who provided some insight with her experience on this production. [Read more…]
A guest post for a continuing Addison Recorder series highlighting Chicago storefront theatre by Leigh Yenrick. Leigh is an actress who has worked in Toledo and the Twin Cities, and who currently resides in Chicago.
All images courtesy of Mozawa
Tonight, we are highlighting the new kid on the block, Mozawa, opening their inaugural show Fallen at the Collaboraction Theater. I had the pleasure to go behind the scenes to get a sneak peak into the production, and to sit down with the Artistic Director Matthew Mozawa.
First, a little background on this production, an interdisciplinary theater adaptation based on the short story “In A Grove” by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, and the film “Rashomon” by Akira Kurosawa. Adapted and directed by Mozawa’s Artistic Director Matthew Ozawa, this world premiere hybrid theater event features original score and live performance by Koto performer Yumi Kurosawa and Electronic Sound Artist Mike Vernusky.
A guest post – and first in a new Addison Recorder series highlighting Chicago storefront theatre – by Leigh Yenrick. Leigh is an actress who has worked in Toledo and the Twin Cities, and who currently resides in Chicago.
(Image courtesy of Profiles Theatre)
This week we are taking a look at Profiles season opener Reasons to Be Happy. Written by Neil LaBute, the show is a sequel to his 2008 play reasons to be pretty, bringing us back into the lives of Greg (Eric Burger), Steph (Domenica Cameron-Scorsese), Carly(Sarah Loveland), and Kent (Dennis Bistro). All of them are in their middle aged years and trying to find happiness, whether that would be with each other or in the form of inner peace. I recently got to talk about the play with Profiles’ own Artistic Director Darrell W. Cox who directed Reasons to Be Happy.