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Showing posts with label Chicago Park District. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicago Park District. Show all posts

Thursday, April 17, 2025

WORLD PREMIERE OF THE OSTRICH MAY 2 - 17, AT BERGER PARK’S NORTH MANSION

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar

THE TERROR COTTAS AND CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT ANNOUNCE THE CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM FOR THE WORLD PREMIERE OF

THE OSTRICH


MAY 2 - 17, AT BERGER PARK’S NORTH MANSION

 The Ostrich, a Site-Specific Piece Featuring the Wright Brothers 

Written by Wendy A. Schmidt and directed by Eileen Tull


This show looks like a ton of affordable fun... in a mansion no less! Sadly I'm booked solid and can't squeeze this one in. But here at ChiIL Mama and ChiIL Live Shows, we're huge fans of the Chicago Park District and adore Berger Park. So we're happy to spread the word. 

The Terror Cottas and Chicago Park District are pleased to announce the cast and creative team for the world premiere of The Ostrich, written by Wendy A. Schmidt and directed by Eileen Tull, May 2 - 17 at Berger Park’s North Mansion, 6205 N. Sheridan. Opening night is Friday, May 2 at 7 p.m. with the press opening Saturday, May 3 at 7 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays – Saturdays at 7 p.m. with an Industry performance on Monday, May 12 at 7 p.m. The runtime is 100 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $5 - $10 and go on sale April 18 at  TheTerrorCottas.org.

Please Note: This venue is not handicap accessible, as the only entrance is via stairs. The audience will move six to ten times throughout the performance. Chairs will be provided in each setting, with the exception of two five-minute scenes. For any accommodations needed, please contact TheTerrorCottas@gmail.com.

Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Wright Brothers, have arrived in present-day Ostrich, Indiana, to build an airstrip. Chuck, a farmer, and his sister, the mayor and proprietor of a tacky bed and breakfast called The Ostrich Feather, must grapple with tradeoffs in the effort to do what’s best for the place they love. Can technological progress finally get Ostrich off the ground? The first floor of an old mansion is transformed into an ostrich-themed bed and breakfast for this site-specific dark comedy, about the human cost of invention in bed with capitalism, and the audience is seated in the middle of the action. Early reactions include “So timely,” “That is f’d up,” “The Cherry Orchard boiled down to five minutes” and “Oh noooo!”

The cast of The Ostrich includes Jorge Salas (he/him/el, Chuck); Shellie DiSalvo (they/sidhe); Pete Wood (he/him, Orville Wright); Donaldson Cardenas (he/they, Wilbur Wright); Ellen Adalaide (she/her, Gidgitomy/ensemble); Jonathan Crabtree (he/him, Hasty/ensemble); Paul Kaufmann (he/him, U/S Chuck and Orville); Debra FitzGerald (she/her, U/S Incandescence and Gidgitomy) and Ted Dayton (he/him, U/S Wilbur and Hasty).

The creative team of The Ostrich includes Eileen Tull (she/her, director); Wendy A. Schmidt (she/her, playwright); Sallie Anne Young (she/her, stage manager); Mary Aurora Moore (she/her, properties and set designer); Annie A. (she/they, costume designer); Daniel “Taz” Stahlnecker (he/him, assistant director) and Lou McNaughton (they/them, assistant stage manager).


ABOUT EILEEN TULL, DIRECTOR

Eileen Tull is a Chicago-based theatremaker, poet, educator, and one-woman-show person. Her work has been seen all over Chicago in bookstores, art galleries, bars, non-traditional spaces, and sometimes in theaters. Directing credits include Funny, Like An Abortion (Fat Theatre Project/Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble), Household Spirits (Theater Wit), STEPS (Improv Playhouse), and dozens of productions with the Chicago Park District including The Phantom Tollbooth, Cheerleaders VS. Aliens, Jason and the Argo-NOTS, Big Smoke, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The Witches with elementary aged children and No Exit and Happy Days with adults. Eileen is the producer of both The Alice Gerstenberg Play Festival with the park district and The Gloria Bond Clunie New Playwrights Festival with Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. She is a drama instructor with the Chicago Park District, where she has taught creative classes to folks of all ages for almost 10 years. Eileen founded Fat Theatre Project in 2024 where she teaches, produces, writes, and directs. She is a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago and is currently working towards an MFA in Directing & Playwriting at Randolph College. www.eileentull.com


ABOUT WENDY A. SCHMIDT, PLAYWRIGHT

Wendy A. Schmidt is a playwright, theatre producer, and visual artist. Past lives as a devout Christian and as a painter inform her work today. She is fascinated with perception and how people construct worlds to live in together. She usually writes about how Capitalism directly conflicts with every Christian value she’s ever had. Productions include This Music Should Not Be at RhinoFest (2024), about the self-alienation of technology; her one-woman play Maker of Worlds starring Amy Gorelow at Theater for the New City’s Dream-Up Festival (NYC) (2019), about the toxic marriage of Capitalism and religion; and Marvelous Madeleines at Berger Park Coach House (2016), a rom-com about two companies who fall in love and get married now that Citizens United has made it legal. She once almost won an award, and was rejected for many other things. She formed The Terror Cottas in 2022 to build audience and create performance opportunities for the work of experimental playwrights. Educational highlights include a BFA in drawing from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, philosophy classes at Marquette and DePaul, the La MaMa Umbria Playwrights Retreat x3, playwriting at Chicago Dramatists, and acting at Piven Theater Workshop, Green Shirt Studios, and TUTA.


ABOUT THE TERROR COTTAS

The Terror Cottas is an experimental playwright-driven theatre group based in Chicago. Its mission is to build audience and performance opportunities for experimental playwrights by sharing resources and networks among member playwrights and associate artists, applying for funding, and educating and welcoming audiences with radical hospitality.

Berger Park Cultural Center offers classes and cultural programming for kids, adults, and seniors all year round. The theatre for adults programs have presented original solo performances, as well as productions of Happy Days by Samuel Beckett and No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre. 

Thursday, June 12, 2014

FREE Shakespeare in The Parks Schedule #Theatre #Travel #Chicago

ChiIL Mama's ChiIL Picks List: Free Fam Friendly Fun in Chi, IL

Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

FREE FOR ALL
by William Shakespeare
directed and adapted by David H. Bell
July 18–August 17, 2014


Here at ChiIL Mama and ChiIL Live Shows we ADORE Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. They have high caliber, professional, world class productions.  And if that's not enough to get you out to a show, every summer they take it to the parks for FREE.  Yes, outside... for free. Bring a picnic and chiIL out in Chi, IL this summer with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre's fabulous fantasy, A Midsummer Night's Dream.  All ages welcome.


Here were our prior predictions on this production when it was performed in schools across the city & publicly in a sold out run at Chicago Shakespeare's Navy Pier home:


  • A new generation is realizing Shakespeare wasn't as snooty as they thought and he wrote about wacky, cross dressing, unfaithful, confused, hilarious, murderous, magical characters.

  • A zillion jr high and high school students are crushing on the charismatic cutie, Puck (Steven Lee Johnson)! It was already starting with the tweens as early as opening day-- "No... you go talk to him..." "No, YOU. Giggle giggle."
  • More than a few students are inspired to see more theatre and/or try their hand at writing plays and poetry.
  • More than a few students are inspired to check out more circus arts, thanks to the best. wall. ever. and his uber creative block juggling work. Kudos to you!



The complete performance listing for the Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, touring FREE FOR ALL to 18 neighborhood parks across Chicago is below. 


Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks

A Midsummer Night’s Dream



Back by citywide demand! Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks returns this summer and brings William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, FREE FOR ALL, to 18 neighborhood parks across Chicago. A specially equipped truck rolls into each park, a stage unfolds and a company of professional actors shares the delight of Shakespeare with families and neighbors of all ages. 



In this popular Shakespearean comedy, a quartet of mismatched lovers, a gaggle of hapless actors and mischievous sprites cross paths with the king and queen of the fairies, entangled in their own domestic dispute. Audiences will be transported to a wondrous wood brimming with paramours and possibilities where the inexplicable magic of falling in love—and the marvel of waking up from the sweetest of dreams—is discovered. Director David H. Bell has adapted this Shakespeare favorite into an acrobatic and riotously entertaining version of the play.


PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE 



Gateway Park

South Lawn, Front of Navy Pier

Friday, July 18, 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, July 19, 6:30 p.m.

600 E. Grand Ave.



Garfield Park Conservatory

Sunday, July 20, 3:00 p.m.

300 N. Central Park Ave.



Tuley Park

Tuesday, July 22, 6:30 p.m.

501 E. 90th Pl.



Dvorak Park

Wednesday, July 23, 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, July 24, 6:30 p.m.


1119 W. Cullerton St.



Loyola Park

At the Farwell Avenue Entrance

Friday, July 25, 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, July 26, 6:30 p.m.


1230 W. Greenleaf Ave.



Washington Park

East of the Pool, 5531 S. Russell Dr.

Sunday, July 27, 4:00 p.m.


5531 S. Martin Luther King Jr Dr.



Riis Park

Uphill Near the Picnic Groves

Tuesday, July 29, 6:30 p.m.


6100 W. Fullerton Ave.



Piotrowski Park

Wednesday, July 30, 6:30 p.m.

4247 W. 31st St.



Gage Park

Thursday, July 31, 6:30 p.m.

2411 W. 55th St.



Hamilton Park

Friday, August 1, 6:30 p.m.

513 W. 72nd St.



Frank J. Wilson Park

Saturday, August 2, 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, August 3, 4:00 p.m.


4630 N. Milwaukee Ave.



Humboldt Park

Near the Boathouse

Wednesday, August 6, 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, August 7, 6:30 p.m.


1440 N. Sacramento Ave.



Welles Park

Friday, August 8, 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, August 9, 6:30 p.m.


2333 W. Sunnyside Ave.



Columbus Park

Sunday, August 10, 4:00 p.m.

500 S. Central Ave.



Marquette Park

Adjacent to Rose Garden and Tarkington School

Tuesday, August 12, 6:30 p.m.


6743 S. Kedzie Ave.



Ridge Park

Wednesday, August 13, 6:30 p.m.

1817 W. 96th St.



South Shore Cultural Center

Thursday, August 14, 6:30 p.m.

Friday, August 15, 6:30 p.m.


7059 S. South Shore Dr.



Eckhart Park

Saturday, August 16, 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, August 17, 4:00 p.m.


1330 W. Chicago Ave.




Chicago Shakespeare Theater

800 East Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611

Box Office: 312.595.5600 • chicagoshakes.com



Monday, October 21, 2013

Photo Recap: Midnight Circus at Commercial Park10/13 #MCITP #OriginalPhotos

ChiIL out with ChiIL Mama and enjoy Midnight Circus vicariously through our photo filled recap.   Then go see them live already.  Only one weekend left, till you have to wait for next year!  We caught them last Sunday at Commercial Park and as usual, they ROCKED!  3 generations of our family saw the show together and everyone from the grandparents down to the kidlets loved it.  

 



LAST CALL:





2333 W Sunnyside Avenue
Friday, October 25th 7:00pm
Saturday, October 26th 2:00pm & 5:00pm
Sunday, October 27th 1:00pm & 4:00pm




Click here for our past Midnight Circus coverage.
Here are some of our favorite shots:

We also have some video clips coming soon so check back with ChiIL Live Shows like we vote in Chi, IL... early and often.



























































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