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Showing posts with label Mucca Pazza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mucca Pazza. Show all posts

Thursday, April 30, 2015

OPENING: InFUSION THEATRE'S ANOTHER KIND OF LOVE – A PUNK ROCK PLAY MAY 10 – JUNE 14, AT THE CHOPIN THEATRE

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar

InFUSION THEATRE CO. PRESENTS CRYSTAL SKILLMAN’S 
ANOTHER KIND OF LOVE – 
A PUNK ROCK PLAY
MAY 10 – JUNE 14, AT THE CHOPIN THEATRE
This Dark Comedy About Family, Fame and Rock-n-Roll is Directed by Mitch Golob with Music Direction by Mucca Pazza’s Jefferey Thomas 
and Original Music by Tony-Nominated and Obie-Winner Heidi Rodewald



InFusion Theatre Company is proud to announce Crystal Skillman’s Another Kind of Love, directed by InFusion Artistic Director Mitch Golob with music direction by Jefferey Thomas and original music by Tony-nominated and Obie-winner Heidi Rodewald, lyrics by Caroline Dorsen and Crystal Skillman, May 10 – June 14, at The Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division Ave. 

Preview performances are Sunday, May 10, Monday, May 11 and Thursday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. with the opening/press night Friday, May 15 or Saturday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m. Performances are Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Preview tickets are $14. Tickets are $28 for general admission, $20 for seniors and $15 for students and industry professionals (Thursdays and Sundays only). Tickets are on sale now at InFusionTheatre.com

After being apart for 15 years, sisters (and band mates) reunite for a one-night concert commemorating the anniversary of their rock legend mother’s suicide. Featuring live performances of an original score by Rodewald, past regrets, present emotions and future doubts converge with punk and family in Skillman’s new play developed around the country this year at IAMA Theatre Company in Los Angeles, LiveWire in Chicago, Live Girls! in Seattle, Women’s Project Theater in New York City and, most recently, at New York Stage and Film as part of the Lark Play Development Center’s retreat this summer.

Another Kind of Love cast includes Alison Hixson, “Max/guitar;” Brady Johnson, “Roger/guitar;” Courtney Jones, “Tanya/bass;” Amber Kelly, “Collin/drums;” Annie Prichard, “Kit/guitar” and Tyler Young, “Nate."

The production staff includes Sarah Watkins, scenic designer; Charles Cooper, lighting designer; Claire Chrzan, co-lighting designer; Rachel Sypniewski, costume designer; Eric Backus, sound designer; Angela Campos, props designer and Rose Sengenberger, dramaturg.

ABOUT CRYSTAL SKILLMAN, playwright and co-lyricist
Crystal Skillman is an award winning Brooklyn based playwright. Her three recent plays, King Kirby, co-written with Fred Van Lente, Geek! and Cut, have all earned Critics Picks from The New York Times. Wild earned three 2014 New York Innovation Theater Award nominations for its sold out production at IRT Theater this spring, (following a critically successful run in Chicago with Kid Brooklyn Productions and Off Broadway in MCC Theater’s Playlabs at the Lucille Lortel.) Skillman’s other plays include: The Vigil or The Guided Cradle, winner of the 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full-Length Script and Drunk Art Love, now a web series directed by Sanjit De Silva. She is currently at work on a new play, Rain and Zoe Save the World, about two teenage activists on a cross-country mission. She is writing the books for two musicals with award-winning composer Bobby Cronin: The Concrete Jungle and the musical theater adaption of the film Mary and Max, to be directed by Outer Critics Circle Award-winning Stafford Arima with mask work by Joseph Osheroff. In Chicago her work has also been seen with The New Colony, Collaboraction, DePaul University and LiveWire Chicago Theatre. 

ABOUT MITCH GOLOB, director
Mitch Golob has directed many InFusion productions: the world premieres of The Improv PlayPluto is Listening, Ghostbox and Créole (nominated for five Black Theatre Alliance Awards), the United States premiere of The Last Supper and the Midwest premieres of Intrigue With FayeRhymes With Evil, Soul Samurai, and Fight Girl Battle World and Ithaka. Other directing projects include 8 By Tenn at Hartford Stage Company, working with Tony Award Winners Elizabeth Ashley and Amanda Plummer, the U.S. premiere of Jump to Cow Heaven at Profiles Theatre, And Then They Came For Me at Apple Tree Theatre, and was associate director of the award winning world premiere of Hannah & Martin at TimeLine Theatre.  Golob was also a member of Naked Eye Theatre Company, where he assistant directed the Jeff Award winning production of Waving Goodbye, in a co-production with Steppenwolf.  He has also directed at Pegasus Players, Stage Left Theatre and Chicago Dramatists.  Mitch holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre & Drama from the University of Wisconsin. 

ABOUT JEFFEREY THOMAS, music director
Jefferey Allen Thomas is a composer and guitarist.  He is a founding member of Mucca Pazza, and has worked with Greek composer Michael Karras, Punk legend Excene Cervenka, Cynthia Plaster Caster and Bobby Conn. He has written incidental music for Redmoon Theater, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the Neo-Futurists, as well as dozens of independent films.  His current project is a group of symphonies called “The Work of Jack Daedalus Edwards”.  The first of these symphonies, “Rumour, “premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in February 2014. 

ABOUT HEIDI RODEWALD, composer
Heidi Rodewald is the Tony Award nominated, Obie Award winning co- composer of the musical Passing Strange, which transferred from The Public Theater to Broadway in 2008. She is a Sundance Institute Alum and the co-writer with Stew of the screenplay "We Can See Today". Rodewald composed music for Karen Kandel's Portraits: Night and Day (2004); Brides of the Moon by The Five Lesbian Brothers (2010) and co-composed music with Stew for Shakespeare’s Othello, Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet (2010-12). Rodewald joined the band The Negro Problem in 1997 and has collaborated with Stew in a range of capacities: as a co-composer, producer/arranger and performer. She is the co-composer with Stew of the new musical Family Album, which premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival last summer. She is also the co-composer of their new musical, The Total Bent, which will open in 2015 at the Public Theater. She has two new projects which have been in development at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA: The Good Swimmer, a pop-opera, co-written with librettist, Donna DiNovelli and The Stacks, a two-person musical co-written by singer- songwriter Mary McBride. She just finished scoring her first film "I Dream Too Much", written and directed by Katie Cokinos. 

ABOUT CAROLINE DORSEN, co-lyricist
Caroline Dorsen is an award winning writer, poet and educator who lives in Brooklyn, NY. A ghost writer for numerous late 1980s/early 1990s bands in the Bay Area, Another Kind of Love marks the first time Dorsen has allowed her name to be linked to her lyrics. She brings to the project an extensive knowledge of the psychology of trauma, loss and addiction. Her experience working in this area is reflected in the authenticity and emotional resonance of her lyrics.


ABOUT INFUSION THEATRE COMPANY
InFusion Theatre Company seeks out new plays and “infuses” them with other elements of entertainment such as music, dance and film. “We strive to create dynamic performances by combining different forms of entertainment that will result
InFusion Theatre Company’s Crystal Skillman’s Another Kind of Love, May 10 – June 14, at The Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division Ave. Preview performances are Sunday, May 10, Monday, May 11 and Thursday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. with the opening/press night Friday, May 15 or Saturday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m. Performances are Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Preview tickets are $14. Tickets are $28 for general admission, $20 for seniors and $15 for students and industry professionals (Thursdays and Sundays only). Tickets are on sale now at InFusionTheatre.com.



Tuesday, February 26, 2013

INCOMING: The Chris Greene Quartet at City Winery 3/10

Chris Greene Quartet

City Winery is a sweet place to see a show.  We've shot everything there from the lightning fast gypsy brass of Fanfare Ciocarlia, to PlayCHIC, the Chicago Toy and Game Fair's fashion show!

Long, communal tables and assigned seats pair you up with new friends, the sound is great, and the libations even better.  Check it out.     

Chi, IL Live Shows on Our Radar: 


Chris Greene Quartet

$10
5:30 doors/ 7:30 start

1200 W Randolph St
Chicago , IL 60607
(312)-733-WINE



About:

Chris Greene Quartet

When the Chris Greene Quartet takes the stage, jazz and rock audiences alike notice something different – something besides the fact that they’re seated next to each other. Jazz fans can’t help but sense the charisma and electricity, not always seen in a jazz band, that emanates from the quartet even during the saxophonist’s most committed solos. And fans accustomed to rock’s high energy and loose hi-jinks suddenly find themselves diving deeper into improvised music than they might have thought possible.


At a time when jazz continues to seek new audiences, CGQ sits poised on the future’s cusp. In much the way that classical composers have historically used native folk elements as the basis for their art, the CGQ uses familiar modern materials – the funk and hip-hop a a youth – as a bridge between jazz and other genres. It’s that ability to retain that tradition, expanding it at the same time, that makes the Chris Greene Quartet something different on the modern jazz scene.


Chris Greene on saxophones, Damian Espinosa on piano, Marc Piane on bass, Steve Corley on drums.




Other City Winery Shows of Note:
Click links for details

February 27th 

Jayson (JC) Brooks, Andy Rosenstein, Ben Taylor of The Uptown Sound - Steely Dan wine pairing event - includes 5 wines or music only tickets


March 3rd 

Maxwell Street Klezmer Band Quartet - Kids Buffet & Music - 3/3


March 5th & 6th


March 11th

Circus Now! A Celebration of Contemporary Circus and The Ordinary Acrobat - 3/11



About:

Think you know the circus? Think again. Whether it's your first time in a long time, you're a fan, or a successful circus professional, come out to celebrate the diversity & artistry of today's circus.

On Monday, March 11, 7pm with Book Cellar. Circus Now: an evening celebrating contemporary American circus and THE ORDINARY ACROBAT, hosted by Duncan Wall with presentations and performances from the circus community. Local support from Midnight Circus, Aloft Loft, Circesteem, Chicago Boyz Acrobatics Team, Trapeze Chicago, Aerial Dance Chicago, 500 Clown, and Mucca Pazza.







Friday, October 26, 2012

ACT OUT: Halloween & Beyond 500 Clown Special Expiring Saturday Night

Some of our all time favorites are performing for Halloween and beyond.   For a hilarious, high caliber Halloween night out for parents, we HIGHLY recommend 500 Clown Frankenstein/ Mucca Pazza and Honey Buns the 26th-28th!   Check out our prior Mucca Pazza coverage by clicking here.


We saw Honeybuns at Collaboraction a few months back and couldn't stop laughing.   His physical comedy and mental mind games  are unlike anything I've ever seen, and I see a LOT of theatre!   He messed with everyone in the audience and even ended up leading the audience out of the theatre and onto the street, like some crazed pied piper.   His raunchy, irreverent show was beyond hilarious.   Adults only.


500 Clown Frankenstein is appropriate & enjoyable for tweens and up.


$32 gets you 4 great Hours of
HALLOWEEN FUN!!!

The Special Offer expires this Saturday night
photo Michelle Kaffko
Dean Evans, Jay Torrence, Pam Chermansky, Adrian Danzig, Leah Urzendowski
photo Michelle Kaffko
Dean Evans, Jay Torrence, Pam Chermansky, Adrian Danzig, Leah Urzendowski


Here's the deal. Buy one $32 ticket and see 500 Clown Frankenstein at The Viaduct at 7:30 PM next Wednesday night.

Then Bike (or drive if that's more fun for you) to The Double Door - a distance of 2.4 miles
To see Mucca Pazza, and before them The J Davis Trio!


Our Trailer with Their Music
tickets


Special Feature

500 Clown Web Journey

THE VIADUCT IS LOCATED AT
3111 North Western Avenue Chicago, IL 60618 


Honey BUNS!!!!!!!!!!!


Dean Evans of 500 Clown Frankenstein is also performing as:






Honeybuns, "The World's Greatest Mime." He opens Collaboraction's season with a revamped show that will simultaneously delight, disgust, and defy all attempts at description.



Honeybuns is at the Flat Iron Arts Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave in Wicker Park.





LAST THREE SHOWS: October 26, 27, and 28 at 8pm



Read this review

BUY TICKETS


Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Mucca Pazza Album Release at Bottom Lounge #original live show photos #original HD videos



Rhythmic, cult-like chanting filled the air at Bottom Lounge on August 18th.   

Moooo ka pa za
Moo KA PA ZA
MUCCA PAZZA
MUCCA PAZZA
MUCCA PAZZA

When we saw multiple members of the crowd sporting cow costumes, we knew it would be a night to remember!

Chi-town's own favorite punk rock marching band rose to the occasion for their raucous, official album release party for Safety Fifth, and did not disappoint.   The full sized marching band in their wabi sabi, mismatched uniforms and their cheerleaders with shredded caution tape pom pons, are our kinda crazy.   They truly shine in live performance and are a spectacle to see.    

Their name may be Italian for mad cow or crazy cow, but we think they're crazy like a fox....crazy talented musicians playing crazy good music...and a crazy fun show.



*worlds collide alert #1:   Dug ran into two sets of friends from the TV production world at the show.   One of those friends is a neighbor to one of the Mucca Pazza pom pon girls, who is also an accomplished local aerialist/acro/circus performer.   She's played Alice in Wonderland and has ties to another of our favs, The Actors Gymnasium.

*worlds collide alert #2:   ChiIL Mama has caught Mucca Pazza's head muckety muck, Mark Messing, for video interviews twice at Chicago Children's Theatre--once in a duo with Brian Selznick, author/illustrator of Hugo Cabret.  (Brian's book was the basis for Oscar Award winning hit movie, Hugo, and The Houdini Box play.) 

The other Mark Messing/ ChiIL Mama interview is in a duo with genius director, David Kersnar, in an amusingly Ernie and Bert-like bed interview on the set of Goodnight Moon!   

Check them both out by clicking the links above. Mark is the mad maestro and musical mastermind behind Mucca Pazza and the scores to numerous musicals and plays including the critically acclaimed Hunchback Variations.

Check back with ChiIL Live Shows like we vote in Chi, IL...early and often.   We have loads more HD video clips and live show footage coming soon.   

**Check out our CD review for Safety Fifth and prior photo filled feature from Mucca Pazza at Hideout by clicking here.**

Check out more of our prior Mucca Pazza coverage here.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Play Locally Tonight: Babes With Blades and Mucca Pazza






SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 2012 - 11:00PM

DOORS 10:30 PM / SHOW 11:00 PM 
17 & OVER, VALID ID REQUIRED FOR ENTRY. 

Twisted metal and piles of slag behind them, shish boom bah!
Chicago’s Mucca Pazza marches on, from the steel mill parking lots of Chicago across the nation. Wielding homemade headgear amps and shouting surreal algebraic cheers, the dozens-strong band insists on Safety Fifth (Electric Cowbell Records; June 12, 2012).

They march in formation, rip through drum cadences, bust out cinematic stories, and incite mass dance outbreaks. They channel everything from Bartok to a love-struck Godzilla, re-imagine the uptight 19th-century march, and make up soundtracks for classic Egyptian movies that never happened. Not bad for an eccentric gang of loud-and-proud, self-proclaimed band geeks.

“We look like a marching band and occasionally behave like a marching band, but we don’t sound like one,” explains Gary Kalar, mandolin player and member of Mucca Pazza’s “freak” section of stringed instruments and accordion. “We care about the music we play; it’s not a novelty thing. We just don’t fit into any hyphenated genre.”

“We’re a marching band that thinks we’re a rock band,” exclaims sousaphone player Mark Messing.

This May and June, Mucca Pazza will rock New York, Washington DC, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Louisville, and, of course, Chicago, with a live show too big to stay on stage.

Why play a gritty factory parking lot for free every Sunday morning?

“We figured no one would bother us in an industrial area,” reflects Messing. “It was also weirdly inspiring to be there, by ourselves on the Chicago River, among all these big scrap yards. We felt like we were putting together something from scrap.

“We came together in a whole bunch of ways. The connections were pretty random,” explains trombonist Elanor Leskiw. “Some of us met while protesting the war here in Chicago. Many of us are involved in theater and music for theater. About seven of us wanted to explore playing original compositions and just have an outlet. As a composer, you don’t have an ensemble to try out new music, unless you’re at an academic institution or orchestra. It grew from there. We were having so much fun playing at the parking lot at noon. People would show up to listen every week, with donuts and coffee.”

“All the rock bands and the singer-songwriters have a place to be, but we grew up in school bands,” Messing adds. “We had to come up with our own alternative that was fun.”

The alternative evolved during those impromptu Sunday sessions, melding a devil-may-care rock vibe with the devil’s-in-the-details focus and precision of the best marching bands. Cheerleaders praising the wonders of integers and verbs—or staging bold rallying cries against the Dewey decimal system—became part of the team, as did a motley crew of unexpected instruments.

For example, when guitarist Jeff Thomas approached the band, psyched about the music but dismayed that he only played guitar, the helmet amp was born: a hockey helmet DIY-melded with a tiny loudspeaker. “The hockey helmet has this strange resonance, which was odd at first,” laughs Thomas, “but it frees you.” The same setup allows mandolin, accordion, and violin to march alongside the brass, glockenspiel, and drum corps, and sparked the Mucca Pazza section lovingly dubbed “the freaks.”

Freakdom adds a fresh layer to the marching band sound, as funky guitar lines talk back (“March Anormale,” a slightly twisted take on 19th-century military band music) or the accordion sets the pace (the whimsical beauty of “Tube Sock Tango”).

Like the band, the music also came together from disparate, awesome bits: Quirky winks at TV shows’ theme songs (“Maui Waui 5-0” is a 70s-style car chase of a romp, for example) meet garage band songs gone drum and brass (the bad-ass “Boss Taurus”). A fascination with the work of Ennio Morricone (audible in “Hang ‘Em Where I Can See ‘Em”) crosses paths with a red-hot tango of love between the Mummy and Godzilla (the Tom Waitsian “Monster Tango”).

The fluid movement between genres, styles, and influences matches the band’s mobility. Even when performing in canoes on the Chicago River—the wild idea of an environmental non-profit that put the band in boats—the group uses formations familiar from their band geek days and high-energy drum cadences (like “Coolashell”) to transition from place to place, from piece to piece. They can also set a whole audience marching—sometimes right off the street and into the club.

This dynamism is tangible in the music and makes for an audience experience that’s up close and personal. “I never moved around much when I played in rock bands. I was chained to an amp,” notes Thomas with a smile. “The helmet was liberating. I could explore my body more, and it actually affected the way I played. Because of the directional quality of the helmet, I have to get really close to people. When I perform in the audience, I love getting obnoxiously close.”

Personal space issues aside, Mucca Pazza pushes the envelope, bringing punk aesthetics to the parade and marching band chops to the rock club. “We were marching in the Kentucky Derby parade in Louisville, with all these 100-member marching bands,” Thomas recounts. “We’d march like a regular band and then with a whistle blow make these random honking noises. At the point when a TV newscaster started to announce us on the air, we started honking away, and the announcer stopped mid-band name. He said, ‘I don’t think we’ve seen anything quite like this before.’”






Theatre that leaves a mark......

If you're not already intrigued and entranced with that tag line....    What can we say to convince you.    We'll be catching opening night tonight and we'll have a full review up for you in the very near future.    We've been fans of Babes With Blades for years and highly recommend their high energy, fight laden shows.   They're kicking off their 15th anniversary season in style

TICKETS ON SALE NOW for Reina Hardy’s Susan Swayne and the Bewildered BrideCLICK!

Several shows are already SOLD OUT, so don’t delay – get your tix today!






BABES WITH BLADES KICKS OFF 15th ANNIVERSARY SEASON  WITH “SUSAN SWAYNE AND THE BEWILDERED BRIDE”
WORLD PREMIERE OF REINA HARDY’S VICTORIAN DETECTIVE COMEDY
   
  
Babes With Blades Theatre Company (BWBTC), Chicago’s all-female stage combat ensemble, will open their 15th anniversary season with the world premiere of “Susan Swayne and the Bewildered Bride” by Reina Hardy, directed by Dan Foss.  It’s 1888 in London, and the Society of Lady Detectives meets discreetly to indulge its members’  tastes for swordplay and sleuthing.  As the genteel club considers a disturbing series of murders in the Whitechapel district, a frantic heiress turns up with a startling accusation towards one of their own.  Society member Susan Swayne takes the case, defying societal norms and pursuing the truth through the Victorian streets.  Combat sequences from violence designer/BWBTC ensemble member Libby Beyreis will feature smallsword and bartitsu (a Victorian mixed martial art influenced by jujitsu and savate).  Tickets are $8 for previews or $20 for regular performances, students and seniors $12.
  
Originally submitted to BWBTC’s inaugural Joining Sword & Pen Playwriting Competition in 2005, “Susan Swayne and the Bewildered Bride” began as a one-act play inspired by a print of Emile Bayard’s “An Affair of Honor.”  The script was selected for the company’s New Plays Development Program in 2009 and became a full-length play through a series of three readings and feedback sessions.  Director Foss describes the resulting script as “a quirky Victorian detective comedy.”
   
  
The cast includes BWBTC ensemble members Lisa Herceg, Kimberly Logan, and  Megan Schemmel, joined by guest artists Kathryn Acosta, Justine Serino, and Kelly Yacono.
    
 Production staff includes  Leigh Barrett* (Lighting Designer/BWBTC Artistic Director), Libby Beyreis* (Violence Designer), Matthew Cummings (Props Designer), Alison Dornheggen* (Production Manager), Dan Foss (Director), Gillian N. Humiston* (Assistant Violence Designer), Christopher Kriz (Sound Designer), Dennis Mae (Scenic Designer), Tara Malpass (Stage Manager), Kjerstine McHugh* (Assistant Director), and Kimberly Morris (Costume Designer).


     *Denotes BWB Ensemble Member
    
 “Susan Swayne and the Bewildered Bride” will open on Saturday, August 18 at 8:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Square Theatre, 4754 N. Leavitt (inside Berry Memorial UMC, lower level).  Previews are Saturday, August 11 and Friday, August 17 at 8 p.m.  The show runs Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., August 23  to September 22.  In addition, there will be Saturday matinees on September 1, 8, and 15 at 2:00 p.m.


Key Bios:

Dan Foss (Director) has been involved in the development of "Susan Swayne and the Bewildered Bride" since spring of 2009 and is thrilled to finally be bringing it to life with Babes With Blades.  Recent directing experience includes "Erratica" with American Demigods (also by Reina Hardy), "Vanishing Points" with Point of Contention, and various projects with Appetite Theatre Company, The Side Project, Hobo Junction, Rogue Theater Company, and Rascal Children's Theater.  You may recognize Dan from his brief return to the stage as Uncle Saul in BWBTC’s production of "The Double" last fall.  He is also the Secretary of BWBTC’s Board of Directors.

Libby Beyreis (Violence Designer) has been fighting on stage since 1994, and is proud to be a company member of Babes With Blades.  She has designed violence for companies including Idle Muse, Strangeloop, The DIVISION, Focal Point Theater Company, Chase Park, Free Street, as well as a number shows with the Babes, most recently Romeo & Juliet and The Double.
Kjerstine McHugh (Assistant Director) is tickled to be working on this wonderful script with such an amazing group of artists. She hopes that she gets more stuff right than she gets wrong on this, her second foray into the wonderful world of not stage managing.

Babes With Blades Theatre Company will complete its 15th anniversary season in spring of 2013 with an all-female “Julius Caesar.”







Photo credit:  Steven Townshend
Kelly Yacono (Left) as Katherine Denn and Lisa Herceg (Right) as Susan Swayne

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