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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Got Rock Tots, Banger Babies or Punk Kin?! Win 10 Family Friendly Freebies To ChiIL Out With This Summer #Giveaways




Most of our family friendly fare lives over at ChiILMama.com.   But Mama says it's great to share, and since we know lots of our readers at ChiIL Live Shows have kids, and everyone knows someone who does... we're going to share these sweet giveaways over here, too.   

 We're celebrating summer with hundreds of bucks worth of freebies including live concert tickets, 20 kindie (kids' indie) CDs and much more.   Check it out.

ChiIL Out with ChiIL Mama This Summer--Here are all our rockin' current giveaways in one easy place.   Enter any or ALL.  Good luck!


 Enter here for your chance to win loads of books, DVDs/Blu-Ray, CDs, games, toys and more (open to anyone 18+ in the USA) and a ton of sweet Chicago theatre and family concert tickets.


 We love summer time and want to share our ChiIL Picks List for rockin' kindie music, movies, eco-friendly finds, events and more with you, so 2013 can be the best summer vacation EVER.   We're giving away great fam friendly freebies all summer long!!  


 Disclaimer:   Thanks to all the kindie musicians, theatres, authors, publishers, Warner Brothers and American Girl for providing us with giveaway prizes and review copies.   All opinions are our own.


 Check back with us like we vote in Chi, IL... early and often, for loads of original content including video band interviews with kindie (kids' indie) favs, reviews, photo filled features, free downloads, new releases, and more great giveaways.


 Here's the scoop:

Click the name of the giveaways below to enter & see our full feature on each.


#1/#2.  2 ChiIL Picks Book Bonanzas:



*Lost in Suburbia : A Momoir, by Tracy Beckerman (5 paperbacks available/$15 value each) Now extended through midnight 7/30. 









*The Ordinary Acrobat by Duncan Wall (5 hardbacks available/  $26.95 value each).  Enter through midnight 7/30. 


 Watch for loads of our original circus content throughout the month of our giveaway.  We have video interviews with Cirque Du Soleil performers featured in the book, live show clips we've filmed at CircEsteem Shows, and loads of stills from international touring circuses including Cirque Shanghai, performing on Navy Pier all summer in Chicago, and more!


 #3/#4.   ChiIL Picks Blu-Ray & DVD Movies




*Jack the Giant Slayer Blu-Ray/DVD combo!

Enter through midnight 7/9($44.95 value)








*Saige Paints the Sky (American Girl) Blu-Ray/DVD combo!  Enter through midnight 7/30. ($26.99 value)




#5/#6/#7.   

Rockin' 20 Kindie CD Extravaganza 


 We're giving away sets of awesome brand new releases along with 2012 & 13 favs of ours.   All entries are open through midnight 7/30.   Winners will be announced on Winning Wednesday, July 31st!


 It's road trip season ya know.   And time to ChiIL out and kick back with some of the best kindie artists around.   Throughout the month we'll be bringing you our original reviews and full info on each of the 20 CDs, along with original kindie band interviews, live show footage and more.   Enter to win any or all of these sets.   All of these CDs make it onto


 ChiIL Mama's ChiIL Picks List.


 *Set 1:  Great American Tunes 

for July 4th & beyond 

($74.95 value)


 Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter:
a Rafflecopter giveaway


 One lucky reader will win these 6 sweet CDs:










  • Ozomatli Presents Ozokidz (LA culture mashers known for singing about immigration protests, gang violence & hurricane Katrina they've now expanded their boundaries again and released a rockin' CD of kids' tunes about photosynthesis, spelling, balloons, germs, skateboards and a runaway moose that's so good you won't want to stop playing it the second you drop the kids at camp.  Freakin' hilarious, great musicians bringing quality, multicultural music in a range of genres.) $10

With five Parents’ Choice® awards to their credit, Ben Rudnick & Friends have what it takes to make recordings families love. Families also love their live shows, where the band’s unique dynamic transforms a concert into an event. The events are celebrations.

On July 11, 2008, the band set up at one of their favorite venues, the town green of Lexington, MA. The same green that saw the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Flying high from the string of

shows that comes with summer, saying goodbye to their accordion player Mark Yacovone who was moving to Mississippi the next day, and joined by Rob “It’s Saturday Night” Lee on saxophones, the band turned in an unforgettable performance.

Featuring songs from their first six recordings and some favorite cover tunes, Live in Lexington fills every available second on the CD with good time tunes as only they can deliver.

Live in Lexington has garnered BR&F their SIXTH Parents' Choice Award.
ChiIL Mama had the great pleasure of catching the Okee Dokee Brothers for a video interview and shooting their live show at The Beat Kitchen in Chicago, where we sponsor an annual, weekly kindie music concert series.   They're down to earth, cool guys, with an eco-friendly bent and talent to spare.   We've given away copies of Can You Canoe earlier this year.   Now check out one of their earlier albums, Parents Choice Silver Award Winner and one of our favs, Take it Outside. $15

($77.93 value)


 *Set 2:  

Kidzapalooza Favs ($82 value):  


 Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


ChiIL out with ChiIL Mama at one of the best kindie fests in the nation!   We've covered Kidza all 3 days of EVERY year of it's existance.   We'll be back again for 2013.   To get you jazzed for the fest, we're giving away a CD set including Ella Jenkins' latest release-Get Moving, and kindie favs that have graced the Kidza stage in years past.   One lucky reader will win 6 CDs from these Kidzapalooza Favs:

(These guys are long time favs of ours and we've had the pleasure of shooting their live shows at Kidzapalooza and catching them for a video interview.   They have a new release out--Deep Sea Diver.   But we also adore their last two, In Tents and Flying.)



($82 value)



Here's the rockin' 2013 Kidzapalooza lineup! 

  

Ralph’s World

The Not Its

The Q Brothers

The Blisters

Peter DiStefano & Tor

Jambo

School of Rock

Ella Jenkins

Kristian Bush

Perry Farrell

Special Guests


 *Set 3:  

Windy Kindie CDs ($96.80 value!!)


 Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway



 Our own home town kids' musicians are awesome.   Look for these Chicago favorites at street fests all summer & at Beat Kitchen's Concerts for Kids again this fall.   One lucky reader will win these 8 CDs by Chicago Kindie favorites:

($96.80 value!!)
#8.  Mini Bunny Bonanza ($39.95 value)


 Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


 For those summer days when some bunny needs a nap and some big bunny needs a break!!   Let Randy Travis & Lilly Tomlin take over on the endless story reading detail for a while.   Then watch your little one drift off to sleep to Deborah Poppink sweet, original tunes.   She's an over 40 mom of 2, and she gets it!


 Hop from Spring into Summer with bunny fun from our ChiIL Picks List for birth to 7 year olds.   *Some bunny will win both a DVD story collection & DidiPop CD! (Since bunnies know how to multiply over the summer months... we'll double this winning!!  2 winners chosen.)



  • Scholastic Storybook Treasures Read Along DVDs--The Springtime Collection featuring Max's Chocolate Chicken.   12 stories on 3 DVDs with narration by Lily Tomlin, Randy Travis and others.  $24.95 


Deborah Poppink is a kindie musician with 2 daughters of her own.  She says DidiPop comes from when I was a kids (“Debbie Poppins”) and because it’s fun to say and sing. The Beatles are my inspiration, and I was raised on pop radio from the 60s and 70s and musical theater. I started playing piano when I was 3, guitar at 9 and songwriting at 17. My mom says I sang the day I was born. I’ve always loved great music, a catchy chorus and interesting story.

“Bunny In The Moon: bedtime songs for falling asleep" is a new album of 14 original songs, designed to wind your child down to dream-land.

The “Goodnight Moon of children’s music. Your child will look forward to turning out the light and listening as s/he falls asleep to this intimate collection of winding down songs. 

Deborah says, as a mother who waited until she was 40 to start having kids, I pour as much art, music and mindfulness into my girls as I can… in small and fun doses. I hope that you will and can give your child music and art that inspires and teaches. I make music for my girls because it was my very best love as a child and it provided me with so much. I hope to share that love and present mindedness with you and your child…through song, rhythm and magic.


ChiIL Out in Chi, IL with theatre & live music:



#9.  Chicago Tickets-Family 4 Pack to Shrek at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre ($100 value) Your choice of any dates pending availability 7/13-9/1!   Enter through midnight 7/9.


#10.   Chicago Tickets-Family 4 Pack to Justin Roberts at Ravinia-Pavilion Seats

($40 value).  Enter through midnight 7/9.


 Check back soon for his brand new release!!   We'll be reviewing it right here and giving one away.




Disclaimer:   Thanks to all the kindie musicians, theatres, authors, publishers, Warner Brothers and American Girl for providing us with giveaway prizes and review copies.   All opinions are our own.

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SUPERSUCKERS to deliver new album to Acetate Records, distributed by MVD Entertainment Group





Acetate Records announces the addition of legendary Seattle band Supersuckers to their roster. The as of yet untitled album will be recorded at Willie Nelson's famous Arlyn Studio, in Austin, TX.  It will be the band's ninth studio record and their first since 2008's Get It Together, released on the band's own Mid-Fi Recordings label.  

Check out ChiIL Live Shows live Super Sucker Show Shots.

"The band is really firing on all cylinders here lately and we're super stoked to get into the very same studio where we recorded Sacrilicious (SubPop, 1995) and create this rock-n-roll juggernaut," writes frontman Eddie Spaghetti. "We're also excited that we'll be releasing the record through Acetate Records, a new home for us and we're all in the honeymoon stages of the relationship now, so things are rosy and looking up."

To celebrate this union of rock, Acetate Records and Supersuckers are offering fans a FREE E.P. entitled "50,000 Middle Fingers Can?t Be Wrong," featuring selections from their past catalog.   The EP is available at http://www.acetate.com.

"It's been a rough few years for us, but that means more angry rock for you to enjoy! So batten down the hatches, lock up your wives and trim the hedges! The Supersuckers are fucking BACK!!!," concluded Spaghetti.

The new album will be released at the end of 2013.
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INCOMING: The Cairo Gang at Millenium Park With Dawes





Homegrown sons The Cairo Gang are playing Millenium Park with Dawes on July 8th. The title track  from their upcoming album recently premiered on Pitchfork, you can check it out here.

Stereogum Premiere The Cairo Gang's 'Take Your Time'
Tiny Rebels Out July 23rd On Empty Cellar Records + Cassette Out On Burger Records





Listen To 'Tiny Rebels' At Pitchfork!!!
'Tiny Rebels' Track Listing:
Side A
1. Tiny Rebels
2. Take Your Time
3. Shake Off
Side B
4. Shivers
5. Father Of The Man
6. Find You With A Song
 

Praise For The Cairo Gang:
"The Cairo Gang cuts across musical movements of several years' span to create music sounding distinctly out of time.” 
-- Pitchfork

“Their slow-motion melodies and arrangements crest and ebb, coalescing in close-harmony choruses and easing apart, with each song emerging as a series of casual incidents.” – The New York Times

"Strong, true and uncannily beautiful" --Uncut [UK]

“One can’t help but feel that [Emmett] Kelly is a man with two great loves that he’s trying to reconcile: order and chaos, two contradictory forces that have fueled many of the greatest moments in pop. Other musicians have managed a balance in the past, but Kelly is admirably attempting to find some new ground.”-- Tiny Mix Tapes

"Kelly’s songs veer between the visceral incantations of Neil Young and the airy mysticism of British folk, but he reshapes 
both to fit his own strength." -- The Chicago Reader
 






Listen To 'Take Your Time' On Stereogum!!!

Tiny Rebels is a new collection of songs by The Cairo Gang. They are about awareness. They show a new economy in the work of The Cairo Gang's leader Emmett Kelly, conjuring up quick and defined songs un-housed in the shimmering of two burning electric 12-string guitars. the sound of them a swirling desert night sky under which songs call to arms multiple voices that long to be freed from the contraints of song. to be re-blooded in a frenzy of hard hitting drums and bass. all the while set against a wild array of compressed overtones that jangle by the hand of Kelly's inversly delicate touch.

In The Cairo Gang's previous efforts The Corner Man and the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy collaboration The Wondershow of the World, Kelly displayed a heaviness in subtlety. The songs laboured over and performed so that the fire and rage were things to play in tandem with, as a pranaic exercise even. the result is audience for a certain type of in-tuneness, that although powerful and realized, nurture both the playing and the fire and the rage... this can be a dangerous place. this leads to Tiny Rebels. 

Recorded in a week, it is an epiphany of sorts. it is the boiling point that which Kelly surrendered to in one sense, but obliterated in another. the songs are empowering leaps of faith:  "Say what you want, babe. dont just sit and listen to what you are told. you've got what it takes.
Lord knows the only way that can suit you well."
And from that leap they fall at a speed..

The sound of this record is what distinguishes it the most from previous works. Each song has the same instrumentation. two electric 12-string guitars, bass, and drums, with many voices often double tracked exciting a gorgeous spring reverberation and cut fiercely onto quarter inch tape. always in the red and fighting for space, the layers are deeply compressed and pulsating, creating an un-ease that fluctuates as if the listener is in a vacuum, pushing and pulling. or a wave pool. when cranked, it sounds as if there is music happening beyond the music. in the abstraction of the guitar sound. in the spacial irrecognition of the tape and reverb. the non-presence of the drums.. the jagged tremoloes.. The Cairo Gang has armed itself well on this record. turn it up loud and let it wash over you like an ocean.

Links:
Empty Cellar Records
The Cairo Gang Facebook
The Cairo Gang Website
 



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INCOMING: Bad Cop Playing The Empty Bottle On July 16th



Check Out The 'Light On' Video Over At Filter!!!
'Light On' Track Listing:
1. The Wind
2. Can't Get Enough
3. Light On
4. Post McDonalds Punks
5. My Dying Days
Tour Dates:
June 8 - Nashville, TN - Stone Fox @
June 13 - Raleigh, NC - Kings Barcade
June 14 - Norfolk, VA - Jewish Mother Backstage #
June 15 - Richmond, VA - Strange Matter $
June 16 - Philadelphia, PA - Kung Fu Necktie
June 18 - Brooklyn, NY - Glasslands %
June 19 - New York, NY - Piano's ^
July 16 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle *

@ w/ Majestico $ Today's Shits
# w/ Sunny & Gabe and The Dahus
$ w/ The Catalyst, Bad Coyotes & The Nervous Tick
% w/ Heliotropes & Fan-Tan
^ w/ Conveyor
* w/ Magic Milk and Plastic Visions


Praise For Bad Cop:
"t's a soulful, greasy, howlin' whiteboy kind of rant-rock that's even greater than the sum of all its crazy parts, a frantic, no-holds-barred, 'fuck the rules' kind of album that we desperately need right now..." - Impose

"The Nashville trio’s debut is filled with the kind of youthful abandon that only sub-21-year-olds can capture, but this excitement is matched with a musical maturity that gives their songs a weight beyond their years." --Performer Mag

"Tennessee does a different sort of blues rock, and Bad Cop has taken the southern, hot-amp sound to a place most people 
wouldn't take it. Adam Moult entered the elevator of blues rock, ran his fingers up and down all the buttons, threw a Molotov cocktail into the roof, and let the fire rain down on him as he descended into hell. If Jack White ever needs something more evil, he’ll find it somewhere just south of where Bad Cop’s elevator car landed." -- Ear Milk

Links
Jeffery Drag Records website
Jeffery Drag Records facebook
Bad Cop website
Bad Cop facebook
Bad Cop twitter
  





Download The Track 'Light On' At Jeffery Drag Records!!!

It’s the middle of winter and Adam Moult is hiking barefoot through the snow of the North Georgia mountains, wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. This isn't a juvenile dare -- Adam is 15 years old, and the instructors at the boarding school where he's been sent are forcing him to do this in order to 'teach him a lesson.' This is the origin of Bad Cop, the group Moult founded as an escape from the horror show of his teenage day-to-day at the grim Hidden Lake Academy. "The teachers at the school realized that one of the things that pacified me was letting me have a guitar for a couple of hours a day," he explains. "So that's where I started writing some of our first songs."
After Moult left Hidden Lake, he met fellow outcast Alex Hartness. The two struck up a fast, close friendship and began writing together, creating a core of songs that combined the recklessness of Moult's heroes Darby Crash and Kurt Cobain with the keen pop sensibilities of The Strokes and The Buzzcocks. Their raucous live shows quickly earned them a reputation in Nashville, which was bolstered by the success of psych-punk breakout single "Daylight." Their anarchic spirit stood a striking contrast to the well-scrubbed scene, but their dalliances with darkness weren't entirely without consequence. "Alex and I had been getting into using opiates," Moult says. "We were on our way to a show in Chicago and we were just partying out of control. We just mixed too much stuff. I woke up at about 6 and I heard Alex, like gasping. So I go over there to look and he's turned blue. And I just freak out." Though Hartness was briefly pronounced dead, he was miraculously revived moments later with no lasting damage. 
The episode caused the group to refocus and, after solidifying the lineup with bassist Mike Frazier and drummer Kevin Kilpatrick, they found themselves on tour playing for thousands opening for Cage the Elephant. "It was the first time in my life I had something go right," Moult laughs. "I finally felt accepted. Seeing all those people, I realized that there are more people like me than the people I grew up around. I felt like I was speaking for them and represented them."
That confidence extends to the group's latest EP Light On. Produced by Cage the Elephant's Brad Shultz, it's a bright, vibrating effort full of high-wattage guitars and jittery rhythms and, beneath it all, that palpable sense of anarchy. The EP is being released on Jeffery Drag, a label owned by the band and distributed through the French Kiss Label Group, home of Les Savy Fav, The Dodos and more. Light On serves as the perfect introduction to the group's ethos: "Can't Get Enough" bounds and swivels like a 21st Century rocakabilly song – Carl Perkins by way of Pissed Jeans. Ironically, the song was written during a stint in jail – a detour that would sandbag other artists, but which gave Moult the time he needed to clear his head and get healthy. That optimism is reflected in the song's blazing tone. "This was my attempt at an Elvis song," he says. "I really relate to that dude: he's from Memphis, he had a problem with drugs, which he was taking to block out his troubled past. I mean, in a lot of ways, he was the first punk." On "Post McDonald's Punks," the group stretches out into social commentary: over slashing guitars that call to mind both METZ and Jay Reatard, the group dismantles quick-fix culture and the collapse of the American Dream. "The Wind" careens like the best Phoenix songs, its bright sheen scuffed up by Moult's beer bar sneer.
Elsewhere, things get darker still: the title track unflinchingly recounts the night Hartness OD'd. Over a nightmare carnival calliope organ, Moult pleads, "I said 'Don't Go,'" before the song plunges into its chilling chorus: "Light on, I still hear you breathing." "That line couldn't be more direct," Moult explains. "It is literally about how Alex was still breathing when I found him." The song feels like a fever dream, Moult's emotions ranging from icy panic to relief to regret ("I still kill myself in my mind.") But if there's a song best that sums up the spirit of the album – and of Bad Cop in general – it's "My Dying Days." A loose groover with the swagger and strut of early Supergrass, the song is less a lament and more a celebration.
"This record is me coming to the end of the negativity and knowing and accepting that there's something better," Moult says. "Just because I've gone through some bad shit doesn't mean it's always going to be that way. There is an opportunity to change." It's that newfound optimism that powers Bad Cop, a band that helped Moult and Hartness, a pair of social outcasts, find their place in the world. "I want people, when they're listening to us, to feel free and alive," Moult says. "I want people to take away this feeling of freedom – to let go of these things in our mind that say, 'I've got to be this way, I've got to look like this.' Let's forget about that bullshit and just be people. Let's dance, let's love, let's smoke, let's smile. Let's be alive."



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Thursday, June 27, 2013

ACT OUT: Three Oaks Theater Festival Inaugural Season Begins July 7th



Three Oaks, Michigan is a lovely town and a quiet getaway, easy weekend road trip distance from Chicago.   We have friends with summer homes there and are elated to announce that some of Chicago's best theatre companies will be dropping by for one night shows this summer.
     
Co-Founders John Stoops, Tim Evans and Marc Grapey
announce the Inaugural Season of Three Oaks Theater Festival
presented in association with Harbor Arts

2013 season features the highly-acclaimed productions of
The Selfish Giant by Blair Thomas & Co.,
Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co.’s The Glass Menagerie,
TurnAround Theatre’s Faith Healer,
and Complicated, a world premiere musical from Poi Dog Pondering

Co-founders John Stoops, Tim Evans, and Marc Grapey proudly announce the inaugural season of Three Oaks Theater Festival, a new summer theater festival that will bring three limited-engagement runs of highly-acclaimed, professional Chicago-based productions and a World Premiere to audiences in Harbor Country, Michigan.  Three Oaks Theater Festival is presented in association with Harbor Arts with special thanks to The Pokagon Fund.

For its first season, Three Oaks Theater Festival will present one-night-only engagements of Blair Thomas & Co.’s The Selfish Giant, a unique take on the Oscar Wilde classic featuring puppetry by Blair Thomas and music by Michael Smith; Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co’s acclaimed production of the Tennessee Williams classic The Glass Menagerie, directed by Hans Fleischmann (who also stars as Tom), and featuringWalter Briggs, Maggie Cain and Joanne Dubach, with an original score by Daniel Knox; TurnAround Theatre’s production of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer, directed by J.R. Sullivan and featuring Brad Armacost, Lia D. Mortensen and Si Osborne; and Complicated, a world premiere musical from Poi Dog Pondering.

Three Oaks is a community within Harbor Country, Michigan, that is rich in art galleries, restaurants and summer leisure activities.  Twenty-five percent of the Three Oaks’ population is second homeowners with a permanent residence in Chicago with a median age of 39 years old, making Three Oaks an ideal destination for vacationers seeking culture and relaxation.  For visitors to the area, a number of hotels, bed and breakfasts, and family-friendly cabin and housing rentals are available to people of all ages.   

“As a founder of the Festival, I am excited to bring some of Chicago’s best theaters to the natural beauty and vibrant culture already found in Three Oaks, Michigan,” says John Stoops.

Co-founders Tim Evans and Marc Grapey comment, “The inaugural season is bringing some of Chicago’s best theater to Three Oaks. We are presenting three highly-acclaimed shows and a world premiere musical by the beloved group Poi Dog Pondering.  We hope that these one-night-only performances will add to the cultural traditions of Three Oaks and we welcome all of the residents of Harbor Country to the productions.   Since it’s only a 75- minute drive from Chicago, we also hope that theater fans in Chicago will come for a weekend to check out all that Harbor Country has to offer.”

Three Oaks Theater Festival is presented in association with Harbor Arts, with special thanks to The Pokagon Fund.

The 2013 Three Oaks Theater Festival Season is:
THE SELFISH GIANT
Presented by Blair Thomas & Co.
Puppetry by Blair Thomas
Music by Michael Smith

Saturday, July 6, 2013
1:00pm (EST); 12:00pm (CST)
Recommended for audiences of all ages and best enjoyed by children ages 2-10.
(running time: 45 minutes)
Ticket Price: $15, Children 4 and under are free.

Two Chicago theater icons—Blair Thomas and singer-songwriter Michael Smith—collaborate on this staging of an Oscar Wilde classic. Original puppets and music tell the story of a grumpy old giant who forbids the children in his village from playing in his beautiful garden. After the children are locked out, the trees and flowers refuse to grow and the garden plunges into an eternal winter. Then one morning, the children sneak back into the garden, bringing with them the joyous rebirth of spring.

The Selfish Giant was commissioned by the Chicago Children’s Theater and the world premiere was presented by the Chicago Children’s Theater in January 2008.

10:00am (EST); 9:00am (CST)
Free puppet workshop with Blair Thomas for all ages.
  

THE GLASS MENAGERIE
Presented by Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co.
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Hans Fleischmann
Original Score by Daniel Knox
Featuring Walter Briggs (Gentleman Caller), Maggie Cain (Amanda) and Joanne Dubach (Laura) and Hans Fleischmann (Tom)

Saturday, July 20, 2013
8:00pm (EST); 7:00pm (CST)
Ticket Price: $25

Three Oaks Theater Festival presents Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co.’s highly acclaimed production of the Tennessee Williams classic The Glass Menagerie.  Directed by Mary-Arrchie ensemble member Hans Fleischmann (who also stars as Tom), the production features the full original cast, including Walter Briggs, Maggie Cain and Joanne Dubach.  Beautiful and heart-wrenching, The Glass Menagerie focuses on a man obsessed with regrets from his past. Living on the streets, he navigates an audience through the gritty back-alleys of his imagination. Truth and delusion collide in director Hans Fleishmann’s re-imagining of Tennessee Williams’ classic memory play.

Highlighted by an original score by Daniel Knox, the production team for The Glass Menagerie also includes Grant Sabin (scenic design), Stefin Sterberl (costume design), Matthew Gawryk (lighting design), Joe Court (sound design), Anna Henson (projection design), Arianna Soloway (props design), Rudy Galvan (assistant director/dramaturg), Andrew Donnelly (stage manager) and Carlo Garcia (producing director).


FAITH HEALER
Presented by TurnAround Theatre
By Brian Friel
Directed by J.R. Sullivan
Featuring Brad Armacost (Teddy), Si Osborne (Frank Hardy) and Lia D. Mortensen (Grace)

Saturday, July 27, 2013
8:00pm (EST); 7:00pm (CST)
Ticket Price: $25
                     
Faith Healer is a dramatic, mysterious and humorous work focusing on the life and times of Frank Hardy (Si Osborne), an itinerant Irish Healer. Uniquely structured, the play is presented in four monologues. The first belongs to Frank, grappling with the mystery of his gift of faith healing. Next is Grace (Lia D. Mortensen), Frank's patient but suffering wife, who knows too well the special magnificence of her husband. Frank's promoter and set-up man, a Cockney named Teddy (Brad Armacost), speaks third. His show business spin on events is both touching and comical. Frank's epilogue brings the play to a startling conclusion. In Faith Healer, Friel shows us the reality of grace, the unfolding of mystery and the healing powers of faith.

Seventeen years ago, Faith Healer, featuring Brad Armacost, Lia D. Mortensen and Si Osborne, directed by J.R. Sullivan was produced in Chicago in an acclaimed, sold-out run at TurnAround and Steppenwolf Theatres.  The original team returned to this work earlier this year at The Den Theatre in Wicker Par and is, once again, returning to this beloved play for one night only to bring this acclaimed, not-to-be-missed production to Three Oaks.


A World Premiere Workshop Production
COMPLICATED
Conceived and directed by Brigid Murphy, music and lyrics by Frank Orrall and Poi Dog Pondering
Featuring alternative rock legend Syd Straw, Frank Orrall and members of Poi Dog Pondering
as well as puppets by Chicago artist Cynthia VonOrthal

Saturday, August 3, 2013
8:00pm (EST); 7:00pm (CST)
Ticket Price: $35

Complicated is a theatrical hybrid: part rock concert, part traditional book musical.  It’s a mythic journey about home and your place in the world.  Music and lyrics by Frank Orrall and Poi Dog Pondering, book and direction by Brigid Murphy, puppet elements by Cynthia VonOrthal, and special musical guest indie rock diva Syd Straw.

This World Premiere workshop musical is currently in development.


Tickets for Three Oaks Theater Festival
Performances will take place at The Acorn Theater, 107 Generations Drive in Three Oaks, Michigan. 

Information and tickets will be available at www.threeoaksfestival.com beginning May 20.  Tickets will be available online; at the Acorn Theater box office; or via phone (269-756-3879).

About The Acorn Theater
Housed in a turn-of-the-century corset stay factory, The Acorn was purchased by two Chicago residents who lovingly restored the abandoned building.  The restoration was featured in multiple programs on HGTV.  In 2003, the building was re-opened as a 250-seat multi-disciplinary space used for professional performances and live theater.  The Acorn also houses a 1931 Barton theater pipe organ and boasts a huge acorn sculpture in front of the building.

About the Co-Founders
John Stoops is spearheading this effort based on over 15 years of experience in theater production.  John began his formal education at the Second City Training Center.  Soon afterward, John became a fixture in Chicago’s theater community.  After performing, directing and producing numerous shows in Chicago (Sincerity Forever, Stage Left Theater; Fun and Nobody, Stage Left Theater; Buttling Butler Buttles, Second City Theater; Blind Side, Live Bait Theater; mLife Sentence, iO Chicago), John joined the cast of Boom Chicago, an Amsterdam-based comedy ensemble. With Boom Chicago, John performed over 200 shows across 5 countries.  John returned to the U.S. to found Local 386, a Chicago-based comic production company described by the Chicago Sun Times as “hilarity in high def.”  With Local 386, John produced two critical and commercial hits (Local 386, Lakeshore Theater and Listening In, Chicago Center for the Performing Arts).  Additionally, John has significant marketing experience as a Vice President-Account Director with Leo Burnett where he led the development of world class brands for several Fortune 500 companies.  John is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison.  He received a Masters of Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management where he focused on Entertainment Marketing and Entrepreneurship.  At Kellogg, John won the Sittercity Buzz Marketing Competition and the S.C. Johnson Business Plan Competition.

Tim Evans is the Executive Director of the award-winning Northlight Theatre in Skokie. Since his arrival in 2007, Evans has overseen the Theatre's new branding campaign, Leadership fundraising campaign, new board development, revamped arts education initiatives and a five year strategic plan with McKinsey & Company.  Prior to his arrival at Northlight, Tim spent a 20-plus year career at Steppenwolf Theatre where he served in management and producing positions.  He created, curated and produced Steppenwolf's acclaimed TRAFFIC Series which included a partnership with Chicago Public Radio for subsequent broadcasts.  Tim founded Steppenwolf Films, of which he is still a partner with Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry, to develop film and television projects. He produced the feature films Diminished Capacity with Matthew Broderick (premiered 2008 Sundance Film Festival) and The Last Rites of Joe May with Dennis Farina (premiered 2011 Tribeca Film Festival). He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the League of Chicago Theatres, previously served on the board of the Independent Film Project (IFP) and was a charter member of the Governor's Task Force for Media Development. 

Marc Grapey is a Chicago-based Jeff Award-nominated actor and Jeff Award-winning director.  He was a co-founder and three-time Artistic Director of Famous Door, which during its 17-year history was one of Chicago’s most respected and celebrated theaters.  His Chicago credits include The Iceman Cometh, Race and the world premieres of Eric Bogosian’s Griller and Noah Haidle’s Vigils at the Goodman; The Birthday Party, Mizlansky/Zilinsky Or Schmucks, The Chosen, Antigone, Dead Man’s Cell Phone and Oblivion at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Equivocation, I Sailed with Magellan, Class Dismissed and Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo (Jeff Award nomination) at Victory Gardens Theater; Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Picnic at Writers’ Theatre; Funny Girl at Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace; The Odd Couple at Northlight Theatre; The Metal Children at Next Theatre Company and Early and Often, The Homecoming, Beautiful Thing and Hitting for the Cycle (Jeff nomination) at Famous Door Theatre. Regionally, he has appeared at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville and the HBO Comedy and Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. He made his Broadway debut in 2005 opposite Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the hit revival of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple. Film credits include At Any Price, Superbad, Adventureland, Ali, While You Were Sleeping, A Piece of Eden and The Daytrippers. Television credits include The West Wing, Arrested Development, Two and a Half Men, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and most notably as publicist J.J. Mitchell on HBO’s Sex and the City. He was the recipient of a Jeff Award for Best Director (with David Cromer) for Famous Door Theatre’s epic two-part production of The Cider House Rules.

About Three Oaks, Michigan
Three Oaks, Michigan, located about 70 miles from Chicago, has 1,600 residents.  Approximately 25% of those residents name Three Oaks as their secondary resident, most of whom are from Chicago.  The Village, remarkably well-developed in the arts, boasts two theaters, the live-performance Acorn Theater and the Vickers Theater, which shows independent and foreign films.  The quaint downtown has four art galleries featuring the work of established and emerging artists.  Chamberlain Path, located steps from the main street, has been turned into a sculpture garden featuring monumental sculptures by local and national artists.  The town also hosts two annual art festivals; the Art Attack weekend and Art in the Park.  Meanwhile, Dewey Cannon Park is home to Music in the Park, a free concert series held every Saturday during the summer.  Perhaps most indicative of the town’s quirky, artistic spirit, Three Oaks is one of the few villages in the country with the official position of Village Poet Laureate.  Each year, the reigning Poet Laureate is asked to write a Flag Day poem and a winter poem as well as participate in readings throughout the year.  In 2013, Three Oaks Theater Festival was born.


For more information about Three Oaks Theater Festival visit www.threeoaksfestival.com.
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