The Snow Queen Returns Nov 28-Dec 28
By: Steve Leary Oct. 30, 2008
VICTORY GARDENS' HIT WINTER MUSICAL THE SNOW QUEEN RETURNS TO FILL THE
BIOGRAPH WITH THE WARMTH OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON, NOV. 28 - DEC. 28
Hold on tight, because Victory Gardens Theater's smash hit winter musical The Snow Queen - conceived by Chicago folk music legend Michael Smith, Tony Award-winning director Frank Galati, and master puppeteer Blair Thomas & Co - is sledding back into town for her third season as Chicago's #1 alternative to traditional holiday fare.
FRESH SQUEEZED NIGHT - Friday, November 28 - 6 pm reception; 7:30 pm show Steve Mosqueda and Phil Ridarelli, the duo of Neo-Futurists who star in VGT's alternative, late-night holiday show, Drinking & Writing Vol IV: The 12 Steps of Christmas, will host a special pre-show tasting of a new Rock Bottom Brewery craft beer specially paired with The Snow Queen. Single tickets are $30.LINCOLN PARK NEIGHBORS NIGHT - Wednesday, December 3 - 6 pm reception; 7:30pm show. Old Town School of Folk Music and Different Strummer Music Store will
demonstrate and give group lessons on some of the musical instruments in The
Snow Queen, during a pre-show reception catered by Fiesta Mexicana. Single
tickets are $30. HUMANITIES NIGHT - Thursday, December 4, 6 pm pre-show event; 7:30 pm show Go behind-the-scenes of The Snow Queen - literally. Victory Gardens' artistic staff will lead small groups in pre-show backstage tours. See what goes on backstage, to make magic happen onstage.FAMILY SATURDAY - Saturday, December 6, 3 pm The Snow Queen is for kids 8 and up. But what about younger kids? No worries...bring the whole family to Victory Gardens' Family Saturday performance of The Snow Queen. Parents and older kids can watch the show, while Victory Gardens' education staff will keeps kids 4 and up busy with
theater games, crafts and storytelling, plus free Swirlz Cupcakes! Single tickets: $48, plus $5 sitting fee per childPUB NIGHT - Friday, December 12 - 6:30pm-7:45pm; Show @ 8pm Mingle and enjoy appetizers and a free drink before the show, right next door at Clarke's Bar and Grille. POST SHOW DISCUSSIONS Free post-show discussions with the cast and crew are held after every Wednesday performance.ACCESS PERFORMANCES Audio descriptions for patrons who are blind or have low vision: Friday, December 19, 7:30 pm; Sunday, December 28, 3 pm Word for word captioning for patrons who are hearing impaired: Friday, December 12 at 7:30 pm: Saturday, December 20 at 3 pm Sign language interpretation for patrons who are hearing impaired: Saturday, December 20, 3 pm
SPECIAL OFFERS AND DISCOUNTS 20 @ $20 Victory Gardens always has 20 seats on sale for every show, for only $20 - in advance, not just day-of. Limit 4 per customer. Subject to availability. Restrictions apply.The CD Songs of the Snow Queen The CD Songs of The Snow Queen is a fantastic soundtrack featuring 11 original songs from Chicago's favorite homegrown holiday musical, for only $15. Go to http://www.victorygardens.org to download a FREE single and to sample snippets of Chicago folk legend Michael Smith's wonderful songs. Give the gift of The Snow Queen Victory Gardens is now offering The Snow Queen Holiday Gift Pack, including two discounted tickets to The Snow Queen and the new Songs of The Snow Queen CD, packaged in a festive snowflake gift bag. It's the perfect holiday gift, for only $89. Buy in person at the Biograph, or learn more online at http://www.victorygardens.orgBuy a 5-Play Victory Gardens subscription, and get a free CD! Purchase a five-play Victory Gardens subscription for yourself or your loved ones for as little as $80, and get a FREE Songs from the Snow Queen CD. Host your holiday party at the Biograph Call (773) 549-5788 ext. 2131 or email information@victorygardens.org to learn about group discounts and holiday party options at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater.GETTING TO THE VICTORY GARDENS BIOGRAPH THEATER The Victory Gardens Biograph Theater is conveniently located in the heart of Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, 1/2-block north of the intersection of Fullerton and Halsted, on Lincoln Avenue. It is easily accessed from the Fullerton exits off Lake Shore Drive and the Kennedy Expressway. $11 valet parking is available for all performances. $6 parking is available one block south at Children's Memorial Hospital for all shows except weekday matinees (no overnights). Metered and street parking available, but mind the neighborhood parking restrictions. By CTA train, take the Red, Purple and Brown lines to the Fullerton stop. Walk east on Fullerton to Lincoln, then north 1/2 block to the theater. The #8 Halsted, #11 Lincoln, #37 Sedgwick/Ogden, and #74 Fullerton CTA buses all stop at the corner of Fullerton and Halsted, 1/2 block south of the theater. See http://www.transitchicago.com for times and routes.
THE ORIGINAL CREATORS OF THE SNOW QUEEN Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was born in the slums of Odense, Denmark, the son of a shoemaker and a washerwoman. He went to university in Copenhagen where he became known for his poetry. His first book of fairy tales was published in 1835, followed by many other volumes of children's stories, almost one a year, until 1872. He wrote more than 150 fairy tales in his lifetime, including The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, and The Ugly Duckling, and his stories have been translated into over 100 languages. Tall and skinny with a big nose, Andersen always thought that he was very ugly. Hence, his tales showed compassion for those who are outcast and suffering, and that there is a magical beauty even within the most unlikely characters. Because of his wonderful stories, which were not meant merely for children but for adults as well, Andersen became known as the greatest writer in Denmark, and he remains one of the most beloved children's authors in the world. Michael Peter Smith (lyrics and music, musician) has been singing and composing since the 1960s, and more than 30 performers have recorded his rich and challenging songs. Smith's score for The Snow Queen echoes his past hits at Victory Gardens, his musical autobiography Michael, Margaret, Pat & Kate in 1994, winner of four Joseph Jefferson Awards, and Hello Dali: From the Sublime to the Surreal, his folk music homage to the world's great artists performed in 2000. Smith also wrote the music for Chicago Children's Theater's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant, in collaboration with Blair Thomas earlier this year, as well as Frank Galati's staging of The Grapes of Wrath at Steppenwolf, which transferred to New York and won two Tony Awards. He is perhaps best known for writing "The Dutchman," a song that was popularized by Steve Goodman. Besides "The Dutchman," which Suzy Bogguss covered on her #1 selling Aces album, Smith classics and their interpreters include "Spoon River," inspired by the stories of Edgar Lee Masters, which was also recorded by Steve Goodman. Jimmy Buffet recorded "Elvis Imitators," Smith's tongue in cheek ode to the King's legions. "Dead Egyptian Blues," a song about ex-pharaohs and their riches was recorded by Trout Fishing in America. Other Smith classics include "Crazy Mary," a song David Allan Coe recorded, and "Last Day of Pompeii" - a smooth jazz number about the city's impending disaster, on recordings by Trout Fishing in America, Anne Hills, and the swing recordings of Harmonious Wail. Smith's recordings include "Michael Smith" (1986), "Love Stories "(1987), "Time" (1994), and "Paradise Lost and Found" (2000). He continues to perform regularly, and has been seen at dozens of major folk festivals including the Kerrville Folk Festival, Black Mountain Festival, and Philadelphia, Owen Sound, Gamble Rogers Folk Festival, and Winnipeg Folk Festivals. For more information, go to michaelsmithmusic.com. Frank Galati (co-author book and director) is a professional actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright. He earned national and international acclaim as adaptor and director of The Grapes of Wrath, which won two Tony Awards in 1989 for Best Direction of a Play and Best Play. In 1989, both the British Academy Awards and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated him for outstanding achievement in the category of best adapted screenplay for The Accidental Tourist. He has received nine Joseph Jefferson Awards for his work in Chicago theater: one for acting, five for directing, and three for writing and adapting. As Associate Director of the Goodman Theatre, Galati has directed The Government Inspector, She Always Said, Pablo, Passion Play, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Winter's Tale, The Good Person of Setzuan, and the adaptations Cry, The Beloved Country and Gertrude Stein: Each One As She May. He is also an ensemble member at Steppenwolf, where, in addition to Grapes of Wrath, he directed his new adaptation of Murakami's Kafka on the Shore earlier this season, and previously, after the quake, Homebody/Kabul, The Royal Family, Valparaiso, Morning Star, As I Lay Dying, Everyman, Born Yesterday, Earthly Possessions, Aunt Dan and Lemon, and You Can't Take it With You. Galati also directed the critically acclaimed production of Ragtime, which has played in Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. His most recent Broadway endeavor was The Pirate Queen, a musical by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, creators of Les Miserables and Miss Saigon. The show opened in Chicago and moved to Broadway in 2007. He has recently retired from the faculty of Northwestern University. Blair Thomas & Co. (Puppet Design) is a company of collaborators founded by Blair Thomas, co-founder and former artistic director of Chicago's Redmoon Theater. In addition to Thomas' two years working on The Snow Queen with co-puppet designer Meredith Miller, recent credits include The Oxherder's Tale at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Cabaret of Desire at DCA Theatre, Trinity Repertory's A Christmas Carol, directed by Curt Columbus in Providence, Rhode Island, a theater for young audiences Fast Fish Puppet Theater with an original bunraku-style puppet show staged to Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition entitled The Rabbit's Tale, performed last April with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Chicago's Symphony Center, The Oxherder's Tale at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in DC, and an original staging of Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Jacob Druckman's Reflections on the Nature of Water as collaboration with the chamber music group eighth blackbird at MCA. Before all this he had started Chicago's award-winning Redmoon Theater in 1989 and served as the artistic director and co-artistic director until leaving in 1998, during which time he was principal in the creation of all the productions, parades and pageants. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was the first Jim Henson Artist in Residence at the University
of Maryland.
ABOUT VICTORY GARDENS THEATER One of Chicago's most respected Off-Loop theaters, Victory Gardens is primarily devoted to new work, and has presented more world premiere mainstage productions than any other Chicago theater. Currently celebrating its 35th season, Victory Gardens emphasizes the work of Chicago writers and its own 12-member Playwrights Ensemble, a relationship that helped the company receive the 2001 Tony Award for Regional Theatre. The Victory Gardens Biograph Theater was designed by Daniel P. Coffey of Daniel P. Coffey and Associates. The $11.8 million renovation has expanded Victory Gardens' flexibility to meet the desires of its resident playwrights, and enhanced the theater's ability to welcome and honor patrons old and new. Originally built in 1914, the Biograph is best known as the site where FBI agents killed gangster John Dillinger in 1934. Today, the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater façade and marquee have been faithfully restored, a state-of-the-art semi-thrust stage with a modified proscenium has been retrofitted inside, 299 comfortable new seats have been installed, and an inviting, contemporary interior design welcomes patrons. Now in its third season, Victory Gardens' new mainstage has added wingspace, stage height and traps which have hugely expanded the possibilities for the size and scope of plays the company presents. Victory Gardens is designated an Established Regional Arts Institution by the Illinois Arts Council (IAC), and is partially supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, a CityArts Program IV Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
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