Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Announces Upcoming Season
By: Kelsey Denette Dec. 17, 2012
The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) is pleased to announce a new season of theater and dance: Cultural Center Presents and In the Works. Both are on-going performing arts series that showcase critically acclaimed local, national and international music, theater, dance and multi-disciplinary artists, newly commissioned works and debut performances.
Throughout the year, theater and dance performances and productions can be seen at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 East Washington), Millennium Park and Storefront Theatre (72 East Randolph). Admission is either free or low-cost. Visitwww.chicagocultuturalcenter.org for a complete schedule.
Upcoming Theater Performances: Cultural Center Presents and In the Works
In the Works
Moby-Dick (Excerpt)
Blair Thomas & Company
Storefront Theater
January 20 - 2:00 pm
Admission is Free
Blair Thomas & Company is a national and international touring puppet theater company founded in 2002 by puppeteer and director/designer Blair Thomas. In Moby-Dick our narrator Ishmael recounts his journey on the Pequod as Captain Ahab's relentless pursuit of the White Whale leads the entire crew to the depths of the ocean's great unknown. The words of this great American novel are brought to life on the stage through bunraku puppets, rolling paper scrolls and a unique combination of the folk songs of Michael Smith and the ambient sound of percussionist Michael Zerang. For reservations visitwww.blairthomas.org or email blair@blairthomas.org
In the Works
VOOLF
Cock and Bull Theatre
Storefront Theater
February 3 - 2:00 pm
Admission is Free
This In the Works presentation is by the avant-garde Chicago-based tcompany c*ckand Bull Theatre. VOOLF explores the world of fairytales with a voracious appetite. While Papa is off at war, Peter, Grandmere and Red
Riding Hood must deal with their own fears of love and lust while confronting the iconic fairytale villain, the wolf. Is the wolf the real villain or victim? For reservations visit www.cockandbulltheatre.com or email cockandbulltheatre@gmail.com
Cultural Center Presents
Laughing Hole
La Ribot
First Floor Garland Room - Chicago Cultural Center
Sunday, February 24 - 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Admission is Free
Born in Spain and based in Switzerland, La Ribot is known for her unique performance art involving laughter, action, and the spectator. Laughing Hole presents three performers shaken by eccentric laughter, often indistinguishable with crying, who continually throw themselves to a floor covered with countless cardboard panels, featured with bizarre handwritten words. La Ribot's work demonstrates how the terms "performance" and "exhibition" signify the difference between dance and fine art, and have now, in fact, merged into "performative" art. No reservations necessary. This is a durational piece during which audience is free to come and go as they please. Presented in collaboration with In>Time 2013.
Cultural Center Presents
A Summer's Day, Autumn Dream and Winter by Jon Fosse
Akvavit Theatre
Storefront Theater
February 27- March 24: Preview February 27, February 28 Opening
Performance Schedule:
Thursday at 7:30 p.m. - Winter and A Summer's Day
Friday at 7:30 p.m. - A Summer's Day and Autumn Dream
Saturday at 7:30 p.m. - Autumn Dream & Winter
Sunday at 2:00 p.m. - Winter, A Summer's Day and Autumn Dream
Admission: $15
From Chicago's Akvavit Theatre is a rare "triptych" of plays, A Summer's Day, Autumn Dream and Winter by luminary Norwegian playwright, Jon Fosse. The plays are closely related, with overlapping characters and themes, but are not meant to be concurrent as with a "trilogy". Fosse's works are recognized as subtle depictions of hard truths about the human condition, transcending the locales and settings of each while speaking to the larger issues of our times. To purchase tickets visit www.akavittheatre.org.
In the Works
Der Kaiser von Atlantis by Viktor Ullman
New Millennium Orchestra
Jay Pritzker Pavilion Stage in Millennium Park
March 8-10
Friday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday at 5:00 p.m.
The New Millennium Orchestra and conductor Francesco Milioto present Der Kaiser von Atlantis, written in 1943 by Viktor Ullmann at the concentration camp Theresienstadt. A hopeful parable influenced by Weill, Mahler, and Berg, the chamber opera wasn't performed; the Nazis saw the Kaiser as a Hitler satire, and Ullmann was sent to certain doom at Auschwitz. For information visit www.nmorchestra.org.
Cultural Center Presents
A Permanent Image by Samuel D. Hunter
LiveWire Chicago Theatre
Storefront Theater
April 2-May 5: Previews April 2 & 3, April 4 Opening
Performance Schedule: Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
Admission: $15
In this LiveWire Chicago Theatre production, A Permanent Image introduces us to the members of an estranged family from small-town Idaho as they gather to bury the family patriarch just before Christmas.
Siblings Bo and Ally arrive after years away to find that their mother has painted everything in the house-including magazines, calendars and the television-white. They worry about the mental health of their mother, but as the play unwinds, so too does the method behind her madness. Bo and Ally are suddenly faced with a
reality that brings their already strained worlds crashing down. A Permanent Image paints a startling picture of
the interrelations of a broken family, going far deeper. How do we cope when confronted with just how small our lives really are in the big picture? To purchase tickets visit www.livewirechicago.com or call (312) 533-4666.
Upcoming Dance Performances: Cultural Center Presents and In the Works
Dance makes its return to the Chicago Cultural Center as part of a multi-disciplinary program that marries movement with visual arts. Beginning February 1 - May 5 (I don't think these dates are exactly right - check with Greg), the Yates Gallery plays host to Shawn Decker: Prairie, a sound installation mimicking sounds on the prairie and providing a dramatic background to several dance performances throughout. The Chicago Cultural Center Presents "On the Prairie", diverse works by four different dance companies that provide an alternative point of entry into Decker's work.
Elemental
Elements Contemporary Ballet
February 16-17, 20 12:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.
Chicago Cultural Center - Yates Gallery
Admission: FREE
Inspired by the Shawn Decker Prairie exhibit, Elemental is an original work composed of 10 short segments by 10 different choreographers. The intersection of the unique, individual voices of the choreographers parallels the random connections and systems of likeness perceived in Decker's sound and electronic media installation. No reservations necessary.
Out of Step in the Same Direction
The Space/Movement Project
February 27, March 2-3
Wednesday at 1:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 12:00 p.m., 1:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m.
Chicago Cultural Center - Yates Gallery
Admission: FREE
The Space/Movement Project's ongoing exploration of ensemble and individual injects environment into the fold in Out of Step in the Same Direction. While performers embody each other's habitual movement tendencies, they will simultaneously discover ways in which both Decker's installation and the audience influence physical choices, using their athletic approach to contemporary dance to canvas the space with quirky gesture, sweeping spatial paths and bold weight share. No reservations necessary
Prairie Sorcerer
Antibody Corporation
March 23-24, 27
Saturday 3:00-6:00 p.m., Sunday and Wednesday 12:00 p.m. -3:00 p.m.
Chicago Cultural Center - Yates Gallery
Admission: FREE
In Prairie Sorcerer, Antibody Corporation will interact with the installation Prairie telekinetically, attempting to both influence its behavior and allowing it to influence the performers. No reservations necessary.
Field Anatomy
Atom-r
April 20-21, 24, Time TBD
Chicago Cultural Center - Yates Gallery
Admission: FREE
Atom-r (Anatomical Theaters of Mixed Reality) presents Field Anatomy, which extends the compositional system of
Prairie through a series of embodied, object-based, textual and virtual responses, re-mapping, interrupting and re-staging in-progress material "on the prairie." No reservations necessary.
Also in April, the Chicago Cultural Center Presents an ambitious collaborative effort from four distinct dance groups that will perform on stage at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.
FLYSPACE Dance Series
April 5-7 Hedwig Dances/Same Planet Different World
Friday/Saturday-7:00 p.m. and Sunday, 2:00 p.m.
April 12-14 The Dance COLEctive/Zephyr Dance
Friday/Saturday-7:00 p.m. and Sunday, 5:00 p.m.
Jay Pritzker Pavilion Stage
Admission: $15
FLYSPACE is a strategic partnership of four distinguished directors of contemporary dance companies working collaboratively to define support for their works and audience building. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased by visiting the Same Planet Different World website at www.spdwdance.org and clicking on the link.
Hedwig Dances performs excerpts from two multi-disciplinary works, Folded Terrain, which explores the challenges posed by the frenzied condition of contemporary life, and Longing a collaboration between choreographer Victor Alexander and weaver Deborah Valoma. Same Planet Different World presents a new work by Robyn Mineko Williams that explores the idea of patterns within the course of one's life and two works by Artistic Director JoAnna Rosenthal, Cracked and Altered.
My Sufi Tale is a story about surviving and this solo is choreographed and performed by Dance COLEctive Artistic Director Margi Cole. Zephyr Dance Director Michelle Kranicke presents a new abstract work developed for the Pritzker stage space. The new piece will experiment with alternate ways of looking at dance, enticing the viewer to undo preconceived notions of both the role of the performer and the audience.
Chicago Cultural Center Presents is an on-going performing arts series that showcases critically acclaimed local, national and international music, theater, dance and multi-disciplinary artists, newly commissioned works and debut performances at the Chicago Cultural Center, Millennium Park-The Jay Pritzker Pavilion, The Storefront Theater, and other venues.
In the Works is a performance residency program that gives emerging and established performing artists the opportunity to test-drive new work in a public setting. Each residency is tailored to the needs of the artist or company and their project and each showing is a unique opportunity for audiences to get a behind-the-scenes look at new work by Chicago artists. This program is made possible through a grant from The Boeing Company.
Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) is dedicated to promoting and supporting Chicago's arts and culture sector. This includes, but is not limited to: fostering the development of Chicago's nonprofit arts sector, independent working artists, and for-profit arts businesses; presenting high-quality, free or low-fee cultural programs accessible to residents and visitors; and marketing the City's cultural assets to local, regional, and global audiences. DCASE produces nearly 2,000 public programs, events and support services annually, generating millions in economic benefits for the City of Chicago.
For information on all productions, events, festivals, exhibits and more visit our website at www.chicagoculturalcenter.org orwww.cityofchicago.org/DCASE or find us on Facebook and Twitter - @ChiCulturalCenter or @ChicagoDCASE.
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