FRANKENSTEIN Adds Performance At Chicago's Studebaker Theater

Chicago's historic Fine Arts Building and Studebaker Theater has announced their Halloween co-production of Manual Cinema's acclaimed Frankenstein has added an additional performance due to popular demand on Saturday, October 26 at 2 p.m. The production runs four performances only, October 25–27, 2024. For tickets and more information, visit fineartsbuilding.com/frankenstein.

In Manual Cinema's thrilling version of the classic Gothic tale Frankenstein, the Chicago-based performance collective imaginatively combines shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and live sound effects and music in a haunting show unlike any other. The production stitches together the fictional story of Frankenstein with the biography of the original novel's author, Mary Shelley, to create an unexpected tale about the beauty and horror of creation.

Tickets for Frankenstein at the Studebaker Theater (410 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago) are now on sale for $45-$65, with student tickets available for $20 with proof of ID. Performance times are Friday, October 25 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, October 26 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, October 27 at 2 p.m. To purchase tickets and for more information, visit fineartsbuilding.com/frankenstein.

Frankenstein marks the first time the Fine Arts Building and Studebaker Theater are co-producing a theatrical work with another organization. Later this year, the venue will present Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol.

“Our Frankenstein adaptation has toured all over the world, from the UK to South America and all over the US—but it's never looked or sounded better than on the Studebaker stage. We are thrilled to be partnering with the Fine Arts Building and Studebaker Theater to bring Frankenstein back to life for its hometown audience this month!” says Kyle Vegter, Co-Artistic Director of Manual Cinema.

Frankenstein is adapted from the novel by Mary Shelley, with a concept by Drew Dir. The production is devised by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace and Julia Miller. Original music and sound design are by Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter.

Manual Cinema is an Emmy Award-winning performance collective, design studio, and film/video production company founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller and Kyle Vegter. Manual Cinema combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive stories for stage and screen. Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble, Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality. The company was awarded an Emmy in 2017 for “The Forger,” a video created for The New York Times, and named Chicago Artists of the Year in 2018 by the Chicago Tribune. In 2020 they were included in 50 of Chicago theater's "Rising Stars and Storefront Stalwarts" (Newcity). Their shadow puppet animations were featured in the 2021 film remake of Candyman, directed by Nia DaCosta and produced by Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions. In 2022 they premiered Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About A Terrible Monster, an adaptation of two books by celebrated children's author Mo Willems, and a live adaptation of their 2020 streaming hit A Christmas Carol. In 2023 Manual Cinema completed production on their first self-produced short film, Future Feeling, and will be touring with folk rock band Iron & Wine in 2024 creating live visuals on stage. For more information, visit manualcinema.com,

The Fine Arts Building is a home for art in all forms: from pioneers like Poetry magazine's founding publisher Harriet Monroe, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz illustrator W. W. Denslow, sculptor Lorado Taft and the Chicago Little Theatre, to the ongoing legacies of painters, musicians, booksellers, puppeteers, dancers, photographers and craftspeople who inhabit the building today, the Fine Arts Building is buzzing with more than a century of Chicago creativity and innovation. A Chicago Landmark since 1978, the building features original manually-operated elevators, Art Nouveau murals from the late 19th century and the recently renovated Studebaker Theater, one of the city's oldest and most significant live theatrical venues. For more information, visit fineartsbuilding.com.

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