Rebecca Rugg to Produce Great Chicago Fire Festival for Redmoon

Redmoon announces today Rebecca Rugg as Producer of the Great Chicago Fire Festival, a citywide event that will take place in neighborhoods throughout the summer in 2014, with the spectacle finale that October on the Chicago River. Before joining Redmoon, she worked as Artistic Producer at Steppenwolf Theater Company. She currently serves on the faculty of the Yale School of Drama and has served on the artistic staff at New York's Public Theater.

"I am excited that Rebecca will be joining Redmoon to produce the Great Chicago Fire Festival, a signature event that will celebrate the diversity of Chicago's great neighborhoods and powerful spirit of renewal," said Co-Artistic Director Jim Lasko. "Her wealth of experience in creating multilayered collaborations will be an asset to engaging communities citywide for the festival throughout 2014

At Steppenwolf, Ms. Rugg oversaw programming in the Garage theater, where she worked with numerous small Chicago theater companies. "Since moving to Chicago five years ago, I've continually been inspired by the neighborhoods' vibrant, artistic culture," said Rugg. "It's an honor to be invited to Redmoon to launch this giant citywide celebration of Chicago's diverse communities." At Redmoon, Rugg will draw on her expertise in large-scale producing and fostering local artistic partnerships. She produced the University network of The 365 Festival--a national festival based on 365 Days/365 Plays, a yearlong play cycle written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan Lori Parks. Composed of sixteen regional networks, this landmark international event was a shared global premiere by hundreds of theaters, universities and art spaces throughout the U.S. and abroad. At Yale, she founded an international, multi-disciplinary program in the arts and public health, and implemented partnerships between the university, local African artists, communities and NGOs in Swaziland and South Africa. As Director of New Projects under her mentor George C. Wolfe at The Public Theater, she was inspired by and dedicated to that theater's mission of making art accessible and relevant to all people.

The Great Chicago Fire Festival, presented by Redmoon in partnership with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, is a city-wide, public, cultural event in various neighborhoods and on the Chicago River built around urban planner and MIT professor Mark Schuster's concept of a 'signature event': a cultural event that so genuinely reflects the true nature of a city that it becomes a cultural and economic beacon for its citizens, the nation, and the world. Redmoon Co-Artistic Director Jim Lasko conceived of the Great Chicago Fire Festival during his year as the first ever Artist-in-Residence for the City of Chicago in 2010.

The festival will begin in communities throughout Chicago, and converge downtown through the conduit of the River, reflecting and celebrating Chicago as a City of Neighborhoods. Citizens of these communities will work hand-in-hand with local artist-facilitators commissioned by the Great Chicago Fire Festival to create open access art, celebrating Chicago's spirit of resilience. The art created at these public sites in the chosen communities will be brought to the River where it will transform into a Fire Spectacle on the Main Branch of the Chicago River. Tens of thousands will watch from Chicago's newly developed downtown riverfront as burning floats, music and acrobatics, culminate in an urban ritual celebrating Chicago's unique history and future. The Great Chicago Fire Festival showcases how Chicago's individual communities provide the City with a strength that is greater than the sum of its parts, and that through the River, they are all connected.

Redmoon's mission is to transform the experience of our urban landscape through ephemeral events that disrupt everyday life and provide opportunities for public engagement, community building, and recognition of the possibility of change. Founded in 1990, Redmoon transforms streets, stages, and architectural landmarks bridging economic, cultural, and generational boundaries with a unique brand of spectacle: a public art form that is equal parts pageantry, gadgetry, puppetry, robust physical performance and visual art. Through its vibrant outdoor performances, high-profile collaborations, and youth-focused Neighborhood Arts Programming, Redmoon has reached more than 250,000 people in 110 locations throughout 30 Chicago neighborhoods. Redmoon has garnered national and international attention for its unique productions, site-specific performances and events-which have been seen across the US from New York to Los Angeles with 2009 appearance at the White House, and around the globe in Holland, Ireland, France, Australia, and Brazil. For more information, visit www.redmoon.org.

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