Redmoon to Present BELLBOYS, BEARS AND BAGGAGE, 5/18-6/8

Redmoon, Chicago's acclaimed Spectacle theater, presents its 2014 Spring Spectacle, Bellboys, Bears and Baggage, bringing the magnitude of its outdoor Spectacle performances indoors to transform its massive 18,000-square-foot Pilsen warehouse studio into a theatrical world of revelry, reflection and revelation. Audiences are given the freedom to move about Redmoon's one-of-a-kind space to encounter scenes, images, dances and music. Bellboys, Bears and Baggage is performed Thursday through Sunday evenings, with staggered entrance times, at 2120 S. Jefferson Street, May 18 - June 8. Preview performances take place May 15 and 17, 7-9 pm, and the official press opening is Sunday, May 18 at 7 pm.

Conceived by Jim Lasko (Redmoon Executive Artistic Director) and Blake Montgomery (former Artistic Director of the Building Stage), directed by Montgomery and designed by Frank Maugeri (Redmoon Producing Artistic Director), the Spring Spectacle 2014 - Redmoon's largest indoor show to-date - riffs on some of the stranger and more striking elements of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, including the use of Time as a physical character, the unique mash-up of tragedy and comedy, the contradictory absurdity of a ship landing on the coast of a landlocked nation, and one of Shakespeare's most well-known but enigmatic stage directions, "Exit, pursued by a bear."

Redmoon brings its outdoor large-scale productions indoors. Scenes are played in separate rooms throughout the mammoth home, each richly detailed, using time, space and architecture to explore theatrical dimension. Bears prowl the space, both in and in between the scenes. Character masks provide visual continuity as the audience sees a male and female protagonist in various moments that, collectively, investigate falling in and out of love. A corps of luggage-toting bellboys usher viewers through the space. The story is not linear. Audiences can choose for themselves what scenes, and in what order, they experience during the event. Secrets and magical surprises reward viewers' curiosity, challenging and encouraging them to create their own journey. Movement, gesture, imagery and music combine for a mostly language-free storytelling experience.

"Normally in the theater, we sit in one place and watch as a series of events are presented to us. Even in the 'promenade' style, the order of events is usually pre-determined," Montgomery noted. "The result is a passive form of entertainment where the audience has little responsibility for their own experience. Bellboys, Bears and Baggage creates a world rich in detail and depth of feeling that exists continuously in looped patterns, of various lengths installed in various rooms and of various scales, throughout the space. No two audience members will share the same experience, but all will begin to see the same patterns and themes emerge. I'm thrilled to create an experience that gets the audience onto their feet and into their heads and using their hearts, changing the role of the audience through a dramatic landscape in four dimensions."

Bellboys, Bears and Baggage opens Sunday, May 18 and runs every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening through June 8.

Audiences enter every half hour, 7-9 pm Thursdays, 7-11 pm Fridays and Saturdays, and 6-8 pm Sundays. The experience is designed to take approximately 90 minutes, but may vary depending on each individual's choices as they craft their own personal journey. A lounge with cash bar opens one hour prior to the first entrance and remains open until 11 pm Thursdays, 1 am Fridays and Saturdays, and 10 pm Sundays.

Tickets are $30 general admission, $25 each for groups of 10 or more, or $15 for students with valid ID ages 16 and up. Tickets are available through Redmoon's box office at 312-850-8440 x123 or online at www.redmoon.org.

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