The Neo-Futurists to Round Out 2016 with Special Events, Parties
By: BWW News Desk Dec. 01, 2016
The Neo-Futurists race towards 2017 with a bounty of end-of-year programming, including lab performances of The Arrow, the first public showings of The Infinite Whale and Neo-Lab's second resident production Tangles & Plaques, two weekends of The Best Too Much Light... plays from 2016 and a New Year's Eve party and performance to fill the final 60 minutes of 2016 with a thrilling sprint to the finish and a champagne toast.
All performances are at the Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland Ave. For tickets and information visit neofuturists.org or call 773-275-5255.
NEW WORKSHOP PERFORMANCES
The Arrow Returns for Two Performances
Sunday, Dec. 4 at 4 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 11 at 4 p.m.
Tickets: $8
The Arrow, created by Kurt Chiang and Lily Mooney, is a Neo-Futurist storytelling show that subjects true written stories to spontaneous revelry. Last year, four different one-off showings of the new form premiered throughout the season, and this fall, an eclectic group of writers/performers will host three lab performances, in preparation for expanding the series into 2017. Witness as this new experiment continues to push the boundaries of theater, Neo-Futurism and live-lit. Complimentary drinks provided. The Arrow features the writing/performances of Lucas Baisch, Hal Baum, Neil Bhandari, Kurt Chiang, Jen Ellison, Lily Mooney, Meghann Wilkinson and Rachel Wilson.
NEO-LAB Presents: Tangles & Plaques - The First Presentation
Wednesday, Dec. 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $8
Tangles & Plaques attempts to demystify the experience of dementia in the language of theater-offering a vivid, poignant, participatory experience that is unique to each audience and different every night. Ensemble Member Kirsten Riiber and Memory Care Therapist Alex Schwaninger will discuss and demonstrate the process of memory loss through interviews and personal narratives about the life and death of memories-the ways they persist, the ways they depart and the various ways they distort over time. Neo-Lab is an original works residency that annually commissions one new play anchored by innovative approaches to creation and shares public readings and presentations of the work in progress.
The Infinite Whale - The First Look
Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $8
The Infinite Whale, created by Ensemble Member Nick Hart, uses The Neo-Futurist aesthetic in an attempt to write an unlimited number of experimental plays-each one infinitely long-and perform them simultaneously in encroaching darkness. Drawing inspiration from fractals, repeating patterns recurring at progressively smaller scales (think snowflakes and galaxies), The Infinite Whale takes the audience on a bizarre journey that attempts to fit eternity into 30 minutes.
TOO MUCH LIGHT TRADITIONS
In addition to Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind performances playing Fridays and Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m.; The Neo-Futurists have special events scheduled for December.
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind - The Best of 2016
Friday, Dec. 2 at 11:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 3 at 11:30 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 9 at 11:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 10 at 11:30 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 11 at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $20 with a 'roll-back refund' or $9 plus the roll of a six-sided die at the door
NYE Party & Performance
Saturday, Dec. 31; doors open at 9:30 p.m., performance begins at 11 p.m.
Tickets: $50
The Neo-Futurists have written more than 370 world premieres this year. Now they'll take the first two weekends of December to perform their favorites. Look back on the best of times and the worst of times of 2016 with the ensemble that wrote and responded through it all.
A special New Year's Eve party and performance done in full Neo-Futurist-Fashion. The evening begins with a delicious pre-show reception with brews from Metropolitan Brewery, featuring Poems While You Wait (type-written poetry on demand). Live performances begin at 9:30 p.m. and then at the crack of 11 p.m., the race to midnight kicks off with a Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind performance that will finish just in time for an audience champagne/sparkling apple juice toast at midnight welcoming in 2017.
The Neo-Futurists, performers of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind and creators of more than 65 original, full-length productions, are a collective of wildly productive writer-director-performers who are committed to creating immediate, non-illusory, irreproducible events at affordable prices. The Neo- Futurists pioneered a new form of theater in 1988, launching what became Chicago's longest running show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, now in its 28th year. From humble beginnings as the first late-night theater production in Chicago, The Neo-Futurists have grown to become one of the most highly regarded experimental theater companies in America.
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