Category: Outreach | Education
Raven Theatre takes action again school violence
RAVEN THEATRE TAKES ACTION AGAINST SCHOOL VIOLENCE
A Bird of Prey
Written by Jim Grimsley
Directed by Mechelle Moe and Sullivan High School teacher Stefanie Rivera
Presented in coordination with students from Sullivan High School
Wednesday, December 16 at 6:00 p.m.
No charge for admission (more info)
In a groundbreaking community event, Raven Theatre and students from Sullivan High School join forces to take a stand against school violence with the one night show, A Bird of Prey. Over twenty students are participating in this production in a brave step toward neutralizing the violent forces lurking in their own school in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood.
A Bird of Prey is an educational theatre piece that discusses the lives of today’s youth and the harsh realities they face every day. From difficult situations at home to blatant cruelty from their peers, this play brings to light the extreme danger and inevitable isolation felt by teenagers.
In a tumultuous and frightening year for Chicago Public School students, this Raven Theatre outreach event gives a voice to students whose everyday lives are effected by school violence. Sullivan students present scenes from the play A Bird of Prey, as well as pieces they’ve written on topics of exclusion, violence and community.
The primary goal of this outreach is to shift the source of dialogue from parents and local politicians to the teenagers who are directly effected by violent events – discussing their fears in a safe environment and empowering them to be proponents for change in their own neighborhoods. The evening’s events are sure to resonate throughout the community, not only bringing awareness to this horrifying situation but elevating these students past the label of "victim", giving them the support they need to play a part in a positive, proactive solution.
Beers and Baritones? Only with Chicago Opera Theater
When: November 18, 6pm–8pm
Enjoy a night of mingling and music with unlimited wine, handcrafted beer, and light appetizers at Rock Bottom Brewery for only $25! Opera Underground is COT’s club of young professionals ages 21 to 45.
- The evening will include a short performance from soprano Leila Bowie and baritone Martin Woods, both members of COT’s Young Artists Program.
- Rock Bottom Brewery – 1 West Grand (Grand and State), Chicago, IL – right off the CTA Red Line. Directions
- Win a pair of Opera Underground Subscriptions to Chicago Opera Theater and other great prizes in the FREE business card raffle at the event!
BUY NOW AND SAVE! Tickets are $25 in advance and $35 at the door.
Buy tickets online
or CALL: 312.704.8414
Join in a creative arts conversation with Emerging Leaders Network Chicago at Lookingglass
When: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 | 5:30 pm
Where: Lookingglass Theatre | 821 N. Michigan
With four distinctly different generations now in the workforce and leadership coming from top to bottom and bottom to top, the need to bridge the generation gap among members of the arts community is essential. The rise of social media, lack of programming aimed towards young adults, increase in number of arts administration BA and MA programs, and discrepancy in the school of thought between generations all provide fodder for discussion.
The evening will include food and drinks, networking, and a facilitated discussion between emerging and veteran leaders—all for a suggested donation of $10.
Please join the Emerging Leaders Network Chicago (ELN Chicago) for a Creative Conversation in honor of National Arts and Humanities Month.
(And don’t forget to join us on Facebook at "ELN Chicago")
RSVP by Monday, October 26 by clicking HERE. Space is limited!
New team announced for Theatre Building Chicago’s ‘Musical Theatre Writers Workshop’
Theatre Building Chicago announces it new team of Steinhagen, Holland and Chambers
Theatre Building Chicago is pleased to announce that Jon Steinhagen and Patrick Holland will join Artistic Director Allan Chambers to “team teach” TBC’s Musical Theatre Writers Workshop. The workshop’s curriculum will continue to focus on the development of the artist in specific fundamentals related to creation of new musicals. The Fall semester focuses on lyrics, music and book and the Winter/Spring semester Practicum takes workshop members through the planning, writing and rehearsal process of a new musical. The introductory workshop sessions will be team-taught by Jon Steinhagen, Patrick Holland and Artistic Director Allan Chambers. This triumvirate of theatre artists brings a wealth of musical theatre writing, directing, and teaching experiences to the workshop. Their years of experience will guide members as they instruct and lead the critique sessions for the introductory first year members.
The 2nd year members and alumni writers will also have the opportunity to work with the three instructors separately or as a team, as they present scenes and songs from full length musicals and one-act children’s musicals. There will usually be two of the three at all session of the 2nd year and alumni workshop. The leader of this group will function as dramaturg/moderator to keep workshop feedback sessions focused and on task.
Jon Steinhagen is an author, actor, composer/musician, and Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists. His plays and musicals have been produced or workshopped from Manhattan to Seattle; his plays include The Applewood Pistols (an “original Chekhov comedy” based on Chekhov’s notebooks), The Velvet Gentleman, Something More Comfortable, Second Mouse, Dating Walter Dante, Aces, Ponzi on Sunday, Perfectly Natural, a collection of his shorter plays, was produced at the Midtown International Theatre Festival (NYC) in July 2009. Jon wrote the music and lyrics for the musicals The Arresting Dilemma of Mr. K (based on Kafka’s The Trial), The Circus of Dr. Lao, Emma & Company (all developed at TBC and STAGES) and the Jeff and After Dark Award-winning Inferno Beach and People Like Us. Jon is also an award-winning musical director, arranger, and actor who has received four Jeff Awards, six After Dark Awards, and three Jeff nominations for writing, musical direction, or acting. Jon is a graduate of the New Tuners Workshops led by John Sparks. He is an associate member of
The Dramatist’s Guild, a member of the Chicago Federation of Musicians, and ensemble member of Signal Ensemble Theatre.
Patrick Holland is a professional Music Director, Conductor, Arranger, Orchestrator, Musician, and Educator has had the pleasure of working with Theatre Building Chicago on many projects over the past 10 years on such STAGES projects as Crazy Mary, Bringers, Continental Divide, The Hard Road, Take Me America, Hunger, and Rex. Patrick has also had the pleasure of working with Allan Chambers on Saints & Sinners as part of the workshop mini-musical project in conjunction
with Loyola University of Chicago. Patrick’s Broadway and National Tout credits include The King and I (with Yul Brynner), Hello Dolly (with Carol Channing), Guys and Dolls (with Leslie Uggams), A Chorus Line, Annie, The Pirates of Penzance and La Cage aux Folles to name a handful. He has had the honor of working in New York and Chicago with industry giants Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Herman, Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin, and Tommy Tune. In the Chicagoland area Patrick has worked with The Goodman Theatre, Light Opera Works, Bailiwick, Theatre Building Chicago, and Chicago Cabaret. He has taught music and musical direction at
Northwestern University, Loyola University and Roosevelt University.
Allan Chambers, Artistic Director of TBC, has served in many capacities for Theatre Building Chicago including dramaturg, director, workshop coordinator and actor. Allan oversees theatre company client services and now directs the musical program. He is the past-president of the Illinois Theatre Association,
a founding and former board member of Chicago Alliance for Playwrights, and artistic consultant for Creative Musical Theatre, an honors class dedicated to the development of new music theatre voices at Valparaiso High School. Allan has served as an adjunct instructor at Robert Morris College and at North Park University, and has worked in various capacities with the Goodman Theatre, Music/Theatre Workshop, Our Town Productions, Prologue Theatre, American DreamWorks, Different Drummer Theatre, Bailiwick Repertory, The Western Stage, Cabrillo Stage, Bigfork Playhouse and North Shore Music Theatre. M.F.A., musical theatre, San Diego State University. B.S., theatre acting/directing, University of Idaho.
About the Workshop
The first workshop will be the weekend of September 26-27.
Aspiring composers, lyricists and book writers are encouraged to contact TBC’s Artistic Director, Allan Chambers to schedule a personal interview to assess your skill level and to learn if the Musical Writer’s Workshop can benefit you in your quest to create new musical works.
Allan can be reached at 773-929-7367 ext 229 or at allan@theatrebuildingchicago.org
Theatre Building Chicago has plans to strategically grow the musical program from the ground up. The Musical Theatre Writers Workshop is the first stage in the development of new projects that will then be ready for Monday Night Musicals, STAGES Festivals, Intensive Workshops, and eventually onto full-scale productions.
The New Musicals for Kids development pipeline is filling up with exciting new projects from TBC’s workshop as well as the NYU Tisch School MFA program.
TBC also produces the Monday Night Musicals series of concert readings of works in progress. The first Monday Night Musical of the 2009/2010 season is The Spark, October 26, 2009. TBC’s New Musicals for Kids series will open with Tantrum on Tracks October 14, 2009.
TBC’s Musical Theatre Writers Workshop produces the STAGES festival of new musicals. STAGES will be held August 20-22, 2010. Attendees include producers, directors, writers, composers and musical theatre aficionados from all over the country. STAGES is an opportunity for authors and composers to see and hear their work interpreted by a production team and performed for Chicago audiences. It is also an opportunity for producers and directors to assess new musicals
and musical theatre talent.
3-Day New York theatre trip offered by Heron PR
Noreen Heron & Associates has announced that they are offering their first ever Broadway tour of New York Oct 15 – 18 (3 nights.) From the scheduled shows, it looks like a great time will be had by all:
1. First off, they were able to score 40 tickets to THE hottest show on Broadway, A STEADY RAIN starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, and one of the producers, Ray Gaspard, is kind enough to share his time for a talk back session.
2. You’ll then see the wildly popular musical BILLY ELLIOT, with a score by Elton John sweeping last year’s Tony Awards.
The package will also include dinner at Tavern on the Green, transportation between the airport, hotel, and restaurant, admission to a choice of six tourist attractions including the Empire State Building Observatory, Museum of the City of New York, the New York Water Taxi Statue of Liberty Express Cruise, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History or the top of the Rock Observation Deck. Shopping discounts and vouchers for coupon books are also included.
Rates for the Heron PR Broadway Tour are as follows: $1,999.00 for single occupancy, $1,799.00 for double occupancy, $1,599.00 for triple occupancy and $1,399.00 for quadruple occupancy. Mention the code APPLE and save $100 when booking by August 30. For more information on this exclusive tour or to book your trip today, please contact Noreen Heron & Associates, Inc. at 773.969.5200.
Think Fast – Jerry Springer, theatre ticket refunds?, Tim Gunn, and Writers’ Theatre London tour
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Random thoughts: School theatre-trips cancelled, “Bruno” banned, “Harry Potter” Vatican-approved
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Michelle Obama – Arts Warrior!
I’m excited to report that, during her second New York City visit, first lady Michelle Obama spent her time emphasizing the crucial role the arts play in our society, reopening part of the American wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday and later addressing the crowd at a glittering ballet gala – where she was greeted with enthusiastic ovations from audiences that included prominent figures in politics, the arts, entertainment and fashion.
She stressed the importance of giving young people better access to the arts:
“The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it,” she said at the museum. “Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.”
“The president and I want to ensure that all children have access to great works of art,” she told a crowd that included students from four New York City public schools that focus on the arts. “We want all children who believe in their talent to see a way to create a future for themselves in the arts community, either as a hobby or as a profession.”
Mrs. Obama also she reminded the audience that her husband, President Barack Obama, had included an additional $50 million (yeah!) for the National Endowment for the Arts in his economic stimulus package.
It was hardly the first time Michelle surprised the art world with her involvement, and it’s looking as if it’ll be far from the last. She and the president have gone to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to watch the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. They attended the reopening of the newly renovated Ford’s Theater, where Lincoln was assassinated. She’s been spotted at Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre, for a Welcome to Washington event that included performances by the Washington Ballet, the Arena Stage, the Washington National Opera, and other groups.
Mrs. Obama spoke in the newly renovated Charles Engelhard Court, a striking room filled with sunlight, in front of the Greek Revival-style facade of an early 19th-century bank branch that was originally on Wall Street. She wore a bright purple Isaac Mizrahi sheath and coat. To the amusement of a crowd that included Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Vogue editor Anna Wintour, former model Iman and designer Ralph Lauren, Mrs. Obama was reminded by museum president Emily Rafferty that she and the president had their first date in a museum. (aside: how cool is that?!?)
“Thank you for reminding me,” Mrs. Obama said. “You know, after 20-some-odd years of knowing a guy, you forget that your first date was at a museum. But it was, and it was obviously wonderful; it worked.”
Michelle also met with arts luminaries in the gallery in the Egyptian wing named for Hatshepsut, the woman who ruled as pharaoh. “We thought it would be appropriate,” says Emily Rafferty.
After meeting with a group of arts leaders, the first lady changed into evening clothes and headed to American Ballet Theatre’s spring gala at the Metropolitan Opera House, a highlight of the city’s social calendar. Among the glitterati: Actresses Sigourney Weaver, Kim Raver, and Rosemary Harris; New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, opera singer Renee Fleming, and Wintour, who pronounced the evening “wonderful _ wonderful for the ballet, wonderful for the arts.”
The crowd rose in enthusiastic applause _ one man shouted, “Brava!” _ as Mrs. Obama, dressed in a black Alaia dress and Thakoon jacket, was introduced by Caroline Kennedy, whose mother, Jackie Kennedy, was a longtime supporter of the arts.
“My husband and I believe strongly that arts education is essential for building innovative thinkers who will be our nation’s leaders for tomorrow,” the first lady said, before introducing a multiracial cast of ballet students from ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, who leaped and pirouetted their way to a huge ovation.
FYI: parts of this story are from http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-05-19/obamas-new-arts-czar/
Think Fast: Talk Like Shakespeare, Oz Ball, iPhone theatre
In honor of “Talk Like Shakespeare Day“, Chicago Public School students talk like Shakespeare…..
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Think Fast: Chicago Dramatists’ fundraiser and Porchlight Theatre in Japan
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