Encore! A Deleted Scene From the Circle

by Blog

Ensemble member and From the Circle storyteller Audrey Bertaux-Skeirik shares the wonderful story of Gluskabe a Native American legend that didn’t quite make it into From the Circle: Remembering the Earth through Folktales.

Here’s a little secret. There was never a script (per se) for From the Circle: Remembering the Earth Through Folktakes. Instead, there were stories, from books, from oral tradition, from memory, from personal experience, and even from science we extracted these stories that were used in the performance. Throughout the rehearsal processes we tested out a multitude of stories that, over time, came and went, were shortened, lengthened, cut and pasted, exchanged for different versions, and ultimately fourteen stories made it to the stage.
But what about the stories that didn’t make it to the stage? Here is one that almost made it in, but ultimately was cut from the show the week before we opened.

A large statue of Gluskabe beside the town hall of Parrsboro, Nova Scotia

THE CREATION OF GLUSKABE (Abridged)

When the Creator finished making the world, he dusted off his hands and from those sprinkles of dust Gluskabe formed himself. Gluskabe sat up and walked around and the Creator exclaimed how wonderful Gluskabe was!
“I am wonderful because you sprinkled me!” said Gluskabe
Then the Creator and Gluskabe walk over the whole world, exclaiming on its beauty and wonder!

It is a delightfully simple story about creation, appreciation, and wonder. But why did we remove this story? Ultimately we found that these elements were already in other stories we were telling, and although the story was interesting and engaging, it led the show to linger, rather than propelling it forward.
Gluskabe shows up in many folk tales and has a multitude of adventures, so if this deleted scene caught your attention, you may want to read more Gluskabe stories!

More Resources

Ms. Ritchey Goes to Washington

by Blog

Artistic Director Julie Ritchey waxes poetic about her friend and countryman Abraham Lincoln as she examines how stories continue to shape our nation.

I have to admit that I am a little bit obsessed with Abraham Lincoln. So when I found myself in Washington DC for a whirlwind weekend at AATE’s theatre leadership institute, my first stop after leaving the airport was the National Mall for a quick visit to the Lincoln Memorial.

After living in the world of From the Circle: Remembering the Earth through Folktales for the last several months, I’ve definitely had folktales on the brain. To be there, at the National Mall, looking at all the monuments got me thinking about our American folktales – and not just Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyon, but the stories – some true, some legend – of the history of our country and, by association, what it means to be an American. Although I generally don’t consider myself to be overly patriotic, it’s hard to walk down the National Mall, looking at the monuments, memorials, and vibrant fall leaves and not feel a little bit like Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

I had only visited DC twice before, and had forgotten the inscription above the statue of Lincoln that reads “In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.” The phrase resonated with me like a folktale, a story that we all carry a piece of and a relationship to – a sort of celebration of collective memory. That all the people, all the events of human history are broken up into little pieces, little stories, and carried in the hearts of the people.

I read the Gettysburg Address, the Second Inaugural Address, and watched as people took their photographs in front of the giant statue of Abe himself. Then, to enjoy the beautiful day in that beautiful place, I turned around to sit on the steps and write. The reflecting pool was completely torn up, crawling with bulldozers and workers in hard hats. At first I was disappointed – it was certainly a less majestic view of the Mall, with dirt and plastic fence in place of that long, smooth stretch of water. But then it took on a kind of poetry, with Abraham Lincoln in his marble chair, overlooking a giant rebuilding project.

With the protests, the wars, the upcoming elections, we are all in the middle of a Great Rebuilding. We do not know how it will end, or how history will tell the story in the generations to come. But someday, many years from now, these stories will be forever enshrined in the hearts of the people for whom we are working to rebuild this union.

Something Incredible

by Blog

“From The Circle” is in rehearsal at the Dank Haus. I am outside in the hall with another actor, crouched low over a small music player. We are trying to hear each note and find a “sticking place” for this song in our brains, because if we are going to sing in harmony in from of strangers, this song needs to be very deeply stuck. So we listen and hum along, slowly, slowly beginning to learn our respective parts. Finally, another actor pulls out his guitar, we set a key, and dive into the piece in earnest. And I am so glad to be singing.

Remembering the Earth Series

by Events

REMEMBERING THE EARTH SERIES

Join Filament on any Sunday afternoon at 2pm thru November 13th to see From the Circle: Remembering the Earth through Folktales and learn more about environmentalism in Chicago.

-Story Jam – Sunday, October 22nd

Audience members will be given an opportunity to share their own stories after the show. (Stories should be no more than 10 minutes)


-Active Transportation Alliance – Sunday, October 29th

John Lankford of the Active Transportation Alliance will discuss the great invention of the bicycle. (Attendees who bike to this event will be entered into a raffle for bike swag by displaying their bike helmets)

-Southeast Environmental Task Force – Sunday, November 6th

Bryant Williams, Vice President of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, will discuss local environmental initiatives and discuss how you can get involved.

-Foresight Design Initiative – Sunday, November 13th

Peter Nicholson of Foresight Design Initiative will lead a talk back delving deeper into the themes of From the Circle: Remembering the Earth though Folktales.

 

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATIONS

Southeast Environmental Task Force
www.southeastenvironmental.org
The Southeast Environmental Task Force works to empower residents and students on the Southeast Side and the south suburbs of Chicago to improve their local environment. It also promotes pollution prevention and progressive business practices in Calumet region facilities. Another focus is the preservation, restoration, and enhancement of the region’s natural areas and sustainable development of its industrial lands.

Active Transportation Alliance
www.activetrans.org
The mission of Active Transportation Alliance is to make bicycling, walking and public transit so safe, convenient and fun that we will achieve a significant shift from environmentally harmful, sedentary travel to clean, active travel. We advocate for transportation that encourages and promotes safety, physical activity, health, recreation, social interaction, equity, environmental stewardship and resource conservation.

Foresight Design Initiative
www.foresightdesign.org
Since 2003, Foresight Design Initiative has been consulting individuals and organizations on sustainable development in Chicago, in Illinois, and beyond. We like to think of ourselves as a nimble culture change studio. And we like to think of you as a fellow change agent.

Filament to Speak at Green Drinks Chicago

by Events

Filament is excited to be part of this month’s Chicago Green Drinks as the featured Non-Profit. We are proud of our ongoing relationship with Foresight Design Initiative as their Artist is Residence.

What role do the arts play in dealing with environmental challenges and fostering social action? Please join us at Green Drinks next Tuesday, Sept 13, where the topic of discussion will be “Behind the Curtain – Making Art Sustainable,”  focusing on the efforts of Filament Theatre Ensemble as they pioneer zero waste theatre for their upcoming production, From the Circle: Remembering the Earth Through Folktales. The potential in Filament’s vision can only be realized if Chicago’s artistic community is committed to collaboration. Bring your colleagues to enrich the evening’s discussion and join the effort to reimagine the evolving relationship between art and the environment.

More Information | Register

About Foresight Green Drinks:

Foresight Green Drinks is Chicago’s oldest and best-known monthly sustainability gathering. Designed to catalyze the connections and awareness necessary to create a more sustainable city, each event features power networking and informal mingling with a diverse cross section of professionals, and an enriching panel discussion.

Location & Directions:

Jefferson Tap & Grill
325 N. Jefferson (view map)
(in the West Loop just three blocks east of the Loop at the corner of Jefferson and Fulton).
(312) 648-0100

  • BUS: Buses that have stops in the vicinity: #56, 8, 65, 20, 14, and 127
  • SUBWAY: Take the Green Line to the Clinton stop (Clinton & Lake), walk 1 block west to Jefferson, and then 1.5 blocks north
  • METRA: The Metra Ogilvie Transportation Center (aka Northwestern Station) is about 1 block east and 3 1/2 blocks south
  • BIKES: Are welcome!
  • AUTO: Street parking is available

The SUSTAIN 36 Theatre Project

by Events


The Filament Theatre Ensemble is thrilled to present a brand new theatrical experiment: the SUSTAIN36 Theatre Project. In partnership with Zaarly, the marketplace that helps you buy and sell with people nearby, Filament will attempt to create a brand new, locally-sourced, world premiere theatrical production in 36 hours.

Beginning at 8:00am on Wednesday August 24, a team of artists from the Filament Theatre Ensemble will take up residence in a vacant storefront at 4047 N. Milwaukee Ave. Starting with nothing but a title (provided by a winning applicant from Zaarly),  (UPDATE: The title of Filament’s world premiere production is Vacant City/Glow.) Filament will begin the process of creating a completely original play. Throughout the next 36 hours, Filament will look to the community for all aspects of the production – sets, costumes, audience seating, volunteer contributors – via the Zaarly platform, which will allow users to bid on the offers on the website, the Android or iPhone app. Community members can then share their stuff or their time in exchange for a ticket to the SUSTAIN36 Theatre Project performance which will be performed Thursday, August 25 at 8:00pm, a mere 36 hours after the playwriting process began.

The Filament Theatre Ensemble is committed to producing theatre in a folk tradition with an emphasis on community, imagination, and sustainability. Embracing an old-world system of borrowing, bartering, and trading, adapted to our modern world through the internet, Zaarly encourages a neighborhood-centric marketplace for the exchange of goods and services. This old world system made new is what excites Filament about this adventurous community supported theatre project. Theatre is by its nature an intensely collaborative art-form, and through this project Filament hopes to further explore the concept of Community Supported Theatre, as they did previously this season through a unique ticketing platform for Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice.

Following the SUSTAIN36 Theatre Project performance, there will be a party during which the Filament Theatre Ensemble will announce their 2011-2012 season. Come be the first to hear the exciting news!

To participate in the SUSTAIN36 Theatre Project, visit us online at www.filamenttheatre.org, get the up-to-the-minute updates on Twitter using the hashtag #sustain36, and follow the listing updates on Zaarly.

Tickets for the SUSTAIN36 event, which includes an after party with food and drinks provided, are $36 and can be obtained by visiting http://sustain36theatreproject.eventbrite.com. In lieu of purchasing a ticket, audience members can contribute to the SUSTAIN36 Theatre Project by answering requests for production needs on Zaarly. All items will be returned to their owners after the performance.

 

 

About Zaarly. Zaarly is a platform that allows users to easily get the goods, services, and experiences they want. With Zaarly, people can post what they want, when they want it and what price they are willing to pay and someone in the Zaarly community can fulfill it. This two-way, community-powered process provides convenience and flexibility to buyers while allowing sellers to make money fulfilling requests from the people around them. Zaarly is based in San Francisco, CA and is backed by investors, including Ashton Kutcher, Felicis Ventures, Bill Lee, Naval Ravikant, Lightbank, SV Angel, Paul Buchheit, Thrive Capital and Michael Arrington. Zaarly is currently available on the web, mobile web, iPhone and Android application. Visit www.zaarly.com for more information.

A Note From Filament About Community, Imagination, and Sustainability. These three ideas are inextricably linked to both each other and to the values of the Filament Theatre Ensemble. One cannot build community without celebrating the unique imaginations of the individuals who make that community. Communities are enriched when consumers support locally owned businesses, which is an important aspect of sustainability. We strive to make theatre a sustainable lifestyle for our community of artists, and always provide monetary compensation for their extraordinary and imaginative work. Producing a show in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way demands a great deal of imagination and non-traditional approaches. With all the work we do – whether during a production, audition, meeting, or outreach event – we strive to make an investment in our audiences, our artists, and our world. Through building and strengthening community, engaging and challenging the imagination, and the use of sustainable business practices, we endeavor to leave the world a little better than the way we found it.

The Filament Theatre Ensemble ceaselessly ventures to connect with and explore the vast world around us. We value and honor this interconnected web that makes up our relationships with each other and with our world.  By emphasizing community, imagination, and sustainability in all our work, we strive to make choices that have a long-lasting positive impact across a broad spectrum, and not just “pieces in isolation.”

 

**Filament would like to extend our sincere thanks to Alderman John Arena of Ward 45, Julie Burros from the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, David Zoltan, Tim McDonald, Cyd Smillie, Domino’s Pizza, Pop Chips, Piece Pizza, Eventbrite, Turin Homes, the Portage Theatre and the whole Zaarly team for making this project possible.

orpheus, filament theatre ensemble, jack novak, bouffons, dj puzzle

Sympathy for the Bouffon

by Blog

So… those creepy clown things in ORPHEUS: Featuring DJ Puzzle as Fate…  Who are they? What are they thinking?  Where do they come from?  Well, here to answer all your questions is Filament’s literary manager and Bouffon Extraordinare, Jack Novak.  And now that you have all the inside scoop, come see Jack for yourself in ORPHEUS on Fridays and Saturdays through May 29. Click HERE for more information.

orpheus, filament theatre ensemble, jack novak, bouffons, dj puzzle

Jack Novak (left) and his fellow Bouffons

In ORPHEUS: Featuring DJ Puzzle as Fate, we have stripped away many of the myth’s traditional elements. As substitute for the destructive forces of the story – the serpent which kills Eurydice, Hades, and the Maenads who ultimately tear Orpheus apart – we have put in place three bouffons. In our production, these disfigured and slightly mysterious beings are denizens of the underworld, who come to the club to wreak havoc on Orpheus, his bride, and the world of light.

For those less familiar with the intricate pedagogies of physical theatre, the bouffon, in its most contemporary sense, is a term devised by French actor and teacher Jacques Lecoq. I’m not qualified, nor do I have the time or patience, to write out a background on Lecoq here, but I would recommend a quick trip to Wikipedia if you’ve never heard of him. However, to give you a basic idea, bouffon is one of Lecoq’s dramatic territories – a sort of archetype, like clown or Commedia. Some precursors to Lecoq’s concept of the bouffon include the court jesters of the European monarchs – who were given the privilege of freely criticizing or mocking the people of the court, to provide entertainment or insight, like the fools of Shakespeare’s plays – as well as the satyrs of Greek mythology and the grotesquely parodic satyr plays of ancient Greek and Roman theatre (and coincidentally, one version of the Orpheus myth tells of Eurydice getting bitten by the venomous serpent while fleeing a satyr). Similarly to the satyrs and royal fools, the bouffon’s central characteristic is its instinct to mock everything around it. Lecoq writes in The Moving Body, (his book on his methods of instruction) “Their function was not to make fun of a particular individual, but more generally of everyone, of society as a whole. Bouffons enjoy themselves, for their whole life is spent having fun imitating aspects of human life. Their great delight is to make war, fight, tear out each other’s guts.” Yes, the bouffon relishes in destruction as well as basic mockery, and in our production, the bouffons do a lot of damage – we mangle a beautiful flower, we tear apart a star-crossed love, and we dismember the greatest musician of all time. It is this destructive quality of the bouffon that often puts the word “evil” in the audience member’s mind, and with good reason, but I question – are the bouffons really evil?

My Orpheus cast-mates and I had generally sparse experience with the concept of bouffon, and even our fantastic director & Filament Associate Artistic Director, Omen Sade, who commands a deep understanding of physical theatre (the phrase “master comic” has been bandied about here and there), admitted to us from the beginning that his knowledge of bouffon, specifically, only went so far as he had read about it. So we embarked on a journey of experimentation, and what we ended up with is really a unique fusion of Commedia-style mask work, clown, grotesque, and Mime, all overlaid with the philosophy of the bouffon as we understood it. I did come into this process with a little bit of physical theatre training – a lot of Mime, some red nose clown, neutral mask, a smidge of Commedia – but my only knowledge of bouffon was

Bouffons in Rehearsal

a brief mention on the last day of a clown workshop with Giovanni Fusetti (a Lecoq-trained pedagogue himself). He had a group of us do a very basic exercise, in which we clustered onstage and went from audience member to audience member, singling each out by pointing and laughing cruelly. On our first day of Orpheus workshops, Omen had us play out part of the story in extreme grotesque parody. So I started to construct an understanding of the bouffon psychology, and one of the most immediately distinct things about playing this way was how much fun it could be. Lecoq writes, “No one is more of a child than the bouffon and no one is more of a bouffon than a child.” The parody that the bouffon creates is not highly intellectual – there’s no elegantly constructed satire here – it is more like the playground antics of a group of children, and opening myself up to that experience invoked a kind of pre-adolescent delight. What makes the bouffon really hard to watch, though, is that they bring this type of play to the realm of tragedy. So, in contrast to the fun one has inhabiting the bouffon, is the experience of looking up to the audience, expecting to see them laughing along with you, and seeing instead looks of disgust.

A funny thing about working on a devised physical theatre piece like this one is that the traditional rehearsal process gets flipped. Instead of starting with text work and extended thought about motive, objective, subtext, etc., we constructed this story from the outside in – beginning with isolated physical bits, slowly fitting them together into an arc, and finally examining the internal specifics of the characters. As such, it wasn’t really until a couple weeks ago that someone actually asked, “why do the bouffons want to destroy Orpheus?” We had taken the goal of destroying Orpheus for given, and hadn’t completely examined how the bouffons fit precisely into our telling of the story. We did have design concepts from our costume designer, Mieka van der Ploeg, which characterized the bouffons in this club world as a gang of neo-punk nihilists (and a particularly astute parallel pointed out by one of my cast mates is the group of nihilists in The Big Lebowski). That wasn’t something we really excavated until this late point in the process, but it is immanently clear that bouffons, when placed in the same space with non-bouffons, become societal outcasts, which fits beautifully with the nihilist archetype. Meanwhile, Orpheus is the very epicenter of society, of light, of love, of music. Omen noted a parallel between our bouffon and Dante’s vision of Satan – in the Inferno, Hell is the crater formed by Satan’s epic fall from grace, and Satan sits at its center, which is the very point of greatest distance from God’s love. To draw another parallel, for Dante, God’s love was embodied by the sun, and Orpheus is the son of Apollo – the Greek god of the sun. The bouffon, particularly our lead bouffon, (essentially Hades) played by Lindsey Dorcus, are people who are devoid of love, like Dante’s Satan. When they look in on club Dionysus, and see the Nymphs in their joyous revelry, and see Orpheus wrapping up the crowd in ecstatic worship, they do not understand it. In fact, it is so far from their understanding that, to them, it is completely stupid, and they are compelled to show the crowd how idiotic it all is. In particular, they want to show everyone that Orpheus is a fool, which ultimately means reducing him to ruin. Here’s another Lecoq quote: “In their rituals, bouffons do not invoke heavenly powers, they spit on them! They invoke earthy forces; they are on the side of the devil and the underworld.” One of the objectives our bouffons enter this story with, aside from destroying Orpheus, is to turn club Dionysus into club Underworld. You’ll have to see for yourself if they succeed.

Jack in Rehearsal

Will the bouffons disgust you? Probably a little bit, but they might also fascinate you, and as we’ve been getting new audiences into the club, the bouffon have, I believe, managed to bring some guests to their side, if only for a moment. There’s even a laugh here and there. Are the bouffons evil? If evil means malevolence, destruction for the sake of destruction, ill will born of irrational hatred, then I would say no. They simply have no way of interacting with society other than to mock it. Lecoq, again, probably never intended this kind of realist speculation, but as an actor I ultimately decided (and again, this came at the very end of the process – during previews, in fact) that I needed to understand a little more about my bouffon’s origin. I won’t divulge too much, as it’s mostly irrelevant, but I asked myself how a person in the real world might come to have such an aversion to society, and I thought of someone who has been confronted by extreme loss – the death of a loved one – and who is thenceforth unable to understand joy in the world. When Orpheus sings his song of loss to the denizens of the underworld, my bouffon experiences empathy for one brief moment, as he realizes he, too, has felt the pain of such a loss. So, hate the bouffons all you want – spit on them, be disgusted by them, heckle them (and expect us to heckle you back) – but please, don’t call them evil. Have some sympathy for the bouffon.

2010-2011 Season

by 2010-2011Production History

Choose Thine Own Adventure

Adapted from William Shakespeare by Allison Powell*
October 2010-December 2010 at the Underground Lounge

Production Team:
Director: Julie Ritchey*
Scenic Design: Amy C. Gilman
Costume Design: Kristen Ahern
Lighting Design: Will Dean
Stage Management: Kathleen Wenzlick

Cast:
Dromio: Marco Minichiello
Antiono: Ped Nesari
Bernardo: Omen Sade*
Rosalind: Mary Spearen*

Arlecchino’s Odyssey

Conceived by Omen Sade*
Written by Julie Ritchey* & Omen Sade*
April 2011 at the Den Theatre

Production Team
Director: Julie Ritchey*
Lazzi Director: Elizabeth Bagby
Costume Design: Mieka van der Ploeg
Set Design: Omen Sade*

Cast
Arlecchino: Omen Sade*
Musician: Mary Spearen*

Eurydice

by Sarah Ruhl
April 2011-May 2011 at the Lacuna Artist Lofts

Production Team:
Directed by Julie Ritchey*
Stage Management by Luke Heiden
Original Music by Peter Oyloe* and Shannon Bengford
Costume Design by Mieka van der Ploeg
Lighting Design by Kyle Land
Set Design by Joe Schermoly
Sound Design by Andrew Surasky, Peter Oyloe*, and Shannon Bengford

Cast:
Eurydice: Carolyn Faye Kramer*
Orpheus: Peter Oyloe*
Eurydice’s Father: Patrick Blashill
Nasty Interesting Man/Lord of the Underworld: Nathan Pease
Loud Stone: Brandon Cloyd
Big Stone: Ted Evans
Little Stone: Ashley Alvarez

Orpheus: Featuring DJ Puzzle as Fate

conceived and directed by Omen Sade*
April 2011-May 2011 at the Lacuna Artist Lofts

Production Team:
Adapted and Directed by Omen Sade*
Original Music by Jason Donnelly (“DJ Puzzle”)
Additional music by Kevin Crowley
Stage Management by Kiri Palm
Costume Design by Mieka van der Ploeg
Original Mask Design by Jeff Semmerling
Lighting Design by Kyle Land
Set Design by Joe Schermoly

Cast
Fate: Jason “DJ Puzzle” Donnelly
Orpheus: Kevin Crowley
Eurydice: Audrey Bertaux-Skeirik
Lead Bouffon: Lindsey Dorcus
Second Bouffon: Jack Novak*
Third Bouffon: Nathan Paul
Nymphs: Alyssa Duerksen, Becca Drew Emmerich, Ashley Moret

Allie’s Gift 2011 Announcement

by Allie's Gift

Kevin Barry Crowley

The Filament Theatre Ensemble is thrilled to announce that the 2011 recipient of Allie’s Gift is Kevin Barry Crowley.

Allie’s Gift is an annual financial gift given to a Chicago artist in honor of Allison Powell, Filament’s business manager from February 2010 to her untimely passing on January 2, 2011. Allie had a business mind with an artistic heart. Like so many of us, Allie aspired to ultimately earn a living in the arts, but held day jobs in the meantime to support herself and save money for graduate school. As she wrote in her first correspondence with Filament when discussing her day job, “I love art, but I also love food.” She worked with us to begin setting a path for Filament to create a financially sustainable model where we may one day support an administrative staff as well as the artists who work with us. The Filament Theatre Ensemble will award Allie’s Gift annually on her birthday to one Chicago artist who demonstrates passion, dedication, and a love for their art in addition to a financial need.

We are so honored to be celebrating Allie’s memory through the giving of this award. Her parents, Dayle and Will Spencer, gave a generous donation to the Allie’s Gift fund, ensuring that we could extend this gift in her honor. We are grateful to their contributions,  just as we are grateful for the contributions of their wonderful daughter, who helped us grow our company so much.

Kevin Barry Crowley is a consummate artist, collaborator, and all-around wonderful person – qualities Allie demonstrated and valued in her own life. Below is a statement from Kevin, giving a bit of his personal background and his intended use of the gift.

I hail from Springfield, MA. I have been acting and playing music since I was 17. I attended Salem State College in Salem, MA where I was greatly encouraged to pursue both things professionally. And so I have. I got my Master’s in Acting from Roosevelt in 2009 and have been working steadily since. I am getting married in the fall to a true Chicagoan and fellow thespian, Leslie Frame, who I met working on Wilson Wants It All with The House Theatre. I am currently in the process of creating a one-man show which will incorporate original music in many styles and a wide array of characters. I enjoy transforming and I enjoy the experience of things changing in front of my eyes and ears. I think it’s representative of the nature of life and aesthetically pleasing as well when a piece of theatre brings with it a wide range of emotional life.

I have been wanting to get a keyboard for some time. While I was in school at Roosevelt University from 2006 to 2009 I taught myself how to play piano and since I haven’t had access to the schools computers I’m not able to play as much. I find myself going downtown to the Harold Washington Library a couple times a month for no other reason then to just play. As an actor and a musician it is, of course, difficult to make ends meet, and having both talents could mean being able to find work in the theater as an actor and a musician. Some of the most fulfilling projects I’ve had so far, including Orpheus: Featuring DJ Puzzle as Fate, have allowed me to showcase both talents. It’s a very important task to increase the role of music in my career. It keeps bringing about great things.

I am so honored! It fills my heart with joy to accept this gift from Filament on behalf of Allie.

-Kevin Barry Crowley

building the set, community supported theatre, filament

Community Supported Theatre

by Blog
building the set, community supported theatre, filament

Putting it together.

We of the Filament Theatre Ensemble are thrilled to introduce you to the Filament Marketplace, our new alternative to traditional ticket sales.

As part of our commitment to community, imagination, and sustainability, the Filament Theatre Ensemble is re-imagining our ticketing system for our 2011 spring productions. As a company, we were inspired by the model of Community Supported Agriculture and wondered what that would look like translated into the world of theatre.

When you buy a ticket to one of our shows, your money is going directly towards that production’s budget or our season operating budget. You are giving us the funds to provide costumes, sets, pay rent, and compensate our artists. By exploring a model of Community Supported Theatre, we hope to illuminate this transaction – eliminating the middle man, this mysterious “ticket” – and show you dollar for dollar where your money is going.

Yes, you choose where your money goes. You want to support the artists? Sponsor a costume? Help us pay our rent? With our wide range of sponsorship prices (from $5 to $35), you can not only specifically choose where to allocate your sponsorship, but you can also select how much money you wish to invest.

The Filament Theatre Ensemble values transparency in all areas of the company. We are striving be transparent in all our financial exchanges with our audiences as well.

Through our Community Supported Theatre system, you will be able to sponsor a specific item from the show, or sponsor towards meeting a budget goal such as actor stipends, rent, etc. For each item you choose to sponsor, we invite you to come see the product of your investment! Sponsor two items? Two people come see. And so on.

The cost is broken down with our real budget numbers. We are so grateful for your patronage and for your financial sponsorship – we want you to know exactly where your money is going.

Producing a play is a community effort, one that is supported on all sides from artists, administrators, and audiences, and we are thrilled to move towards a ticketing model that honors and celebrates that community.

Don’t hesitate to ask us if you have any questions!  We are eager to test this new system, and your questions and feedback will be a huge asset in helping us grow and learn.

Warmly,
The Folks at the Filament Theatre Ensemble

Click here to visit the Filament Marketplace!

Show Information:
From the Circle: Remembering the Earth Through Folktales
September 30-November 13
Fri. and Sat. at 8:00pm and Sun. at 2:00pm

All performances are at The Den Theatre
1333 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago

Coming Home

by Blog

Ensemble member Carolyn Faye Kramer recently returned to Chicago after five months studying in Israel.  Here she shares her experiences abroad – and jumping right back into life with Filament.  See Carolyn as the title role in Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, coming to the Lacuna Artist Lofts April 20-May 29.

Remember when you were little and you would try and sit at the bottom of a pool? Cross legged, blowing bubbles through your nose, pushing your arms up against the forces of not-gravity in order to keep yourself planted. In this space, if you open your eyes, the whole world is blue. And if you listen to the words of your best friend as she passes you a cup of imaginary tea, it sounds like a strange, muffled, far away, almost-but-not-quite song.  Your hair lifts off your neck, the stinging of the chlorine subsides, and you can see things as they must be seen from the eyes of a fish (a fish who happens to live its life in a swimming pool). Coming up from your tea party, your eyes burn from the shock of the chlorine, and your shoulders are cold from the wind, and you are so relieved to be taking in this familiar atmosphere: air!

Coming home to Filament was an experience similar to that of coming up for air.

In October of 2010, I made my way to Pardes Hanna, Israel, jumped in, and swam at the bottom of that pool for five months. Everything in this new place was stirring and strange to me: the sounds, the tastes, the rich red color of the dirt and the shape of the trees (the best of which looked like Jurassic Period heads of broccolini). At night, bats would furiously wing their way through the cover of the branches. My favorite houses were the ones without roofs that solitarily stood in abandoned fields or orange groves – peeling cement blocks that nature had decided to take back, so that trees and vines grew wild through their windows and up towards the sky. Strangers invite you into their homes for Friday night dinners and offer you cup after cup of nana tea, a kind of mint that grows wild in virtually everyone’s backyard. For the first two months, whenever I opened my mouth to speak a word of Hebrew, I would immediately begin to speak in Spanish (a language that I had not explored since high school).

Before I arrived in Israel, I decided to study dance, movement, and performance at a school called Artness, and so spent most of my time in a

Movement at Artness

sun filled studio, finding strength I did not know that I had, and experiencing the biggest moments of frustration in my life so far; “Don’t explain to me what you are doing with your face. Use your body.” So, each day I would enter the studio and try, try, try, to steer away from the form of expression to which I was most accustomed. Soon afterwards, I came to realize that my words were not something I could rely on either: when I chose to use them, so much of their significance was lost in the translation of things. What I did have was my body. So I learned to swim – metaphorically, that is.

To say that landing in Logan airport in late February was a bit disorienting would be a great understatement. As soon as I returned to the States, I experienced reverse culture shock in a major way. Starbucks and shopping malls, and business men reading English newspapers – English newspapers! For the first time in months, I could read the news – I suddenly went from sounding out street signs, to communicating with the world around me in a way that I had taken for granted my whole life. Furthermore, the in-flight movie on my way home was Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. This is not to say that these things do not exist in Israel – shopping malls, coffee chains, and consumerism of all kinds – but, I had been living in such a way that I did not interact with them nearly as much as I do here. I was in class for most of my time and living very simply the rest– with few belongings, attachments, and little spare cash to spend on anything other than bus and train fare – in what could be described as a green, bohemian, “Artness” sort of atmosphere.

Making new friends.

What’s more, I had not “acted” since the summer. Fears and doubts peeked their way between my ribs and up under my collar bones, but I swallowed them as best I could. I was scared. Towards the end of my time abroad, I would speak with my family over the phone and find myself feeling like English was my second language. What if I had forgotten? By this, I mean everything: how to interact with English speakers; how to be in a rehearsal process; how to approach a script; how to return to everything I had loved and worked towards before I left. My shape had changed. I knew this. If I were a cookie (surely snicker-doodle), I would not fit into the same shaped cookie-cutter as I did before. So, how would things be different? How would I be different in this new, but familiar space?

What I did not anticipate, was just how much returning to Filament would be like returning home to a family. It is simply the truth, as cheesy as it may sound. And I do not say things that I do not mean. It was as relieving, joyful, and necessary as coming up for that first gulp of air. Filament is a group of the most open hearted, positive, kind, capable, energetic, spirited, passionately and limitlessly creative individuals that I have ever met. Again, this is just the truth. The first meeting of the Eurydice and Orpheus design teams, production teams and casts, was a pancake-breakfast-potluck party, held at the “Crow’s Nest” – artistic director, Julie Ritchey’s, second story apartment that has a Neverland-esque whimsicality to it, rocking between ancient Pirate Ship and the Lost Boys’ Home Under the Ground, with as much over arching greenery as would be imagined if J. M. Barrie had decided on a house above the  ground instead. Twenty-five people tucked their way into the living room, on couches, floor cushions, chairs and laps.

That afternoon went on to be the warmest welcome back to Filament and the Chicago theatre scene that I could have imagined. After everyone had their plates piled with pancakes, syrup, fruit, chocolate chips and the like, introductions were made and designers passed around sketches and shared lap-top slide shows of their plans. A few hours later, Julie, Peter, managing director, Christian Libonati, and I braved the wind and

Photo for "Eurydice"

the chill at North Shore Beach, in order to capture the beaming sun and the storybook-like, cloud-filled sky for Eurydice’s promotional photos. The day concluded with all of us going out for sushi and seeing a show down town (the first play that I had seen since being in Israel!). In the morning was our first rehearsal/read through, followed by more promotional photos (this time in a comparably toasty elevator) and cozy soup and sandwiches at the Birchwood Kitchen, before we all fell asleep at the Crow’s Nest. We woke up from our power-two-hour-nap (unfortunately for Christian, in whose lap I feel asleep on the couch, I woke up in a small puddle of drool), rested and ready for the Ensemble meeting that was called for that evening. Kettle corn, oranges, and tea kept us going into the wee hours of the evening after our meeting “ended”, and we split off into separate teams in order to work on press packets, website content, grants and the like. I arrived home at 3am exhausted, satisfied, and grinning like a ninny. Those two days were epically fun, and I was finally in the right place. I was home.

If it is not quite obvious how much Filament welcomed me under its wing as part of a family, I will break it down:  in those two days we spent virtually all of our waking hours together, shared all our meals, had family nap time, quality bonding time, played (not board games, but theatre games!), helped support each other, and challenged each other to do better work.

Filament’s mission statement emphasizes their commitment to sustainability, asserting, “we strive to make choices that have a long-lasting

Carolyn Faye Kramer as Eurydice

positive impact across a broad spectrum, and not just ‘pieces in isolation.’” This theme of  seeing the whole picture, especially from an environmentally aware perspective, is quite different from the bleak, first impression I had of the United States upon my return, one which highlighted the wasteful, utilitarian, self-serving qualities that are indeed present here. However, I am pleased to report that my culture shock has mostly subsided. With the help of some family, I can see that strip malls, fast food, and unconscious consumption do not occupy the landscape of the States as much as I felt when I first arrived. I also realized that my fears about remembering how to interact with the world as I had known it prior to living abroad were unfounded – Yay! I discovered my voice again, and not only as a theatre artist (my ability to socialize and communicate was not as stunted as I had anticipated it would be – Yay times two!). Filament welcomed me home with support for where I had been and encouragement for where I am now, asking me to share my experience in Israel and honoring the newly shaped cookie (okay, last reference to the metaphor, I promise) that I have become.

Fundraiser, Love, Cabaret, Filament, Underground Lounge, Performance

Thank You!

by Blog

Fundraiser, Love, Cabaret, Filament, Underground Lounge, PerformanceFilament is thrilled to announce that our current fundraising goals were successfully met!

Both our annual appeal and our cabaret event Love: It’s All Greek To Me! exceeded our projections.

We would like to thank you so much for your support and for you contributions. Because of you, we are off to a great start in 2011, and are now heading into our upcoming productions of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice and ORPHEUS: Featuring DJ Puzzle as Fate with confidence and excitement!

Annual Appeal

Goal: $2000
Actual: $3155

Fundraising Party

Goal: $1000
Actual: $1402

Filament is also honored to be one of twenty Chicago theatre companies to receive a grant from the Alphawood Foundation’s Theatre Support Initiative. We would like to extend a huge thank you to the Alphawood Foundation, both for supporting Filament and for contributing so much to the Chicago theatre community!

We are deeply grateful for all of your support and encouragement over the years. We are off to a fantastic start, and we look forward to seeing what else 2011 has in store!

Love, Filament, Fundraiser, Orpheus, Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl, Chicago, Lacuna Artist Lofts, Theatre, Underground Lounge, Party, Christian Libonati, Valentines Day, Nuts, Snacks, Music, Performance

LOVE: It’s All Greek To Me!

by Events

Love, Filament, Fundraiser, Orpheus, Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl, Chicago, Lacuna Artist Lofts, Theatre, Underground Lounge, Party, Christian Libonati, Valentines Day, Nuts, Snacks, Music, PerformanceCome celebrate (or denigrate) Valentine’s Day with the Filament Theatre Ensemble!
Filament brings you Love, Laughs, and Libations in an evening of Cabaret to support Filament’s Greek adaptations coming this Spring!

What: Love: It’s all Greek to me: A Filament Fundraiser Cabaret
When: Saturday, February 12th from 8pm to 12 am
Where: The Underground Lounge: 952 West Newport Avenue, Chicago, IL 60657

Sounds fun, no?  Well, you haven’t even heard the best part.

Cost of Admission:
Our goal is to raise $1000. And we are asking you to donate anything you can! Here’s how it all breaks down:

$10 x 100 people = $1000
$20 x 50 people = $1000
$30 x 33.33 people = $1000

For every $20 you donate, you will receive a FREE ticket to an evening of our upcoming spring shows. $20 gets you a great party AND an evening of great shows?! You can’t afford NOT to come!

To guarantee your spot at LOVE: IT’S ALL GREEK TO ME!
Click on the button below, and enter the amount you would like to donate (please indicate in the “Comments” form if your donation includes a guest).  Space at the Underground Lounge is limited, so we highly encourage you to donate in advance!

Every dollar you donate goes directly towards our spring productions

Sarah Ruhl’s EURYDICE
and
ORPHEUS: Featuring DJ Puzzle as Fate
Running April 23-May 29 at Lacuna Artist Lofts

Get ready for an evening of performances, live music, raffles, dancing, sparkling conversations, snacks and Love Poem Karaoke!
Bring us your favorite/least favorite love poem or song, we can create an impromptu performance just for you and/or your loved one! Or perform it yourself in our Love Poem Karaoke!

Questions? Contact Mary (Party Planner by night, Development Director by day) at Mary [at] filamenttheatre [dot] org

The Filament Theatre Ensemble would like to thank our generous sponsors for supporting our event!

Half Acre
Thairapy
Margie’s Candies
Cellar Rat Wine Merchants
The Neo-Futurists
ReAlign Chiropractic
Arbonne International
Tiny Lounge
The Inside Out Art Studio
Birchwood Kitchen
Peapod
My Theatre Club
Lacuna Artist Lofts


Free Alice & Me! Performance

by Events

Last month, as a part of our monthly community performances, we traveled to the Magic Tree Bookstore in Oak Park.

Join us for our next community performance!

Saturday, January 29th at 4pm
Heartland Café in Rogers Park
7000 N. Glenwood Ave. Chicago, IL 60626

We offer these community performances free of charge as a way to share the experience of live theatre with families throughout the city. Alice and Me! is also performed at Chicagoland schools in partnership with Urban Gateways: Center for Creative Arts. Please contact tours@filamenttheatre.org to find out more information about booking Alice and Me! at your school or in your community.

School performances include study materials that can be applied to all elementary levels. They emphasizes all learning styles in a fun and interactive way that will get your student excited about learning. Our performance and all of the educational materials are created in conjunction with the Illinois State Learning Standards, accomplishing learning goals such as, critical thinking, trial and error, problem solving, making positive choices and learning behavior that benefit themselves and the community.


Alice & Me! is a great experience to share with your whole family and is geared toward Elementary grade students.

Allison Powell

by Blog

Our Beautiful Friend.

It has been a difficult and tragic week at the Filament Theatre Ensemble, as we mourn the sudden loss of ensemble member Allison Powell.  Allie’s vibrant spirit, creativity, and unmistakable brand of humor profoundly enriched the Filament community, from her one-of-a-kind adaptation of Choose Thine Own Adventure, to her upbeat attitude at every meeting.  We are proud to have had the chance to know and work with such a remarkable woman, and will work hard to continue her legacy in all the work that we do.

Below, the we of the Filament Theatre Ensemble have shared thoughts and memories of Allie, and we would love to invite you to do the same.  Please comment below, or email me at julie [at] filamenttheatre [dot] org.  We send deepest sympathy to Allison’s friends and  family around the world.  There are no words to express our sadness at the loss of our dear, sweet friend and collaborator.

A public celebration of Allie’s life will be held at the Strand Theatre in Marietta, Georgia at 2:00 on Friday, January 14.

Earl Smith Strand Theatre
117 North Park Square
Marietta, GA 30060
Office: 770-293-0080

For friends and family in the Chicago area, we will be holding a celebration on the same day – Friday January 14 – at 7:00pm, location at the Menomonee Club.

Menomonee Club
1535 N. Dayton Street
Chicago, IL 60642
(312) 664-4631

Please RSVP at info [at] filamenttheatre [dot] org if you would like to attend, so that we can pass that information on to the gracious people at the Menomonee Club.  A broadcast of the celebration in Marietta, GA will be screened at 7:30, with time to talk and share stories and memories. Do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, either through this website or at (773) 270-1660.

On October 18, 2010, a podcast aired featuring Allie and the cast of Choose Thine Own Adventure discussing and promoting the show.  The podcast is available here.  We will continue to gather photos and video of Allie and post them here to share with you.

All of us in Filament are profoundly grateful for her contributions to the company, and will be continuing her legacy with an annual gift to Chicago-based artists in Allison’s name. She recognized the challenges of the lifestyle of the artist, and believed firmly that artists should be monetarily compensated for their work.  We are establishing “Allie’s Gift” to provide individual Chicago artists with funds to grow and support their artistic careers. This gift will be offered annually on Allison’s birthday, April 26. More details will be available here on our website in the coming days.

We love you, Allie.

Allie’s Gift

by Allie's Gift

Allison Powell, 1982-2011

Allison Powell was the Business Manager of the Filament Theatre Ensemble from February of 2010 until her untimely passing in January 2011. Allie had a business mind with an artistic heart. Like so many of us, Allie aspired to ultimately earn a living in the arts, but held day jobs in the meantime to support herself and save money for graduate school. As she wrote in her first correspondence with Filament when discussing her day job, “I love art, but I also love food.” She worked with us to begin setting a path for Filament to create a financially sustainable model where we may one day support an administrative staff as well as the artists who work with us.

With her humor, intelligence, insight, and love, Allie inspired each and every one of us in the Filament Theatre Ensemble. We would like to share the inspiration that we were so lucky to experience firsthand with the Chicago arts community. Therefore, the Filament Theatre Ensemble has created an annual gift in Allie’s name to support the development of a Chicago artist.

The Filament Theatre Ensemble will award Allie’s Gift to one Chicago artist who demonstrates passion, dedication, and a love for their art in addition to a financial need. We will pay up to $300 toward class tuition, material investments, space needs, etc.

 

Application requirements:

[] Please write us a brief letter (no more than 3 pages) telling us a bit about yourself and your specific intended use of the Allie’s Gift funding.
[] A brief statement describing your current financial situation (primary source of income, etc.)
[] A current resume in PDF format
[] Applicants must currently live in Chicago, pursuing a career in theatre arts.
[] Any samples of your work – portfolio, video, audio, etc. – are encouraged but not required.

Applications should be emailed to gift@filamenttheatre.org, attached as PDF documents.

Applications are due no later than 5pm on Friday April 13. Applicants may be contacted for an interview.  The recipient of Allie’s Gift will be announced on April 26. For any questions about Allie’s Gift or the application process, do not hesitate to email us at info@filamenttheatre.org.

A Marvelous Adventure Indeed

by Blog

This snowy day is giving me the perfect excuse to stay inside, sip tea, and be sentimental. It’s hard to believe that, after beginning work on this project seven months ago, Choose Thine Own Adventure has actually closed…

What a joy to live in the topsy-turvy, unpredictable, and generous world of this show for so long! Our amazing cast – Marco Minichiello, Ped Naseri, and Filament ensemble members Omen Sade and Mary Spearen – not only memorized hours worth of material from 24 different plays, but also had the chutzpah to walk on stage every night and literally have NO idea what they were going to do. Our hats are off to you, my friends. You are much braver souls than I. Behind the scenes we were surrounded by an unbelievable design team and support staff – Katie Wenzlick, Amy Gilman, Kristen Ahern, Will Dean, and Agnotti Cowie, who kept that ship of ours steering right on course. And, of course, huge thanks to the Underground Lounge, our home since October, and especially to our new friend Dave, the bartender.

The biggest hugs of all go out to you guys. Yes, you! You reading this right now. For following along on our adventures, supporting us, seeing our show and those of you keeping involved in the goings-on of Filament from afar and out-of-town. As a company, we learn a million and a half new things every day about how to best operate as a business, so your involvement, feedback, attendance, ideas, and support are instrumental in shaping us into the company that we are growing to be. So, from the bottom of our hearts, we express our gratitude for walking down those creaky stairs to the Underground Lounge and spinning that Wheel of Chance. We very much look forward to sharing more evenings of theatre with you.

The bears and the little mice have started their winter hibernation long ago, but do not expect those of us at Filament to tuck ourselves away for these cold months! Believe it or not, we have our first production meeting for Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice and ORPHEUS (Featuring DJ Puzzle as Fate) coming up this Wednesday. This blog (as well as our Facebook, Twitter, and My Theatre Club pages) will be alive and kicking all winter long, keeping you up to date on the development of Orpheus & Eurydice, as well as general fun thoughts and pleasantries from the Filament crew.

Choose Thine Own Adventure was a marvelous adventure indeed. I can’t imagine a better way to kick off our new-and-improved, revamped company. Thank you again, all of you, and we will see you very soon!

Julie Ritchey
Artistic Director