Here’s a couple wonderful productions by some Easy Street friends…
Check it out!

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HEY GUYS!!

Hope all is well. I just wanted to let you know about my Cabaret show- “GETTING OFF: A pleasure tale…” The show will be Sunday Feb 24th at 7:30pm and Sunday March 2nd at 7:30pm at Mary’s Attic (Above the restaurant Hamburger Mary’s) at 5400 N Clark (Clark and Balmoral) and it is just $10!! Hope to see you there!

XOXO
-Shannon

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By the United States Theatre Project

Written by Stephen Karam and PJ Paparelli

Produced by Raven Theatre Company

6157 N. Clark St.

Chicago, IL

Tickets: 773-338-2177 or www.raventheatre.com $25 (senior/student discounts)

Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8:00 pm, Sundays at 3:00 pm

Running time is 2 hours 15 minutes with one intermission

Through March 15th

Columbine Story: Illumination Without Answers in an Ensemble Work of Uncommon Power

The eighty minute play follows the love affair of office manager Danny (Russ Morgan) and commercial illustrator Deborah (Mollie Dinstbier) from first encounter to closure. They might have made a success of their relationship were it not for their choice of confidants, Bernard (David Williams) and Joan (Charlotte Dearborn) who persistently sabotage and undermine. Plays Tuesday and Wednesday 8pm (January 29,30) 7pm at the Stage Left Theatre. The play is directed by EJ VanderVoort and is the 2nd production of the Vanderhouse Theatre Project.

The Vanderhouse Theatre project was started to examine the creative process and develop a new and unique way to encounter theatre from the actors point of view. It is a project focused on the rehearsal process, the ensemble and exploration.

Last night I checked out the VanderHouse Production of Oleanna. They performed out of Stage Left for just a couple of nights as I’m sure you all saw here. Everyone who knows me is aware of how picky I am and for those of you joining us at ESP from cyberland, I am very picky. Despite that flaw of dissecting everything beyond recognition I had a great night at the theatre.

The play, in and of itself, has certain issues when it comes to delivery. You are stuck inside the short and silent world of Mamet. Wait…before we go on I should say that this is my opinion only and I am in no way a certified theater officiant. If the theatre world was divided by chief and cook I am proud to declare myself a cook.

Back to Mamet…

This is a massive obstacle not only for actor but also audience. When I watch a production on stage I forget about real life. Like many others I become aware of the audience, being myself, and that acknowledgment changes everything. I feel that as an actor I have fought that part of myself which is aware of people watching me on stage. The part that pulls me away from the reality of how people react.

As an audience member I did the same thing at first.

As the words and pauses began to unfold before the audience I thought to myself, No one talks like this…There’s no way people can really communicate like this. Then I started to fall into the rhythm of if and it suddenly snapped into this clarity of how the words are written so in the manner of speech that at first my mind couldn’t believe that a writer had nailed it.

Suddenly the puzzle pieces snapped in place as well as the plot progressed. At one point the Professor character, played by Russ Morgan, was talking to the student, played by Charlotte Dearborn, about prejudice. The Professor says that prejudice is when you feel so strongly about something that you can’t even here an opposing thought to it without feeling anger. He also talks about his need to fail even when he is succeeding saying something along the lines of realizing that if he didn’t want to be such a failure he should try succeeding some time. Even though these thoughts are pivotal to the scene as an audience member it was not until the show was finished that I realized their true importance.

These were maps. Mamet said Here are some things that I find interesting in the first act. It is a simple nod to not only these ideas but others. Then in the third act you end up in those places. The Professor has allowed his old vices of self-doubt/destruction to be motivated by pride, putting himself in a situation where he could only fail. The same feeling happens with prejudice.

The simple speech and the clear cut direction of EJ VanderVoort meant for me that as the plot progressed I sided with the Professor as far as to the two characters discrepancy betweens events that had occurred. I began to feel that same prejudice that the Professor had spoken of in the first act. I was enraged to hear the allegations against him.

It also had a nice balance to it. Control lied in the Professor’s hand in Act One. In Act Two there was more of an ebb and flow of control between the two. By the time we got to Three the student held the position of dominance. I like that…simple, neat construction.

All in all I really enjoyed it. I think the best way to judge a piece of theater is Does it make me feel something. Not only did this play make me feel but it took me to where it wanted me to go instead of letting my head go in other directions. I had no time to nit-pick, I was on a journey.

I have only recently discovered Mamet…I’m a late bloomer…but so far so good.

Thank you Russ, Charlotte, EJ and Mollie for an awesome night. You guys rocked it.

The VanderHouse Theatre

Oleanna

by David Mamet

2 NIGHTS ONLY!!!! December 18th & 19th at 8:00pm.

Starring Charlotte Dearbon, Russ Morgan Directed by EJ VanderVoort Champagne Reception to follow both nights.

In the no-man’s land between misunderstanding and sexual harassment, we watch with impotent dread as the relationship between professor and student entirely breaks down, as their mutual respect evaporates and an unbridgeable divide opens which can only destroy one or both of them. This is the gender war, and more than that. It’s the generation gap, and more than that. It’s the class struggle, and more than that.During it’s New York run, audiences actually came to blows as they left the theatre, so powerful is David Mamet’s writing. Time since has changed nothing.

Stage Left Theatre
3408 N. Sheffield Ave.
Chicago, IL 60657

Get Tickets ASAP for $15 by calling EJ VanderVoort at 773.259.3077.

(or get them from EJ, Russ, Mollie, Charlotte, or Dave)

Well, I got this from an Easy Street alumnae and thought I would pass it on to the blogging public. Yeah, Tom!

Playing through December 16th, Halcyon Theatre Presents:

Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Adapted for the Stage by Tim Supple and David Tushingham
Directed by Jennifer Adams

When young Haroun’s mother elopes with a dull clerical drone, his father, famed storyteller Rashid, the Shah of Blah, loses the gift of gab. To restore his father’s gift and mend his broken heart, Haroun embarks on a mystical journey to the source of stories. There, the Master of Silence launches his plan to destroy the world’s stories, and it is up to Haroun to stop the destruction. This adventure into strange new lands — a dream world of water genies and rhyming guppies, where chatter and silence battle for control — excites the imagination in this riveting celebration of storytelling.

Featuring: Chris Amos, Jackson Challinor, Adam Dodds*, Adam Downs, Minita Gandhi, Michael Graham, Greg Hardin, Christine Lin, Tom McGrath, Carly Mendez, Fawzia Mirza, Lauren Mustain, Tinuade Oyelowo, Leticia Ramirez, Denise Santomauro*

*Halcyon Theatre Artistic Associate

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays** at 8:00; Sundays at 6:00
(**Saturday, December 8th will be a 1:00 matinée. There will be no show that night.)
Performances will be at the Lincoln Square Arts Center, 4754 North Leavitt in Chicago

Tickets are $15 ($10 for students and seniors) and are available through the Halcyon Theatre box office at (312) 458-9170 or online. Group rates available for groups of ten or more.

For more information go to www.halcyontheatre.org/haroun

After all performances, stop by Chicago Ale House, 2200 W. Lawrence Ave–one block north of the Lincoln Square Arts Center. Have food and drink with the cast and crew. It’s a cash bar and a portion of what you spend on food and drink goes to Halcyon Theatre.

Yes…it’s okay to be sad.

Last night The Vampire Lesbians of Sodom closed to a big crowd! Thank you to everyone that came out to support our show. Special thanks to the cast and crew of the show, the Easy Streeters and all others that helped to support the show.

That being said can mean only one thing. Today is set strike!

Don’t make that face! For me, an actor with the cold heart of a technician, this has always been my favorite part of the entire theatrical experience. Here’s a little peep into how it goes from my side. I spend all day trapped in a tiny space with Mollie and whatever other sucker we’ve conned into helping us building the set for the show. We are like work donkey’s and we don’t mess around. We struggle and fight our way through and manage to pull it off in time for opening.

Show opens. Coming to the theatre every night we deal with the different needs of a theatre company. Mollie takes tickets from the audience members. Directing bathroom breaks she also finds times to glue on eye lashes and bring programs. I lock myself into the booth and prep myself for an hour of sweltering heat behind glass like a goldfish in a twisted aquarium. After making it through the weeks of run there is only one thing on our minds…

TEARING THAT MOTHA DOWN!!

Now that’s it’s finished we get the satisfaction of ripping down every little board we battled. Everything we had to paint over and over we slap black paint over it. That set piece that we’ve recycled over and over through the season gets demolished with our bare hands. All stress we put into it is released. It’s rather cathartic.

Now with another season behind us and Reefer Madness: The Musical set to open in April there’s only one thing left to do…

Dream of the day we buy a Tiger Saw and can really get our demo on!

WELCOME! This is the new blog of The Easy Street Players. We’re so glad you decided to stop by. If you like the arts and you live in the Chicago area, check us out. More info will be forthcoming. Give us a second to get off our feet!

In the mean time here’s a big thank you to the Chicago Theater Blog for promoting us.