The House Theatre of Chicago Weblog

Jeff Nods

Congrats to our artists who were nominated in today's announcement of the 2008 Non-Equity Jeff Award Nominations:

New Adaptation - Company Members Jake Minton and Phillip C. Klapperich for The Nutcracker
Original Music - Company Member Kevin O'Donnell for The Nutcracker
Lighting Design - Lee Keenan for Hope Springs Infernal
Sound Design - Company Member Michael Griggs for Hope Springs Infernal
Puppet Design - Allison Daniel for The Nutcracker

also to our Company Members whose work appeared elsewhere:
Actor - Company Member Shawn Pfautsch for Old Wicked Songs at Signal Ensemble Theater
Original Music - Company Member Kevin O'Donnell for Desire Under the Elms at The Hypocrites

Our Rad Visual Artists

Hello House Nation,

This week, two of The House's amazing visual artist Company Members were featured in the Chicago Tribune and Time Out Chicago.

Chris Burnham, graphic designer and all around comic book genius launched his first full graphic novel yesterday, along with features in both publications:
Evolution of a Style
The Poster Boy
What is the Secret Order of the Magic Pearl?
Stage to Page
Chris' Website

And then, Lucas Merino, our wunderkind video producer is featured this week in Time Out Chicago:
Lucas Merino lends his lens to the stage
Lucas' Website

Congrats Lucas and Chris!

Announcing our NEXT 3 SHOWS!!!

We’ll be performing in Wicker Park next year! Our next three productions will play at The Chopin Theatre at 1543 W. Division.  As we move into our seventh year of producing original plays, we’re absolutely thrilled to be in a larger space with 200 seats, better facilities for our guests and artists and, finally, AIR CONDITIONING!

Additionally, we’ve lined up three killer shows to break in our new home:

Dave DaVinci Saves the Universe
A time travel love tragedy by the creators of The Sparrow

Written by Chris Mathews, Jake Minton and Nathan Allen
Directed by Nathan Allen
September 24-November 08, 2008

As our first show in a new home, we’ll completely re-imagine one of our most heart-wrenching stories to date.

Rose and the Rime
An original Midwestern Fairy Tale

Written by Chris Mathews, Jake Minton and Nathan Allen
Directed by Nathan Allen
February 22-April 11, 2009

Originally developed by Nathan Allen with students at Hope College, Rose and the Rime was selected by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival to perform at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on April 17, 2008. This nationally recognized new work will receive its first professional production at The House.

Alan Infinitum
450 years. 15 lives. 1 love.

Written by Justin D.M. Palmer
Directed by Matt Hawkins
April 26-June 14, 2009

Alan, a lovesick poet is forced to travel through his own faded memories in hopes of finding success with the same woman he's been in love with for 450 years.

It is the mission of The House to unite Chicago in the spirit of Community through amazing feats of Storytelling.

The Attempters opens NEXT WEEK

Howdy!

The House opens Shawn Pfautsch's newest show, The Attempters, on March 6th!

Do you remember the film in our production of The Boy Detective Fails?
It was awesome! It was so awesome that it won a 2007 Telly Award!

The Attempters features another film by House Movie Man Lucas Merino, and I promise it's even more awesome than his last one!

And when you come to see The Attempters, you get to see House Company Member Chris Mathews doing these ridiculous things:

Chris Burnham release's Nixon's Pals

Company Member and resident comic-book artist Chris Burnham is blowing up. And I’m not talking about a back-up story. Burnham is the feature artist for none other than Joe Casey on a new, full-blown Image Comics graphic novel titled Nixon's Pal's

From Image’s press release:

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This March YOUNGBLOOD's Joe Casey and rising star Chris Burnham dig deep into the hidden super-villain underbelly of Los Angeles this March in the 120-page graphic novel, NIXON'S PALS.

"The 'Nixon' in NIXON'S PALS is Nixon Cooper, parole officer to Los Angeles' ever growing super-villain scene," said writer Joe Casey. "This is hard boiled storytelling, basically putting a superpowered spin on what I love in crime fiction by writers like Elmore Leonard and Jim Thompson."

Casey is not comparing NIXON'S PALS to Leonard's work lightly. The world of NIXON'S PALS is far from bright, with Burnham bringing a refreshingly unique twist on the conventional grim and gritty super tale.

Burnham said, "Not only is Joe the type of writer who lets an artist run free, but NIXON'S PALS is exactly the type of comics I love to draw. It's an insane romp, filled with giant furnance robots, sentient breasts, and a ton of really vile bastards. It's fun for the whole family!"

NIXON'S PALS (JAN082057), a 120-page black and white graphic novel for $12.99, will be in stores March 26th, 2008.

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Click here to get the whole story on Newsarama.com and see some of the pages!

Congrats Chris!

Best of 2007

Hey there, me again, your friendly neighborhood development director, Ryan.

What a year it's been for all of us in The House admin offices. We all started the year with part-time hours and now I hardly see my wife and our cats. But before I take some time away for Christmas, I wanted to highlight some recent accolades that were bestowed on The House:

Chicago Tribune: Chris Jones' Top Ten best shows of 2007:
THE SPARROW
"In another memorable Chicago original, the fresh and warm young artists at the House created the moving, strangely sweet story of an unusual student in a small Illinois town. The piece was as confident in the goodness of ordinary people as in the honesty and power of its own storytelling."

Chicago Sun-Times: Hedy Weiss: 'my favorite things of the past year':
THE SPARROW
"the House Theatre play with music that captivated audiences at the Viaduct, the Steppenwolf Garage and, finally, in a commercial run at the Apollo Theatre."

Chicago Tribune: Chris Jones' 10 Great Performances of 2007
CAROLYN DEFRIN in THE SPARROW
The superb Defrin inhabited the role of young Emily Book—a girl who could fly, if she chose—for almost the entire year. Her richly detailed and emotionally resonant performance was a big part of why this original show was such a big hit.

Okay, so newspaper critics aside, it's been the overwhelming support that we've received from Chicago that will help us continue to grow. Your attendance, your cheers and your contributions make everything we do possible. Thank you.

Oh, and we've christened a new mission statement this year:

It is the mission of The House to unite Chicago in the spirit of Community through amazing feats of Storytelling.

See you on the flip side,

Ryan

We won The Nutty!

It was announced today that The Nutcracker won the First-Annual Goldstar National Nutcracker Award, or “The Nutty,” honoring the best Nutcracker production as voted by Goldstar members.

The award comes with a monetary prize to be used in educational programming.  This prize will help fund On The House, our new subsidized ticket program that provides tickets and transportation to disadvantaged audiences in Chicago.

Check out Goldstar's website for more info and smart-sounding acceptance quotes by the likes of Phillip C. Klapperich, as well as the lovely and talented David New.

      

The House on National Public Radio!!!!

Holy Crap!!!  This may not be true any more, but at one point in The House's six year history I know for a fact that I was the biggest NPR Nerd among us.

I had a temp job doing data entry for a couple of years that allowed me to listen to streaming audio online all day, every day.  Over the course of that job, I listened to every single episode of "This American Life" and "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!"  After all of that, I even starting digging into the archives of "Car Talk" which, considering that I don't even have a driver's license, was a bit of a stretch. 

One time Peter Sagal brought Gretchen Helfrich, host of WBEZ's short-lived and under appreciated intellectual talk-show Odyssey to see one of our shows and introduced me.  I blushed and stammered like a school boy. 

I once had a dream about Diane Rehm and an all-you-can-eat waffle-bar that  defies interpretation.  You get the picture.

So, on Saturday morning, when the National Desk's Senior Correspondent, Noah Adams, did a nationally broadcast story about The House on NPR's Weekend Edition, you can imagine my excitement, and my subsequent change of underpants.

To hear this 9 minute story about The House from America's MOST IMPORTANT RADIO STATION, CLICK HERE and then click the little blue words that say "LISTEN NOW".  Mom and Dad, prepare to weep.

Our Big Opening

Hey all, it's Ryan, The House's development director. My "role" at The House is in fundraising, but since everyone else is busy putting the show up, I thought I'd give you my thoughts about Opening Night.

We're opening The House's version of THE NUTCRACKER tonight at Steppenwolf.

I could probably just stop there.

But for those of you who always have wondered what the big fuss is about Opening Nights, I'm willing to give you my two cents absolutely free of charge.

Opening Night is all about energy. To understand this energy at The House, you have to remember that we do all original work. ALL NEW PLAYS. Keep that in mind reading ahead...

The cast has been given new lines today, a song has been cut, the dance has been edited, and they now exit upstage left instead of downstage right in the second scene. There are so many "versions" of the show in their head that they are on the verge of a breakdown. Now we invite the press to come review their performance and write about it in nationally distributed newspapers. We also invite other people - friends, family and fans - to come experience this "play" that they've read about, but have never read or seen...until now.

So you have a nervous cast and crew, an eager gaggle of reviewers, and a boisterous group of cheerleaders in the same room for two hours. A member of the company takes the stage with "Welcome to The House." The lights go down. And we're all on the edge of our seats just waiting to see what happens.

I hope you enjoy the show.

Experts Panel on Physical Theatre

Hey guys
This should be a pretty cool discussion
David Bell is moderating and he's pretty rad
and you get a free ticket to Farewell Umbrella
Its through CST but dont be fooled- the event is at Lookingglass
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CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER
Sharing the World’s Stage

Please join us for an
Experts’ Panel on Physical Theater
Monday, November 19th, 2007
Complimentary cocktail reception, 5:30 PM
Panel discussion at 6:00 PM
at
Lookingglass Theatre Company
821 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, Illinois 60611

Chicago Shakespeare Theater will host an Experts’ Panel on Physical Theater on Monday, November 19th at 6:00 PM at Lookingglass Theatre Company, featuring artists on the leading edge of the Physical Theater Movement in Chicago. This event is open to the public, and theater professionals are especially encouraged to attend. The discussion inaugurates Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s new Sharing the World’s Stage series for Chicago theater artists. Please join us for a cocktail reception preceding the event at 5:30 PM.

ALL ATTENDEES WILL RECEIVE A COMPLIMENTARY TICKET to select performances of James Thiérrée’s Farewell Umbrella (Au Revoir Parapluie) at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Tickets for each performance are subject to availability.

Please RSVP to rsvp@chicagoshakes.com. Walk-ins on the day of the event are welcome, but attendance is limited to the capacity of the theater. Parking is available at the Olympia Centre Garage at 161 E. Chicago Ave, for $10 after validation.

PANELISTS

David H. Bell (Moderator)
Nathan Allen, Artistic Director, The House Theatre
Dexter Bullard, Artistic Director, Plasticene; Head of Acting, The Theatre School, DePaul University
David Catlin, Artistic Director, Lookingglass Theatre Company
Paola Coletto-Kaplan, Artistic Director, Holon Productions
Adrian Danzig, Producing Artistic Director, 500 Clown
Sylvia DiStasi, Co-Artistic Director, The Actors Gymnasium
Jim Lasko, Artistic Director, Redmoon Theater
Blake Montgomery, Artistic Director, The Building Stage

If you have questions regarding the Experts’ Panel, please call Chris Mannelli at 312.595.5680 or Martin Miller at 312.595.5513.