The Girls vs. Boys VIP Launch Party

Saturday, April 17, 2010 — 10pm-midnight.
Following the April 17 performance at 8pm.

Usagi Ya — Pan Asian Cuisine and Sushi Bar
1178 N. Milwaukee – around the corner from Chopn
in the downstairs lounge

$25 admission

Your admission helps support new work at The House Theatre of Chicago.

Come hang out with the cast of Girls vs. Boys.
Admission includes 2 drinks + appetizers and a chance to win FABULOUS PRIZES, including a subscription to our 2010/11 season.

And there will be a raffle rabbit.

All VIP guests will get $10 off subscription to The House’s 2010/11 Season (regularly $75)

BUY TICKETS TO THE VIP LAUNCH PARTY

You could win:

2) Tickets to a Chicago Wolves Hockey Game
(1) Year membership to the Chicago Botanic Garden
(2) Tickets to a performance at Theatre Building Chicago
(10) Free lessons with the Chicago Ballet Arts
(2) Tickets to the Chicago Sinfonietta
(2) Tickets for free admission for 4 people and 4 free drinks at Chicago’s legendary blues club Kingston Mines\
(1) VIP tickets to the Shedd Aquarium
(1) Gift Certificate to Fireside Restaurant
(1) Family pass good for four general admission tickets to the Museum of Science and Industry
(4) Admit One tickets to the North Shore Chamber Orchestra
(1) Free pass for 4 to the Shedd Aquarium

Holy Cow.

Oh, right.  Chris Mathews here.  I almost forgot.

I’m one of the writers of our next show, Girls vs. Boys.  We had our first preview tonight, and I’m still trying to take it all in–or eject it all out.  Take your pick, I suppose.

I don’t think I have anything new to share about the neuroses of the playwright on a first night with an audience, nor do I really want to even go there.  And truthfully, I’d be fictionalizing for you if I did.  This isn’t our first rodeo and I know the score–I know what previews are for–but the nerves come from fearing that the people in attendance don’t.  And don’t you dare underestimate me and think I would underestimate you by making this post a moralizing lesson in “what previews are for.”  C’mon.  We’re way past that.

But previews at The House are kind of a new bag for us.  It’s been a luxury of budget and development that’s historically been just a little out of our reach.  We have the rent $ to schedule like, three previews before opening, the first one always gets cancelled cause no one knows how to do the dance right, and then the previews themselves are little more than dress rehearsals barely held together by anything more than the fact that we know we can’t cancel tonight because we had to cancel last night.  There’s always some breakthrough realization or dragon to slay.  And then we get to opening by the hair of our teeth and hope that everything sticks.  It’s fun.  Hey New Work.

But this season, and with GvB in particular, we’ve been able to schedule and take advantage of a more paced-out preview and response process.  We just left our first preview of GvB tonight (we get 6!), and y’know, it went well.  It went fine.  It went Great!  Our cast is kind, optimistic, and has talent oozing out of every pore; the design team is badass and engaged in just the kind of collaborative conversations that make me love working with this company.

But y’know, we’re not nearly done.  It’s strange (and can be frustrating if you let it) to watch a show that you know is already out-dated by the list of notes and changes you’d like to incorporate from last night’s run, but haven’t had time to do so (because you have to prepare for the preview–haha, it’s a cruel catch-22).  ”Strange” isn’t even the right word, “disorienting” is better, because you’re trying to watch a show that doesn’t exist yet.  You NEED the audience there to jolt you back into the present to help you see the show that IS there now.  To pull your head out of your ass.  I guess to help you fully understand just how much work you still have to do, how much longer your list keeps getting.  Aye-yie-aye.

The fear, let’s get back to the fear, shall we?, is that the kind patrons who have come to see an early showing of our work are going to go to the bar and tell all their friends or write on their blog about how awful everything is.  (And to the credit of their good taste, there’s still plenty to claim awful.)  But I guess that wouldn’t make them very kind patrons, would it?  Hopefully they know exactly what they’ve signed up for: to be a part of the show’s development, and that includes getting to see the unfinished parts, the experimental parts.  And hopefully that comes with a faith that the really stupid thing you saw tonight in that one scene isn’t still going to be there when the last of the changes has been posted on the dressing room door five minutes before opening curtain speech.  At least, I hope it’s not still there.  If it is, we should go to the bar and bitch about it.

Wait a minute!  Am I moralizing?!?! I’m sorry–I guess that’s the stuff that I need to remember watching previews.  And here I am BLOGGING ABOUT IT.  AGHHHGHGHG!!!

But you know what?  Who needs fear?  Scared people, that’s who.  Let’s not be scared people.  Let’s be awesome people.  Because it’s awesome people that come to see our shows.

And now it’s 2am and I realize why they call their blog that.  I should go to bed and get ready for all the changes we’re going to make tomorrow (we wrote a new song today and it’s cool!), and cope with the fact that there still won’t be time to make all of them [sigh] before we have our second preview.

I hope to see you at The House.

I mean, really — do you think the actors will notice you updating your Facebook status during the show?

Last year Carolyn Defrin asked you if people should be allowed to Twitter about, or take photos of, the plays they’re watching DURING the performance.

Some people offered a resounding NO. But some commenters were so inspired by the idea that they went off and created a performance that ENCOURAGES audience members to Tweet it out during the play.

With Girls vs. Boys fast approaching — I wonder, should those audience members crammed into the pit be allowed to not only experience the show standing up in a concert like atmosphere, but react in the same way — with cell phones out?

I mean, here Kevin O’Donnell is updating his Facebook status during rehearsal (while Chris Mathews Tweets about it):

We’re sick of hearing the word Tweet, too, by the way — but we’re just rolling with it.

You Know You’re In GIRLS VS BOYS When…

1. You use the word “build” instead of “block” to stage your show
2. You’ve seen Nate in the stupidest hat imaginable a la Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island
3. You sing with shape, straight tone, and nasal quality with excellent intonation
4. You’ve been to A-Town (not Atlanta…think the Big A) and back but you know it’s not what matters
5. You’ve rocked out with Jersey Boys, Mary Poppins, and Young Frankenstein at the Taste
6. You’ve eaten enough Dum-Dums to get THREE frisbees
7. You are FIERCE and know how to walk like Tyra
8. You love circles
9. You’re into rock shows that tell stories
10. You like watching the show as much as the audience does
11. You love getting the game ball
12. You know the gun isn’t there
13. You think in metaphor, speak in verse, and move in flocks
14. You love the House
15. You do it in the pit
16. You breathe

This list could go on, but I think you get the idea.  We’re all so lucky to have been a part of this process, and we’re all eternally grateful to the House, the American Music Theatre Project, Northwestern, and every single audience member, young and old, that decided to be a part of our community for a few short hours.  We hope that the story spoke to you as much as it spoke to us, and we hope that you’ll all love together, bleed together, heal together, and play it again!

Love,

Reed and Will

PS It would be so awesome to see a response to this blog entitled “You know you’re an audience member at Girls vs Boys when…”  Who’s up for it?!

GIRLS VS BOYS runs one more weekend, until August 2 at Northwestern University’s Wallis Theatre this summer. Get in and see it now!
Use the code “team” to get $5 off general admission tickets, or do it in the pit – standing up – for just $10. Visit www.GirlsVsBoysTheMusical.com or call 847-491-7282 for tickets. 

WHAT?

Cast Member Matt Deitchman rocks out.

OH YEAH!

FREE TICKETS! All you have to do is call the box office at (847) 491-7282 and mention the code HouseFan to reserve your tickets!
The free tickets are located in The Pit, which is the Director’s Choice standing room section (Nate says it’s the best way to see the show) .
There’s a limited number available, so call now! 

The Skinny:

• free tickets to girls vs boys
• sunday, july 26, 2009
• 2:00pm
• wallis theatre on northwestern’s evanston campus (1949 s campus drive, evanston 60208)
• promo code: housefan
• call 847.491.7282 to reserve your tickets now   
  

  Now THAT'S what I call a musical!

Get a taste of a taste of our upcoming show in Grant Park during the Taste of Chicago.  House artistic director Nathan Allen has been hard at work all spring on the Northwestern University production of Girls vs. Boys — what will eventually become the third show in our upcoming season.  (Have you subscribed yet?)  If you’re not going to make it up to Evanston to see the whole Northwestern production, you can catch a sneak peak at The Taste.  Here’s the lineup:

National Anthem
Mary Poppins (2 songs)
101 Dalmations (2 songs)
In The Heights (1 song)
Girls vs. Boys (1 song) — probably around 6:30pm
Young Frankenstein (1 song)
Jersey Boys (3 songs)

Girls vs. Boys will open at The House in April.  Get more info about our production here.