Posted by Rachel on May 16, 2008
Company Members
School Shows
Blog: So, Rachel, as the official Chalmers blogger, why have you been neglecting me?
Rachel: Well, because Lacy and Dixie pretty much covered it. They told you all about the Bollywood number, and the power outage, and the uniform debacle.
Blog: They didn’t tell me about one thing.
Rachel: What one thing?
Blog: Don’t pretend you don’t know.
Rachel: Oh, but that’s the dark side of the Chalmers show. Do we have to go there?
Blog: It would be wrong not to.
Rachel: Fine, we’ll go . . .
The Chalmers show was the last*** school show performance for Jonathan Mastro and Eric Silverberg, and I cannot deal.
These guys have always been a bit ahead of me on the road—seniors when I was a freshman at Northwestern. Eric starred in the first show I saw at college. We all had the same acting teacher. I remember sitting in on their acting class and watching Jonathan rehearse a Pinter scene. Little did I know, within four years time I’d be watching Jonathan perform fourth grader David E.‘s story “Ordering Cars” in the same style.
These two witnessed my horribly awkward audition for the company. They were around for the Sorry Tournaments, and rehearsing at the dog kennel, and Thursday night karaoke at Carol’s. They remember when the Monkeys’ first collection of props got stolen because the company kept all its worldly possessions in a van—I wasn’t around for that, but they were. They did nearly every school show my first couple of years. Eric signed me up for my first Monkey teaching gig. Now he’s a full-time public school teacher. Jonathan’s been teaching at Chalmers for so long, and so well, that kids in the 8th grade swarmed him the second we walked on campus.
If Halena Kays is the Monkey Mama, these guys are the Daddies. They’ve stuck around, shaping the company since the very beginning. Now, they’re real daddies, which is at least part of the reason they’ve got to call it a day.
*** Instead of last, let’s say, “last for now,” because you never know where life’s going to take you, and because I’m certain we’ll all be doing Monkey shows together in our senile delusions when we’re 110, and because, as I said before, I can’t deal.
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Posted by Heidi on May 16, 2008
That's Weird Grandma
Two new stories!
The Haunted Piano
and
When I went to Six Flags.
They Will delight you.
full running order after the jump.
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Posted by Dixie on May 15, 2008
School Shows
Hey all- there’s been a lot said about the Chalmers show- which is fair because it was OFF THE CHAIN! First- we didn’t have a lot of cars to get us to the show, so I had to fit all of our props, show curtains & the big keyboard into my station wagon.
Behold! The wonder of the wagon!
Seriously, it was full. When we got to Chalmers there was a little scuffle because half of the class that we had taught weren’t allowed to come to the performance, because they were out of uniform. We asked that they be allowed to come, and Principal Dossiea said only if they found some uniforms to put on. All the girls scrambled to cobble together some regulation uniform, while Alexis explained to me that they all dressed in regular street clothes to protest the uniform policy. “But we didn’t know that it was Monkey Day!!!” Eventually they had on uniforms, and we started the show. The performance was terrific, and the kids were a brilliant audience. All was well until during the closing song, the keyboard cut out…. so did the lights. There was a blackout across much of the south side! We kept on singing a cappella, and the show was finished!
We returned the notebooks to the proud authors, and carefully headed home- with none of the local traffic lights working.
I love the Chalmers School!
Posted by Heidi on May 15, 2008
One of the questions we get a lot at the Monkey office is about how we can afford to work in Chicago’s most under-served communities without a lot of corporate sponsorship (nb: we don’t object to corporate sponsorship! If you work for a corporation that would like to sponsor us, feel free to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)). Most of the schools we work with pay us a moderate fee, which typically covers about half the cost of bringing the program to that school. We also get money from ticket sales “That’s Weird, Grandma”.
We’re lucky to have some great foundations supporting us; their grants make up about 40% of our annual revenue. The rest of it comes from the support of individuals just like you. Yes, you.
We get individual support through donations at the end of “That’s Weird, Grandma”, from our annual Fancy Schmancy Benefit (October 19th, 2009), Monkey-o-kee…and once a year from an annual appeal to our family, friends, and fans.
If you’re on our mailing list, you probably got a letter or email this week asking you to make a donation. We hope you’ll consider it. No donation is too small (or too big!), and we could really use the support. We need to raise at least $20,000 by the middle of June so that we can wrap up this school year on a positive note and start hiring teachers for next year.
If you do decide to make a donation, we’ll feel about you the way 4th grader Tatianna felt about us after we taught in her class:
If you prefer to make an in-kind donation, I’ve included some options after the jump, as well as some examples of what your donations can help pay for.
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Posted by Lacy on May 14, 2008
School Shows
Intrigued by Donnell and Tai’s dueling impersonations of Laura, I swung by Loyola Park tonight to watch the final run-through of the Chalmers show.
...Oh my heavens, my friends. I was NOT disappointed.
First of all, there was ‘The Missing Owner,’ which spawned all the aforementioned antics. You can see Laura here, in the middle of the story. Context: This is where she kidnaps a penguin from Alaska, before she takes it back to the Lower 48 and leaves it to die of heatstroke, in the street, then later uses its lifeless corpse to make a YouTube movie.
Laura: Hey There. My name’s Norbit, and I’m gonna be your new daddy.
Dixie: (worried penguin sounds)
Also, what do you love about Barrel of Monkeys? Is it the whimsy? Is it the range of genres? Is it the ambitious storytelling? IS IT THAT WE HAVE A BOLLYWOOD NUMBER IN THIS SCHOOL SHOW??
Sorry. Did you catch that?
THERE IS A BOLLYWOOD NUMBER IN THIS SHOW.
The Chalmers Show stories CANNOT get into Grandma fast enough, friends. Oh la la.
