Posted by Joe on March 11, 2015
Our confidently weird all musical performance of That’s Weird, Grandma just keeps getting better!
Sammy the Eel returns to That’s Weird, Grandma and with him he brings laughs, tears, and gorgeous voices!
Check out the story below and preview the song here
Sammy the Eel by Carnail A., Chalmers School of Excellence
Once there was an eel named Sammy.
He had a great life and eel good friends.
He also had a family that loved him and always showed it to him.
Sammy always paid his electric bill.
All the people who knew Sammy said he was a very good person.
He also had a pet fish named Timmy.
One day Sammy went to church because he always went to church.
The next day Sammy was on his way to church and he saw sea waste a women screamed my baby a little boy was trapped on a piece of waste.
He went to get the little boy to safety.
And he got the boy free but got stuck.
They also had a funeral for Sammy at church of his poor sweat death.
THE END.
Say “Sammy the eel had a great life” to Ambar at the box office for discounted tickets!
You got two chances this week, Sunday at 2pm and Monday at 8pm!
See you at the show!
Joe
Posted by Amanda Farrar on March 11, 2015
The Monkey Minute
That's Weird Grandma
Company Members
School Shows
School Residencies
After School Program
In each and every school show since Barrel of Monkeys’ inception in 1997, one or more student-written stories have been adapted into song for the stage. Multiply that by upwards of 15 original school shows each year, and you have a couple hundred songs in the archives!
We have so many songs, in fact, that presently That’s Weird, Grandma is an all-musical revue! You can see 16 of some of our most favored songs adapted from the incredible work of student writers this Sunday at 2pm and Monday at 8pm. Jennifer Johnson, author of the following blog entry and current performer in That’s Weird Grandma: The Musical, shares some of her most favorite epic Barrel of Monkeys songs that have not yet made their way into the current show! Enjoy celebrating the power of these students’ imaginations!
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My Favorite Epic Barrel of Monkeys Songs
By Jennifer Johnson
In the classroom, we encourage students in Barrel of Monkeys writing programs to continue stories they’ve started or we ask specific questions to further their creativity during the writing process. Sometimes, a student is ready to write! And the product is long, detailed, complicated, creative and fabulous. Below are my favorite epically long stories written by students in Chicago Public Schools that we’ve turned into songs.
Sculpting Alaska
By Gautam R., Hough Street School
“Let the competition begin,” boomed the announcer, as I quickly started planning out my ice sculpture. Scrape, scrape, scrape, went my carving tool as I knocked away ice. This was the regular carving routine. We were at the 2000 year end ice sculpting contest in Alaska. Nobody would think of such a wonderful sculpture as a fish sculpture. “Hey Jimmy,” a voice shouted, how you doing? Continued!
Sculpting Alaska was brilliantly staged using the entire cast. There are so many great characters to play in this story/song. Two people even played the actual ice sculptures!
IRS Moles
By Ben L., Hough Street School
Eeooo! The sirens rang throughout the city. Speakers popped out of buildings. “Run, the IRS Moles are coming” said the speakers. Everyone ran. They knew that moles would make them pay. “Come on” said Harold to his mother as they ran. “But the cookies” said his mother, “we need them.” “We’ll have to leave them” said Harold. “Dang” said his sister. “I say we fight back against this tax collecting” said Bob who was 2 and very smart. Continued!
I was in the original cast of this—I got to sing “Dang, not the cookies!” It’s one of the best lines I’ve ever sung in a BOM song!
IRS Moles from Barrel of Monkeys on Vimeo.
The Race
By Dorian W., South Loop School
Once upon a time there was a man named Truman. And he was joining the Big Race finals to win $300. When he was practicing he run 5 miles a day. When he run home he took his dog out and ran with his dog. His dog was named Ace. His dog was really nice and could run so fast. He was the fastest dog in the whole world. Truman was a gym teacher. Continued!
I love The Race because in the end Truman races by jumping in the sack—it’s so exciting to watch!
The Evil Kangaroo
By Emilio G., Loyola Park After School Program
Once upon a time in 1212 BC and now in the middle of the ocean there was a city named Freeopolis that no one knew about. Everyone was happy until Professor Wiggems built an experiment on kangaroos. It went completely wrong. The kangaroo escaped and destroyed the city, then when there’s no hope left it’s to be continued…The island sinks and the kangaroo finds a boat. Continued!
Emilio G. wrote many stories about evil kangaroos and Professor Wiggems, but this one is my favorite! It’s staged with lots of action and verses!
A long story creates a wonderful basis for a musical theatre masterpiece!
Posted by Amanda Farrar on March 4, 2015
That's Weird Grandma
Company Members
Do you ever wonder how we put together the stories that are performed in That’s Weird, Grandma? How do we pick just a couple dozen stories from 17 years of incredible student-written stories? How do we showcase a range of schools, types of curriculum, and each ensemble member? Founding member, Jason Sperling, answers all your burning questions!
And, see the delicate balancing act of That’s Weird, Grandma that is currently being directed by Joseph Schupbach at the Neo-Futurist Theater every Sunday at 2pm and Monday at 8pm through March 30! It is an ALL MUSICAL spectacular!
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A Day in the Life: Creating the That’s Weird,Grandma Runlist
By Jason Sperling
Putting together the run list for That’s Weird, Grandma is a delicate balancing act. We are simultaneously serving multiple constituencies: the public audience, the performers, and the children whose voices we are sharing. Having had the opportunity to direct several rounds of That’s Weird, Grandma, here’s a look at some things we consider when assembling the crackerjack lineup each week.
Types of stories: In all of our classroom residencies, each week focuses on a different type of writing, ranging from dialogue to persuasive arguments to true stories. Having a mixture of all of these represented in That’s Weird, Grandma keeps the show interesting, and lets the audience check out different styles that the students create. Of course, within each style, there are differing types of adaptation. A puppet piece, a rap, film noir, straight-forward narrative – one of the strengths of Barrel of Monkeys’ ensemble is that everyone brings a unique set of performing abilities to the table, meaning that any given writing type might have any genre of performance. It’s also important to check the tone of the stories – I call this “quirk vs. heart.” Those two qualities are not mutually exclusive, but to me it’s very important to have an equal balance in any given That’s Weird, Grandma show. We want to balance the over-the-top oddities with the heartfelt moments, which ultimately make both resonate more strongly. One of the goals of performing That’s Weird, Grandma is to raise the profile of Barrel of Monkeys in Chicago while simultaneously championing the vision of the students we work with. We want to give the audience insight into the heart of what we do, which is working with students in our school (and after-school) programs.
As for the performers, it’s important to try to give everyone a chance to shine. Everything you see on stage at That’s Weird, Grandma was originally adapted and performed at one of our school residencies, for which we usually have a cast of 12-14 Monkeys. Each Barrel of Monkeys member signs up for however many school shows their schedules allow, meaning on average everyone in Barrel of Monkeys does 4-6 school shows per year, appearing as 10 or more characters in each show! They may play the hero of the story in one piece and jump directly into being a carnivorous garbage can in the next. When we choose stories for That’s Weird, Grandma, we ask the cast for suggestions of stories they were in or saw that they’d like to resurrect. We want the cast to be having a blast on stage – when that happens, it clearly spreads to the audience too!
Sometimes we have a disproportionate number of performers who were all in the same school shows, meaning most suggestions come from a limited number of schools. To offset this, it’s also important to represent a wide variety of schools in the story choices. We have 17 years of story archives in the Monkey office: audio tapes (!), photocopies, scripts of the earliest work, and DVDs of more recent years. The staff and interns have also catalogued everything in computer files, letting us search for stories that way too. Depending on who’s in the show or directing, the stories will be from a wide range of years.
Once the stories have been chosen, we need to choose a running order. Somehow there’s just a flow that feels right – is a story loud or quiet? An all-play involving the whole cast or just a few people? Are the song/dance/movement pieces spread throughout the run or bunched together? Is one performer the featured character in several stories in a row? Even things such as giving actors time to change costumes, set chairs, or clean up messy props factor in. Frequently we’ll start with a story that “teaches” the audience how to watch a Barrel of Monkeys show; something with a strong point-of-view, clean beats, and clear Monkey style. Hopefully this helps any audience members who are new to seeing That’s Weird, Grandma dive right in and journey on with us. Lastly, we try to let stories that have been put into the order more recently have a little time to find their legs, and when new pieces join each week the whole balancing process starts again!
Creating just the right run list each week is a challenge, but a rewarding and fun one which allows directors to see our work through multiple sets of eyes.
Posted by Joe on February 27, 2015
That's Weird Grandma
TWG Weekly Update
I can’t begin to explain how great this cast and crew is that is bringing you That’s Weird, Grandma: The Musical this Sunday and Monday!
I can’t begin to explain to you what this special show is like!
I can’t begin to explain all the musical rehearsals, choreography teaching, and joke making that has gone into it!
But I can try:
Kids write it.
We do it (and in this case via the vehicle of song and dance).
World saved.
Say “I still can’t find my homework” to Ambar at the box office for discounted tickets!
See you at the show!
Joe
Posted by hpalmer on February 25, 2015
The Monkey Minute
We love the monkey blog. We love how it provides snippets of rehearsals, sneak peeks into upcoming shows, and some pretty amazing photos. To enhance the wonder that is this blog, beginning next week, we will be introducing a series of pieces called “The Monkey Minute” that more deeply explore a variety of aspects of the Barrel of Monkeys experience. One piece will articulate the behind the scenes mechanics of creating the run-list for a show, while another will dive into how we explore and portray gender on stage. Posts will explore the history of our organization and how we have evolved over time. They will share funny memories, lessons learned in teaching, and lots of insightful Top 5 lists. So keep on expecting fun updates and also be on the lookout for a new series of beautiful pieces created to share the heart of Barrel of Monkeys.
