Think singing can’t change the world? Just ask these ladies:
The moment you have all been awaiting is right around the corner! Our annual Monkey-O-Kee karaoke benefit will occur on Sunday, February 12 from 8pm-11pm at Mad River Bar & Grille, 2909 N. Sheffield Ave. “What is it all about?” you may ask. It is all about supporting Barrel of Monkeys’ work in the Chicago Public Schools. Without you attending, singing, and laughing, the amazing stories written by children are at risk.
When you purchase a ticket for the extremely fair price of $25, you not only get the chance to support BOM’s work with Chicago’s youth – igniting their imaginations, boosting their self-esteem and improving literacy – but you ALSO get well drinks, beer and wine, pizza AND pasta, not to mention the karaoke, and therefore, entertainment in abundance.
Various and sundry other fun and fabulous activities will occur at the event, including a prize wheel, sponsored Monkey performances, and maybe a few surprises along the way.
You know who loves Monkey-o-kee? The unnamed old lady from Marshmelow
Ok. actually, that is Kayla from Cheerleaders. But you get the point.
If you buy your tickets online now you will receive two, count them TWO, free spins on the prize wheel! Could it get better? Possibly and likely, but you will only know if you show up.
Buy dem tickets.
Also, look out for a blog detailing the sponsored monkey line-up.
These two are so excited about Monkey-O-Kee, they are dancing:
The Equity Jeff nominations just were announced, and as usual, lots of Monkeys are up for the awards!
For Best Production, Play (Large): The Seagull at Goodman, with Cliff Chamberlain!
For Best Production, Play (Midsize): Scorched at Silk Road, with Lacy Campbell!
For Best Production, Musical (Midsize): Merrily We Roll Along at The Music Theatre Company, with Alan Schmuckler!
For Best Ensemble: The Front Page at TimeLine, with Alex Goodrich! and also The Seagull with Cliff!
For Actor in a Principal Role, Musical: Michael Mahler, for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at Theatre at the Center! And Alan Schmuckler for Murder for Two (still playing!) at Chicago Shakespeare!
For New Adaptation - play or musical: The Comedy of Errors at Court, adapted by Sean Graney, and featuring Alex Goodrich! And Working at Broadway Playhouse, featuring Emjoy Gavino and Michael Mahler!
The Weir, at Seanachai, received nominations for Best Actor and Scenic Design (Midsize), and was directed by Matt Miller!
For Music Direction: Michael Mahler, for Hot Mikado at Drury Lane!
And for Projections/video design (soon to be renamed The Tutaj Award): Mike Tutaj is nominated for 3 shows! The Detective’s Wife, at Writer’s Theatre, Frost/Nixon at TimeLine, and In Darfur at Timeline!
Chris Jones also said about Tutaj: “Meanwhile, another triple-threat, Mike Tutaj, demonstrated the ongoing likelihood that if you see excellent video on a Chicago stage, Tutaj was behind it.” He then goes on to talk about “The human with the most nominations, though”, thus proving what we’ve all secretly believed - Mike Tutaj is a robot.
Thanks for compiling this List of Jeffness, BOM-er Jason Sperling!
For my latest entry in the Know A Monkey blog series, I interviewed the wonderful Joseph Schupbach to find out all about his new job as BOM’s Education Coordinator, why he loves Chinatown, and what he’d rather do than be an underwater welder.
Tell me about the Education Coordinator position - has it existed before?
Not in its current form - so it’s new to me and new to the company. What they did is they essentially split Elizabeth Levy’s job (Program Director) into two because there’s a lot of new and exciting programming that we’re working on for the strategic plan.
So what will you be doing?
Essentially my job is supervising and facilitating the in school residencies. I’ll be maintaining the relationship with those schools; I’ll be supervising the teacher corps and the lead teachers.
What’s the hardest part of your new job?
I’ve only been doing one part of it so far, because it’s the summer and we’re not really in schools right now. So I’ve been working really hard on our big assessment project and processing evaluations.
Alexis (aka Ali) Chardon has been volunteering for Barrel of Monkeys for over a year working on various marketing projects, including interviewing staff and company members a blog series called “Know A Monkey”! (Keep an eye out for an interview soon with our new Educational Coordinator, Joseph Schupbach.) Thus, I have decided to begin a “Get to Know a Monkey Volunteer” series. It was only appropriate to begin with the amazing Ali! Please, enjoy getting to know her as much as I have.
AF: Ali, tell me a little bit about what you do in your day-to-day life.
AC: I am a lawyer. I work at a small law firm in Chicago where we do commercial litigation.
AF: What is that?
AC: Well, it actually means a lot of things. A lot of times it will mean contract disputes between companies. We also do a lot of antitrust work at my firm.
AF: Yeah. That’s great. So what brought you to the Monkeys to volunteer?
AC: I was looking for something outside my sphere, to do with some of my mind and some of my free time, something I thought would be helpful but was also interesting to me because as much as I enjoy being a lawyer, it can be a little bit insular in terms of that world. I had a friend named Dixie Uffelman—who I still have! She’s not a past tense friend! —who is a Monkey and so I’ve been to see “That’s Weird Grandma” over the years and just found myself sort of overjoyed every time I’m there.
AF: And how do you and Dixie know each other?
AC: Dixie and I know each other from the way-back machine when we were about juniors in high school. We went to a semester high school program in rural Maine where we lived in cabins and went to school with forty other students from around the country. We had a band together, which was fun, and which makes sense if you know Dixie because she can sing. Makes no sense if you know me, because I can’t. But while chopping wood one day we wrote a song together and a band was born.
AF: Awesome.
AC: I think we just had one song.
AF: Alright, what is the song that you wrote while you were chopping wood?
AC: It’s called “I Don’t Need a Man”, and the other thing you need to understand is we were chopping wood with a maul, which is a kind of axe. Unfortunately no one understands our song because the chorus was “I don’t need a man, I don’t need a man at all. Girl, who needs a man when you’ve got yourself a maul? I don’t need no man to chop my wood, I’ve got a maul that’s twice as good. I don’t need a man at all.” And no one seems to know what a maul is outside of our semester program, and they think we are talking about the place where you go shopping. Totally different meaning!
AF: Amazing. So have you written any songs since that time?
AC: That is the last song I’ve written. I used to love creative writing as a kid and I was a creative writing major in college. And that’s one reason why I’m drawn to Barrel of Monkeys. I don’t do it anymore. I write all day long but it’s … well, hopefully no one would call it creative.
AF: There is a sort of creativity that goes into it.
AC: You’re right actually. Creative legal arguments. But fiction should be staying out of it. So, yeah, it’s definitely something I miss in my adult life and something I really enjoy being around. You know, the Monkeys have their…there’s some kind of door that shuts at some point for a lot of us when we’re done in school with all the classes that kind of foster writing and creativity but the Monkeys kind of kept that door open. And for that reason they’re all a little bit closer to that side of themselves.
AF: That’s interesting. Do you remember anything that you wrote as a child that stands out?
AC: Yeah! I do remember this one…I wrote what I thought was a very long story about a cricket. And I have no idea what the cricket did, but it was epic! I mean it was like, he had adventures and it lasted several several pages of a legal notepad. I wonder what happened to that story. I was actually more into writing poetry as I got older – in high school and college. But for some reason I studied fiction writing.
AF: So, Ali, this is one of my favorite questions that you ask people: if you were a policeman in Chicago, how would you travel around and why?
AC: I would be a horsecop. Like, I would be a horsecop, a horsecop, a horsecop. There is no question, I want to cry when I see those animals they make me so happy. First of all, I love working animals. I love working animals. Like at the airport, German Shepherds, don’t even start! I think it is just so clever—to use any animals in the first place, and I love horses, and that these horses are so well-trained. They can have bikes whizzing by them, they can have little yapping dogs at their feet, and they just, I don’t know, it just gives me pride to see these guys. I guess horses calm crowds, people see horses and they just…
AF: Oh!
AC: Yeah, I didn’t know that. And I just think you’d be like, a cowboy/cop…
AF: That would be pretty cool. Yeah, you don’t mess around when there’s a cop and a horse. You don’t. Because they’re terrifying animals in some ways, just because of their size.
AC: So, yeah that’s what I’d do.
AF: Great, I love it. That’s fantastic. What has been your favorite thing about volunteering for Barrel of Monkeys?
AC: Just in general, I think one of my favorite things is feeling like I’m some small part of it, like helping when I go to the fundraisers or a show I can take a little bit, a little small piece of pride that I’m involved in something. I am so moved by “That’s Weird Grandma” when I go see it that you know, you just feel good when you’re a part of it too, some little cog in the wheel.
AF: Great. Do you feel that door in yourself opening a little bit?
AC: (Sighs.) I think need to go to some more shows.
The outpouring of support of the Monkeys on this wonderful celebratory day, “That’s Weird, Grandma”’s 10-Year anniversary, has been overwhelming. As a new-ish member of this crew, I am humbled by the return of so many emeritus members and current company members to join forces to present an epic performance this evening. Twice.
On that note, if you are reading this right now and have NOT purchased tickets, I have some bad news – the 7pm show is sold out! As of this moment (1pm), there are still tickets available for the 9pm, but get them while you can!
Back to the Monkey amazingness. A decade is a long time. I feel as if I’ve only put a toe in the waters of this fine barrel, and thus can take very very little credit for getting us to this significant milestone – but there are many who can, and SHOULD be celebrating their part in making this day possible. I could list you all, but the 9pm show would be sold out before I finished this blog entry. You know who you are. Thank you. I look forward to celebrating with you tonight!
P.S. – Buy your tickets! And so sorry - no discount code at the door this week!
