With a show already hilariously successful, imagine how much more hilariously successful it could be after four more hours of practice? Can you imagine it?
These imaginings can be reality if you attend on Monday….
Also that downer of an Immigration Argument is gone, so now it’s just unadulterated summertime laughs.
Joining the run this week are:
Twins- like a Brit version of the Devito/Schwarzenegger comedy of the same name, only the twins are girls. And no tacky late 80’s garb. Actually, it’s nothing like that movie.
Monkey Bars Birthday - can Rebecca’s birthday party be salvaged after the cake falls in the grass??????
$2 off password shall be ‘TWINS’.
Full running order with updated story links below.
You will like it.
You are the Artistic Director of Barrel of Monkeys. What does that mean?
Every day it’s something a little bit different. It’s a lot of preparation for shows that are coming up. When we have auditions I’m in charge of the casting and organizing that whole process. It’s got a lot of variation to it, including selecting new stories to put in the show each week, That’s Weird, Grandma. I tally all the audience votes and figure out what we should take out, which sometimes is a heartbreaking decision, but it has to be done.
How long have you been with BOM?
I was cast in the fall of 2000, at a time when ... the group was pretty small then. To give you an idea of how much it’s growing, we have 55 active company members, and at the time when I was cast I think they had 14 active company members —I may not have that exactly right—and they cast a big crew that almost doubled their size.
When did you decide to become involved in theater?
Whoa. That’s a loaded one. Well, this sort of ties into my love of Barrel of Monkeys. I was sort of a bad kid in grade school until third grade, and then I had a teacher who did creative drama in the classroom, and suddenly I think it was kind of a night and day switch and I turned around and I loved the teacher, and therefore wanted to impress her, and therefore was motivated to do well in school and so ... that’s when I became turned around from a problem kid to a kid who was a good student, I suppose, or a kid who was at least striving. So anyway, I had this teacher and that’s sort of simultaneously when I got interested in doing drama.
Do you have a memory of a thing you did as a bad kid? A pre-third grade memory.
Oh, a pre-third grade memory. Yeah, in kindergarten we had these life-sized blocks and we built a whole town. We were learning about the mail system, so you had to write letters correctly and write the address of the sender up in the corner, and who you were sending it to in the middle and put the stamp on and all that. And I intentionally did it wrong to see what would happen, and I got put in jail by the kid who was the sheriff, and I didn’t like that so I -
You were testing the system!
I was testing the system. And then I broke the jail. Like I broke the jail—I mean physically threw the blocks and broke out. And that led to a lot of parent conferences and stuff, the kid who was the sheriff was distraught and he was, you know, “Luke’s breaking the jail.”
Did you ride shooting guns down the street?
In my mind, yeah.
We are furiously crafting the new Monday night show for your enjoyment.
There are SIX new stories going in. All winners.
Cheerleaders- a true classic of old where “Julie, Jasmin and the backups” compete in the all-school cheer competition.
Batman Saves the World- Batman must use all his fancy gadgets to keep Cinderella from stealing the Ice Jewelry.
Dog on the Monster Truck- Dog vs. Dinosaur…but dog has a BIG advantage.
Super Agent Max- Max must sneak through a house filled with booby traps and get the mycrochip in order to become a super agent.
From the Mixed Up Files of Ms. Basil E. Frankwieler- not to be confused with the book series of the same name, this group story from Stockton school has ample originality.
In Love with a Grill- the perfect summertime BBQ song.
Come and witness the extravaganza.
Password for $2 off at the box office shall be ‘Ice Jewelry’.
See you there!
Yes! It’s finally over! On Monday night, after weeks of soliciting votes from viewers like you and a last minute voting-rush by a full house at That’s Weird, Grandma, Chase Community Giving finally closed its cyber-voting-booths. 12 hours later, we got the news we’d been hoping for—we had placed in the Top 200, finishing in 139th place with 1,615 votes. And that means two things:
A.) We get $20,000 to help provide the best in arts education to CPS students that we can muster
B.) You all are The Best!
This is especially important to our organization at this time. With $40k of funding decreasing next year and the CPS budget a complete unknown, this grant really gives BOM some much needed budget relief.
We are especially proud to be among the 15 Chicago theaters that have ended in the top 200! Amazing. This was a national competition, and $300,000 of the granted monies will land here in Chicago (click here for information on the Chicago theater Chase race). This is just further proof of the wonderfully supportive theater community that exists here.
We all may have been beat out by the Blind Cats and Sad Bears, but none of us have cute and haggard animals on our side to lure the masses. We did, however, have an amazing team of YOU.
Barrel of Monkeys is truly grateful for your support in helping BOM reach students in the city of Chicago in effective, exciting and, let’s face it, life-changing ways. Your vote will help make one more story, one more play and, at the end of it all, the world a little bit more saved. So, again, a sincere and heartfelt thank you from all of us at BOM to you. Your prize awaits BELOW!
If you haven’t noticed, over the last week, we’ve been using our hard-working company and volunteers to make humiliating and/or hilarious Thank You videos. As part of our Thank You to you, Monkey Friend, we’ve put them all in one, easy-to-find and convenient space. If you like on-the-fly dancing, office-made videos and camels, or at least student-penned stories, you’ll find something below that tickles your fancy. Enjoy them, share them with your friends and use them later as blackmail against the individuals featured—you’ve earned it!
And, one last time—from our staff, company members, volunteers and schools: Thank You for giving us the opportunity to continually nurture the fantastic, silly, awesome and world-saving Barrel of Monkeys.
First of all, congratulations to the cast and crew of The Apple for their mind blowing performance at the Neo-futurists film fest of a truly terrible film. Wow. That was a satisfying theater-going experience.
You can see some of the same talented performers in this, the last show of this round of TWG! Segue of segues.
Joining the show this week are:
The Kiss wherein Jacinda imagines the moment her parents first met at a carnival
and Chair Argument. Thesis: “I am chair. I believe that people should spray air freshener on their butt before they sit on me.”
You could say both are physical theater pieces with strong visual storytelling and you wouldn’t be wrong.
Highly popular greats such as Monster at the Movie, A Guy without Manners, The Little Cowboy and Diamond/How to Make Me also remain in the run for your delight.
This week the password for $2 off at the box office is “Danger Horse”.
See you at the plays!
