Posted by Rachel on March 5, 2009
Company Members
Podcasts
Over the summer and fall, we lost a few good men. I wrote a post about Eric and Jonathan’s last school show at the time, and no, I still can’t deal.
When John Dixon left, it wasn’t such a clean break, more of a . . . “checking out the New York scene,” “probably be back in a month or two,” kind of a thing. Maybe he wanted to let us down easy . . . maybe he’s really not sure . . . he’ll come back to us . . . one day, one day . . .
(Hey, wait a second! How John left, that’s a lot like how it sounded when Lauren Sharpe left, and she just got cast as a New York Neo-futurist. Hmmmm. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the Monkeys are happy for her, but . . . but no. This post isn’t about Sharpe. That wound is still too fresh.)
This post is about the men who are featured, together, even in their absence, in our most recent podcast, “My First Girlfriend” by Tyberius W., from, that’s right, that storied Chalmers show.
See, we won’t let them leave. We recorded little parts of them . . .
The voice-of-an-angel Silverberg part . . .
The mad-genius-composer Mastro part . . .
And the “shoot, that boy can rap” Dixon part . . .
(The faces of the spellbound children in this photo have been blurred to protect their privacy—OR MAYBE they’re blurry from trying to keep up with the AWESOME! Dixon’s face has not been blurred to protect his privacy. He can’t keep up with his own awesome.)
Silverberg, Mastro, and Dixon each recorded their parts—individually—in the days before they left town. Przygoda played some guitar, and . . . he stayed. We’re still trying to figure out how this song works. Its powers. Its limits.
And Mike Tutaj FUSED them all together with the magic of DIGITAL AUDIO RECORDING and MIXING and RADIOACTIVE LIGHTNING BLASTS!!! Or something. He did that thing he does.
Then, long after all the other parts were recorded, Christina, and Dixie, and I huddled together between some curtains and eggcrating in Mike Tutaj’s hallway, and it was hard to get around the curtain if you needed to use the bathroom, and we only had one headset for a lot of the time until Christina thought of using her iPod headphones, and our MEN HAD LEFT US! OUR MEN!
It was an emotional time.
We recorded our back-up diva parts in harmony with the robotic shadows of our frontmen. And that’s how you get a song about lost love. Oh, Tyberius, we feel your pain! We’re right there with you!
Posted by Rachel on March 4, 2009
Just wanted to share a few Monkey-verse links.
Young adult novelist Varian Johnson (My Life as a Rhombus, A Red Polka Dot in a World Full of Plaid, and coming soon Saving Maddie) checked out our podcast, and now he can’t get “My First Girlfriend” out of his head.
Michael Mahler and Alan Schmuckler are featured in the latest American Theatre Magazine. Find out all about the Internet musical they’re developing, Boyfred.
And did you know that we’re one of the 101 things for grandparents to do in Chicago? That’s right. Coming to TWG makes you look hip in front of your grandkids AND provides a kindly reminder to be careful when walking near pools, even covered ones.
Posted by Heidi on March 2, 2009
That's Weird Grandma
This week is the first of what we at the office call “Round 5” of TWG. Basically from your point of view that means:
a) There’s a new cast!
Erick, Alex, Meredith, Tom, Dixie, Curtis and Rachel join returning cast members Brandon, Philip, Tai, Mari, Rani and Donnell.
This is a delightfully large cast after last round’s very talented small cast. Extra kudos to Philip who was the only musician for the last six weeks, and since it was his first time in the show he had a lot to learn and did it well. Erick and Curtis will join him on the keys this round.
b) There’s a new director!
Our lovely Artistic Associate Molly Brennan takes the directing reigns from Artistic Director Luke Hatton for the next five weeks. Luke will be back for the *matinee run* starting in April.
Of course, there are also new stories. “Kung Fu Princesses” makes it’s TWG debut and “Grandma” makes it’s first appearance since 2004. Don’t worry long-time fans, “Going to the Party” and “A Bad Day” are still in the run.
You will like it!
Read more
Posted by Rachel on March 1, 2009
No, that’s not a tiny, animated bird on your windowsill singing you a love song.
That’s Barrel of Monkeys (aka BOM_Chicago) taking one step further into the ether by joining Twitter. Come and follow our tweets about all things monkey—arts education, theater, Kung Fu guys . . . We’re going to be learning so much about each other!
Excited? You should be.
Posted by Maggie on February 25, 2009
After School Program
I walked into the dance room at Loyola Park Monday afternoon around two o’clock. It was dark, silent and still. Only a few monkeys were gathered patiently near the stage left step of the stage, early for their call time. The calmness that surrounded me was bizarre, knowing that in just a few minutes the room would be filled monkeys buzzing around singing, dancing and trying on funny hats. And in just a short time after that, excited children would be coming in, anticipating what they were about to see, which of course was THEIR stories!
Sure enough, my bizarre feeling of what was to come did indeed become a reality very quickly. May I present to you the 2009 Loyola Park Winter Show!
Monkeys showed up with crazy awesome props.
Funny hats were found.
The children arrived.
Then the zombies!
The cast was talented, the stories were amazing, the characters were so detailed.
Sadly, we are saying goodbye to one of our fantastic monkey performers. Hopefully, he will come back to us soon, but for now we hope he can find funny beards on his future adventures!
We’ll miss you John!
Great show all! Can’t wait to see the LP stories in TWG and COA!
