Playmakers Blog | Playmakers Laboratory

Celebration of Authors - TOMORROW!

Posted by Amanda Farrar on June 7, 2010

That's Weird Grandma TWG Weekly Update Company Members Celebration of Authors School Shows After School Program

Sadly, there will not be a performance of “That’s Weird Grandma” this evening. Happily, there WILL be a FREE performance tomorrow night! Tuesday, June 8 at 7pm, Barrel of Monkeys will perform Celebration of Authors at the Harold Washington Cultural Center, 4701 Martin Luther King Dr. Click here to make a reservation!

Because artistic director extraordinaire, Luke Hatton, was so generous in offering me a part in this year’s Celebration of Authors, I have been spending much of my time in the last week watching the brilliant Monkeys at work, attempting to keep up, and on my own, doing some intense Michael Jackson choreography research.

Being in the room with the Monkeys at work is like nothing I have ever experienced in my decades in the performing arts (albeit, the majority of which had a heavy dance emphasis). Just the term “team work” does not really do this group justice. I have seen the Monkeys work as a small group in the classrooms, but that controlled chaos pales in comparison to that in the rehearsal room when there are 35 Monkeys!

I was amazed watching rehearsal for “The Tale of the Twelve Hip Hop Dancing Proncess”. While Carly was reviewing choreography with everyone, Philip was teaching the vocals, and on the side, Musical Director Laura had an idea of layering in some more vocals. She touched base with fellow Monkey musician Erick to see what he thought. As he was encouraging, she went to Philip to see what he was good with it. After a quick agreement from Philip, Laura had Mari and Rachel on their feet playing around with the additional vocals. After some wrangling by Artistic Director Luke Hatton, and approximately 30 minutes, the play was ready to go!

I’ve always loved the process of art making, and the Monkeys have the process to beat all processes!

The most amazing thing is that the passion and dedication of each individual Monkey is inspired by one thing: the children. The intense urge of each Monkey to do justice to the student author’s story and make them proud is palpable. The question after a performance by a Monkey is never “How was I?” it is “What did the author do when we were performing his/her story?”

Come see the Monkeys perform 30 brilliant stories written by students this school year, and better yet, see the students’ reactions.

Runlist below!

Chalmers Saves the Best for Last

Posted by Rachel on May 25, 2010

Company Members School Shows

Chalmers is often the last school show of the year, and while we don’t play favorites, it is true that lots of Monkeys come out for this last blast.

One of these Monkeys is Kristie Koehler, former Monkey Program Director and current emeritus member. Emeritus is a fancy way to say she used to be around all the time, but isn’t anymore. You might remember her as Bob Stickle, Funny Bunny, or the Girl Who Broke Her Two Front Teeth. That story was performed in the very first That’s Weird Grandma and is the source of the title! Kristie’s the original “Grandma” on the very first That’s Weird, Grandma posters! I mean, you guys, that is famous!

Here she is with fellow Monkey veteran Matt Miller.

Kristie is a clown, a Neo-Futurist, a college instructor, a sometime TV producer, and one of the funniest people I know.

One of my favorite things about Kristie is that she’s older than me. (I mean, in Monkey years she’s older. Kristie, that’s what I mean. I’m not telling how old anybody is in real years, though young Philip recently described me as “still springlike.” I will take it. ) Back on track—when I first joined Barrel of Monkeys, I was not always sure what to do, so I would ask myself, “What would Kristie do?” and basically rip her off. While I could never be Kristie, it worked great! At the end of that first year, people told me I had grown a lot as a performer, and I thought, yeah, I learned how to rip off Kristie Koehler . . . Secrets. Learning and growing. Barrel of Monkeys, always learning and growing together.

No, but seriously that’s part of what makes a company strong—internal leadership and a shared sense of style and humor. We copy each other and mix it up with our own special sauce, find our inner Monkey. Mine has a healthy sprinkling of Koehler.

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Nothing little about Little Village

Posted by Meredith on May 14, 2010

School Shows

On Tuesday, we began adapting stories, and not only is there a monster truck and evil president twins in this show, we also kidnap Santa!!! Oh, and people brought snacks. Brennan called this the “snack corner.”

And….

There’s been a camera around during rehearsals… someone’s making a documentary…. shushhhh.

And…..

The show is directed by Luke, and the cast is Dixie, Laura, Meredith, Michelle, Zeke, Mari, Carly, Tim, Elizabeth, Brennan, Tai, Tom and (drum roll please)………… Annie Calhoun, in her first school show since she was cast in BOM! And, if that wasn’t enough! She wrote a hit song about a bass playing lady!

Go big or go home!

Poetry Show You Guys!

Posted by Laura G. on May 6, 2010

School Shows

Hello every one
The Poetry Show is coming
Music
Props
Movement
Memorization.

Did you take note of my well placed line breaks?
Oh yeah, it’s on.

Ok, so I have a confession to make. I majored in creative writing in poetry in college. That’s no joke. My mom’s still mad. And I’m not a poet because a.) I was terrible at it b.) It made me obsess about rhyming things, which only reinforced the fact that I was TERRIBLE at it and C.) I was terrified of making all that famous poet money! But what writing poetry in college did was make me really love reading other people’s poetry. Because reading along with a poem as if you are writing it, speaking it, or painting it is a really cool feeling. You get to experience what it’s like to be a poet, to create images, to capture feelings, and maybe even to uncover truths, one word at a time. And that is what we get to do in the Poetry Show. Poems can pack so much meaning into such a small space that they can make you go “YES!” and “What?” at the same time. So you read it again, preferably out loud. At rehearsal, we read a lot of really good poems that unraveled in unexpected ways. Like this one:

Human Nature

Crazy
Feeling
When you sometimes when
You are happy
You get crazy
And flow up
So this isn’t
Real

-Joshua C. South Shore Cultural Center

I love this poem. This poem made me remember what it is like to be delirious with joy. And the last lines, I read them over and over again…is he saying that once I start to “Get crazy/ And flow up” that I can look down at all my bad day frustrations rooting me to the ground and see that they aren’t real? Or is he saying that this “Crazy/ Feeling” feels really good, and that it lifts you above it all—but only for awhile—because in the end it isn’t real ? Or both? AHHHHHH! POETRY!

Laura.

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