Rocking it new school

Posted by Rachel on June 11, 2008 at 10:00 PM
Celebration of Authors Company Members

Barrel of Monkeys is tired. We had way too much fun celebrating authors, stayed up way past our bedtimes, and today we’re honestly a little cranky. Cranky in the sense that people keep saying nice things about last night, and hearing them makes us cry. We had so much fun performing amazing stories in a beautiful space for the authors, friends, and families! Our best count comes to around 436 people in the audience including many of our superstar authors.

Monkey friend James Eric took these pics of Molly Brennan’s terrifying performance as scientist who creates a pill that turns her into a monster—eight superheroes can’t keep her from destruction.

After a week of intense rehearsals, the actual show zoomed by without a hitch. At one point, I had the experience of standing backstage looking forward to performing a particular story and then remembering we’d already done it. You would understand my confusion if you’d run these stories backwards and forwards for days. In reality, the show was almost over, but I didn’t want it to end.

The consolation is that now these stories will be eligible for performance in That’s Weird, Grandma!

And you know what else is eligible for performance in Grandma? Our new company members . . .

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Celebration ‘08 rehearsals. Look out.

Posted by Tai on June 6, 2008 at 04:39 PM
Celebration of Authors

Rehearsals for Celebration of Authors are well underway. As Heidi already mentioned, it is going to be beyond awesome.

Ricky, Molly, and Mary Winn get down.

It’s the biggest show of the year for BOM. Most school shows, as well as “That’s Weird, Grandma,” have between 16 and 20 stories per show. For Celebration, we perform 2 stories per residency—which, this year, works out to 28 amazing works of fiction, nonfiction, songs, dialogues, and persuasive arguments. This year we also have a few stories that have come about through some new additions to the curriculum: for instance, “The Bug” by Timothy R. from Chalmers is a “stretching the truth” story, and “Red Riding Rag” by Narita S. from Loyola Park is a radio play.

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It’s almost time for the show!

Posted by Heidi on June 5, 2008 at 07:28 AM
Celebration of Authors

It’s been a little quiet on the blog this week, we know. A distinct lack of hysterical press releases or heartfelt looks back.

Well, that’s because the entire company is working hard to prepare for Celebration of Authors.  I know, I know…I’ve sent a few thousand emails about it. I’ve even blogged about it before. But unless you’ve come to COA in years past, you have no idea how awesome this show really is.  In fact, this year it’ll be even more awesome—it is, after all, our tenth anniversary and COA is in its biggest, fanciest venue yet. 

COA isn’t just awesome in the way all BOM shows are awesome. Sure, there will be silly hats a-plenty and some great kid logic (SPOILER ALERT!—Just think, if you had a clone, you could send him to school so you could play with your other clone. Amazing). There’s a ninja barbershop quartet.  Yeah, you may need to re-read that sentence and think about it.  I won’t even get into the first story of the night, but it might change the way you think about broadway. And what will Mother Nature do to those who don’t respect her? Oh, and that Bollywood number Lacy blogged about? Yeah, that’s there too.

Unlike most of our public performances, however, a big portion of the audience will be the kids who wrote these stories, and their families and teachers and neighbors. One little girl is bringing 18 of her closest relatives. Others will come with only one or two. No matter how big the entourage, however, on this night all the kids are stars, and will be treated as stars should.

This year Celebration of Authors will be at the enormous and beautiful Athenaeum Theatre. It’s conveniently located, and there are plenty of seats. We’ve moved to a different night so as not to conflict with the Jeffs. Oh, and though we’ll appreciate any donations toward our programming, the show is free. What’s your excuse? Make a reservation online or by calling 312-409-1954. You will like it.

Celebration of Authors
Tuesday, June 10th
7:00pm
Athenaeum Theatre
2936 N. Southport Ave.
(at the intersection of Lincoln/Southport/Wellington).

Juice and cookies reception with the famous authors themselves follows the show.

World Saved.

P.S. Because we’ll be busy with COA, there is no regular TWG performance on Monday the 9th.