Babble, a website for a new generation of parents, has compiled a list of the 25 best organizations and charities for children nationwide. Wanna know who is #1? Yep! You got it! Barrel of Monkeys is right there on the top. Increadible. It’s always great to get an unexpected pat on the back, and this is a huge one!
I got a fortune cookie about a week ago that said, “You will receive unexpected support over the next week. Accept it graciously.” I’m constantly amazed at the love and support from so many of the Monkeys! It is truly a wonderful thing to work at an organization like this. I don’t think I will ever tire of telling people what I do and hearing, “Barrel of Monkeys?! I LOVE the Monkeys!” I will do my best to continue to be gratious for all the support that comes to us, Babble being the latest and greatest!
Thank you, Babble, for recognizing the work of Barrel of Monkeys! It is an absolute honor to be on a list with 24 other fantastic organizations. It is so humbling be a part of this group of organizations that are putting so much good into the world for the betterment of the children. Check out the entire list here.
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.
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.
Voting for BOM to gain greater financial independence!
We still need your help! And, since you are a busy American celebrating your independence, it is fast and FREE!
We are doing pretty well in the Chase Community Giving contest on Facebook; we currently have over 560 votes! But sadly, we are slipping in the rankings. Only the top 200 groups will receive funding. We are still in line to receive $20,000, but we need a strong push of votes from you and your friends to help keep us there.
Please help us strengthen and deepen our work in Chicago’s schools by voting for us and by sending this post/link/or your own message to any of your friends on Facebook too.
THANK YOU! And remember - there IS a performance of “That’s Weird, Grandma” on Monday, July 5. Come see the show, have some laughs, and feel pride in your country,
pride in our students’ weapons for change,
and pride in knowing you are helping Barrel of Monkeys continue to save the world!
Barrel of Monkeys put on their grownup shoes and dress pants this week to attend the TCG (Theatre Communications Group) Conference. We were able to get a grant from the League of Chicago Theatres and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation that enabled us to attend. We met a lot of interesting people from all over the country, and even parts of the UK, and got to share information about all the interesting theatre work that is happening all over. It was inspiring and exciting.
What was also exciting was to be able to share with all those folks all the incredible theatre that is happening right here in Chicago. Throughout the conference, “pop-up” performances would, well, pop up at various points of the day. You would be walking to Montrose Room 5 for your panel discussion on board development and BOOM, theatre would happen right in your face. Chicago theatre companies, including BOM, were asked to present 4-minute theatre pieces that could be presented say, by the bank of elevators, or by the Womens Restroom or even while on your way to Montrose Room 5 as people scurried to snag a seat in the breakout session on board development. It was kind of great to watch people be accosted by people making and presenting theatre on their way to go talk about theatre.
Barrel of Monkeys chose a wonderful piece to perform called “Two Thinking Tigers” presented by Luke Hatton, Rani Waterman and a third BOM company member in disguise. I think its befitting that our pop-up performance had to do with tigers. Cuz the thing about tigers is, they can pop out of nowhere. And you certainly won’t expect to find them in a fancy hotel. Or in a car. Here is a picture of the trio getting ready to perform their “tigerocity.” And yes, those couches were extremely comfortable. 100 points for the person who can guess the mystery person sitting betwixt these fine actors. Extra 50 points if you can guess what Rani is thinking at this exact moment.
We were able to film the performance and you can also watch all the cool pop-up performances here. I hope I didn’t ruin the element of surprise by telling you where you could find them.
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