Escrito por estudiantes de CPS, representada por actores profesionales

Written by CPS students, performed by professional actors

“That’s Weird, Grandma”, our weekly review presented to the public, has been running in the Andersonville neighborhood in North Chicago for 10 years.  The performance is a collection of sketches and songs originally performed in the schools. This year-round public performance supports our mission of sharing the creative voices of Chicago students, but “That’s Weird, Abuelita” was conceptualized in order to ensure that our public performances are accessible by the students with whom we work and their families, mainly located on the West and South sides of Chicago.

The objective of the project is to unite Spanish and English-speaking communities.  By the nature of our presentation, the performance will unite student-authors with the audience.  As our performances are enjoyed by all ages, it will unite children and adults.  Although our other public performances may achieve the objective in these ways, this project is unique in its ability to unite Spanish and English speakers. 

The goals of the project are two-fold:
1) To share the creative voices of local students with their community to encourage celebration of the power of the children’s imaginations. 
2) To share the performance with non-Spanish-speaking audiences to embrace our core value of cross-cultural exchange by introducing young audiences to the Spanish language.

In order to achieve both project goals, Barrel of Monkeys has identified the overlap of Avondale and Logan Square as the location for our next presentation of “That’s Weird, Abuelita”.  Barrel of Monkeys has been working at the Avondale-Logandale School for five years and Lorca Elementary for two (both located in the Avondale neighborhood), where at least 90% of the student population, and/or their families, are bilingual and/or primarily Spanish speakers. Come join the fun!