Guest post – David Belew, director of The Complete History of America (Abridged)

From left, Michael Woods, Adam Kander and Mat Labotka

How do you take 50,000 years of American history, condense it down to a two hour comedic riff, and present it with just three actors performing the whole thing? That was the challenge accepted by Adam Long, Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor when they wrote and subsequently performed The Complete History of America (Abridged). The show was originally written in 1993, ran for 9 years on London’s West End, and has toured extensively in this country.

Several months ago, Metropolis’ Artistic Director Robin Hughes presented me with the challenge of bringing this historical, hysterical comedy to the Metropolis stage. I then set out on a quest through the audition process to find the three funniest men in the Chicagoland area to bring the piece to life in Arlington Heights. I am pleased to report back that I succeeded in my quest. Adam Kander, Mat Labotka, and Michael Woods are not only incredibly gifted comedic actors, but they are also sharp improvisers who will keep the audience in stitches every night. I can’t wait to unleash these three wonderful performers on an audience in a few weeks.

I was asked what my favorite part of the rehearsal process has been thus far. The best answer I can give is that I love laughing through three hours of practice every night. Whether it’s watching Mat and Adam turn Lewis and Clark’s epic journey through the Louisiana Purchase into an old fashioned vaudeville routine, seeing the boys envisioning Madison, Franklin and Jefferson as aging stoners trying to create a companion piece to the Bill of Rights called The Bill of Wrongs, listening to Mat create his spur of the moment Medley of Broadway Showtunes, watching Michael play our film noir detective Spade Diamond try to figure out the mysterious death of his brother Neil, or marveling at Adam’s rap abilities as he works in Noam Chomsky while throwing down some rhymes about the Jamestown settlement, the end result is an evening full of laughter.

Our goal is to make it all look easy when you see it on the stage in January and February, but our entire cast and crew are working very hard to build a terrific evening of theatre. The cast plays over 50 different characters, and they all need costumes, props, lights, sound, and a terrific team of backstage personnel to make sure they’re in the right costume with the right prop in the right pool of light at the right time all night long. Whew! I get tired just thinking about how hard they’re working. Me? I’m just providing some guidance while I laugh my way all the way to opening night.

We hope you’ll come out and laugh along with us at The Complete History of America (Abridged).

Historically yours,
David Belew
Director

Guest Post – Abby Rose Mark of Metropolis’ A Christmas Carol cast

Final Farewells

Watching Tiny Tims sob two days in a row in the dressing room after their last shows has finally caught up to the cast, some more than others of course. But the fact is: it’s really almost over.

It’s hard to believe the rambunctious Christmas Carol bunch is not going to be spending never-ending 3-show days nestled around the green room couches drinking tea and munching whatever surprise treat we had that day, much less even one show days! Never-ending is now actually ending. I feel bad for confessing that I’m not even excited for Christmas, and I’d take another show over it any day! (Since it has been Christmas since October for us, after all.)

I cannot even begin to express how great of an experience Carol has been for me this fall/winter. After a much too long year, I couldn’t wait for 2011 to be over. But by chance (aka, lots of nerve wracking auditions!), I happened upon this great little miracle called Metropolis. Sometimes, a show is really all you need to lift your spirits. (Hah…present spirits….See you all are going to miss my corny dad jokes, I know it!)

Now that I’ve molded to the Cratchit family for so many weeks, made constant up and back trips to Biggby’s, danced like a fool in the girls’ dressing room, quick-changed my heart out, stage-makeuped my face into oblivion, witnessed the same game of musical chairs 30 something times (somehow without getting bored of it once), and made an amazing (not group of friends but) family I will never forget, this highlight of my year has put a stop to my complaints, and changed my mind. I’d give anything to continue it all.

So I just wanted to give a little shoutout to the astoundingly talented and welcoming cast of A Christmas Carol ’11, by far the best group of actors and crew I’ve ever worked with (which can definitely be a challenge sometimes in this business ahem!). You have all changed my life, and I know that sounds cheesy, but I honestly mean it. I’m going to miss every one of you to death. My weeknights….no weekends…okay every day, will never be the same without the smiling (and not so smiling at 8 in the morning!) faces of the Carol gang. So I thank every single one of you more than you’ll ever know. This is an experience I’m going to keep with me forever. (Even when I’m an 80 year old lonely bed-ridden cat lady!)

Radio Interview with Metropolis Resident Playwright Scott Woldman

Metropolis’ Resident Playwright Scott Woldman wrote an all new adaptation of A Christmas Carol for us this season. Click here to check out his radio interview on WSBC 1240AM. Scott was a guest on the December 10th show – his interview begins around the 16 minute mark of the audio (with a brief reading from the Dickens’ original text beginning around the 15 minute mark).

Radio Interview with our Scrooge, Eamonn McDonagh

Click here to listen to a clip from Eamonn McDonagh’s radio interview with Chicago Public Radio WBEZ’s Blarney on the Air. Eamonn plays Scrooge in our current production of A Christmas Carol. Learn more about the show here.

(You will need Quicktime installed to listen to this mp3 clip.)

 

Guest post – Megan Storti of Metropolis’ A Christmas Carol cast

Hello everyone! I wrote a new (short) version of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” after coming home from our last Preview show. There are some terms in here that you might not know, but I made a note of them at the bottom of the poem. Some words seem very simple, like “house” and “black,” but check the bottom of the posting.. you might learn something new!

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE OPENING!

‘Twas the night before opening, and all through the house*
The actors were humming*, their vocal cords to rouse.
The curtains were hung in the rafters* with care
For if one came too loose, no show could be there!

The audience was nestled all snug in their beds
While visions of mean old Scrooge danced in their heads.
And Holly* in her headset and the crew in their black*
Reset* the stage props so that we could go back.*

When up in the Green Room* there arose such a clatter
A voice yelled out “HOLD”* to see what was the matter.
Nothing was wrong though we heard such a crash;
It was simply an actress caught up in her sash.

When we were all done the crew cleaned up the snow:
The magic was soap bubbles* floating down low.
Then out of the dressing rooms the cast did appear;
We were tired but happy and full of good cheer.

We sat in our chairs and took all of our notes*
We danced and we sang* lovely songs from our throats.
No step went un-noted, no entrance was wasted,
This bittersweet rehearsal was the last to be tasted.

Tomorrow we’ll come in a great buzzing bunch
Our faces with laughter all crinkled and scrunched.
We’ll sing out our songs and when we are all done
You’ll know when you hear, “God bless us… everyone!”

*house – A term used in theatre to denote audience or the seating area for the audience. May be used in blocking notes, such as, “Actor enters from HOUSE right.”

*humming – Often you’ll hear actors humming or doing other sorts of vocal warm-ups to protect their voices before singing. They sound very silly!

*rafters – Referring to the area directly above the stage, which is technically called the fly loft.

*Holly – Our WONDERFUL Stage Manager. She is in charge of calling all of the cues for the show, which means she tells our crew when to turn on and off lights, play sound cues, or do scene changes. She is in charge of everything and everyone, except the director, Brad… but sometimes she even tells him what to do!

*black – Traditionally, crew members wear all black clothes to blend in with the black curtains or to be able to move about in the dark without being seen.

*reset – Resetting props and scenery is important when we are rehearsing. The crew knows exactly where everything goes on stage, so it is where the actors need it to be when they do a scene.

*go back – This happens a lot in rehearsals, especially during Tech Week. We have to run transitions over and over to make sure people are picking up the right chair, or that the lighting cues happen on time.

*Green Room – The Green Room is an area where the actors can relax before going on stage. Our Green Room has a refrigerator, couch, table, chairs, coffee pot and tea kettle in it, among other things. Don’t be jealous… we are hardly ever there! There is so much to do on stage!

*hold – When someone is having a problem either on stage or in the wings during a rehearsal, you yell “HOLD” to stop the action. Sometimes this is just to fix a technical element, but it is important to know that you can yell this word during a performance if someone is hurt and needs help.

*soap bubbles – The beautiful and very real looking snow you see falling during the show is made from a soap bubble machine up in the fly loft. There are lots of different ways to make a snow effect, but this is one of the coolest I have ever seen.

*notes – The director, music director, choreographer, stage manager and crew head take notes during rehearsals and preview shows. This is our time to figure out where we need help or need to make a change. Notes are extremely important during preview. Brad even takes notes on how the audience reacts, so those of you who are here for Preview shows are a big help!

*danced and sang – After a Preview show is over, we go back and run some problem areas. Tonight, we had to work on the musical chairs scene! It was a lot of fun.

I hope you learned something new from this poem! We can’t wait to share our show with you. Merry Christmas!

Being Tiny Tim

Clare Oehler-O’Sullivan, one of three actors playing the part of Tiny Tim in our production of A Christmas Carol, was bursting with excitement when she exclaimed to her mom, “Mom, being Tiny Tim is really magical!”

Clare’s mother Loretta attributes her daughter’s exuberance to a wonderful, and really quite magical, cast.

Clare shares the role of Tiny Tim with Emilia Antonik and Tyler Bednar. With over 30 performances in less than a month’s time, we split this role so our young actors still have time for school, activities and celebrating the holidays.

Guest post – Megan Storti of Metropolis’ A Christmas Carol cast

We are nearing the end of our second full week of rehearsals for A Christmas Carol, and I am shocked by how sore I am. One would think that this fairly traditional, somewhat conservative piece of holiday foolery would be a light-hearted release from the daily grind. Not so. I have spent the last three days doing more sweating, stretching and heavy breathing than I care to share. Let’s just say that I’m going to be in swim-suit shape by the middle of December. We have been practicing lifts, improvising with modern dance moves and literally swinging each other off our feet, both in fantastical dream-like sequences and in our dance numbers. The kids and young teens have been doing a marvelous job, and it is all the adults can do to keep up with them.

I am astounded by the level of professional ethic some of the young ones put into their rehearsals. They always have pencils ready to mark down blocking, hands shoot up into the air if there is the slightest doubt about an entrance, and the endless sense of play and ease of make-believe are causing some jealousy on my part. I never really got involved in theatre until high school, and even then I think I knew less about stage directions and sight-reading music than these young actors. I hope they enjoy hanging out with us as much as we hang out with them.

Check out these videos Megan took at rehearsal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMfo__BjBTM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUxv230pAZs

You can catch Megan on stage in A Christmas Carol as Belle/Katherine/Charwoman beginning November 25.

Opening night of The Andrews Brothers

Left to right: Matt Edmonds, Lauren Creel, Patrick Tierney, James Nedrud

We caught several audience members boogie-ing to “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and singing along to “Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree” at last night’s opening performance of The Andrews Brothers.

We also heard their reviews after the show…

“So fun!”

“Another good one!”

“They didn’t even have time to breathe between songs”

“What a really great show”

Be sure to check out more photos on Facebook or at Metropolisarts.com

In Rehearsal: The Andrews Brothers

The cast of Metropolis’ latest production The Andrews Brothers is hard at work rehearsing for the show’s opening on September 22. From left to right, Matt Edmonds, Lauren Creel, Patrick Tierney and James Nedrud are seen here working on the blocking and choreography for the finale of the show which includes part of the classic tune “Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree.”

Camps and campers thrive this summer at Metropolis

By Hilary Nelson

In summertime when kids are out of school, parents look for ways to keep their children busy during those long, hot summer days. Some kids spend their summer solving equations at math camp or honing their athletic abilities at sports camp. And some kids spend their summer acting in plays and musicals at Metropolis.

Now in its 8th year of partnering with Arlington Heights Park District, Metropolis’ Summer Performance Camps were more successful than ever in 2011, with more than 300 students in 8 different camps. This year, the summer camps featured more rehearsal time, specific technique training and additional camp choices – including an all new camp for 4 and 5-year-olds.

“Each year camp continues to grow and expand in so many great ways,” said Kate Schwarz, Metropolis Camp Director. “The productions at the end of each session continue to amaze the parents and also inspire the staff to continue to be a part of a great thing.”

One family that has greatly benefitted from Metropolis summer camps and classes in the School of the Performing Arts is Kelly Sullivan and her 12-year-old son, Ben Marshall. Ben has been taking classes and participating in summer camps at Metropolis since he was six years old. “Ever since he started, he’s been hooked,” Sullivan said. She praised the teaching staff at Metropolis for being a great influence on her son, noting “Metropolis, to our family, has been a godsend. The staff is like family to us. They are nurturing and have helped develop Ben, not just as a performer but as a person.”

This summer Ben was in the Curtains Up! program, and performed in two shows, Mulan and Once Upon a Mattress. “It’s a pretty professional environment, which is hard to believe because there aren’t any adults in the show with you,” he said. “The teachers at Metropolis are amazing. There is something new every year and each director brings their own unique individuality to the experience.”

“Our staff creates a positive environment for these kids in order for all of them to thrive and succeed,” added Schwarz. “Our kids feed on this positive environment and feel comfortable enough to really open up and show their passion for theatre. They are learning skills used in acting, singing, dancing and life simultaneously. Our program is truly like no other.”

According to Sullivan, her son’s classes at Metropolis have taught him many important life lessons. “The performing arts encourage life skills,” she said. “The kids need to learn to work together and support one another. And that’s life; learning to work with different types of people for a common purpose. Metropolis teaches kids to be proud of themselves and each other.”

In addition to taking acting classes, Ben is also taking singing and dancing lessons this fall. He is eager to sign up for another camp session next summer which means another opportunity for his mom to watch him perform on stage. “I look forward to it every summer,” Kelly said. “It never ceases to amaze me that the staff is able to pull together such an amazing show in such a short amount of time. The product is something the kids can be proud of.”

Thanks to his experience at Metropolis, Ben is confident about his future career aspirations. “I want to be an actor when I grow up,” he said. “Metropolis has given me acting opportunities outside the school and summer camps and has introduced me to the real world of acting.”