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december 2011 PERFORMANCE

2-3 5 9-11 16-18 21-23	Synapse Arts - New Works Nasty, Brutish & Short Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready Re-Frame: A Gathering 21st Annual Winter Solstice Percussion Concerts

Photo Credit: Kelly Rose / Savage Rose Photography		December 2-3 Fri & Sat at 8pm Buy Tickets $15 / $10 Students Synapse Arts - New Works Presented by Synapse Arts An annual evening of premieres, Synapse Arts- New Works features original dances by emerging Chicago dance artists Suzy Grant and Samantha Spriggs, alongside a new work by Synapse Arts Artistic Director Rachel Damon. These three choreographers come together to create a scintillating evening of dance. Solos performed by returning company members Damon, Katie Matteson, Laura Tennal, Lesley Werle and Vienna Willems will punctuate the program and accompany the larger works. Said About Synapse Arts: "Serious artists working with intelligence and a pinpoint aesthetic" -Chicago Tribune Damon's signature abandonment of restraint meets her curiosity of subtle physical humor in Mama Bear. Rachel Damon challenges herself to make her first work in a trio format, arguably the most difficult dance grouping, she pushes herself to re-evaluate the ways her dances represent the live interaction of humanity. Featuring Michelle Burger, Samantha Spriggs, and Vienna Willems - all new collaborators for Damon. Samantha Spriggs’ work features veteran company members Matteson, Tennal, and Werle in addition to first-year Synapse dancers Megan Klein, Christopher Knowlton and Gretchen Soechting. With Spriggs’ characteristic use of odd juxtaposition and committed physicality, this sextet sweeps across the stage negotiating the complex idiosyncrasies of human interaction. Suzy Grant’s solo is a work-in-progress exploring identity in relation to race, ethnicity, gender, and genetics. The work attempts to embody a discourse around the politics of perception by braiding movement, humor, and text.
		December 5 Monday at 7:30pm BUY TICKETS $8 / $5 Students & Seniors Nasty, Brutish & Short Presented by Links Hall and Curated by Julia Miller and Jessica Simon. An evening of puppetry where performers are asked to create new work and risk sharing it with an audience for the first time. The goal is to give artists a reason to create new work and help foster touring opportunities and artistic exchanges. Watch this short preview video for some fierce puppet action. PIECESSlip Slidin Away - Taylor Bibat A puppet and a puppeteer create the stages of a mother son relationship, and how time brings about the need for change and letting go. Millhaven - Rough House This tabletop toy theater piece is a staging of "The Curse of Millhaven" by Nick Cave, with puppets by Mike Oleon, and musical arrangements by Max Wirt. "Millhaven" is the first part of five Rough House adaptations of murder ballads by various songwriters, which will premiere in Chicago late February 2012. The Steampunks Do Laundry - Erika Friesth and The Nerdologues As part of a traveling children's edutainment play drama in New Illinois Territory circa 1888, Ernst and Bernie teach impressionable young minds about the day to day world of adults - which happens to be filled with smoke-belching ornithopters and cog-driven prosthetic limbs - and also how to be good citizens and friends to one another. Best Day Ever - Kat Pleviak "Best Day Every" Follows one very unlucky boy through a day of unfortunate events. This piece tells his woeful story in the art of shadow with a comedic feel. Hobo Jewlery Box - Sam DeutschSam Deutsch returns, this time with irreverent non-sequitors, dinosaur eulogies, dolls, drinking, the loss of dignity, and passive aggressive signage. This show is (not) sure to please. The Taste of Sadness - Davey K with Ian Fullerton and Stephen Lieto Being eaten is neither here nor there, when in your heart there's deep despair. Singing and crying all the way down, whilst even the eater is wearing a frown. Death and the Maiden - Sid Branca Death and the Maiden is a exploration of the theme of the same name, found throughout the past several hundred years of art history. From the Greek myth of the abduction of Persephone to 16th century paintings of nude women embracing skeletons to contemporary iconography, a young woman in an embrace or dance with Death has long been a symbol of the twin, conflicting drives of Eros (love, life) and Thanatos (death). This piece uses puppetry and dance to move through variations on this theme. The Little Match Girl - Jason Adams A toy theater adaptation of the children's story. Featuring "Peppers Ghost," an incredible illusion made famous by Magician John Pepper in 1883. The Eldritch Stranger - Adam McAleavey with Arne Parrot and Andrew Howard A Lovecraftian tale, played out with Edward Gorey-esque visuals, delivered via original sonnets, and presented in a toy theatre. A lonely man comes to discover his own madness as he faces those nameless things that exist beyond our knowing. This even is funded in part by the Puppet Slam Network (a project of IBEX Puppetry)
Photo by Kristin Basta		December 9-11 Fri & Sat at 8pm / Sun at 7pm Tickets $15 or Pay What You Can Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready Presented by Curious Theatre Branch Written by Jenny Magnus Directed by Stefan Brun Music by The Crooked Mouth An examination and homage to sustained attention, Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready is the story of a troupe that is really a tribe struggling to be an ensemble. A group of actors come together to prepare for a show, and in their attentions to themselves and each other, they weave the fabric of their determination to make something happen on the stage. Taking place in the 60 minutes before the performance, the actors inhabit the space in ways that become evidently theatrical, moving from individual actions to group actions, and revealing the conflicted eros of collaboration. Some actors are born ready; they come in with all the energy and focus they are ever going to have. Others have to slowly put on their decided bodies, a step-by-step transformation from person in the world to person on the stage. In Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready, whether they play ductball, mutter into a camera, rehearse a monologue, enact a song, groan, or simply sit and wait, the actors all seek the moments of heightened awareness that emerge when someone participates in their chosen art form.
		December 16-18 Fri & Sat at 8pm / Sun at 7pm tickets $12 General Admission / $15 General Admission with food/ $25 Full Weekend Re-Frame: A Gathering A project of: D UNDERBELLY Re-Frame: A Gathering works to provide a sustainable space for active witnessing, supportive feedback and rigorous crafting AND a laboratory for experimentation through interdisciplined explorations and cross-cultural discussions. Re-Frame: A Gathering focuses on the 'practice of process' - what is discovered in the act of making work is valuable and should be experienced as well, by other artists, by the larger community. Enjoy food and discussion while witnessing the performance of a creative process. Re-Frame: A Gathering is an initiative of D UNDERBELLY, a network of artists of color, seeking to create a communal space for rigorous experimentation and investigation of an expansive performance aesthetic. One that can serve as a model for creative process within community that can adapt and shift to various areas throughout the country & internationally. Through both invitation to select artists within the experimental art community and an open call, we will seek out a diverse group of 7 -10 with wide-range of disciplines who have a creative lineage (how they have been making work), a piece to 'excavate' and a desire to be part of a contemporary practice. Re-Frame: A Gathering will start with the artistic community of Chicago. Communal Event: December 19 at 8pm Rumble Arts Center: 3413 West North Avenue Tickets: $12 (no food) $15 (with food) RSVP: ReframeaGathering@gmail.com / 787-671-3393 For information, click here About the Company An underground interdisciplinary network of artists of color founded by award-winning performance artist Baraka de Soleil, D UNDERBELLY derives its name from the ‘underbelly’ of a slave ship; excavating the kinetic energy that surfaces from the depths of our intercultural experiences. D UNDERBELLY emerged circa 1996, first in Minneapolis, as a performative forum for exploring the multi-layered dimensions of culture as it relates to societal notions of "blackness" and vehicle for the development of Baraka de Soleil's creative & curatorial endeavors. Invested in interdisciplinary experimentation of live art forms and communal exchange, D UNDERBELLY rigorously explores the ever-fluid relationship between music and movement; weaving text, multimedia elements and environmental configurations. Moving onto Brooklyn, Ny and finding connections in Chicago, Austin, California and internationally, this network continues to evolve; embracing & interrelating with Latin, Asian and Native/Indigenous traditions and forms.
		December 21-23 Wed, Thurs & Fri at 6am Tickets $20 21st Annual Winter Solstice Percussion Concerts Performed by Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang This hour-long ritual performance utilizes a wide array of percussion instruments from North Africa, the Middle East, and East India, as well as Western orchestral instruments. Drake and Zerang also use the Frame Drum that has its origin in ancient Mesopotamia, and a variety of hand drums, including dumbek, tabla, rukk, conga, djimbe, and tambourine, concentrating on long rhythmic cycles and structured improvisations. Drake and Zerang are veterans of Chicago world music, new music, and jazz scenes, and have performed together nationally and internationally. The concerts began as a single concert in 1990 and expanded to three concerts due to increasing demand in the intimate confines of Links Hall’s studio.