Today's Sermon--The Neo-futurists

(I'll have you know that I started this entry on Sunday, but circumstances prevented me from posting till now--however, I still consider it a valid Sermon Sunday post. So there.)
As you know, not every sermon I share with you concerns some awful pet peeve I want to rant about--I like to inspire as well as admonish. Today I'd like to give voice to a paean to the Neo-futurists.

Today (Sunday), I took a group of my Intro to Theatre students to the Neo-futurarium to see Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. I am very pleased to report that they were flabbergasted and amazed by the show. I've been going to TMLMTBGB for over ten years now, and I never (well, hardly ever) hesitate to send my students to it because I always know that they will have an experience unlike any they have had before. Most of them made a point of telling me that they are going again, and that they are going to take along their boyfriend/girlfriend/best friend/parent.

I like theatre best when it does things that movies can't do. Face it--movies do realism better than theatre can. They have bigger budgets. They have glam stars. The best way for live theatre to compete is to give audiences an experience that they can't have at the movies. It should take advantage of the contact, spontenaity, and intimacy possible with actors that are right there in front of you! TMLMTBGB does this with a vengeance. Last night (Sunday), my students were involved in the show, brought right up on stage and made part of the action.

Every visit to the Neo-futurarium brings new experience, new laughs, new poignant moments--new good stuff, in other words, that I could not have gotten from seeing the latest Hollywood "blockbuster." Don't get me wrong, I love movies. But I love theatre more, because of the immediacy and power that it has that, for me, dwarfs what any cinematic (or televisual, for that matter) experience could.

I won't describe in more detail what the Neo-futurists do because their website does a much better job than I could. Just know that, if you haven't been yet, you need to go. If you are out of town, I will more than likely drag you bodily to a show at the first opportunity when you do come into town. You might, like David and Carrie, be dragged onstage by the actors and made into spectacle (in David and Carrie's case, you might have to make out between each short play.) You will also see something you have never seen before.

Moral: I love the Neo-futurists--you should too.

Further deponent sayeth not. Go forth and sin no more.

Postscript: You can be part of the Neo-futurist experience even if you aren't in Chicago! Greg Allen, the Founding Director (he came up with the idea for TMLMTBGB) is writing a new play for their "prime-time" season called You Asked For It! He is surveying people to find out what they most (or least) want to see in a play, then writing the script based on the responses. I've already taken the survey--you should too! Go here to let Greg know what you, the finicky potential audience member, wants to see.

All the Great Books--Look, pictures!

As promised, here are some pictures from my production of All the Great Books. This first picture is from the Don Quixote section of the play--Phil, in the foreground, is translating (badly) the dramatized version performed in the original Spanish.

Here, Jason and Phil attack the Cyclopes, in the Odyssey section of the play.

Look out--Huck Finn coming through!


The Trojan Horse sneaks toward its destiny.

From The Iliad and The Odyssey to Ulysses by James Joyce, as Coach Shay, Phil, and Jason expertly express this 20th century masterpiece.

Look out--it is the Battle of Borodino from War and Peace! No magnanimity to the enemy!

This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, but I spent half an hour writing in actual text from War and Peace on this prop book--all for something that was open all of five seconds to the audience. Why?--because it was a book, of course! The only regret I have is that I didn't write in text from further on in the book in the cut-out section (which hid a copy of the Spark Notes for War and Peace) .

Hope you enjoy these shots--I had a lot of fun with this show, mainly because I had three great actors and a great production staff (and stage manager!)

Look, a picture! (double shot)

Twice the production shot fun today--this time a shot from last year's production of Dinner With Friends--the only scene where all four characters appear. Trust me--they aren't always this happy.

Look, a picture! (Shakespearean edition)

Here is a shot from my production of The Tempest from year before last. This was one of my favorite moments from the play, as Antonio, Alonso, and Sebastian are confronted by the spirits led by Ariel and Prospero.

All the Great Books--Coming Soon

Well, All the Great Books is coming soon, so I thought I'd better post something about it so the throngs of adoring fans who flock to this blog can make their plans to come to see it. I know that making the trip to Romeoville every year to see one of my shows is the equivalent of a hegira to Mecca for many of you, so start preparing now!

The show runs 9/22-9/24, then 9/28-10/1. Thurs. through Saturday, there are evening shows at 8:00. The Sunday matinee is at 2:30. We have added a Saturday matinee for the second weekend this year at 4:00. If you would like to come see the show, which I think will be pretty funny, let me know, and I'll reserve you some tickets. If you want to see me after the show, don't come on Sunday, as I have show responsibilities after each show. I'll also have an adjudicator for the American College Theatre Festival coming in at some point, and I wouldn't be available after that show either--I'll try to post in the comment section as to when that will occur. I'm sure you will all be waiting with bated breath!