Aesop and Icarus: In Production in New York

A change in the wind

We are living in a wonderful time! A time when change is popularly recognized as GOOD! Or at least accepted as necessary. May our theatre pounch upon this opportunity to invigorate audiences who are purchasing responsibility for breakfast. May we encourage the blossoming imaginations of the people through work that understands creativity, collaboration and compassion. Let us all work together, painters, dancers, writers, actors, musicians and all artists alike, to develop work that inspires audiences to pursue and open mind and open heart with courage and conviction.

My New Year’s Resolution

“Perhaps the sad and empty language that today’s flabby humanity pours forth, will, in all its horror, in all its boundless absurdity, re-echo in the heart of a solitary man who is awake, and then perhaps that man, suddenly realizing that he does not understand, will begin to understand.”
– Arthur Adamov

I like to move it move it.

I want theatre that moves. Theatre that you watching without blinking because you don’t know where you might be after that millisecond of darkness behind closed eyelids. I want theatre that opens eyes. I want theatre that can change direction without reason. With love. With reckless abandon. Change without discretion. With heart. With trust. Trust in the journey. Trust in the value of emotion. Motion. Movement. Moved. I want theatre that moves. Moving toward renewal and rebirth and revivificaiton. Not recapitulation. I want theatre that moves. I want roller coaster theatre. Wooden roller coasters that don’t go upside down. Theatre that can make you a little dizzy. Keep you minds and hearts inside the piece until it has come to a full stop. I want theatre that moves. Moves outside. Moves inside. Moves beyond me. And you. And finds us. I want theatre that moves.

Flying and Monkeys (but not flying monkeys, our monkeys dance, not fly)

A tempest. Flying. An exploding frog. Dancing monkeys. A fire breathing eagle monster. This is just some of what you can expect from Aesop and Icarus, our new play playing December 5th, 6th, and 7th at the UIC Theatre. These are some of the challenges I face as I work to stage the play. How does one show water onstage? Undulating fabric? No! Boring, overdone. Challenge, push beyond the convention. Create new vocabularies. Balloons maybe? Hmmm. That could be interesting. I can’t wait to get the actors into the rehearsal room. Six heads are so much better than one. I can’t wait to begin to improvise and explore with them. How many people get to come to work and their assignment for the day “Today, we are going to fly. We are going to find a way to fly.”

Thank you!

Artisan thanks everyone who came out to the reading of Jacob Juntunen’s new play Under America at the Prop Thtr on September 5th. We were thrilled to see the theatre filled to capacity! Check out pictures below of the event and a few words from director, Sean Kelly on the experience…

More pics coming soon!

Under America was a truly rewarding experience. The cast embraced the text and each other, bonding almost immediately and developing a great give-and-take ensemble in a matter of days. Our rehearsal room was always full of activity, conversation and friendship, all stimulated by Jacob Juntunen’s wonderful script. I said often to the actors “Isn’t it wonderful when a play can teach you something?” From the abc’s of everyday prison life (“take one foot out of your pants before you crap, that way you can fight back”) to staggering stats and facts about prison labor and its far reaching economic and political ramifications, this play educated us to a terrible injustice lurking on the fringe of our society. Jacob smartly quoted Dostoyevsky in the play’s foreword “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” But far from merely politics and figures, the play painted poignant characters, each struggling with important and conflicting responsibilities in their lives. My daughter vs. my political party. My brother vs. my newborn son. My girlfriend vs. my happiness. Under America touched us all personally and politically. It educated and entertained. It moved and motivated. I am thrilled to have been a part and to have been able to watch it shrink (in pages) but grow in depth, wit and truth.

-Sean Kelly, Director

Under America, a new play by Jacob Juntunen

Jacob’s play Under America will have a staged reading produced by the Artisan Theatre Project at Prop Thtr. The reading will be of a new draft Jacob will be creating thanks to a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to attend the Sewannee Writers’ Conference. There, he will work with Romulus Linney and Arlene Hutton to strengthen the document before its Chicago reading. The details: Under America, A Staged Reading September 5, 2008 at 7:30pm Produced by the Artisan Theatre Project At Prop Thtr, 3502 N Elston, Chicago Free and Open to the Public “Here Be Dragons,” an excerpt from Jacob’s play Lobsters and Lifers, was performed in Austin by the Vestige Groupand reviewed by the Austin Chronicle. Jacob’s essay “Repairing Reality: The Media and Homebody/Kabul in New York, 2001” appears in Tony Kushner: New Essays on the Art and Politics of the Plays.Jacob’s latest play, Under America, is set just prior to the demolition of the Cabrini Green housing project (above). It began with a scholarship from Lee Blessing, was selected by the Driehaus Foundation for the Sundance Chicago Roundtable, and helped Jacob win a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to attend the Sewannee Writers’ Conference As far as the script’s development, it began in 2001 when I moved to Chicago. That’s when I began to conceive of the play. In 2005, I received a Lee Blessing Scholarship (from Lee Blessing) to begin work on the play at the Timberlake Playhouse where I worked with Rob Koon, a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists. Soon after, director Joanie Schultz became interested in the script, as did Gallery 400, and the play was read at Gallery 400 in Feb 2007 with Joanie directing as part of the Captive Audiences exhibit. Based on a sample and synopsis, the full script was solicited by: The Public Theatre, The New York Theatre Workshop, Steppenwolf, The Goodman, La Jolla Playhouse, The Magic Theatre, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth, The New Group, The Cleveland Playhouse, Prop Thtr, and others. Most recently, I won a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to attend the Sewanee Writers’ Conference to work with Romulus Linney and Arlene Hutton. The script that Sean will direct at Prop will be based on that work.    -Jacob
					image copyright 2005 by Ronit Bezalel Productions
							-Jacob Juntunen (playwright)

Check out the full text and Jacob’s plays and bio at…

www.jacobjuntunen.com