Tickets now on Sale for Aesop & Icarus!

Join us for our first full-length premiere…

Aesop and Icarus uses cross-media elements to weave classic myths into an original story about Truth, Self and Community. 

Director/Adapter: Sean Kelly
Cast: Brandon Cloyd, Nathaniel Niemi, Allison Snow, Claire Tuft and Zev Valancy
In collaboration with The UIC Choirs under the direction of Michael Anderson and Andrew Lewis

Produced by The Artisan Theatre Project

Jennifer M. Wills - Producing Director

Sean Kelly – Artistic Director 

December 5th and 6th at 7:30 pm and December 7th at 2:15 pm. 

 

UIC Theatre

University of Illinois at Chicago, EPASW Building

1040 W. Harrison St.

Chicago, IL 60607

Tickets: 

Student $5.00

General Admission $10.00

Tickets are available here or at the door. 

Starting November 1, 2008 tickets to all Artisan Project’s can be purchased through TicketLeap! 

Just click here to purchase your tickets now!

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.”

A big steaming pot of…

Stew. I never much liked it as a child. My father is a wonderful cook, so its not that it was bad stew, I just couldn’t grasp the idea of throwing a perfect good meal in a pot, stirring it up in a weird sauce and then serving it in a bowl. How unappetizing. While I wouldn’t eat it, I was intrigued by the process of stew making. The imagery is quite wonderful. A fervent flame beneath a large pot. Several ingredients which are transformed in shape, color, texture and size when combined and cooked. Tiny spices and seasonings which greatly impact the overall flavor. A dash of this. A touch of that. A little more. Working from instinct. Carrots just for decoration. All brewed together in a cauldron like a magical potion. Steam. Pungent odors billow out from our tiny kitchen. Artisan is a pot. A cauldron. Our current project, Aesop and Icarus, calls for a long and careful recipe: 1 painter, 1 director, 1 choreographer, 5 actors, 1 sculptor, 1 performance artist, 1 conductor, 60 choir singers, 1 harpist, several puppets, a few masks, 1 brand new script, 1 audience. An extremely complicated and possibly volatile mix. A call for balance of ingredients, a clear hierarchy of flavor and an openness for improvisation with the recipe. A demand for discipline of hand, respect for the whole, and trust in the combination. A result of true artistic collaboration, innovation and exploration.

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

 

Pics from June 1st

 

Reading A Kind of Surrender, by Jacob Juntunen

UIC Theater, June 1st, 2008

It’s a start…

 

Reception at the Artisan Theatre Project Premiere

UIC Theater, June 1st, 2008

A great night to kick off the company!

Thank You

Thank you to those of you who were able to come out to our reading of “A Kind of Surrender” by Jacob Juntunen. We truly appreciate the support that was given to us from our family, mentors and friends.  We look forward to working with all of you in the future.

If you weren’t able to come to our reading, don’t worry!  We plan on posting pictures and video from the event later this week.

While you are here, feel free to explore our brand new blog.  We are still in the midst of creating it, and more changes are coming soon, but for more about us, the co-founders of The Artisan Theatre Project, and the mission of our company, click on the page links to your left.

We hope you continue to visit!