LIVE-STREAM PERFORMANCES Thursday, December 17, 2020, 5pm Friday, December 18, 2020, 7pm Saturday, December 19, 2020, 1pm Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol A Cal Performances Co-commission Production Credits A Manual Cinema Production Adapted from the novel by Charles Dickens Written by the Manual Cinema Artistic Directors: Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter Storyboards: Drew Dir Original Music and Sound Design: Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter Puppet Design: Drew Dir with Lizi Breit Puppet Build Assistants: Sarah Fornace and Julia Miller Outside Eye: Sarah Fornace with Julia Miller Additional Video Puppetry: Drew Dir Costume Design: Maddy Low Set Design: Julia Miller and Kyle Vegter Aunt Trudy Lighting Design: Andrew Morgan Violin Performance: Amanda Bailey Technical Director and Sound Engineer: Mike Usrey Stage Manager, Video Mixing, and Live Sound Effects: Shelby Sparkle Streaming and UX: Ben Kauffman Production Manager: Julia Miller Creative Producer: Laura Colby, Elsie Management CAST Lizi Breit (Puppeteer) Sarah Fornace (Puppeteer) Ben Kauffman (Keys, Piano, Lead Vocals) N. LaQuis Harkins (Aunt Trudy/Puppeteer) Julia Miller (Puppeteer, Live DP, News Anchor) Kyle Vegter (Cello, Keys, Bass, Vocals) 1 ABOUT THE ARTISTS anual Cinema is an Emmy Award- Lizi Breit (puppeteer, puppet design) is a winning performance collective, Chicago-based artist working pri marily in Mdesign studio, and film/video pro- illustration, animation, sculpture, and per - duction company founded in 2010 by Drew formance. She has been working with Manual Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, Cinema since 2011 and is currently serving as and Kyle Vegter. The company combines hand- associate designer. Breit is an artistic associate made shadow puppetry, cinematic tech niques, with the Neo-Futurists and a former member of and innovative sound and music to create im- Blair Thomas & Co. Her internet self lives at mersive stories for stage and screen. Using vin- www.lizibreit.com. tage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-chan- Drew Dir (co-artistic director) is a writer, direc - nel sound design, and a live music ensemble, tor, and puppet designer. Previously, he served Manual Cinema transforms the experience of as Resident Dra ma turg of Court Theatre and as attending the cinema and imbues it with live- a lecturer in theater and performance studies at ness, ingenuity, and theatricality. The company the Univer sity of Chicago. Dir holds a master’s received an Emmy Award in 2017 for The degree in text and performance studies from Forger, a video created for the New York Times, King’s College London and the Royal Academy and was named Chicago Artists of the Year in of Dramatic Art. 2018 by the Chicago Tribune. Manual Cinema has been presented by, Sarah Fornace (co-artistic director) is a director, worked in collaboration with, or brought its pup peteer, choreographer, and narrative work to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the designer based in Chicago, and a co-artistic Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Under director of Manual Cinema. Outside of Manual the Radar Festival (New York City); the Cinema, Fornace has worked as a performer Kimmel Center (Philadelphia); the O, Miami and/or choreographer with Redmoon Theatre, Poetry Festival; Arts Emerson (Boston); the Look ingglass Theatre Company, Court Theatre, Yale Rep er tory Theatre; the MuseumSteppenwolf of Garage, and Blair Thomas and Co. Contemporary Art Chicago; the Kennedy Cen - Most recently, she wrote the story mode for ter (Washington, DC); the Ace Hotel Theater the video game Rivals of Aether. In 2017, For - (Los Angeles), La Monnaie–DeMunt (Brus - nace directed and edited the first episode of sels); the Noorderzon Festival (Netherlands); the web series The Doula is IN. In 2016, she the Tehran International Puppet Festival (Iran); directed and devised an “animotion” pro - the King Abdulaziz Cen ter for World Culture duction of Shake speare’s Hamlet with Rokoko (Saudi Arabia), the Hakawy International Arts Studios for Ham letScen at Kromborg Castle in Festival (Cairo), the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Elsinore, Denmark. and elsewhere around the world. The company has also colla borated with the three-time N. LaQuis Harkins (Aunt Trudy) was born and Grammy Award-winning Eighth Blackbird raised in Chicago, Illinois and is a graduate of and Hub bard Street Dance (Chi cago); theNew Howard University. Since her initial work in York Times and Story Corps (New York City); Rhyme Deferred with Hip-Hop Theatre Junc - Pop-Up Maga zine (San Francisco); Nu Deco tion, Harkins has been involved in Chicago Ensemble (Miami); the New York Times best- productions including Repairing a Nation, How selling author Reif Larsen; NPR’s Invisibilia; We Got On, and Blues for an Alabama Sky; in Topic magazine; the Grammy Award-winning Manual Cinema’s own No Blue Memories; and Esperanza Spalding; Erratica (Lon don); and the in various commercials and independent films. Belgian Royal Opera (Brussels). She recently produced her first short film, For more, visit www.manualcienema.com. Kayla’s Light, about a family in Chicago dealing with tragic loss. Harkins is grateful and honored to return to work with the magical Manual 2 Cinema for such a delightful and modern twist gluing things together, Lowe co-curates Nasty, on a classic. Brutish & Short, the quarterly puppet slam at Links Hall. Her original performance work has Ben Kauffman (co-artistic director) is a been seen around Chicago in living rooms, composer, director, and inter active media artist, bars, DIY spaces, and various theaters. Lowe is and a co-artistic director of Manual Cinema. a graduate of Northwestern University and the His film and inter active work has been shown at School at Steppenwolf. the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago, and at Julia Miller (co-artistic director) is a director, CUNY’s Baruch Col lege in New York City. pup peteer, and puppet designer. With Manual Kauffman has lectured and given workshops Cinema, she has directed Mementos Mori and at the Metropolitan Mu seum of Art, New York The End of TV and created original roles in University, and the Parsons School of Design/ Frankenstein (The Creature/Elizabeth),Ada/ The New School. His past composer/sound Ava (Ada), Lula del Ray (Lula’s Mother), The designer credits with Manual Cinema include Magic City (Helen), and Hansel und Gretel Ada/Ava, The End of TV, and the New York (Hansel). In Chicago, she has worked as a per - Times documentary The Forger. Kauffman holds former and puppeteer with Redmoon Thea tre a master’s degree from New York Uni ver sity’s and Blair Thomas and Co. Miller spent several Interactive Telecom muni ca tions Program (ITP). years training in devised theater, clown, and mask with Double Edge Theatre and Carlos Maddy Lowe (costume designer) is a costume García Estevez, as well as at the Accademia dell’ designer, puppeteer, and performer from Arte in Arezzo, Italy. She is a co-producer and Illinois. Past costume work includes Manual direc tor of several episodes of the new web Cinema’s Frankenstein, Rough House Theater’s series The Doula is IN. Cicada Summer, The Skin of Our Teeth, and Bloomsday at Remy Bumppo; The Secretaries Andrew Morgan (Aunt Trudy lighting design) with About Face; and several productions at has been working professionally as a director, Lookingglass Theatre. When not sewing and cinematographer, and editor since graduating 3 ABOUT THE ARTISTS from Columbia College Chicago in 2008. In galaxy trying to expand the boundaries of our 2009, he formed Little Cabin Films with friend knowledge. And that is why I am here: not to and business partner Nick Nummerdor. As conquer you with weapons or ideas, but to co - co-director and producer of Vannin’ (2013), exist and learn” (Benjamin Lafayette Sisko). Morgan saw his first feature film go from con- ception to successful distribution via streaming Kyle Vegter (co-artistic director) is a composer, services such as Amazon Prime. Morgan has producer, and sound designer, and the also acted as a producer, director, and cine- managing artistic director of Manual Cinema. matographer on two short documentaries— As a composer of concert music, he has been North Branch (2018) and Hill Climb (2017)—that commissioned by groups including the Chicago both focus on unique aspects of Americana. His Symphony Orches tra’s MusicNOW series, the mosts recent documentary, Sleeze Lake: Vanlife Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Tigue. Vegter’s at its Lowest & Best, will screen at CUFF & SF- music and sound design for theater and film has DOCS. Most recently, Morgan found himself been seen worldwide and commissioned by the as director of photography for Manual Cinema’s New York Times, NPR’s Invisibilia, Topic (First shadow puppetry material to be included in Look Media), the Museum of Contemporary the 2021 release of Monkey Paw Productions’ Art Chi cago, StoryCorps, the Art Institute of Candy man, directed by Nia DaCosta. Chi cago, the Poetry Foundation, Hubbard Street Dance, the O, Miami Poetry Festival, and Shelby Sparkle (stage manager) is grateful to others. His past composer/sound designer have the opportunity to work on this gorgeous credits with Manual Cinema include Lula del production with these amazing humans dur- Ray, Ada/Ava, Fjords, Mementos Mori, The End ing these uncertain times. Sparkle has been of TV, and various other performance and with Manual Cinema for four years, stage man- video projects. Vegter has been an artist-in- aging several touring productions that have residence at High Concept Laboratories and co- taken her across the United States and around founded Chicago’s only contemporary classical the world, while also overseeing these touring music cassette label, Parlour Tapes+. operations as company manager. Before join- ing Manual Cinema, Sparkle stage-managed plays all over Chicago with companies includ- CREDITS ing Sideshow Theatre Company, Lifeline Theatre, and the Strange Tree Group.