Theater Dance Music

at the Edlis Winter/Spring Neeson Manual Cinema International Contemporary Ensem- Theater Mementos Mori ble (ICE): Anna Thorvaldsdottir Jan 15–18, 2015 In the Light of Air Apr 26, 2015 Stan’s Cafe The Cardinals Creative Music Summit Jan 22–24, 2015 Nicole Mitchell May 2, 2015 Sònia Sánchez Renée Baker Le Ça (The Id) May 3, 2015 Feb 13–15, 2015 Third Coast Percussion with Mariano Pensotti Glenn Kotche Cineastas (Filmmakers) Wild Sound Feb 26–Mar 1, 2015 May 21–22, 2015

Joffrey Academy of Dance Winning Works: Choreographers of Color Mar 7-8, 2015

The Seldoms Power Goes Mar 20–29, 2015

Ragamala Dance and Rudresh Mahanthappa Song of the Jasmine Apr 10–12, 2015

Carmen de LaVallade As I Remember It Apr 18–19, 2015

Manual Cinema: Mementos Mori was Manul Cinema developed in part through the MCA Stage New Works Mementos Mori Initiative, with lead support from Elizabeth A. Jan 15–18, 2015 Liebman. The MCA Stage presentation is generously supported by Lois World Premiere Make Yourself Comfortable and Steve Eisen Presented as part of the Written by: Bob Merrill and the Eisen Family Foundation. International Puppet Theater Festival Arranged and performed by: Maren Additional creation Celest, Michael Hilger, Alex Ellsworth, support for Manual Cinema: Mementos Written by Manual Cinema Artistic and Deidre Huckabay Mori was provided Directors: Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Produced by: Kyle Vegter by The Henson Foundation and the Julia Miller, Kyle Vegter, and Ben generous donations of Kickstarter sup- Kauffman The Stars Will Lead Me to You porters. Mementos Mori was developed Written by: Ben Kauffman in part at the Directed by Julia Miller Performed by: Ben Kauffman, Kyle Almanack Arts Colony in Nantucket, MA, Vegter, Michael Hilger, Deidre the Summer Inc. Residencies with Drew Dir, puppet design Huckabay, and Alex Ellsworth Theater and Lizi Breit, associate puppet design Produced by: Kyle Vegter Performance Studies at The University Kyle Vegter, music score and of Chicago, and the National Museum sound design Manual Cinema developed Mementos of Medical History Michael Hilger, Deidre Huckabay, Mori in part through the MCA Stage Chicago. Thanks to The Alex Ellsworth, additional musical New Works Initiative, which provided Almanack Arts arrangement commissioning support and a Colony, The Atlantic Foundation, The Izzy Olive, Maren Celest, and production design residency. The National Museum of Medical History Jacob Winchester, assistance with New Works Initiative was established Chicago, Caitlin sound design in 2014 and meaningfully expands Doughty, The University of Marisa Chilberg, costume design MCA Stage’s ongoing commitment to Chicago, Laura Colby and the entire Elsie Liviu Pasare, video design supporting artists and bringing impor- Management team, Mucca Pazza, and tant new performances to audiences. eighth blackbird. Puppeteers: Opposite: Kasey Foster, Charlotte Long, Diane Manual Cinema Lula Del Ray Mair, Nicole Richwalsky, Mitch Salm, Photo: Katherine and Myra Su Greenleaf

Musicians: Deidre Huckaby, flute, vocals Michael Hilger, guitar, synthesizer, Chicago International vocals Puppet Theater Festival Alex Ellsworth, cello, vocals Maren Celest, vocals, folio Edlis Neeson Theater Live SFX: Maren Celest Live Video Editor: Sarah Fornace Sound Engineer: Mike Usrey Stage Manager: Kate Hardiman Stan’s Cafe The Cardinals Jan 22–24

In this very funny and strangely touching play, Theater three Catholic cardinals and their Muslim stage manager put on an evangelical puppet show— Dance without the puppets. Music

Presented as part of the Chicago at the International Puppet Theater Festival Edlis Stan’s Cafe Neeson The Cardinals Buy tickets online Photo: Graeme Braidwood at mcachicago.org Theater Artist Up Close Cinema, Stan’s Cafe, Blind Summit, and other groups talk about puppet MCA Stage’s series of artist-centered art’s vitality and the new paradigms talks, workshops, and open studios that they are creating to engage with allows the public to engage with artists the world today. The daylong event in intimate settings and provides a brings them together with scholars from closer look at the creative process. Join diverse fields. us today. Organized as an open dialogue for MCA Studio anybody with an interest in the value of Earlier this month, as part MCA’s the creative pursuit of inquiry and the Family Day, the members of Manual tension between ideas and practice, the Cinema ran a series of short hands-on occasion is also inspired by Manual workshops which introduced young Cinema’s recent tour to the Tehran- people and their family members to the Mobarak International Puppet Festival, art of storytelling. at which they became the first US company in seventeen years to perform Earlier this week, as part of the Open in Iran. At once cutting to the heart Doors program, museum visitors were of puppetry and seeking its broadest invited inside the theater to observe the significance, participants provoke artists working on the final stage of unexpected conversation in which art production. and scholarship disrupt each other’s ways of knowing. MCA Talk: Jan 15 Session 1 First Night 10:30–11:50 am Audience members are invited to stay Leslie Danzig, moderator (Curator, at the end of the performance for a Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for conversation with the Manual Cinema Arts and Inquiry, University of Co-Directors and cast. Moderated by Chicago; Director with Lucky Plush Peter Taub, Director of Performance Productions and 500 Clown) Programs. Mark Down (Blind Summit) Timothy Harrison (Instructor, Jan 24 Department of English, University of International Puppet Art, 10am-4pm Chicago) Free. Reservations strongly advised Dan Hurlin (Puppeteer; Director of MFA at mcachicago.org/programs Theatre Program, Sarah Lawrence Copresented with the Chicago Interna- College) tional Puppet Theater Festival and the Jesse Soodalter, MD (Fellow in Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the Hematology/Oncology; Director of University of Chicago. The Living Mortal Project, University of Chicago) How do we attach identity to a face? Craig Stephens (Stan’s Cafe) How do we perceive realness and fake- ness? Where do we find meaning in Many practitioners within art, humani- materiality? Artists from Manual ties, and medicine are exploring the emergence and varying definitions and experiences of liveness in its proximity to death. The individuals in this session discuss text, puppets, and performance in relation to the spontaneity, impulsive- ness, and presence of both liveness and death and the relationship between the two.

Session 2 Sarah Fornace, moderator (Manual Cinema) Susan Goldin-Meadow (Beardsley Manual Cinema Ruml Distinguished Service Session 3 Lula Del Ray Professor, Department of Psychology, 2:30–3:50 pm Photo: Katherine Greenleaf Committee on Human Development, Jessica Thebus, moderator (Director University of Chicago) of Graduate Directing Program, Tom Gunning (Edwin A. and Betty Northwestern University) L. Bergman Distinguished Service Clare Dolan, RN (The Museum of Professor, Departments of Art History, Everyday Life) Cinema, and Media Studies, Eric Ehn (Playwright; Chair of Theatre University of Chicago) Arts and Performance Studies, Brown Claudia Hart (Artist: Associate University) Professor, Department of Film, Video, Blair Thomas (Puppeteer; Artistic New Media, and Animation, School of Director, Chicago International the Art Institute of Chicago) Puppet Theater Festival, Blair Todd Murphey (Associate Professor Thomas & Co.) of Mechanical Engineering, John Wilkinson (Poet; Associate Chair Northwestern University) for Committee on Creative Writing and Poetics in the Department of Scholars from the fields of media, English, University of Chicago) psychology, and robotics delve into how realism and unrealism in puppetry Concluding the day, panelists pit are perceived both live and onscreen. poetry, typically celebrated as "high Puppetry shares mechanisms and art," against puppetry, often thought of attributes with a wide array of twenty- as a lowly art form, to glean both the first-century media: virtual reality, video parallel properties of and distinctions gaming, CGI (Computer-Generated between these performative languages. Imagery), and cinema. This interactive, As a contribution to forging a poetics interdisciplinary group explores and for puppetry, this panel of poets, writers explodes the boundaries of puppetry and puppeteers ponder the question as a model system for understanding of “how are poetry and puppetry twin the way in which we perceive gesture, art forms?” by examining issues of liveness, and simulacra in media and economy, distilment, image resonance, in “real” life. and negative and empty space.

From the Artists Everything that you see and hear in this show is being animated, cued, and This production of Mementos Mori was played live. There is no pre-recorded developed over a year and a half. From video onstage, but rather a team of pitch sessions to movie watching six puppeteers working in tandem not binges to the writers' room to story- only to animate puppets and embody boarding . . . From puppet building characters, but also to simulate camera and art direction/ “set” design to demo movement and film editing. The shoots to rehearsals to rewrites . . . puppeteers work with two different Then back to puppet building to demo screens and sets of overhead projec- shoots to sound design and music tors onstage, and the images are composition. And finally culminating in live-mixed via two live feed cameras the rehearsal room with the largest cast into the final "movie" on the large of artists with which Manual Cinema center-stage screen. The original has ever worked. music for the show is performed by four musicians. Using various looping The process of making a Manual devices and electronics, they are able Cinema show is similar to scripting, to create dense cinematic orches­ shooting, and scoring a feature-length trations using only a few instruments. silent animation film and then starting There is a fine line between sound over and figuring out how to recreate design and music; the two work in that movie in real time with an obsolete, tandem, overlapping, and reinforcing analog technology: the overhead each other throughout the piece. At projector. In modern life, we’re sur- times the music and sound design rounded by screens: movie screens, drives the action of a scene, at other television screens, smartphone times the puppeteers set the pace and screens, billboard screens. We want the musicians respond accordingly. to take this everyday experience and It takes all eleven people onstage transform it into something magical working together as one organism to and strange. In our work, we constantly bring the show to life. seek to combine the lightness of film with the heaviness of theater. We think Each show that Manual Cinema of time cinematically in our storytelling, creates begins with personal experi- and we attempt to run swiftly through ence; whether it be growing up and shots and locations at the rate of films. leaving home (Lula del Ray, 2011), However, activating each of the watching a loved one grieve (ADA/AVA, hundreds of frames of a show by hand 2013), or trying to understand mortality and performing the music with the in a newly digitized culture. We hope puppetry requires theatrical choreogra- that each puppet lives and breathes phy. This takes place in real time and with its audience, while leaving room space and requires significant embod- among the shadows for each of us to ied effort. We hope that the real-time see ourselves. problem solving among the members of an ensemble of artists gives new weight to the moving images that are so ubiquitous in our visual landscape. Synopsis new lease on life; a ghost explores the afterlife with her iPhone; and a In Manual Cinema's most technically seven-year-old girl discovers her own ambitious show to date, multiple mortality. Using overhead projectors, storylines interweave to create an epic paper puppets, actors in silhouette, cinematic mosaic. When the character video, and a live chamber ensemble, of Death takes an unexpected holiday, Manual Cinema Mementos Mori is a lively, beguiling Lula Del Ray an elderly film projectionist finds a Photo: Jerry Shulman meditation on death and dying. Mariano Pensotti Cineastas (Filmmakers) Feb 26–Mar 1

Drenched in dark humor, this deeply Theater humanistic work by one of Latin America’s brightest theater talents moves us to Dance ponder how we construct the world through Music our fictions. at the Edlis Mariano Pensotti Neeson Cineastas Buy tickets online Photo: Carlos Furman at mcachicago.org Theater This page and opposite: An interview with Manual Cinema Lula Del Ray Photos: Katherine Manual Cinema Greenleaf Co-artistic Directors: Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter

MCA: How would you describe Manual Cinema?

Sarah Fornace: Manual Cinema is a shadow puppetry and live animation company. We use overhead projectors, humans in silhouette, and a band with a quadrophonic sound system to create an experience that feels like being at DD: It’s a highly collaborative process. an animated movie. However, you’re All of us come from very disparate seeing everything being constructed backgrounds. Some of us come from frame by frame and note by note in theater, some of us come from move- front of you. ment and dance, from visual art, so we all sort of bring our own strengths to the Drew Dir: We use the old-school process, but the stories that we tell, overhead projectors you had in your including the story of Mementos Mori, elementary school, and we use are all created collaboratively. We all hundreds of shadow puppets to create enter a room together, and we sit down feature-length stories that are told writer’s room style and hash out the entirely through sound and music story, and we continue to do that. and imagery. We can do pretty much anything a moving camera can do, but What’s most rewarding for me is that we do it all on an overhead projector. we’re working in sort of an impossible medium. Creating, making stories MCA: What is it like to be part of with shadow puppets on overhead Manual Cinema? projectors is an incredibly demanding kind of medium to work in, and you’re constantly failing, but that experience of constantly failing and discovering more things about the medium and pushing through and making new discoveries is what makes the work really rewarding. Four years on, we’re still learning so much about cinematic shadow puppetry that it’s exhilarating to work in a medium that gives back and teaches you so much constantly. Julia Miller: We work in a way that combines classic staging of theater, and animation. We work from an outline of a script, but then we transfer that into a storyboard, and that storyboard then becomes our visual script, and then with the storyboard, we use that to build all the puppets. We shoot demos of the storyboard, so we’ll film each frame of the storyboard in rehearsal, and then I’ll edit together the demos of the story, so then we have a digital version of the show that exists. That is our ideal staging. Then we go back to the rehearsal room and try to figure out when a door opens, it opens across how to do that in real time and space the entire auditorium to sort of give you on the projectors. a sense of being inside of the world.

MCA: How does the sound in the show One of the characters is dead through- interact with the puppets on stage? out the show, so we’re still trying to figure out how that works. What kind SF: Kyle composes for quadrophonic of sound world can we create? What sound so that it is all around the does it sound like when you’re dead? audience and he likes to describe it as We’re trying out a bunch of different hyper-real, so if a door swings open it’ll filters. Maybe you only hear from 500 swing open across the audience rather hertz and above, so everything be- than just the amount it would swing comes high-pitched and you’re only open. getting half the information. That’s the way I think about character and Kyle Vegter: Being the sound designer development and how sound worlds for Manual Cinema is the most exciting work with puppets. thing and the most terrifying thing ever. My job is to take a 2D puppet and make MCA: How are characters developed it real and living and breathing and on stage? envelope the audience in this world that we’re creating. So all of our sound SF: One way we give a lot of character design is mixed in surround. There are information is through the types of two speakers in front of the audience shots we use. Melba has a lot of and two speakers behind. The way point-of-view shots because we’re that sound design works in our shows seeing the world, which is large and is that it’s a little bit augmented in looming at her. She is seven years old comparison to film sound design. In and experiencing a lot of new things film sound design, they don’t do a lot for the first time. We have these very of panning. Sounds don’t move around stark point-of-view shots that we a lot, but in ours I over-exaggerate inter­cut with medium and far shots gestures that happen in the world. So of her. Manual Cinema MCA: How does Mementos Mori Lula Del Ray Photo: Jerry Shulman compare with Manual Cinema’s other productions?

JM: We’re experimenting with a couple of new things. It’s our first multiple protagonist show as opposed to a single character. We follow through a narrative arc.

SF: One of the most exciting parts about our MCA residency is the enormous stage space that we have access to here. This is actually the first time we have set up the set up for this show, because it’s simply too big for cameras trained on the two screens our studio. Usually, a Manual Cinema and then feeds it to a single screen show will have one screen and then above. Essentially we can now double a table of projectors with three to four the amount of information we want to projectors on it. Then we will have one put into the show. We can simply move camera that is live-feeding to a large faster; shadow puppets want to move screen above it, so you’ll be able to see really slow, and what we try to do is try the actors and puppeteers creating the to push them to move at the pace of image on a single screen and then it’s film, and they don’t want to do that. By fed to a single screen. doubling the number of projectors, the number of puppeteers we have, we can But here at the MCA on this new show, edit much faster during the show. we have two screens on the ground, so there’s two sites of creation where the JM: There are so many layers to our shots are being constructed and work, and I’m constantly learning live-edited by the puppeteers together. about them, especially with this show Then there’s also a video editor on because it’s the first time we’re working stage who takes the feeds from the two with performers that aren’t founding members of the company. There’s been a huge step in trying to articulate what our process and technique are to fresh brains who don’t have context for it yet. That has been really a great learning experience on our end. About the Artists 2013, Dir was Resident Dramaturg at . He teaches drama at Lizi Breit the University of Chicago as Lecturer is a puppeteer, designer, animator, and in Theater and Performance Studies. printmaker living in Chicago. Other theatrical credits include Blair Thomas Sarah Fornace & Co, The House Theatre of Chicago, is a choreographer, performer, and The Neo-Futurists, and Dog & Pony narrative theorist. As a Co-artistic Theatre Co. She has been working Director of Manual Cinema, she has with Manual Cinema since 2011. created stage performances, site- More of her work can be seen at specific spectacles, music videos, and www.cargocollective.com/lizibreit. gallery installations. She has choreo- graphed for DePaul University, Court Maren Celest Theatre, , Red Orchid executes the live foley and sings for Theatre, Steppenwolf’s Garage Rep Manual Cinema, and is a multimedia series, The New Colony, and Adventure artist living in Chicago. Originally Stage. She has performed with the from northern Michigan, she is a Neo-Futurists, Redmoon, Lookingglass chronic storyteller, by way of music, Theatre Company, and Babes with photography, films, illustration, and Blades. Formace is a member of Blair writings. Her work can be experienced Thomas & Company, The Order of the at www.marencelest.com. Good Death, and Cirque du Soleil’s artist database. She teaches movement Marisa Chillberg at Columbia College Chicago. is a fourth-year Theater and Perfor- mance Studies student at the University Alex Ellsworth of Chicago. Her credits for costume is active in a range of music genres, design include Grey Gardens, The including contemporary and traditional Credeaux Canvas, Macbeth, and classical, rock, free improvisation, and Cymbeline in addition to numerous electronic. He has had engagements directing and dramaturgy credits. She at Constellation, Stage 773, and plans to pursue a career in costume Symphony­ Center. He is principal cellist design following graduation. in the DePaul Symphony Orchestra at DePaul University, where he is pursuing Drew Dir a Master's degree and studying with is a Co-artistic Director of Manual Chicago Symphony cellist Brant Taylor. Cinema and holds an MA in Text and Performance Studies from King’s Kasey Foster College London and the Royal Acad- was most recently performed in the emy of Dramatic Art. His design credits Lookingglass Theatre production The with Manual Cinema include Lula del Little Prince. She directs the biannual Ray and Ada/Ava (which he also Dance Tribute series, produces the directed). His short play The Lurker talk show The Monthly Visit with Kevin Radio Hour was voted Best Production O'Donnell, and sings for local bands at Collaboraction’s Sketchbook 8 at the Grood, Old Timey, and This Must be Steppenwolf Garage. From 2009 to the Band. Foster has devised and directed several original collaborative is co-principal at Parlour Tapes+, works over the years, and this past fall, Chicago's only contemporary classical directed Romulus for Oracle Theatre. music cassette tape label.

Kate Hardiman Ben Kauffman is a freelance theater artist with recent is a multi-disciplinary artist who creates director, dramaturg, stage manager, installations, interactive media, video, technician, and designer credits for, and participatory environments. His among others, The Neo-Futurists, recent work has been exhibited at Strange Tree Theatre, SideShow CUNY’s Baruch College and Freshkills Theatre, Remy Bumppo Theater Park, and he has lectured and led Company, Strawdog Theatre, Northlight workshops at The Metropolitan Theatre, Raven Theatre, Timeline Museum of Art, New York University, Theatre, and Next Theatre. She is a Baruch College, and Parsons The New graduate of Columbia College Chicago School of Design. He is the co-creator and a company member with Mercy of the interactive web-based zine, Street Theater Company and Cold SMOG. He holds a Master’s Degree Basement Dramatics. from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) Michael Hilger and is based in Brooklyn, NY. is a musician, sound designer, and artist. Over the years, he has worked Charlotte Long on a number of theatrical productions. graduated in 2012 from Sarah He is working on a full-length album Lawrence College with a duel concen- with experimental pop group, THIN tration in Literature and Theater. She HYMNS, with a release planned for has performed dance with the Right early 2015, and he is creating a series Brain Project, Tympanic Theatre, the of collaborative sound installations Plagiarists, Oracle Theatre, Lifeline with Specimen Products. Theatre, and devised pieces with Whisky Rebellion and Mechanical Deidre Huckaby Advantage. is a flutist, performance artist, and concert producer. As a flutist in the Diane Mair Eastman BroadBand and the woodwind has performed in H2O with the quintet Arabesque Winds, she has Contemporary American Theatre performed at Carnegie Hall and the Festival and Sense and Sensibility with Kennedy Center, as well as in Mexico, the Repertory Theatre St. Louis, Actors Italy, France, and Switzerland. She Theatre of Louisville, and Chicago’s has recorded for the labels Urtext and Northlight Theatre. She has worked Bridge. Huckaby produces eclectic with The Long Wharf, Michigan Opera events such as new music dance Theater, Victory Gardens, First Folio parties, fake job fairs, and MIDI tea Shakespeare, The Gift, Remy Bumppo, ceremonies. Her 10-minute pantomime Dog & Pony, Redmoon, The Actors’ performance created with Mark Gymnasium, Light Opera Works, and Applebaum appeared in more than TASK Clown Theatre. twelve public spaces recently. Huckaby Julia Miller Collaboraction, Sideshow Theatre, is a Co-artistic Director of Manual the Moving Dock Theatre Company Cinema and specializes in the tactile and . She is and movement arts. She is a prolific a member of the committee for the puppeteer, director, and graphic Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers designer for various productions by (CLLAW). Building Stage, Redmoon, and Collaboraction, and is a member of Mitch Salm Blair Thomas & Company. Miller was has performed with the Annoyance a curator for Nasty, Brutish & Short: A Theatre, Collaboraction, and Curious Puppet Cabaret at Links Hall for over Theatre Branch. His self-produced work three years, and most recently co- has debuted as part of Jane Beachy’s produced “It’s That Special Time” Salonathon. He is a graduate of the Special Holiday Hour, The Special! with University of Chicago and Paola the artist of Parlour Tapes+. Coletto's The School for Theatre Creators. Izzy Olive is a musician and writer from Southern Myra Su Illinois. She performs and records has worked as puppeteer for two years. music as Tin Silos, curates the living She designed puppetry for The Medium room concert series Big Red Armchair, with Third Eye Theatre Ensemble and writes the occasional poem. She and has created original work for Nasty is an audio engineer and works with Brutish & Short: A Puppet Cabaret. cassette label Parlour Tapes+, and Her upcoming projects include a several ensembles including Ensemble pop-up book and further installments Dal Niente, Tim Munro of eighth of her shadow puppetry series, The Cat blackbird, and Spektral Quartet. Days of Christmas.

Liviu Pasare Michael Usrey is a video designer, cinematographer, has mixed sound at more than one editor, and animator, and has produced, hundred venues worldwide, including directed, and performed for several live at outdoor festivals and concert halls. events. He is a regular collaborator with He toured internationally for three years Luftwerk, Redmoon, Chicago Children’s with the Minneapolis-based band Dark Theatre, Collaboraction, Adventure Dark Dark as front-of-house engineer, Stage, among many other groups. He is and has also toured with Pillars and pursuing an MFA in Art and Technology Tongues (Chicago), A Hawk and a at the School of the Art Institute of Hacksaw (Albuquerque), Royal Canoe Chicago and is advancing an academic (Winnipeg, MB Canada), and Pattern is approach to Video for Performance as Movement (Philadelphia.) a faculty member at DePaul University. Kyle Vegter Nicole Richwalsky is a composer, producer, sound is a performer, director, and occasional designer, and Managing Artistic arm wrestler based in Chicago since Director of Manual Cinema. As a 2007. She has worked with Redmoon, composer, he has been commissioned by such groups as TIGUE, the Chicago sound design and live music. Manual Composer’s Orchestra, and Homeroom Cinema seeks to challenge and subvert Chicago. His production credits span the ubiquitous 2D screen of cinema, genres and include recent releases by television, computers, and personal THIN HYMNS, Spektral Quartet, Tim smartphones. Munro (of eighth blackbird), and Color Card. His past composer and sound The group was founded in 2010 by five designer credits with Manual Cinema Chicago artists with diverse back- include Lula Del Ray, Ada | Ava, grounds in theater, visual arts, music, FJORDS, and various other perfor- and sound art. They have created two mance and video projects. He has been previous feature-length cinematic an artist-in-residence at High Concept shadow puppet shows: Lula del Ray Laboratories and co-founded Chicago’s and Ada | Ava. They have produced only contemporary classical music two collections of live shadow puppet cassette label Parlour Tapes+. cinematic shorts; one based on StoryCorps audio stories and the other Jacob Winchester on the poetry of Zachary Schomburg is a multi-instrumentalist, writer, graphic in collaboration with string quartet artist, and ceramist interested in Chicago Q Ensemble. They have made conceptually-tinged functional ware. music videos for Sony Masterworks, He is also a DJ under the name Kob Gabriel Kahane, and eighth blackbird. Todson. He directed a short for Manual They have also created site-specific Cinema's collaboration with StoryCorps, installations, cinematic trailers, short composed the score/sound design for spectacle performances, theatrical a second short, and co-curated the designs, and print designs. exhibition Wastelands at 313 Gallery in Jersey City, New Jersey. Manual Cinema’s work has been presented at The Tehran International Manual Cinema Puppet Festival, X Fest at SIUE, combines handmade shadow puppetry, Handmade Worlds Puppet Festival, cinematic motifs, and live sound The Almanack Arts Colony, Brainframe, manipulation to create immersive The Detroit Institute of Art, The Future theatrical stories. Using overhead of Storytelling Conference NYC, The projectors, multiple screens, paper NYC Fringe Festival, The Poetry puppets, actors, live-feed cameras, Foundation, The University of Chicago, and a live band, Manual Cinema Hideout Chicago, Chicago International transforms the experience of attending Music and Movies Festival, the the cinema and imbues it with liveness, Puppeteers of America: Puppet Festival ingenuity, and theatricality. They (R)evolution, and elsewhere. translate cinematic language into analogue shadow puppetry, emulating Manual Cinema was ensemble-in- montage, camera movement, and residence at the University of Chicago depth-of-field using handmade visual in the Theater and Performance effects. Inspired by early cinema, their Studies program in the fall of 2012, stories are conveyed without dialogue, where members of the group taught relying instead on rich, multi-channel as adjunct faculty. Next up, Manual DW Dean Evans David Egan Amelia Estrich Kristen Felicetti Ben Ferguson Alex Frankel Felicity Fee-Doyle Chris Fornace Daniel Fornace Kasey Foster Dave Franklin Alan Galumbeck Angela Garcia Combs Julia Garcia Combs Joe Germuska Dave Giunta Justin Glasson Katherine Greenleaf Doug Hara Alex Hartzler High Concept Laboratories Brendan Hill Gil Hova Cedric Howe Jessica Hudson David Hull Eleanor Hyde Chloe Johnston Justina Kairyte Ben Kass Kelly Cinema is collaborating with Opera Manual Cinema Exclusive North, Angela Kongelbak Photo: Maren Celest Central, and Christy LeMaster Erratica (London) to create a video South American Corrina Lesser representation by: David Levin & installation based on La Celestina Laura Colby, Claudia Edwards Director, Elsie Jane Lopes designed for the windows in the Veléz Management Dinah Miller Blanco Patio at the Metropolitan [email protected] Aileen McGroddy TEL: 718.797.4577 Alexandra Nally Museum of Art (March 2015). In March www.elsieman.org Charlie Newell Amy Ornée of 2015, they will also premiere a series Manual Cinema: Hannah Pae of videos as part of Chicago History Mementos Mori Gemma Petrie Kickstarter Ellen Placey Wadey Museum’s The Secret Lives of Objects Supporters (2014) Erin Polgreen Glenda Ahn Brittany Pyle exhibition. They are working on their Anna Josh Reed Doyle Armbrust Caitlin Reeves first short film, funded by the Chicago Augie Kitti Quarfoot Digital Media Production Fund, for Ben Babbitt Kimberly Richards Don Barnes Amy Rush release in May 2015. Later in 2015, Barbara Bend Jesse Robbins Landis Blair Karin S. they plan to premiere an immersive Kate Blomquist Jennifer Sampson & installation based on the poetry of Jennifer Brandel John Roberts Ari C. Chris Schoen Gabriel Garcia Lorca for the O, Miami Katie Campbell Isabel Sen Douglas Candano Jonathan Sharp Poetry Festival, begin work on their Dick Carpenter Elisa Shoenberger Carrie Gabe Smedresman next self-produced, feature length work Ben Chandler Jason St. John of cinematic shadow puppetry in Kurt Chiang Illya Szilak Claire John Szymanski residence at Three Legged Dog Collin Keith Trice Elliot Cole Kim Vegter (Manhattan), and work with Hubbard John Contarino Hannah Wasileski Street Dance on an original, full-length CST Erica Weiss Abby DeBolt Gretchen Wright show featuring dance, music, and Evelyn Dehais Bruce Dir shadow puppetry for premiere in Doug Dir Caroline Donovan Fall 2015 at the Kennedy Center in Ethan Dubin Joshua Dumas Washington D.C. Arlene & Larry Dunn Brigid Dunn Third Coast Percussion with Glenn Kotche Wild Sound May 21–22

While touring with Wilco, drummer and composer Theater Glenn Kotche made field recordings of cities around the world. Now Kotche has composed Dance a new piece for the groundbreaking ensemble Music Third Coast Percussion, integrating those recordings in a new work that explodes the at the distinction between music and noise. Edlis Third Coast Percussion Neeson Photo: Barbara Johnston/ Buy tickets online University Photographer at mcachicago.org Theater Thank you Friends of the MCA Stage $500–999 Leslie Bodenstein and Lead support for the 2014–15 $10,000–24,999 Jason Pickleman season of MCA Stage is prov ided Shawn M. Donnelley and Julie and Shane Campbell by Elizabeth A. Liebman. Christopher M. Kelly Terri and Stephen Geifman Ginger Farley and Bob Shapiro Mark Light Additional generous support Andreas Walburg-Wolfegg Anonymous is provided by Caryn and King Harris, and Lois and Steve Eisen $5,000–9,999 $499 and under and the Eisen Family Foundation. Sara Albrecht Jane & Issi Ellen Stone Belic David Brown The MCA is a proud member of Patricia Cox Coleen Kealey Museums in the Park and Pamela Crutchfield MCA North Shore Affiliates receives major support from the Karen and Jim Frank Jane Mordini Chicago Park District. The Irving Harris Foundation Matthew F. O’Connor Susie Karkomi and Jacquelyn Paine and Marvin Leavitt Robert Barr The Martha Struthers Farley Richard Poston and Donald C. Farley Jr. Kazu Yamamoto Family Foundation Anonymous Maya Polsky Carol Prins and John Hart

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Chicago Downtown/ Magnifi cent Mile The MCA is a proud partner of the Foundation Season Sponsor Preferred Hotel Partner National Performance Network. Courtesy guidelines and information

As an internationally renowned institution devoted to Parking contemporary culture, the Museum of Contemporary Art Validate your ticket at the coat check Chicago presents the most thought-provoking visual art and for $11 parking in the MCA garage performing arts of our time. MCA Stage is a vibrant series (220 East Chicago Avenue) or the presenting theater, dance, and music by leading artists from Bernardin garage (747 North Wabash). the US and around the world in MCA’s three-hundred-seat Discounted parking is limited to six Edlis Neeson Theater. hours on the date of performance.

MCA Stage’s groundbreaking performances are an integral Lost and Found part of MCA Chicago’s artist-activated, audience-engaged To inquire about a lost item, call the programming. Along with the museum’s exhibitions and museum at 312.280.2660. Unclaimed educational initiatives, they encourage a broad and diverse articles are held for thirty days. community to experience and discuss the work and ideas of living artists. Seating Please switch off all noise-making King Harris, Chair of Performance Programs the Board of Trustees Peter Taub, Director devices while you are in the theater. Madeleine Grynsztejn, Yolanda Cesta Cursach, Pritzker Director Associate Director Teresa Samala de Guzman, Cameron Heinze, Manager Patrons are seated at the manage- Deputy Director Richard Norwood, Theater Michael Darling, James W. Production Manager ment’s discretion. Food and open Alsdorf Chief Curator Lacey Holmes, Assistant beverage containers are not allowed Andrew Gordon, Intern Alex Benjamin, Intern in the seating area. Performance Committee Noelia Cruz, Intern Lois Eisen, Chair House Management Ellen Stone Belic Kevin Brown, Associate Reproduction Patricia Cox Phill Cabeen, Associate Ginger Farley Tiffany Goodman, Associate Unauthorized recording and repro­ Jay Franke Quinlan Kirchner, Associate John C. Kern duction of a performance is prohibited. Lisa Yun Lee Box Office Elizabeth A. Liebman Matti Allison, Manager Paula Molner Phongtorn Phongluantum, General information Sharon Oberlander Assistant Manager Maya Polsky Molly Laemle, Coordinator 312.280.2660 D. Elizabeth Price Amy Esposito, Associate Carol Prins Caitin Joseph, Associate Cheryl Seder Alexandra Kavanau, Associate Box office Patty Sternberg Alex Manges, Associate Richard Tomlinson Diandra Miller, Associate 312.397.4010 Program notes compiled by Yolanda Cesta Cursach Volunteer for performances 312.397.4072 [email protected]

Museum hours Tuesday: 10 am–8 pm 220 East Chicago Avenue Wednesday–Sunday: 10 am–5 pm Chicago, IL 60611 Closed Mondays, Thanksgiving, 312.280.2660 Christmas, and New Year’s Day mcachicago.org