Collaboraction

Jumping Into Crazy Awesomeness (thoughts from Artistic/Admin Intern David Federman)

    When you are on Anthony-time, things move quickly. Three months ago I was just another college theater kid in Chicago hoping to figure out what the heck I was going to do after graduation. Like a lot of people I had a tendency to tunnel vision while working on shows at school, so I barely got out to see any shows myself. One evening I found myself knocking about Wicker Park with a few hours to spare, and I had heard about this show Crime Scene from two completely different sources. A friend from school I ran into on the train north into the city, was going up to see a show with her friend. Also, at the time I was taking a class with the amazingly talented Sarah Illiatovitch-Goldman, and she had sent out a thing to everyone about this show she had done some work on. I did not even put two and two together until I walked into the theatre. I had been to Collaboraction before. I’d seen a couple shows, but I was not prepared for the raw power that was the Crime Scene experience. I stayed for the entire post-show discussion and afterwards, asked a few questions, and then afterwards I went up to Anthony, introduced myself, mentioned I was a theater student, and was interested in both working in theater in Chicago, and the themes discussed in Crime Scene. He handed me a business card and suggested we get coffee sometime to talk.

            I didn’t have a game plan. This was just something I started doing. Anyone I met, anyone I had worked with in the past. I would go up to them and say – “hey I want to do that thing you do, might I have a moment of your time to pick your brain about how to go about doing that?” A week later I met with Anthony, and he laid out his game plan for how Crime Scene could shape the nature of the company in the future and how they tackle social issues through these powerful moments of theater. I was confused. Was there someone else in the room that he was talking to? Certainly this was not an Artistic Director of a theater company spitballing strategy and trajectory with me – that would be preposterous. But then again if you have been in a meeting with Anthony, you know that preposterous is always the lead-in to that brilliant solution or next idea.

            To quote Anthony, “It was fate” that our meeting happened when it did – an internship slot had just opened up in the office. Artistic/Administrative Intern. I spent my college years as an actor and a techie. I didn’t know much about what happened behind the scenes in the back office. But this was a theater company doing great things, that I was excited to work for, so I jumped at the opportunity. A week later I was sitting in on staff meetings talking about marketing and rebranding, and involved with meetings about establishing a new website, and how best to reach out to our customers. How should we best represent each of the shows in our Sketchbook festival? Can you write a two-sentence blurb for each show and come up with iconic images for each piece? Sure thing. I was dropped straight into the deep end of the inner workings of the great machine that is Collaboraction. Anthony and Corinne are both amazing to work for, and there is always music going to help underscore concept discussions, and sometimes we need to take that 15 minute discussion about the softball team and how we need to focus more next week to take down the enemy (I mean opposing team).

            A couple weeks ago, nice and settled into my position  - I had my own desk space that I usually worked at (adorned by pictures of cats drawn by Stella) – it came to our attention that an actor had dropped from Sketchbook, and we needed to quick turn around and recast. Once again Anthony suggest – hey why don’t we have David go in to audition for that? So I had an audition the next day with director Mignon Stewart. I went in, read for the part and got cast. Now a few rehearsals in, I am looking forward to stepping on to the stage as an actor for Collaboraction in Everything is Permitted by Chelsea Marcantel, one of this year’s Shorts. The play carries right along with my Collaboraction experience as my fellow actors and I all speak in unison and argue over how to best use (or in my case abuse) the myseterious Dreamachine.

            In three short months, I went from just seeing a show on a whim, to having an internship and being involved in company decisions on a daily basis, to now being a cast member in Sketchbook 13. Anthony-time. It moves very quickly.

Behind the Scenes of the 13th annual SKETCHBOOK: Destination with Felicia Holman of Price Point

A third statement in the series comes from Felicia Holman, the co-founder of Honey Pot Performance who divised "Price Point" which is the sole destination on our Green line in this years' festival.  Here we get an inside look as Felicia muses about the importance of "Price Point".

DOORS CLOSING...next stop Price Point- 

“Extended Crisis Mode--The Making of Price Point”

    Let me begin with this: We women of Honey Pot Performance are uberexcited to be performing in Sketchbook again! For our first Sketchbook appearance (2011), we debuted a 9-minute humorous rapid-fire sketch called 'Suspect Politic', for which we received critical and popular acclaim (shouts out to our loyal fans who still ask the question “what the fuck is mild sauce?!”). For this year's festival, we submit a 70-minute interdisciplinary/multimedia feature titled 'Price Point'. See the ‘Price Point’ project description below:

"Price Point explores notions of fairness and balance, or the lack thereof, in today's economic landscape through a mixture of the tragic and comic. The work combines movement, theater, song and image to examine the state of the American Dream."

---Sketchbook 13 Press Release

    Absolutely accurate, no doubt! However, since I have this whole blog post to myself, I want to dig a little deeper. I want to share some of the nitty-gritty behind this show’s creative process and our "why" with you, our wonderfully inquisitive Sketchbook audience!

    First and foremost, Honey Pot Performance (HPP) is a woman-focused collaborative creative community committed to chronicling and interrogating Afro-diasporic feminist and unconventional subjectivities amidst the pressures of contemporary global life. HPP is Felicia Holman (author of this post), Abra Johnson, Aisha Jean-Baptiste and Meida McNeal.

    HPP draws upon the central notion that everyday popular and/or folk forms of cultural performance are valuable sites of knowledge production and cultural capital for subjectivities that often exist outside of mainstream communities. Most importantly, HPP enlists modes of creative expressivity to examine the nuances of human relationships including the ways we negotiate identity, belonging and difference in our everyday lives and cultural memberships. Performance is our way to community, our catharsis. Performance is the haven that welcomes us to rediscover our own value and worth.

    It is in this spirit---of showcasing the stories of the marginalized, the disenfranchised, the disillusioned and damn-near-invisible Working Class---that “Price Point” was originally conceived about a year and a half ago. The central questions (or conundrums) we grapple with in Price Point are the same questions central to our contemporary lives: In this New Economy, what is the value of living/the value of work? What does the concept of the Social Contract look like today?

    An excerpt of a monologue from Scene 2 (“Extended Crisis Mode”) conveys our shared aspirations and frustrations while grappling with these notions:

    “Waiting for a windfall to wipe the slate clean, to get on the good foot, to be in the black, to have time to think and relax, to experience leisure, to take a vacation, to find pleasure instead of anxiety, to breathe without panic, without worry, without fear...I desire peace.

    Pushing to make things happen, to rebuild broken links, to evolve to abundance, to break the cycle of lack, to enhance all of our capital because as I do for me I construct a stronger foundation for you too, of more than just a little piece of mercy, of magic, of more than this.....We demand peace. We demand a piece.”

    In Price Point, the thesis we offer is that such DIY/Punk/Collective ethics as cooperation, resilience and resourcefulness are the penultimate tools of both social & economic mobility.

    Staying true to those values, our fundamental HPP generative process is organically collaborative. I say “organically collaborative” because not only have we been creating and performing works together for over 10 years, but we’ve been close friends for much longer! I believe its the friendship factor which empowers us to open up to and trust each other and disagree and keep loving and learning about each other and working together to create such highly personal yet universally evocative shows.

    As usual, our process for ‘Price Point’ primarily involved journaling, archiving data/research, conversation, observation, experimentation and creative expressivity (“play” with words, movement, music, etc), followed by a sharing of individual insights and perspectives gleaned from reviewing the conversations, observations, data, etc. Basically, we do a lot of workshopping and editing to coherently juxtapose our individual/micro stories with the macro topics/notions we explore through embodied storytelling. We strive to take our audience with us as we navigate the highs/lows of contemporary urban life on stage. With Price Point, as with all our work, we aim to open up space in this world for more consideration, empathy and humanity.

    I want to close with a big “Thank You” to Anthony Moseley, Sarah Moeller and the entire Collaboraction family for including us once again in this venerable event and supporting our ‘Price Point’ vision.

Looking forward to seeing/meeting/talking with you all at the Flat Iron in a couple of weeks, starting June 5th!

-Felicia Holman

Behind the Scenes of the 13th annual SKETCHBOOK: Destination with Tony Werner of Weathervane

The second statement in our series comes from the playwright for the other "stop" on our Blue line this festival- "WeatherVane." Here Tony Werner talks about the process of creating the piece. As a special treat at this stop, he has included some pictures the crew used as inspiration, as well as a couple of rehearsal shots.

DOORS CLOSING...next stop WeatherVane-

...Our show began when Carolyn reached out to me and Ann with the idea that we ought to work together on something for Sketchbook. They had been in shows together and knew I was a writer. I had seen many of these shows and was thrilled at the prospect of generating characters specifically for them.

     We knew we wanted to do something in the vein of a psychological thriller. We met over coffee; we met over drinks. We brought each other found objects and images, items like vintage postcards and a snow globe where the snowflakes inside were slowly deteriorating and clouding the water. We talked about the Mafia. We talked about post-apocalyptic stories we loved and elements of those stories that would help us on our way. We talked about Chicago, its architecture, its gangsters and powerful families. Its beautiful places and parts left to ruin.

    After we got a handle on our setting and characters, I’d write a draft and we’d talk. We’d do a reading, break the script down. Then I’d go and write another one and we’d talk some more.

     We began rehearsal with a ton of movement. Ann led a Meyerhold Bio-Mechanics primer and Carolyn guided us through the tradition of Michael Chekhov psychological gestures. These experimentations with movement enacted physically the tensions in the script that were often very psychological, so from these exercises the script became a lot tighter, the twists and the turns more and more sudden.

    The relationship between our two characters, Nicole and Kristina, is the heart of our piece. They have drastically different notions of independence, duty, and security in a blasted place that is unbelievably brutal to women. In the world of WeatherVane, the female body is a hunted thing, and again and again in rehearsal, we have uncovered parallels to the plight of women in our own time, under the conservative gaze.

-Tony Werner  

Behind the Scenes of the 13th annual SKETCHBOOK: Destination with Sarah Illiatovitch-Goldman of Hospital

    This year's SKETCHBOOK is full of vibrant and exciting artists. This is the first in a series of some of those artist's statements about their piece.

 We start off the series with Sarah Illiatovitch-Goldman. Sarah is a co-conceiver and co-creater of the first destination on our Blue Line- "Hospital." Here, Sarah gives us a peek into where the peice came from and what it means to her.

 ALL ABOARD!

   ...Psychologist and philosopher Eric Fromm once said 'Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties' I clutch that sentence to me in every moment of 'what the fuck I am doing'....which is many. Soon my piece 'Hospital' is going to get its world premier. It seems totally unreal. 

    Years ago a dancer and choreographer (Diana Rose) and an actor and writer (me) worked at a boring job that involved wearing polyester tuxedos. 6 days a week we stood there, bored to tears, discussing our real lives. At the time both of us were engaged in contracts we hated and felt didn't really count as 'art'. We were pawns in someone else's vision and those visions were bad. There was no collaboration (let alone collaboraction) and we would whittle away our hours bitching. So we decided to work together. 

     Diana and I have many things in common, but one that sticks out is our lengthy medical files. As we shared our stories we would laugh at the absurdity, and sympathize with the inherent reality that when it comes to issues of the body we are in the hands of others. Helpless. This is scary, but what is scarier is the isolation we felt - the lack of support and lack of outlet to share these stories. Ok. I think we have our topic.

    After topic the next question became form. HOSPITAL is not a traditional piece of theatre. It is an exercise in storytelling and expression. All the stories I share are real. They are not all mine, but they are all real and should be heard. 

    And so Diana made us perform in a dance work in progress festival. Twice. Both times it was the scariest thing I have ever done. Turns out, putting your money where your mouth is proves as nothing short of horrifying! OH for the days of being told what to do and getting to bitch about it! But remarkably enough, people loved it. The audience laughed and followed us on our crazed adventure, nodding and sympathizing, finding their stories in our stories. 

     After the workshops we were approached by Robin Toller - a man who straddles the worlds of acting and dance. Robin saw the piece and dubbed the methodology the 'unprocessed experience'. We loved it and have used this idea as the umbrella for our continued creation, and invited Robin to work with us. This piece is about sharing with the public something that we, the performers, are still in the middle of. The look into our insides is as scary and funny to us as it hopefully will be to you. Over the development process Robin and Diana switched places as her life took her out west, she became our guiding light and Robin my partner. The idea of sharing this is terrifying. I'll keep saying it. It terrifies me. But that's ok. We have let go of all certainties and we are honored to share our creation with you... 

-Sarah Illiatovitch-Goldman 

ANNOUNCING CRIME SCENE: LET HOPE RISE

 

Collaboraction partners with the Chicago Park District 

to tour an evolved version of their hit original play Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology to four city parks this summer

 

Visit http://collaboraction.typepad.com/collaboractionpresspage/ to download hi-res press photos

of Collaboraction’s Crime Scene:  A Chicago Anthology

 

CHICAGO – Collaboraction Theatre Company is adapting their hit original play Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology into an evolved sequel entitled Crime Scene Chicago: Let Hope Rise and touring it to 4 public parks this summer with free admission in partnership with the Chicago Park District. 

Crime Scene: Let Hope Rise will perform at the following parks:

July 12-13 LeClaire -Hearst Park, 5120 W. 44^th St.

July 26-27 Sherman Park , 1301 W. 52^nd St.

August 16-17 Hamilton Park , 513 W. 72^nd St.

August 23-24 Austin Town Hall Park , 5610 W. Lake St.

 

Show times are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are free and can be reserved by emailing lethoperise@collaboraction.org. Learn more at www.collaboraction.org or call312.226.9633.  Crime Scene: Let Hope Rise runs approximately 85 minutes, followed each night by a facilitated discussion. The show is recommended for ages 14 and up due to violence and mature content.

 

Crime Scene Chicago: Let Hope Rise is a timely new theatrical reaction to Chicago’s history of violent crime and a call to discover what it might take to create lasting change in our city. The show, a Collaboraction world premiere conceived and directed by Anthony Moseley, couples nonfiction source material such as interviews, articles, and online comments with re-enactments of true Chicago crimes to raise critical questions surrounding segregation, poverty, the news media, popular culture, and our numbness to it all.

 

When it originally opened in mid-February, the play was universally lauded by the local press, receiving 3 ½ stars from the Chicago Tribune, a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating from the Chicago Sun-Times, a video profile on WTTW-TV Chicago Tonight, and national feature coverage in the March issue of American Theatre Magazine.  

 

In adapting the play for the tour, the team envisions a sequel that takes a closer look at the systemic conditions that enable and abet violence, and incorporates a more hopeful tone than the original piece, whose primary goal was to awaken patrons to the epidemic of senseless violence in the city.

 

Community Involvement

Collaboraction is not interested in merely performing the play for a new audience. Rather, they seek to form lasting connections with community members in each of the four neighborhoods they visit, and to engage the public in a two-way conversation about the crime epidemic. The team will conduct interviews with residents and business owners in order to incorporate the specific nature of each community into the piece, as well as incorporating community members into the actual performance. Collaboraction will also be offering free workshops on turning your stories into devised theater on Saturdays in each location.

 

On Saturdays before the 8 p.m. performance each week, Collaboraction will host a free barbeque in the park featuring their renowned Dome of Dance dance-battle tournament, food, and other activities. 

 

Every performance will also be followed by a facilitated conversation with the audience about what we as Chicagoans can do about the prevalence of violent crime in our city. Representatives from our Community Partner organizations will serve as co-facilitators, helping to guide the discussions alongside the cast and crew. Through meeting other concerned community members, learning about the many great nonprofits that are working to stem the violence, and openly discussing many conflicting perspectives of the epidemic, these conversations will provide audiences with a bright spark of hope within this dark subject matter.

 

Press accolades include:

 

"Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology, far and away the best Collaboraction show I've seen these past 14 years, is indeed a call for collaborative action…There is something particularly special about this cast. Three and a half stars.” – Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

 

"…There is something about the 85-minute Crime Scene that is so direct, visceral, youthful and winningly honest (meaning not at all predictably politically correct) that you might at least find yourself listening again — willing to get beyond the overload of disgust, impotence and sense of futility…Conceived and expertly directed by Anthony Moseley, Crime Scene has the feel of a streetwise Greek tragedy as it employs elements of history, testimony, song and hip-hop oration.” 
– Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times 

"...a gripping tale of the Chicago condition that gets to the heart of our suffering."- Mark Konkol, Pulitzer-Prize winning crime writer for DNAinfo.com

“The success of this work as theater indicates its potential to reach beyond its black box space and start vital conversations, and yes, even incite actions needed to staunch the flow of blood in Chicago streets…” – Erika Mikkalo, StageandCinema.com

Behind the Scenes of Crime Scene:  A Chicago Anthology 

 

According to director, co-deviser and Collaboraction Artistic Director Anthony Moseley, “the inspiration for Crime Scene came from a need to create work connected to important issues in our community. I strive to create a visceral experience that will awaken and spur personal change. I believe theatre can serve a critical role in addressing the issue of violence by offering Chicagoans a transcendent artistic experience that forces us to confront and question the core elements of the senseless violence.”

 

Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology is co-devised by an ensemble of community activists and Chicago theater professionals from diverse neighborhoods throughout the city. Co-devisers include Scott Baity Jr., Victoria Blade, Sara Carranza, Luis Crespo, Miranda Gonzalez, Michael Johnson, Eddie Jordan III, Laura Korn, James Lynch, Patrese McClain, Eamonn McDonagh, Niall McGinty, Medina Perine, Shavac Prakash, Adam Seidel, Lisandra Tena and Eric Walker.

 

Ensemble members performing in the production include Scott Baity Jr., Victoria Blade,Luis Crespo, Michael Johnson, Eddie Jordan III, Laura Korn, Patrese McClain, Eamonn McDonagh, Niall McGinty, Medina Perine, Shavac Prakash and Lisandra Tena. 

 

Designers include John Wilson (set and technical direction), Jeremy Getz (lights), Livui Pasare (video), Elsa Hiltner (costumes) and Angela Campos (props). Samantha Chavis is dramaturg. Fight choreography is by David Woolley. Sara Carranza is stage manager. Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology is produced by Sarah Moeller.  Production management is by Susanne Hufnagel.

 

Collaboraction is a Chicago-based arts organization of collaborative theater and experience makers focused on becoming a national leader of contemporary theater. By incorporating innovative artists and interdisciplinary collaboration, Collaboraction audiences are sure to experience groundbreaking theatrical and arts-based events.

 

Anthony Moseley serves as the Founding Executive and Artistic Director of Collaboraction, where he has produced over 50 productions, 12 SKETCHBOOK Festivals and over 250 events since the company’s founding in 1999. In 2000 Moseley co-founded the annual SKETCHBOOK Festival, which was lauded by Kerry Reid of the Chicago Reader as “the premiere short play festival in the Midwest.” Under Moseley’s direction, SKETCHBOOKhas produced 158 world premiere short plays in a mixed media environment with music and visual art and this year the 13th annual SKETCHBOOK will include 4 programs of works between 7 and 60 minutes. Moseley’s Collaboraction directing credits include the world premieres of El Grito Del Bronx (a co-production with Teatro Vista in association with the Goodman Theatre), The Pull Toy (and His Pasian), and Heroes and Villains; Chicago premieres of dark play or stories for boys by Carlos Murrillo, Be a Good Little Widow by Bekah Brunstetter, Refuge (2000 Jeff Citation nomination for Best Direction),The Cosmonaut's Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union, Trueblinka and Guinea Pig Solo; as well as Mud, To Kill a Mockingbird, and numerous world premiere short plays for the SKETCHBOOK Festival.

 

For more information, visit www.collaboraction.org.

 

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Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology on WTTV's Chicago Tonight!

Reviews of Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology

 "Far and away the best Collaboraction show I've seen these past 14 years...There is something particularly special about this cast." 3.5 out of 4 Stars. 
-Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune

"...a gripping tale of the Chicago condition that gets to the heart of our suffering."
-Mark Konkol, DNAinfo.com

 "Collaboraction Theatre Company strives to raise awareness, puncture apathy, and perhaps even instigate change"
Erika Mikkalo, Stage and Cinema 

"So direct, visceral, youthful and winningly honest." "HIGHLY RECOMMENDED"
-Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times 

"...the artists of Collaboraction creatively react to problems in their own community."
-Scott C. Morgan, Windy City Times

Link to video on CBS Chicago with Chris Jones. 

 

"A real and dramatic portrayal of the evolution of crimes in Chicago - what an education. No one is immune from it's reach and impact. It times, I had tears in my eyes to realize the horrific happenings in Chicago over the years. Thoroughly enjoyed the talk back with the cast director, and producers after to discuss the points of the show - what hit home, what needs to be clarified and most importantly what we all can do as Citizens of Chicago to help end the senseless violence. A must see, it will change your perspective on this epidemic."
-Gold Star Audience Member 

 

Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology "Let Hope Rise" Video

Meet our Community Partners

Over the past few months of conducting research and interviews as background for our original play Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology, we have been priveleged to work with some amazing community organizations that are working on a daily basis to stem the violence.

As artists, we believe in the power of storytelling to make change and create dialogue - but we also know that we cannot operate in a bubble. Theater is just one piece of an enormous effort to reduce violence and provide a better future for our children, and it is only by working together and tackling the problem from its many angles that we can effect lasting change in our city.

The Community Partners listed below have done everything from helping to inform our writing process, to spreading the word about the show and co-facilitating postshow conversations alongside our cast & crew. We are truly grateful for their involvement.

Please check them out, and support their inspiring work!

Crime Scene Community Partners

Alternatives Positive programs defined, developed, and led by youth

Catharsis Productions - Producing artistically innovative and research-supported programming that challenges oppressive attitudes, transforms behavior, and inspires communities to create a world without violence.

Chicago's Citizens for Change - Working to reduce youth violence through programs and partnerships that strengthen communities and promote restorative peace-making by supporting families and youth who have experienced loss due to violence.

Cure Violence - Reversing the spread of violence by using the methods and strategies associated with disease control—detection and interruption, identifying individuals involved in transmission, and changing social norms of the communities where it occurs.

The Faith Community of Saint Sabina - An African American Catholic community of faith, education, and service

Latinos Progressando - Serving immigrants with the highest quality, low-cost legal immigration services, community education and engagement, and advocacy/organizing around policy that affects immigrants.

Lupe Fiasco Foundation - Providing inner city youth ages 14-24 with comprehensive positive youth development programming that embodies educational advancement, service learning and leadership, global capacity building and music education

Now Is The Time - A citywide initiative inspiring Chicago's young people to make positive change in their communities and stop youth violence and intolerance

Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation - Working against violence for peace

Pure Art - Providing under-served and under-privileged communities with arts education outreach programs

 

Purpose Over Pain - Ending gun violence over living with the pain

Stillpoint Theatre Collective - a community of Chicago artists who use theater to educate, inspire, and challenge our communities to action

Storycatchers Theatre -  a youth development arts organization that prepares young people to make thoughtful life choices through the process of writing, producing, and performing original musical theatre inspired by personal stories

Strengthening Chicago's Youth - A group of private and public stakeholders that take a public health approach to violence prevention

 

"Crime Scene: a Chicago Anthology in Rehearsal" Video

 

 

Get your tickets and more information now at www.collaboraction.org