NEO-OBAMA PORTRAIT-O-RAMA

The Neo-Futurists CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!

$250 prize for a Winning President Obama Portrait

From The Neo-Futurists: We’ve got Lincoln. We’ve got Nixon. We’ve even got Polk. Now The Neo-Futurists seek a brand-spankin’ new portrait for the Hall of Presidents, our in-house gallery of 43 utterly unique, amazingly hand-crafted portraits representing each U.S. president. Submit your original Barack Obama portrait and help us add president #44 to the line-up!
Your Obama “portrait” can be literal, abstract, mixed-media, text-based, sculptural, funny, serious, left, right, up, down… We don’t care. Just make it yours!!!

Submissions are due September 24, 2010.

Finalists will be chosen by a panel of Illustrious Judges:

• Mary Ayling – Owner of Fill in the Blank Gallery
• Sarah Chazin – Owner of Sacred Art
• Pepper Coate - Community Outreach Coordinator, Chicago Artists Coalition
• Andrew Huff – Editor of Gapers Block
• Miss Mia (Mia Park) - Host of “Chic-A-Go-Go”
• Caitlin Stainken – Neo-Futurist Ensemble Member
• Oli Watt – Current Hall of Presidents Artist & SAIC Faculty Member (Printmedia Department)

Neo-Futurist audience members will narrow the finalists down to one winner by casting their ballots from October 1 – 24! For your chance to VOTE, come to our hit show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, 30 Plays in 60 Minutes (Fridays & Saturday @ 11:30pm, Sundays @ 7:00pm). Voting will take place in our lobby immediately before shows. Attend as many shows as possible between Oct. 1 - 24 to vote early and vote often!

The winning portrait will be unveiled at a very special fundraiser on October 28, 2010, with food, drinks, unique performances, and the opportunity to own a piece of history. All non-winning art will be auctioned off, with all proceeds benefiting the Neo-Futurists. Tickets for the Neo-Obama Portrait-O-Rama event are $25 in advance or $35 at the door. Tickets go on sale in early September.

Prizes:

• Artists chosen as finalists receive a complimentary ticket to the fund raiser on Oct. 28, with food, drinks, and performances included
• Winning Artist receives a $250 prize
• Winner will revel in the glory of having his or her portrait on permanent display in the nationally acclaimed Hall of Presidents, receiving over 20,000 views per year!

For More Info Go To: Neo-Futurists - Obama Portrait

Visit the Hall of Presidents: Hall of Presidents

Review and Photo Essay by Venus Zarris

“Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue … BE NOT TOO TAME NEITHER, but let your own discretion be your tutor.”

Hamlet – William Shakespeare

Tame is most certainly NOT something that these Daredevils could be accused of being and an enticing mix of discretion and enthusiastic indiscretion guides their strangely effective storytelling. Not only through the rough-and-tumble/action-and-adventure rendering of Shakespeare’s iconic script, but also through the personal vulnerability that each actor distinctively brings to their performance; they are bold and brazen. They not only dare to jump through hoops, tumble off of platforms, dangle from their heals and submerge themselves in water but they also dare to expose the soft underbellies of their own humanity.

Taking the framework of his previous production of Daredevils, where risk-taking and masculinity were explored through play lot physicality and personal introspection, creator Ryan Walters explores the realms of Hamlet’s melancholy, injustice and revenge-driven madness.

After a rousing pre-show game of 4-square with the audience, Daredevils’ Hamlet begins with the actual opening of the original script. Night watchmen are visited by the ghost of Hamlet’s father, the king. “Jack-Assery” aside, this introduction is as conceptually unique and evocatively haunting as any you will ever see. Lovers of Hamlet should be pleased with the opening homage that powerfully establishes this singular creation’s connection to the original text.

Neo Futirists fans are then quickly satiated with the bona fide “Jack-Assery” that follows. These are silly men, serious about their stunts and storytelling. Daredevils’ Hamlet strikes a brilliant balance between an unconventionally interpersonal theatrical dissection of Hamlet’s emotional themes and full-on playtime.

Remember when you were a child and you spent a day playing Robin Hood, Batman or any other story you just watched or read? These Daredevils take you back to that time of unbridled childhood exploration, when dares and deeds lead to unexpected emotional encounters and engaging intellectual epiphanies.

Through games, monologues and question-and-answer sessions with each cast member regarding their relationships with their fathers and their perceptions about action-verses-thought; the story of Hamlet is cleverly conveyed. Perhaps the actual minutia of events in the original script gets a bit muddled, but the emotional atmospheres and circumstantial struggles are accessed with uncanny effectiveness.

Hamlet’s characters become more sympathetic because they are real people stepping into loose constructions of the roles without ever completely immersing themselves in the parts. This respectively anti-theater approach creates an extraordinary theatrical event for both lovers of the Bard and novices to Elizabethan literature.

Ryan Walters’ sweetly self-effacing performance establishes the structure and story with incredible success. John Pierson infuses an almost zealot devotion to his creation. Anthony Courser is hysterically mischievous. Brennan Buhl is the darling, nerdish, over-thinking boy-next-door. His externalized internal monologue with his own brain is priceless and Jay Torrence creates a combination of delicate reflection, insanity, intensity and playfulness that is spellbinding. What makes these Daredevils so macho is their proud parade of flaws, foibles and feelings.

Enter Gertrude. Heather Riordan is not only the physical trainer of this cast of merry men but she also delivers a startling cameo appearance as Hamlet’s mother, the queen. This is no mere garnish of estrogen on a plate full of testosterone, but rather a complete and concise reimagining of an empowered and unapologetic character that has previously been at the mercy of her station and circumstance. Riordan is fierce and funny, carrying each cast member across the stage and casting them aside as she delivers a delightful diatribe befitting a queen that has had over 400 years of besmirching by her moody son.

Trevor Dawkins is a charming Daredevil intern, earnestly filling in the gaps and supporting the flow of the production. Miranda Anderson is the perfect stage manager/gentle grand inquisitor.

The play concludes with the culminating classic sword fight between Hamlet and Laertes. After so much ridiculously lighthearted physicality, Joe Dempsey’s masterfully thrilling fight choreography creates an extremely compelling contrast. This scene could have easily been played as a childishly stylized romp, but director Halena Kays takes it seriously and the result is profoundly sobering. Jay Torrence closes the show with a soliloquy that is part Shakespeare and part personal poetry, beautifully befitting these darling daredevil and sending them off as the truly lovely fight of angels that they are.

Director Kays is a genius at wrangling in these playful geniuses. She makes a marvel out of chaos, letting her ensemble run wild and then bringing them back to the task of connecting to the story and the audience with incomparable vision. Scenes such as Ophelia’s decent into her watery grave are as eloquently realized as others are impishly explosive. Boys will be boys but Kays includes everyone in on the frenetic fun and captivating intimacy.

Daredevils’ Hamlet represents The Neo-Futurists at their finest and delivers a distinctively incomparable “must see” theatrical treasure.

4 STARS

(”Daredevils’ Hamlet” runs through September 25 at The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland. 773-275-5255.)

Neo-Futurists - Daredevils Hamlet

Daredevils’ Hamlet images by Venus Zarris.

* Visit Theatre In Chicago for more information on this show. Daredevils’ Hamlet - Neo-Futurists - Play Detail - Theatre In Chicago

Daredevils’ Hamlet

Channeling the 2005 hit Daredevils, the men in jumpsuits take competition to a new level in this meta-destruction of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Director Halena Kays returns to direct this thematic adaptation of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, by challenging feats of revenge, passion, and failure. The Daredevils prove there’s no better way to feel alive than by exploring a show that deals with copious amounts of death.

Read the 4 STAR review here: Daredevils’ Hamlet – REVIEW - Chicago Stage Review

Previews: Aug 19 - Aug 20, 2010

Regular Run: Aug 21 - Sep 25, 2010

@ The Neo-Futurarium

5153 N. Ashland Avenue, Chicago

Show Type: Comedy

Box Office: 773-275-5255

Neo-Futurists - Daredevils Hamlet

Film Fest IX: The Perils of the Neo-Futurarium

The Neo-Futurarium - where awesomely awful films live to see another day. Superheroes, Canadian pop stars, racist Arizonans, parasites, Vikings, sea serpents, and ponies make appearances in Film Fest IX: The Perils of the Neo-Futurarium.

Thru - Aug 5, 2010 - Thursdays: 8:00pm

@ The Neo-Futurarium

5153 N. Ashland Avenue, Chicago

Price:$8-$10

Show Type: Comedy

Box Office: 773-275-5255

Neo-Futurists - It Came From The Neo-Futurarium IX

EXPLORE: The World of Endgame

ONE NIGHT ONLY! - Friday, May 21, 2010

5:30pm - 7:30pm

@ Steppenwolf Garage Theatre

Neo-Futurists, Square the Circle, and Lucky Plush Productions will all be performing at the upcoming event, EXPLORE: The World of Endgame.

Samuel Beckett, the acclaimed author of Endgame and Waiting for Godot inspired many artists over the years, and Steppenwolf has some of the best lined up for this event. Dance troupe Lucky Plush Productions will perform Endplay, a vibrant dance piece inspired by one of Beckett’s short dramas, indie band Square the Circle will play a set inspired by Beckett’s work and members of the celebrated Chicago theatre collectives The Neo-Futurists and Theater Oobleck will team up to perform selections from their wildly acclaimed show The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett As Found In An Envelope (partially burned) In A Dustbin In Paris Labeled “Never to be performed. Never. Ever. EVER! Or I’ll Sue! I’LL SUE FROM THE GRAVE!!!” Also included is food, drink and a crash course in the world of Beckett.

To round out your experience, purchase a ticket to Steppenwolf’s production of Endgame on Friday, May 21. There are many great ticket options available:

–STUDENT TICKETS: Only $15! Now available online and in advance.
–20 FOR $20: $20 tickets available the day of the performance after 11am in person or by phone.
–2-FOR-1 TICKET OFFER: Special EXPLORE offer, valid only for Fri. 5/21. Use code 6914 when ordering.

• Read the 3 1/2 STAR review of Steppenwolf’s Endgame here: Endgame – REVIEW - Chicago Stage Review

EXPLORE: The World of Endgame is a FREE event, but you must RSVP to Steppenwolf Audience Services at 312.335.1650.

Friday, May 21, 2010

5:30pm - 7:30pm

Event: EXPLORE: The World of Endgame | Steppenwolf Theatre Company

By J. Scott Hill

Abandon all hope ye who enter here.

That’s the inscription on the gates of Hell, at least according to Dante.  Many among us have already abandoned hope and are trapped in a living Hell thanks to our current or former employers’ embrace of the root of all evil, the love of money. But the recession is allegedly over.  Corporate profits are way up.  The Stock Market is way up.  The economy is getting better for those who already have money, lots of money.  The bottom ninety-eight percent of us are still feeling the pinch, if the drop of the guillotine can be called a mere pinch.  Unemployed, underemployed, multiple jobs, no benefits, no prospects on the horizon, if we aren’t experiencing it right now, we fear it could happen to us tomorrow.  Economists and other pundits may see prosperity ahead, but the rest of us are in crisis.

When will we find relief?

Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m.

The Neo-Futurists can help.  For what you spend every week on that pipe dream of winning the lotto, you can gain entry into a world of stress-relieving entertainment: comedy, live music, singing, dancing, magic, short film, and challenging games.  If you are smart, lucky, and above all honest, you have a shot at winning some serious cash.

If you would like to be a contestant in CRISIS, show up a half-hour early and take the Scantron test.  Overhead projectors shine multiple-choice questions onto the walls and ceiling just like in eighth grade.  Don’t forget to answer the essay question; it will require you to state truthfully what may be a deeply personal story.

For eight contestants each night, CRISIS is a two-hour climb up the corporate ladder.  In the fantasy world of CRISIS, honesty and intelligence (rather than booty-smooching and mediocrity) lead to promotion.  The game itself has three tiers: Ground Zero, The Panic Room, and The Breaking Point.

During Ground Zero, contestants are broken into two teams and managed through a series of Family Feud-type questions by host Meister Lovegeldt, played by John Pierson with even more than his usual undeniable charm.  Pierson flings himself at this enterprise like a trebuchet flings pumpkins at the annual Pumpkin Chunkin’ down in Morton; the energy tapped leaves the audience in awe.  Like many an entry-level manager, Pierson works magic – in this case a set of classic tricks popularized on the TV variety shows of a bygone era.  Pierson’s entire performance is a throwback to the days when entertainers were first and foremost onstage to entertain – refreshing.

The team that survives Ground Zero is promoted to The Panic Room.  Host Mark E. Valli is tricksy and frenetic.  Dan Kerr-Hobert plays The Panic Room’s host as an oily mid-level manager: contestants start with as much credit as they are going to get from Valli, and he deducts points for every wrong answer and unwon challenge.  Kerr-Hobert’s song-and-dance number is a delight.

The contestant that keeps their cool in The Panic Room earns a sit-down with the CEO.  Round three is The Breaking Point, and CEO Clifton Frei probes the remaining contestant Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?-style.  In addition to increasingly more difficult, increasingly more valuable questions, the CEO has no compunctions about asking the contestant to give public answers to questions about normally private matters.  The audience is informally polled about the verisimilitude and completeness of these answers, and money is awarded or not, accordingly.  When digging through the contestant’s tender memories, Frei is no Regis Philbin, no blurter nor brute; he shifts instantaneously and effortlessly from bombastic to therapeutic.

The action is interspersed with clever and hilarious “executive client videos” (used in game play) and live commercials for local businesses.  These scenes change from night to night.  Present and former Neo-Futurists, as well as other prominent Chicago actors, will be performing in these interstitial scenes.

CRISIS (A Musical Game Show) is wild fun to watch, and the contestants seem to be having even more fun than the audience is.  The winner can walk away with up to a third of that night’s box office, over five hundred bucks if the show is sold out. The performances are geared toward nothing more profound than making mirth for the downtrodden, which nowadays is all of us.  Pierson, Kerr-Hobert, Frei, and the rest of the cast and crew work fervently to try to re-instill a little hope in our lives, not through some heartwarming success story or platitudes that things are getting better, but by entertaining us with abandon.

3 STARS

(“CRISIS (A Musical Game Show)” runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through June 12* at The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland, Chicago. 773-275-5255.)

*The June 11 and June 12 performances are Champion Rounds.

Neo-Futurists

CRISIS (A Musical Game Show) production photos by Evan Hanover.

CRISIS (A Musical Game Show)

Come on down! Winners, losers and cash prizes play their part in this interactive spring show. Inspired by the styles of classic televised game shows, return contestants defend their titles and winners take home cash prizes up to a third of the night’s door sales. Games are mixed with short plays and a dash of local business appreciation. Come early to fill out the question and answer Scantrons that determine the players for the evening. Check The Neo-blog each day through the run to see clips of the previous shows and size up the competition. Game on!

Read the 3 STAR review here: CRISIS (A Musical Game Show) -REVIEW - Chicago Stage Review

Opening Night: Saturday, May 1, 2010 at 8:00 p.m.

Regular performances continue through June 5, 2010: Thurs/Fri/Sat at 8:00 p.m.

Champion Rounds are Friday, June 11 and Saturday, June 12

@ The Neo-Futurarium

5153 N. Ashland, Chicago

For tickets or information, visit www.neofuturists.org or call 773-275-5255.

Neo-Futurists

Too Much LADY Makes The Baby Go Blind

ONE NIGHT ONLY! - Monday, April 19, 2010

In April, Fresh Squeezed will partner with the stalwarts of late-night Chicago theater, The Neo-Futurists, to send you on a brazen date with some of the most prolific female writers this side of the Kennedy Expressway. For the first time in the company’s twenty-year history, the broads are going stag on the Biograph stage in an exclusively-female presentation of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind curated by ensemble members Kristie Vuocolo and Megan Mercier. This sassy troupe of Neo-Futurettes boasts nearly every woman who’s graced the nether-clothesline region since the latter days of Reagan.

Fellow Neo-Futurists Sean Benjamin and Steve Mosqueda (of Drinking & Writing Brewery) will host a post-show round table, “Ladies In Your Face.” So grab a drink from our bar and help us pick the brains of some Chicago’s most talented female performers from the last two decades.

Featured Neo-Ladies: Megan Mercier, Kristie Vuocolo, Chloe Johnston, Diana Slickman, Heather Riordan, Jessica Anne, Noelle Krimm and Rachel Claff.

Doors open at 7pm so come early for classic Neo pre-show activities including rolling, tokening, name-tagging, and libations!

After the show, stick around for a round table discussion: “Ladies In Your Face”

For more on The Neo-Futurists, visit their site at:  Neo-Futurists

Read more and Buy Tickets:

Too Much LADY Makes The Baby Go Blind | Victory Gardens

By Venus Zarris

I come from a photo loving family. Much like the arbitrary impressions from the Neo-Futurists new production I Am A Camera, images that told a disjointed visual history filled albums, boxes and drawers.

Evenings spent in a darkened room with my parents, siblings and the slide projector were particularly exciting as everyone shared their own perspectives of familiar events, locations and people. But it was my first time in a darkroom that solidified my lifelong connection with photography. Exposing a piece of blank white photographic paper to light from an enlarger, soaking the paper in developer and then seeing the image miraculously appear for the first time was an unforgettably alchemical moment that altered my already strong relationship with photographs.

The nature of photography has changed dramatically over the last decade. As conventional photography (shot on film) goes the way of an artisan’s speciality, fewer and fewer photographers have experienced a darkroom. Images are now digitally instantaneous. There is no longer a delay in gratification as more and more people in general shoot photos, from digital cameras and their cell phones, constantly. If a picture speaks a thousand words then a library’s worth of books can’t scratch the surface of stories told daily by the constant barrage of images.

I Am A Camera is a travelogue of personal impressions as evoked by past and present images of and from actors Jeremy Sher and Caitlin Stainken. It opens with a darling slide show of vintage snapshots. We then watch the two actors individually pose for the duration of an entire song played twice, extracting the notion of smiling for a picture to great length. They sit silhouetted behind a screen describing random observations of photos. They are shown images and then recite random personal statistics, facts and memories. They play an interview game using random photos as answers, questions and then as both.

Random is the driving force behind the narrative that is as arbitrary as that unexpected box of photos found under the bed. I Am A Camera excels at surfacing the impact that images have on our conscious and subconscious. Sher and Stainken are masters of the presentational and representational aspects of the show. They are as easily lost in the abyss of their memories as they are engaging when making direct connection with each other or the audience. They are in and of the images as well as separate and reflective of them. Sher and Stainken are endearing, which saves the show from Director Greg Allen’s lack of interest in actual storytelling.

Allen’s visual conceptualization is at times enchanting and even breathtaking. It is compelling but ultimately goes nowhere. It dissects and reconstructs what we already know to be true about photographs, albeit in a manner that gives extra reverence to something that we now take for granted because of its easy access.

Mercifully running at about an hour, it sustains the exercises in evocative imagery well. Any longer and this visual trip to nowhere could become tedious. As a play, I Am A Camera lacks the build and conclusion that a cohesive story or message creates. As performance art, I Am A Camera is a beautifully created and fascinatingly executed journey through the notion of how images reflect and convey experiences, emotions and moments. Ultimately, I Am A Camera is a conceptually extraordinary and presentationally charming homage to and reminiscent illustration of nostalgia that is well worth a look.

3 STARS

(”I Am A Camera” runs through March 13 at The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland. 773-275-5255.)

Neo-Futurists - Home

I Am A Camera production photos by Greg Allen.

Opening review image by Venus Zarris.

By Venus Zarris

Phineas X. Jones created 2009’s first truly standout play illustration with his striking postcard design for BEER. - see feature here - Illustrating Beer - Chicago Stage Review

He is following up this exceptional design with something even more remarkable! I have seen a LOT of illustrations and graphic designs that capture the atmosphere of Halloween seasonal shows. Many have been excellent but none as striking as Mr. Jones delightfully wicked design for the Neo-Futurists new production of FEAR. - see review of production here - FEAR - Chicago Stage Review

By incorporating the actual entrance to the Neo-Futurarium with a whimsical incarnation of evil, he not only creates something truly eye-catching but also captures the transformative nature of the Neo’s new production. They take the already unusual location and create a macabre tour through the twisted mind of Edgar Allen Poe. Jones takes the almost iconically recognizable Neo entrance, complete with the T.M.L.M.T.B.G.B. sign, and transmogrifies it into a monstrous manifestation that dears you to see the show!

If more theater companies used illustrative talents such as Jones, they would have more tickets sold and more seats filled. Congratulations to the Neo-Futurists for recognizing Jones’ talent and to Mr. Jones on another extraordinary creation!

Strange Tree Group is also capitalizing on Jones’s brilliance for their current production of Hey! Mr. Spaceman!, now playing @ The Building Stage. See the poster art and info on the show here:

Hey! Mr. Spaceman! opening at The Building Stage - Chicago Stage Review

You can view more remarkable work by Phineas X. Jones at octophant[x]us | original posters by phineas x. jones and also on his website, This is the Portfolio of Phineas Xavier Jones, an Interactive Designer.

Neo-Futurists - Home