Blogs

So we had a great opening night and here are a few excerpts from some of the reviews.
Come see the show people!

"The serenely elegant Louise Lamson is an ideal Scheherezade, with Ryan Artzburger as her captivated captor. Usman Ally, Allen Gilmore, Andrew White, David Catlin and sensational drummer Ronnie Malley are superb,
multifaceted clowns."
Chicago Sun Times Review

Today I took a stroll down to the Steppenwolf costume shop, where Lookingglass' crew is holding the fort down for Arabian Nights. I had a look at some of my main costume attire for the role(s) I'll be playing, and well its not much. What I mean by that is that I literally will not be wearing much....shirtless mainly. Thank God I have been working out pretty consistently since the new year!!

Well, I had intended to blog quite a bit more about the process and getting to know this mammoth play, but I didn't have the time.

We had only two weeks of rehearsals, plus a week of tech...with all the rehearsing, learning lines, and working out (I need to be in shape for this show) who has time to blog!

Ever since its inception in 1989, Lookingglass has had a unique interest in Greek and other ancient myths (along with a healthy dose of circus arts and physicality). Last week, Artistic Directors David Catlin, Phil Smith, and Heidi Stillman got together to hash out why.

Today, Friday, March 27, 2009, is world theatre day. Every year, a special statement is issued by a global theatre artist. This year's message is from Augusto Boal, from Brazil, who founded Theatre of the Oppressed. His message is below, along with the link to the official World Theatre Day website.

http://worldtheatreday.org/

World Theater Day 2009 Message by Augusto Boal

In January 2009, Lookingglass partnered with the Arts, Entertainment and Media Management Graduate Program at Columbia College Chicago to conduct focus groups and surveys of new, renewed and 'lapsed' subscribers. Now that we've analyzed the data, we'd like to share it with you. If you have anything to add or discuss, we encourage you to post a comment.

Question: What do you like and dislike about your subscription?

Focus Group:

In January 2009, Lookingglass partnered with the Arts, Entertainment and Media Management Graduate Program at Columbia College Chicago to conduct focus groups and surveys of new, renewed and 'lapsed' subscribers. Now that we've analyzed the data, we'd like to share it with you. If you have anything to add or discuss, we encourage you to post a comment.

Lookingglass subscribers are our most important advocates. Your feedback is vital to our ability to improve your experience at our theatre, and to ensure that you return to Lookingglass year after year. With this in mind, Lookingglass partnered with the Arts, Entertainment and Media Management Graduate Program at Columbia College Chicago to conduct focus groups and surveys of new, renewed and 'lapsed' subscribers in January of 2009. Now that we've analyzed the data, we'd like to share it with you. If you have anything to add or discuss, we encourage you to post a comment!

Hey everyone,

After weeks of shaking my fist at YouTube’s deliriously slow uploading speed, I finally have all of the designer presentations from the first rehearsal online. Pretty interesting lot, especially after viewing our current production:

In his stage directions for "Our Town," Thornton Wilder famously stated: "No curtains, no scenery." To Thornton Wilder's contemporaries, seeing a empty stage was shocking--yet today, audiences are fairly used to blank stages. Indeed, to a modern audience, a stage with only a few chairs and a table seems almost amateurish.

Yet without using Wilder's (carefully dictated) empty stage, how does one effectively convey Wilder's themes of loss and the transient nature of human life?

John Musial has a few ideas.