Around the Coyote Arts Festival - Theatre Info

Friday, October 12

In between all performances - Clipper Ship Spectacular - Jason Adams - The second in his series of "Suitcase Spectaculars," Clipper Ship Spectacular is a sea voyage spectacle condensed into a suitcase and presented to an audience of one! Join the crew of the good ship St. Sebastian as it sails the Seven Seas and meets its bitter end at the hands of the great and terrible Kracken. Clipper Ship Spectacular merges storytelling with toy theatre techniques for five minutes of pure awesome.

6p Heads you Lose - Quantum Mechanicals. A serious comedy about decapitation, takes the audience on a tour of twenty historical and literary minds without their bodies, interspersed with the musings of the Executioner, whose thoughts on his profession frame the other headspaces. Those who take the stage in their final conjured moments include French scientist Antoine- Laurent de Lavoisier, Saint George, the Dragon, American doctor Hitoshi Nikaidoh, Marie Antoinette, and German spy Benita von Berg.

7p - Le Cat Show - The Waters Project. Le Cat Show is a high energy bawdy theatrical event exploring European cat folklore, class relations and gender conflict through the true historical account a Cat Massacre in the years leading up to the French Revolution! This unusual tale of social unrest and sexual intrigue is told through Story Theater , Mask, Commedia dell' arte, Opera, Puppetry, Long Form Improvisation and Musical Composition. An original ensemble developed piece, this is the final result of a yearlong development and performance process by The Waters Project.

8p - Desire Under the Elms - the Hypocrites. The Hypocrites kick off their 11th Season with Eugene O'Neill's 1924 classic mixing Greek classics like Hippolytus with New England farm-life, O'Neill introduced the world to an American tragedy. Acknowledging the mythic forces that drive us, even in our modern lives, Desire Under the Elms confronted the morals and dreams of contemporary American society. Although written in the height of the '20s, O'Neill's tale of the archetype dysfunctional family still rings eerily true in our contemporary world.

8p - Forbidden Mourning - Jim Balestrieri. His mother wisecracking herself to sleep as cancer wastes her away, an exhausted son on a June night tries to escape into a wildly comic dream of the healthy bodies of young women strutting on a strippers' stage. But just as he is never out of earshot of his mother's bell when she needs drugs, or comfort, or her catheter bag emptied, even in his fevered fantasy, the son is never far from death's toll. John Donne's masterful poem might forbid mourning, but all joking aside, in Forbidding Mourning mortality IS forbidding-ominous, invasive, inevitable.

830p - Zeal - Tantalus Theater Group. Zeal is a live exploration of the relationship between the performer and the text; between the actor and the act performed. Utilizing the balcony scene from 'Cyrano', the performers will create a piece both rooted in the script and ultimately personal to themselves. This exploration will continue to play out in the live event of performance

9p - Theater by I Eat Panda and pHamily the Musical .

10p - Progress and Manna, Theatre Collaboration Workshop and Chicago Improv Festival.

Progress - explores the progression of one particular moment as it transgresses through space and time, more specifically, separation. Whether it is being dumped, left behind, or unintentionally ignored, the pain and anguish of the situation changes depending on the place, the time, the weather and the people. In this play, the moment is examined in settings ranging from inside of a painting to the peaks and falls of a roller-coaster to grasp a better understanding of the commitment of an action. Featuring visual art by Sadie Harmon and music Beazley Philips.

Manna - is a short surreal comedy about two newscasters in the future. They are captured by the government for various unknown reasons, and over a period of several days, turn themselves crazy and die. The play deals with the notion of individual freedom in a complex society, and what happens when two crazy people share an enclosed space. Who is to blame for their insanity? Is it society? Is it the government? Is it Jimmy, the production guy? Only time will tell. Featuring music by Beazley Philips and visual art by Caroline Voagen Nelson.

1030p - All the Happy People - American Myth Theater 1030p. Hope is hard to come by when you work at a big city dating service. The stress is heavy, the customers are nasty and the phones never stop ringing. But the women of Two of Hearts will never quit trying to find that one person who will complete you. Because hope is their job.

Saturday, October 13

In between all performances - Clipper Ship Spectacular

6p Heads you Lose

7p - Le Cat Show

8p Forbidden Mourning

8p Desire Under the Elms

9p I Eat Pandas and pHamily the Musical

10p Progress and Manna

1030p All the Happy People

Sunday, October 14

In between all performances - Clipper Ship Spectacular

2p Desire Under the Elms

5p Heads you Lose

6p - Le Cat Show

7p Forbidden Mourning

7p All the Happy People

8p I Eat Pandas and pHamily the Musical

9p Progress and Manna