Links Hall Announces its Fall 2011 Performance Series.
Chicago, IL – Links Hall is pleased to announce its Fall 2011 performance series featuring works from many returning artists, as well as new presentations from up and coming artists. Nasty Brutish & Short, presented by Links Hall and curated by Seth Bockley and Julia Miller returns for two more performances after a successful run in the Winter 2011 season. The Striding Lion Performance Group premiers their latest works in November, featuring a collaborative effort with another Chicago dance, theatre, or performing artist each night, culminating in a unique program for every audience. Links Hall’s 2011 Lisa Dershin LinkUP Artists Justin Cabrillos and Ni’Ja Whitson debut their brand new works in September as a result of a six-month residency at Links Hall, a highly anticipated performance. As we close out the year, December brings an annual favorite, the Winter Solstice Percussion Concerts, playing for their 21st year at dawn. For more information call 773.281.0824, or purchase tickets online at www.LinksHall.org.
AUGUST 2011 AT LINKS HALL
AUGUST 12-14, 2011 Hidden/dig-Push/reveal Presented by Stephanie Williams Hidden/dig-Push/reveal is an evening of works that aim to look for a deeper truth that what meets the eye. The audience will connect with the dancers as they watch them push themselves through physical experiences. The works will explore ideas of physical and mental exhaustion, Marilyn Monroe and the person beneath the image, and the truth behind childhood nursery rhymes. Friday and Saturday at 8pm / Sunday at 7pm Tickets $12 / $10 Students and Seniors
AUGUST 19-21, 2011 The Other Side of Hurt Directed by Bonsai Bermudez and Youth Empowerment Performance Project (YEPP) YEPP is a new youth theatre initiative committed to emboldening the voices of Chicago’s street-based LGBTQA young people and sharing their experiences with the larger community through performance. Over the course of six months, a five-person ensemble led by director Bonsai Bermudez developed The Other Side of Hurt, an original performance piece. The logo and the show title were both created by the ensemble members, a testament to the youth’s true and complete involvement in the development of the performance. YEPP uses theatre and therapy, employing approaches from both throughout the creation of a show, advocating the needs, experiences, and strengths of an otherwise overlooked portion of the Chicago community. Friday & Saturday at 8pm / Sunday at 7pm Tickets $15 / $10 Students and Seniors under the age of 10
AUGUST 26-28, 2011 iced.coffee Presented by Lauren Warnecke and Enid Smith A series of oil paintings by Chicago artist Andrew Rauhauser are the inspiration for a new dance by Enid Smith. The piece, titled Pier, is an interpretation of the images of frozen landscapes along Chicago’s North Shore in the dead of winter. Grind by Lauren Warnecke is her interpretation of the ongoing attempt to weigh artistic satisfaction against financial gain and is an irrational investigation into definitions of success as an artist. Friday & Saturday at 8pm / Sunday at 7pm Tickets $12 / $10 Students and Seniors under the age of 10
SEPTEMBER 2011 AT LINKS HALL
SEPTEMBER 9-11, 2011 Sharon Bridgforth’s Theatrical Jazz Institute Showcase Presented by Links Hall From January through April, 2011, Sharon Bridgforth, the 2010-2011 Visiting Multicultural Faculty member facilitated the Institute. Inspired by traditional Jazz methods of training, this Institute was designed for artists interested in learning about the Theatrical Jazz Aesthetic by being in the room with practitioners. Nationally based master Theatrical Jazz Aesthetic practitioners visited the Institute, offering public talks, workshops and informal presentations of their work. This performance showcases the work done throughout the Institute’s run in the Spring. Friday & Saturday at 8pm / Sunday at 7pm Free Admission
SEPTEMBER 23-25, 2011 Lisa Dershin Fall LinkUP Showcase The culmination of six month residencies at Links Hall through the Lisa Dershin LinkUp Program which includes free studio space, a stipend, a paid mentor and a fully produced showcase weekend.
Troupe Presented by Justin Cabrillos
root shock Presented by Ni’Ja Whitson
The Lisa Dershin LinkUP Residency program supports independent artists and collaborations in the research of ideas and development of new innovative work in their movement based practices. The six-month residency program annually gives four emerging artists free weekly studio time and a fully produced showcase to perform their work; a stipend to support their endeavors; a paid mentor and peer support/feedback with work-in-progress events.
Troupe, presented by Justin Cabrillos, is a perverse musical-dance that explores the relationship between the American showman P.T. Barnum and a host of animals and people he put on display including, Jumbo the elephant, the Feejee Mermaid, and the “Swedish Nightingale.” The movement, voice, and text integrate selections of his autobiography and the language of disciplinary techniques for children. Inspired by Barnum’s own mingling of different performance forms, this interdisciplinary solo brings together and extends elements of the forms he popularized. This project is also generously supported by a Greenhouse Grant from the Chicago Dancemaker’s Forum.
root shock, presented by Ni’Ja Whitson re-imagines Yoruba diasporic Orisa storytelling traditions and excavates the relationship between trauma and the ancestral / spiritual world. Through narrative and transdisciplinary expression, the text invokes a ritual performance space where time serves as an active personae and vessel. Performed in a single body, root shock sits as a dynamic experimentation into layering flesh, voice, and time. It conjures. It releases. It reclaims. Friday and Saturday at 8pm / Sunday at 7pm Tickets $15 / $12 online/ $10 Students and Seniors
SEPTEMBER 26, 2011 Nasty, Brutish and Short Presented by Links Hall and Curated by Seth Bockley and Julia Miller Nasty, Brutish and Short is an evening of puppetry where performers are asked to create new work and risk sharing it with an audience for the first time. The goal is to give artists a reason to create new work and help foster touring opportunities and artistic exchanges This event is funded in part by the Puppet Slam Network (a project of IBEX Puppetry) Monday at 7:30pm Tickets $8 / $5 Students
To Say Nothing of Presented by Anthony Romero To Say Nothing of is a showing of recent performance works by Joni Murphy and Brian Wallace, Benjamin Chaffee, Benjamin Pearson and an ensemble work created by Noah Furman, Millie Kapp, Hillary Kennedy, Annie Maurer and Matthew Shalzi. Engaging in multiple body based practices including dance, theater and live performance, To Say Nothing of, showcases some of Chicago’s most thought provoking performers. Artists and Works: 1. Victory Over the Sun Was Never Won in the West by Joni Murphy and Brian Wallace 2. The palm poises as a plant does, and slips into the evening of the day by Noah Furman, Millie Kapp, Hilary Kennedy, Annie Maurer, Matthew Shalzi Friday and Saturday at 8pm / Sunday at 7pm Tickets $10
OCTOBER 2011 AT LINKS HALL
OCTOBER 4-9, 2011 New Works (Title TBA) Presented by Jeff Glossmer Friday and Saturday at 8pm / Sunday at 7pm Info TBA
OCTOBER 19-22, 2011 Theater Oobleck: Death and Other Excitements, Episode 3 of Baudelaire in a Box. Presented by Dave Buchen, Chris Schoen with Amy Warren and other musical guests In the latest installment of Baudelaire in a Box, Theater Oobleck presents seven new cantastoria adapted from the work of Charles Baudelaire: Six selections from the “death” section of Les Fleurs du Mal (“The Death of the Lovers,” “The Death of the Poor,” “The Death of the Artists,” “The End of the Day,” “The Dream of the Curious Man,” and “The Voyage.”) Plus the prose poem “Anywhere Out of the World.”
Baudelaire in a Box is a serial cantastoria project based on Charles Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal, created by founding Oobleck member Dave Buchen. Over the course of 7 years (culminating in 2017, the sesquicentennial of Baudelaire’s death), the project will adapt each poem from the Fleurs du Mal as a unique cantastoria, featuring “Crankies” designed and illustrated by Dave Buchen, paired with a musical adaptation. Wednesday – Saturday at 8pm Tickets $15
NOVEMBER 4-6, 2011 The Purple State Presented by Erin Carlisle Norton The Purple State, curated by Erin Carlisle Norton, features dance makers and dance artists residing in Columbus, Ohio who maintain deep connections and investigations into current theoretical, choreographic, and performative approaches to dance. The weekend includes works and/or performances by The Moving Architects, Erin Carlisle Norton, Susan Van Pelt Petry, and Meghan-Durham Wall and Karl Rogers, all artists who keep dance charged and relevant in middle America. Friday and Saturday at 8pm / Sunday at 7pm Tickets $15 / $12 online / $10 Students and Seniors
NOVEMBER 18-20, 2011 On the Make Presented by Striding Lions Performance Group On the Make taps in to Striding Lion Performance Group’s signature athleticism and bold theatricality with dance theater works by three of Chicago’s most compelling choreographers: Annie Beserra, Adriana Durant, and Amanda Lower. In the spirit of collaboration, each evening also features the work of a guest artist from Chicago’s dance, theater, and performance community. Friday and Saturday at 8pm / Sunday at 7pm Tickets for Friday $30 (includes an opening night reception)/ Saturday & Sunday $15 / $10 Students and Seniors
DECEMBER 2-4, 2011 New Works (Title TBA) Presented by Synapse Arts Friday & Saturday at 8pm / Sunday at 7pm Info TBA
DECEMBER 2011 AT LINKS HALL
DECEMBER 5, 2011 Nasty, Brutish and Short Presented by Links Hall and Curated by Seth Bockley and Julia Miller Nasty, Brutish and Short is an evening of puppetry where performers are asked to create new work and risk sharing it with an audience for the first time. The goal is to give artists a reason to create new work and help foster touring opportunities and artistic exchanges. This event is funded in part by the Puppet Slam Network (a project of IBEX Puppetry) Monday at 7:30pm Tickets $8 / $5 Students and Seniors
DECEMBER 9 – 11, 2011 Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready Presented by Curious Theatre Branch Written by Jenny Magnus Directed by Stefan Brun Music by The Crooked Mouth An examination and homage to sustained attention, Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready is the story of a troupe that is really a tribe struggling to be an ensemble. A group of actors come together to prepare for a show, and in their attentions to themselves and each other, they weave the fabric of their determination to make something happen on the stage. Taking place in the 60 minutes before the performance, the actors inhabit the space in ways that become evidently theatrical, moving from individual actions to group actions, and revealing the conflicted eros of collaboration.
Some actors are born ready; they come in with all the energy and focus they are ever going to have. Others have to slowly put on their decided bodies, a step-by-step transformation from person in the world to person on the stage. In Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready, whether they play ductball, mutter into a camera, rehearse a monologue, enact a song, groan, or simply sit and wait, the actors all seek the moments of heightened awareness that emerge when someone participates in their chosen art form. Friday & Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 7pm Tickets $15 or Pay What You Can
DECEMBER 21-23, 2011 21st Annual Winter Solstice Percussion Concerts Performed by Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang This hour-long ritual performance utilizes a wide array of percussion instruments from North Africa, the Middle East, and East India, as well as Western orchestral instruments. Drake and Zerang also use the Frame Drum that has its origin in ancient Mesopotamia, and a variety of hand drums, including dumbek, tabla, rukk, conga, djimbe, and tambourine, concentrating on long rhythmic cycles and structured improvisations. Drake and Zerang are veterans of Chicago world music, new music, and jazz scenes, and have performed together nationally and internationally.
The concerts began as a single concert in 1990 and expanded to three concerts due to increasing demand in the intimate confines of Links Hall’s studio. Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday at 6am Tickets are $20 and can be purchased through LinksHall.org or call 773.281.0824
Links Hall encourages artistic innovation and public engagement by maintaining a facility and providing flexible programming for the research, development and presentation of new work in the performing arts. Links Hall is located at 3435 N. Sheffield Avenue, Chicago, IL 60657—convenient to the BROWN, PURPLE & RED line stop at Belmont and RED line Addison stop in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. For more information call 773.281.0824 or visit www.LinksHall.org
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