To See Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol

 

On December 3rd I went to see manual cinema’s production of Christmas Carol at Writer’s Theatre. This play is different than other plays because it is mostly all puppets! And I don't mean like marionettes but I mean kind of like shadow puppets or paper puppets. This play is also different because it has a second plot along with the classic Christmas Carol storyline, which I like because it adds more to the story. I don't think I need to tell you the summary of A Christmas carol because basically EVERYONE knows the story. But in case you don't, grunt guy Ebeneezer scrooge is very mean and lacks Christmas spirit. So he gets haunted by the 3 Christmas ghosts who take him through his past, present, and future from other Christmases to help him change his ways. But the plot of the side play is that uncle joe used to do a Christmas carol puppet show every year. But then he dies during covid, so his not-very Christmasy wife (played by LaKecia Harris) has to perform it on zoom. (This takes place in 2020) Then SHE gets haunted by the ghosts and has to keep serving the puppet show while sometimes pausing to talk about her relationship with Joe. 

The puppetry design (Drew Dir) and execution for this were INSANE. I don’t even understand how they could accomplish something that fast-paced! They had to run back and forth, get timing PERFECTLY, and craziest of all, it was all done by PAPER or something like that! They accomplished a FULL ANIMATION rank here because I can't believe how perfect it was! This play was AMAZING. The people who did the puppetry were Lizi Breit, Julia Miller, and Jeffrey Paschal. Jeffrey Paschal also played the delivery guy at the end. If these puppeteers don't do this as a full-time job, I think they could be aliens from another dimension because that is AWESOME! And also, all of their music and songs were ON STAGE STUFF, instead of being recorded or something on speakers! The music and singing were done by Ben Kauffman, Emily Meyer, and Kyle Vegter. A Christmas carol has a lot of adaptations, but this version of A Christmas Carol was COMPLETELY original, having a whole new take on the Christmas ghost tale. I recommend anyone who never says “BA HUMBUG!” should see this play. I rate this play 10 ghosts out of 10 because it was just phenomenal and funny and amazing! WATCH THIS PLAY NOW AND IF IT IS NOT PLAYING RIGHT AT THIS VERY SECOND THEN BUY TICKETS NOW! I really want you to see this play.

Peace, Gunnar

Photo Credits: Liz Lauren

To See ELF the Musical at Drury Lane

 On SUNDAY the 27th of the 11th month of the year I went to see ELF THE MUSICAL at the Drury Lane theater with my mom, her partner, and my sister. Lynn Kurdziel Formato directed and choreographed this play. Buddy the Elf was played by Ben Dow who is a VERY VERY good at portraying Buddy. He was probably the BEST actor in the show. He was AMAZING!

If you don’t know the plot of the original 2003 movie, Buddy, (played by Ben Dow) crawls into Santa's (played by A.D. Weaver) bag one night and accidentally brings him back to the north pole, where the elves raise him as one of their own. When he is old enough to know better, he finally finds out he is a human and travels to New York to meet his human family (played by Sean Fortunado, Melody A Betts, and Gabriel Solis). Elves make toys at the North Pole, but you never know what kind of mischief or magic could happen in the busy city of NYC. Buddy learns how to make it snow in his dad’s office, makes Macy's a wonderland, falls in love with the Macys worker Jovie, (Lydia Burke), and has some really crappy souvlaki. In ELF THE MUSICAL, Buddy will face fruit spray and non-believers but he will never stop smiling because smiling’s his FAVORITE!

  Drury Lanes' musical adaptation added some pretty funny bits, like Santa watching NFL or Buddy saying he’s like Annie. But, I will say that they left out SO many essential parts from the movie, like the part where he goes in the women's locker room or when he goes around new york doing silly things, and PLUS, they had a big screen, so they had so much potential. They could've made the awesome snowball fight scene! They could've had buddy decorate the Gimbels, or, in this case, Macy's! The screen could have made SO many instant scene changes. Plus they left out the great part at the end where they’re trying to put the engine on while being chased by the guys on horses, bUt I dOnT sEe WhY tHaT wOuLd Be ChAlLeNgInG iN aNy WaY!!1!!1 (by the way that's called sarcasm. 😅) I thought the acting was GREAT. Each actor portrayed the character in the movie PERFECTLY and they had such great acting skills. They made it seem like it was all real and not just a play but also real life (which I guess doesn't make much sense because it IS real life but it's all acting is what I meant.). I thought the lighting was pretty OK, but it could've been better. I did like it a lot in the scenes where the characters were on the right or left sides of the stage and the light was fully everywhere, which let you look at the set more, instead of all focus being on the characters. The lighting was done by Lindsey Lyddan and Anthony Churchill. The costumes were PERFECT. So shoutout to among us Rachel Boylan and Emily Young! The music was decent, not bad at all but not THE GREATEST. I thought the songs could have used a bit of work, but some of the songs were just in general REALLY NICE. So good job to Carey Deadman, Ray Nardelli^, Matthew Skylar, and Chad Beguelin. Like I said before, they had a projector, so there wasn’t AS much of a need for a set on stage, but I kinda feel like it would've been better iF there were more on stage, because there were a lot of moments that I feel could've been better if there was more set ON STAGE. But I also think the projector was nice because it added a cartoony feel to the play, kind of like how there was a cartoony feel in the movie. 

I think this play was a 7 out of 10 elf hats, because, you know, elves? I recommend this play to people who like ELF (the movie) if they really want to see this. Because the tickets are kinda overpriced. 100 dollars a ticket? I think ELF THE MUSICAL had great potential but just wasn’t good enough to make me love it.  So yeah bye, GUNNAR

To See Clue at The Mercury Theater Chicago

Sunday I went to the Mercury Theater to see their production of CLUE. You know, the one where they find out if Colonel Mustard killed the Maid in the greenhouse with the wrench. This play called Clue is based off of the movie called Clue based off the board game called Clue and is directed by L. Walter Stearns and written by Sandy Rustin. 

CLUE brings a bunch of people together that have been invited to a creepy mansion where they find out that a dude is blackmailing them. When they find out there is a murderer in the mansion, they try to find out who it is, who they killed, where they killed them, and with what they killed them with. Yes, like the game.

That is my summary and it seems short but just buy some tickets, watch the play, and you’ll see what I mean, trust me. The cast of this play is The maid, Yvette, who is played by Tiffany T. Taylor, The butler, Wadsworth, played by Mark David Kaplan, The Cook/Singing Telegram Girl, played by Honey West, Colonel Mustard, played by Jonah D. Winston, Mrs. White, played by Mckinley Carter, Mrs. Peacock, played by Nancy Wagner, Mr. Green, played by Kelvin Roston Jr., Professor Plum, played by Andrew Jessop, Miss Scarlet, played by Erica Stephan, Mr. Boddy/Motorist/Chief Of Police, played by Patrick Byrnes, And the Cop, played by Andrew McNaughton. My favorite actor was Jonah D. Winston, because he made so many funny jokes and wasn’t even laughing! And I think it was impressive how the rest of the cast didn’t laugh as well! Also, all of the acting was so good, that it almost made me think it was real! 

I think that the costume designer, (Marquecia Jordan) really made it realistic, because the costumes matched the characters PERFECTLY! And it was SO similar to the movie! In the movie and play, they were able to PERFECTLY recreate what happened when Mrs. White walked in! It’s INCREDIBLE. Also, I should mention how efficient the set design was! (designers: Bob Knuth, Keith Ryan, and others) It could go from one room to another in, like, 2 SECONDS! I also liked how every single scene had a unique piece of lighting, (great job, Max!) There are also a bunch of people that I can't mention because this can’t be too long, like managers and sound creators, so thanks to you all! There was only 1 thing that I didn't like about it, and that was the funny music that played in the movie when Wadsworth was running around wasn’t there, but for that to be the ONLY thing I missed, that’s impressive!

I liked all the parts where they mentioned the game, like when they ask, “Who built this place?” and then the butler says, “The Parker Brothers!” and when they were using the board from the game as a map. I just basically liked any moment where there was comedy involved, (which was pretty much the whole play) because I like to laugh and make jokes!  I give this play 47 Wrenches out of 47.1 Wrenches because izza good play. I think that anyone who just wants to laugh or have a good time should see this play, because if that’s what you’re looking for, believe me, it is NOT a waste of money.

So long, Gunnar

photo credit: Liz Lauren

to see Annie Jr. at Chappell Elementary

 

On Tuesday, April 3, I went with my Mom, My Mom’s partner, and my sister to see my school production of Annie Jr. You see, I was supposed to buy tickets at school, but they were sold out. So, we still went, and waited and waited and finally people gave us free tickets. Annie, (played by Olivia Holden) is an orphan who wants to find her parents while the mean Miss Hannigan, (Massina Pettigrew) tries to stop her and steal money.

Oliver Warbucks, (played by Esai Gonzalez) a rich billionaire, and his secretary, Grace Farrell, (played by Imani Pettigrew) decide to take Annie into Mr. Warbucks’ home for Christmas. After a while, Mr. Warbucks wants to adopt Annie, but she says that she wants to find her parents. So Mr. Warbucks says that if Annie’s parents come, he will give them 50 GRAND! So Miss Hannigan, Rooster Hannigan, (played by Parker Sullivan) and Lily St. Regis, (played by Jocelyn Hayes) try to pretend to be Annie’s parents, but their evil plot gets foiled by the FBI and Oliver Warbucks. Then, Mr. Warbucks invites all the other kids at the orphanage over for Christmas, (played by Nia Gore Van Der Vort, Blaze Kujawinski, Saniyah Childs, Siena Hostetler, Alina Kujawinski, Dana Urbano, Valentina Kotvasz, Dena Page, and Isabella Shores.) Then, Miss Hannigan and her evil partners go to jail and everyone lives happily ever after.

Ted Nazerowski and Regina Wiethop both designed the set. It had 4 scene designs, the orphanage, the Mansion, outside, and the NBC radio broadcasting studio. I thought that the set design was really cool, so shoutout to Ms. Wiethop and Mr. N for deigning it!

Honestly, the best characters TO ME were Lt. Ward and UNNAMED SERVANT, both played by Zachary Bindas. Overall, I think this was an excellent production for an elementary school play. I give this play 4 and 999,999,999,999,999,999,999/1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 out of 5 dogs, because there is a dog in the play named sandy. (player by Bryce reaven) 

BYE! 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

(P.S. sorry that I left that 0.0000000000000000000001/1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of a dog out :(   )

to see EXIT STRATEGY

On March 25th, I went to see a play called EXIT STRATEGY, a play directed by Rachel Sledd Iannantuoni, and written by Ike Holter.  The show played at the Loop Player at Harold Washington College and it is DEFINITELY not for kids. On the front of the program, the summary is stated like this: The teachers of Tumbldn High School bring mousetraps from home, they make the toilet paper last, and they show up for the kids nobody else shows up for.SO when the school is slated for closure at the end of the year, and the weight of the inevitable bears down on the community, students and teachers alike discover their breaking points.

 The first scene is in Ricky, (Nick Page) the vice principal talking to Pam, (Abigail Bomher) about the school closing. Pam isn't surprised, and they get into an argument about life and school, and Pam says that the school is all she has ever had, and she loves it more than anything. She tries to teach the school anthem, and stops. She then proceeds to shoot herself.

 The next scene is based a month later, when the school is about to start, set in the teacher’s lounge. Only one teacher is in there, and that teacher is Arnold, (Marcus Saenez) the nerdy serious one. He is getting his coffee, when in walks Luce, (Alexis A. Tornez Martinez) another teacher. He is pretty funny. He kept trying to get Arnold to do a secret handshake-thing, and Arnold said no, and the second Arnold was like, “ok fine” Luce was like, “ya know what? never mind.” and that was kinda funny. And then in walks ANOTHER teacher, this teacher is Sadie, (Brittany Yvonne Stokes) and she walks in with stuff from ALDI. Yeah, there's a bunch of school stuff but also juice boxes, which is kinda funny because Luce is like, “NO WAY, JUICE BOXES???? WHAT FLAVORS???” And Arnold is practicing telling the students that the school is closing, when IN WALKS ANOTHER TEACHER, and this one is named Jania, (Lexi Acosta) who is kind of intimidating and talkative. She is complaining about a gang, and people make fun of her broken car. 

As the play continues, we find out a student named Donnie, (Robert Mosby Jr.) hacked into the school website and posted a link to help get the school to be saved. But Ricky decides not to suspend Donnie after a moving and difficult conversation about Donnie’s life. He then instead, recruits Donnie to the staff. 

Fast-Forward to spring, where Ricky and Donnie have hatched a plan. And also this was one of my favorite parts, all the teachers are in the lounge, and Sadie says “Hey, do you guys hear that?” And Donnie walks in with a boom-box playing Gangsta’s Paradise, along with Ricky, to talk about the plan. The plan is to parade north, where rich people are. Then, they will get more money to save the school! And everyone except Arnold thinks this is a good idea, so Ricky says “whoever wants to stay with Arnold go but join me and good stuff will happen!” Then everyone goes with Ricky.

Arnold is alone in the teacher’s lounge about to call the city to tell them about the plan, until PLOT TWIST ghost Pam walks in and reminds him that he did that sort of thing a while ago. Then he decides to let it go. 

Fast-Forward, the march happened, and now there’s news channels talking about them and stuff, and Donnie was watching it on FOX, and the teacher’s were like, “WE TAUGHT YOU BETTER THAN THAT! FOX, Donnie, Really FOX?!!!” and that was funny.

But then when Arnold and Ricky are alone, Arnold tells Ricky the bad news. Their plan didn’t work and the school was getting torn down. I think this was a really sad scene, because they did all the stuff for nothing. Then, it is the day of tearing down the school. They sing the tigers song, which goes like this:

Tigers hear us

Tigers fear us

Tigers Tigers We’re true blue

Tigers hear us

Don’t come near us

Tigers- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  BOOOM CRASH SMASH RUMBLE BOOOOOOOM and the school is destroyed the end. Boom the end. :( 

(Mom says I can give spoilers because the play closed on Saturday)

I really liked the play because it was very dramatic and it had many mixed emotions in  my head, like sad, funny, excited, and WHOA THERE LITTLE TIMMY! Which, by the way, is when there's inappropriate talk and cuss words.

I recommend this play to mature  people at least 13 but I'm very mature so I saw it. I give this play 4 and 99,999/100,0000  coffee mugs out of 5! Because teachers drink a lot of coffee, like whoa. 

 (And by the way I did go easy on you didn't I? I KNOW YOU’RE WATCHING I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE ok just kidding about that last part.) 

 

to see Wake Up, Brother Bear!

On January 25th, me, mama and Margot went to see 'Wake Up, Brother Bear!' by Janet Stanford and Kathryn Chase Bryar, directed by Jamie Abelson at the Chicago Children's Theatre Company.

It was about 2 bears named Brother Bear and Sister Bear (performed by Jonah Winston and Allyce Torres) living their lives throughout the seasons. Each kid was given a bag filled with objects that they would take out at different moments during the play to interact with the characters and to better understand the season. 

The bears had us kids on our feet from the very beginning because Sister Bear needed help finding brother bear who was hiding under a giant pile of small blankets and she was too scared to look all by herself. And once she discovered Brother Bear together they taught us how to fold the blanket we removed. And from that moment on we learned something new with each object we got to touch. 

The bears both really looked like bears thanks to the unique costume design by Sully Ratke. All three bears (did I forget to mention Musician Bear played by Sonia Goldberg?) had a unique bear hat that fit their personality. Each bear had a suit that gave them a bearly shape with fur and a tail. Something interesting about the Bears is that Sister Bear was the only Bear who knew human English. Brother Bear communicated with grunts and sign language which Sister Bear translated for us, most of the time. It was pretty cool too because she was sort of teaching us how to sign when she would repeat the words he was saying and do the sign that goes along with it. Though Brother Bear was able to say one word, and it was pretty funny, I don't want give the whole moment away but I will tell you the one word he knows how to say is "Packers" which is pretty funny because he's a BEAR but is clearly a Packers Fan! Hahaha!

My favorite interactive moment of the play was when we got to take out the LED fireflies in our bags and light up the night which was really pretty it really felt like I was outside at night surrounded by real stars or fireflies in the middle of summer. And then we got to put our fireflies in the moon and hang it up and it was so beautiful. My favorite moment in watching the Bears was when they dreamed they were ice skating bears competing at the Olympics or something. They were really good at skating without skates or ice!

The show started with the bears waking up from hibernation and ended with them going back to hibernation. But something special happened at the end. Sister Bear fell asleep and Brother Bear realized that he accidentally took the blanket  away from her and she was cold and shivering in her sleep, so he took the blanket off himself and gave it to her and went to sleep without one. His kindness to Sister Bear inspired me to put my blanket on Brother Bear and then something magical happened all the other little kids in the audience did the same and soon Brother Bear wasn't shivering anymore he was cozy and warm and ready for a long winters nap. 

Even though this was more of a little kid play than a big kid show (and by little kid I mean like six and under) and even though I was clearly the oldest kid there, still as a nine year old, I still enjoyed myself.  There were three takeaways from this play: 1. I learned a lot about the Seasons 2. Even though Brother Bear couldn't speak human English everyone treated him and loved him the same as Sister Bear and 3. Kindness and sharing feels good like a warm blanket. 

I think every kid in Chicago six and under should come see this play because it has great education and it is fun for all children at this age. And if you're my age and have a younger sibling you should see this play because you can enjoy yourself and help your sibling with some of the interactive parts. 

I give this play 2 paws up and 1 Gazillion points beclaws it's a BEARY GOOD PLAY!

PHOTO Credits: Charles Osgood

Wake Up, Brother Bear! at Chicago Children's Theatre, 100 S. Racine Ave., Chicago (at Monroe) playing now until March 1st, 2020.

( P.S. Brother Bear took a packers hat and put it on a little stuffed bear and said "packers!")

to See The Beatrix Potter Holiday Tea Party

On Saturday morning I went to go see The Beatrix Potter Holiday Tea Party at the Chicago Children’s Theatre with mama and Margot. The four stories were directed by Will Bishop and devised by Lara Carling, Kay Kron, Grace Needlman and Ray Rehberg. The play had four different stories put together and performed by three actors (Ray Rehberg, Kay Kron and Lara Carling) and they were The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse, The Tailor of Gloucester, The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher and the Tale of Peter Rabbit. 

All four stories were told with just three actors who told the tales through lots of wooden puppets, big movie boxes, live music, small projections and songs. The first story was about a mouse called Mrs. Tittlemouse who was preparing for her Holiday Party. Mrs. Tittlemouse had to deal with the mess of bugs from the cellar and Mr.Jackson the toad, because they made a mess of everything and although she tried to clean it, it was still messy when she went to bed the night before the party. So the actors told the AUDIENCE to clean the house with cleaning exercises like pretend sweeping, dusting, brushing, and other stuff like that. So when Mrs. Tittlemouse woke up the next morning, she was going to clean more (Like, a lot), but then she noticed that not only her house was clean, it was all ready for the party! Her friends arrived and the party worked out just fine, because we, the audience, helped!

All of the stories had the audience involved in some way. The puppets were all so clever I was wondering how they made them, some of the puppets worked like mechanics. The set (designed by Grace Needlman) was made of boxes and handles and lights and fabric.

The second play was called the Tailor of Gloucester, who had A cat named Simpkin who wanted to eat lots of mice and was a trouble maker. One time the tailor opened the cupboard with all of the mice in it and Simpkin was MAD, so he hid the yarn that he bought. Simpkin may have been naughty but he learns his lesson in the end. 

The third play was called The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher.  Mr. Jeremy Fisher was a frog, who couldn’t catch a fish. Many bad things happen to him but he does eventually catch some fish…just wait and see those puppets!! The last story was a popular one, called the Tale of Peter Rabbit, the famous naughty rabbit with a waistcoat and a love of Mr. McGreggor’s carrots. I should know, I was Peter Rabbit for Halloween one year and my sister was Mr. McGreggor’s carrot and she was the cutest carrot in the whole wide dimension (I’ll attach a picture to prove it). 

One of the coolest parts was the live music played by one actor (Ray Rehberg) who played an electric violin (I play violin too), an electric mandolin, and a toy piano. The electric instruments were hooked up to a foot pedal and whenever he played something it recorded and then could repeat so he could play a new line on top of what he already played. Without the music the plays wouldn’t have been as entertaining, the music told us how to feel and Mr. Rehberg is incredibly talented I only hope I can play the violin like him someday. He let me play his electric violin after the show and it was so heavy!

After the show there was a part where we could all go up on stage and touch the puppets and try them out and see how they moved which was really fun. And after the play there was chocolate party in the lobby, hot chocolate, chocolate pretzels and chocolate cookies, chocolate coins and chocolate kisses. How cool to see a show and have an actual chocolate party afterwards? 

I would give this play 1 MILLION points because I think that little kids (mostly ages 1-5) would really enjoy it because they will be really entertained by something you don’t see everyday and they get to be a part of it too! Also, they get to end the experience with a lot of sugar…and who doesn’t want that?!!!!

Love, GUNNAR

I TOLD YOU SHE WAS THE CUTEST CARROT!