theater

I'm super lucky to live in Chicago. We are a theater kind of town. All the best improv comedians come through here. (Some of the NOT-so-best improv comedians ALSO come through here.) Big shows like Wicked or Phantom of the Opera come here straight from Broadway. I like going to those.

But I also love checking out the little theaters. The little shows that people don't get paid a lot of money to be in and instead do it simply because they love it.

I saw a show on Friday that was put on by the Redmoon Theater. They put on shows all over the city, in parks, at the lakefront, at Navy Pier. Why do they do this? Most likely because the location of their real theater is a pain in the ass to get to and is in a bad part of town. But it gives them the opportunity to be really artsy and creative and use different venues to the fullest.

Friday's show was called The Astronaut's Birthday and was at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Or should I say it was outside of the MCA. There were some bleachers set up in front of the museum so that you sat staring at the front of the museum. We were lucky, we got seats. A lot of people just had to sit on the sidewalk. They aren't so big in making sure their audience is comfortable.

So the director came out before hand and explained what was going to happen.

There are 18 windows on the front of the MCA. Six on the second floor, six on the third floor and six on the fourth floor. The performers were inside the building with projectors.



Old school projectors. Two for each window. And a WHOLE bunch of transparencies that they had drawn on.

There was someone down by us who would use his walkie talkie to tell them when to switch to the next slide, keeping in time with the music, lighting up different windows at different times and keeping the story flowing seamlessly. There were a few times when you could also (purposefully) see the shadows of actors walking around inside the building. I'm not usually into comic books but they did an amazing job. (And it was actually easier to read/see than these photos from my phone demonstrate.)







Anyways, it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I got blown away with how creative the whole idea was. And I felt so lucky to live in a city with so many artistic and creative people!