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Theatre Wed Sep 03 2008
Temporary Artist Commune in Wicker Park
Creativity will thrive 24 hours a day in Wicker Park next week.
From September 7 through 13, theatre artists and alumni from the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Theater Institute (NTI) will collaborate with established members of Chicago's theater community for Element: A New Plays Festival, a script development intensive that was conceived and produced by recent NTI graduates Taylor Bibat and Alexis Randolph.
And creative energy and activity for 24 hours a day is the goal, as the artists will spend the week in a communal living and working environment at the newly-opened St. Paul's Cultural Center in Wicker Park. The space includes a kitchen, rehearsal rooms (or "think tanks"), and performance space. The rare communal aspect of the festival is meant to encourage and establish a heightened level of intensity, intimacy, and focus.
Element kicks off with a workshop and orientation, followed by six days of rehearsals and nightly public readings. Doors open to the public each night at 7 p.m. Highlights of each evening will include a pre-reading activity where the audience and other festival participants may plant sunflower seeds they received as publicity material; a post-reading talkback; and an eat, drink, meet, and greet.
The festival hopes to encourage and support continued relations that will result in future full-scale productions by theater companies across the country.
Schedule is here.
