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Tuesday, February 11, 2020

CABINET OF CURIOSITY THE FAREWELL FABLES March 12- 29, 2020

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar 
CABINET OF CURIOSITY:
THE FAREWELL FABLES: 
satellites, songs and cereal
at Links Hall for 12 Shows Only!

Conceived and directed by Frank Maugeri 
Text by Seth Bockley
“Whale Tale” by Lindsey Noel Whiting


 The Farewell Fables: 
satellites, songs and cereal 
will be performed March 12th- 29th @7pm
Tickets $25 Students $15


I'll be out with the family to review on opening weekend. Can't wait to catch The Farewell Fables: satellites, songs and cereal is Cabinet of Curiosity’s latest stage celebration—an interactive world of dream and mythology. Don't miss this!

This ingenious and psychedelic production reaches across the fourth wall to embrace the audience and draw them into an uncanny and maniac celebration of the Divine. Wild objects that have been transformed from the mundane into extraordinary mechanisms; a toilet into a bicycle, a table into the garden of Eden, a suitcase into the cosmos, a pizza box into a drive-in movie theater... This event is a delightful and frightening evening hosted by four galactic gods, as they proclaim their retirement, exhausted by mankind’s wrong-headed ambitions and unnecessary sufferings. 

The gods choose to pack their bags and demand a celebratory departure party prior to leaving humankind to their own devices. Cabinet of Curiosity’s mission is to create celebrations on and off stage. In this spirit, The Farewell Fables requires human participation and a steadfast commitment to hope and humor. The audience will enjoy four puppet shows, transforming sets, virtuosic songs, and thrilling tales of the meaningful and absurd, each examining universal human experiences: Life, Death, Faith, Fear. And cereal and milk.




Performer Bios
Starring Time Brickey, Kasey Foster, Diane Mair, John MacGaffey and Lindsey Noel Whiting and Jasmine Richman 
Puppets by Jesse Mooney Bullock and Kass Copeland
Devices by Milam Smith
Music by Jefferey Thomas
Music for Laika’s Return by Kevin O’Donnell
Lighting by David Goodman-Edberg
Costumes by Gillian Gryzlak and Susan Haas
Understudy Jessica Kearney
Stage Management by Jamie Kreppein
Spring Apprentices include Rebecca Husk, Fletcher Wolfe, Connor Konz, Cy Pak






Kasey Foster is a performer, producer, choreographer, creator, and puppeteer based in Chicago. She is an Ensemble Member at Lookingglass Theatre, and was last seen on stage in The Steadfast Tin Soldier at Lookingglass. Recent on camera credits include: Chicago Med and IFC’s Documentary Now!. Kasey sings with bands Babe-alon 5, Grood, Old Timey, This Must be the Band, and Nasty Buoy. She has created over fifty original works, and produces two annual series called Dance Tribute and The ACTual Show. Website - kaseyfoster.com









Lindsey Noel Whiting is a Chicago-based physical theatre performer, acrobat, teaching artist, and puppeteer. She has performed with Lookingglass Theatre, The Actors Gymnasium, Redmoon, Victory Gardens, and Chicago Children's Theatre as well as at various regional theaters throughout the country. She has also performed with Mucca Pazza (a punk rock marching band) and Barrel of Monkeys (an arts education theatre ensemble working in Chicago Public Schools.) Her writing and original musical compositions have been performed by the Lookingglass Young Ensemble and on stage at The Actors Gymnasium.




Time Brickey a tap dancer, musician, and performing artist from Chicago. He is a company member of M.A.D.D. Rhythms, a collaborator with the Chicago Human Rhythm Project’s Stone Soup Rhythms, and a frequent collaborator with Cabinet of Curiosity. Time has performed in Dance for Life Chicago, the Stomping Grounds Festival, JUBA!, and as a soloist at the Billy Strayhorn Centennial, where the Chicago Tribune described him as a "Literal Loose Cannon." He has been featured tap dancing on 91.1 Vocalo with DJ Ayana Contreras for Reclaimed Soul in The Parks, and in that one Jeff award winning production of 42nd St. at Drury Lane Oakbrook. He's enormously thankful to have shared stages and rehearsal rooms with his own heroes, and some of Chicago's greatest performers.




Diane Mair is a Chicago-based actress, circus artist and puppeteer. She is delighted to be working with the wonderful artists of Cabinet of Curiosity. Past credits include: Off Broadway: H20 with Ground Up Productions; Regional: H2O with the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Sense and Sensibility with the Repertory Theatre St. Louis, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Chicago’s Northlight Theatre, as well as work with The Long Wharf, Michigan Opera Theater and Victory Gardens Theatre; Chicago: productions with Manual Cinema, Mucca Pazza, First Folio Shakespeare, The Gift, Remy Bumppo, Dog & Pony, Redmoon, The Actors’ Gymnasium, Light Opera Works, and TASK Clown Theatre. She is a graduate of Northwestern University and a proud member of Actors’ Equity.




Jasmine Richman grew up listening to country music and composing her own on her acoustic guitar. She attended Oklahoma City University where she received her BFA in Acting and Directing in 2016. During college she worked hand in hand with the Oklahoma Children’s Theatre as an actress, director, writer, outreach coordinator and teaching artist. Jasmine’s passion is helping children find creative outlets for their vast imaginations through musical and theatrical expression, so she moved to Chicago after graduation to help jump start creative programs in the city. She continues to work closely with
the Chicago Children’s Theatre as one of their resident teaching artists; directing, devising and composing for their creative camps, classes and after school programs. To keep her inner child alive she’s a professional character performer for Chicago Party Princess Productions and you can hire her anytime you have an event! Jasmine’s favorite Chicago credits includes X-MARKS THE SPOT with the Chicago Children’s Theatre; FOOTLOOSE with the Wilmette Center For The Art; #METOO play festival with the Second Act Players and Uptown Underground’s MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL; MOMMY DEAREST; LOVE ACTUALLY and THE PRINCESS BRIDE PARODY, which she wrote and directed. Jasmine is currently represented by Gill Talent.



John MacGaffey is a performer and theatre admin serving as the Marketing and Operations Manager for The Actors Gymnasium. His trick fiddling has been featured on season 2 of ABC’s The Gong Show and in physical variety shows around Chicago. John has performed in the NY and Chicago Fringe festivals and holds a BA in Theatre from Northwestern University.








Designer Bios
Kass Copeland is an artist, designer, and illustrator who has worked in Chicago since 1995. She earned her BFA from The Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. Prior to that, she studied and apprenticed with her father, a theatrical prop designer and craftsperson. In addition to her studio work, she does freelance art and design work for clients.



Jesse Mooney-Bullock is delighted to be filling the Cabinet of Curiosity with more hand-carved movable sculptures. His puppets were last featured here in Tabletop Tragedies. Other Chicago-area projects include The Little Mermaid (Paramount Theatre), The Great and Terrible Wizard of Oz, Mister
Punch (House Theatre), The Selfish Giant (CCT), The Feast (CST), and several Redmoon Theater productions. He has received two Jeff Awards and been nominated for several others, and a puppet design award from San Francisco Theatre Critics Circle for The Oldest Boy (Marin Theatre.) He lives in Cincinnati and works at MoonBull Studio, his puppet design company.

Jefferey Thomas is a Composer, Guitarist, and Music Director. He is a founding member of Mucca Pazza, co-creator of the multi-media art group The Fruit Stare, and is the creator and music director for The Hideout’s annual Make-Out Party: An Evening of Aural Intercourse. He currently performs with Relevant Hairstyles, Dr. Atop’s Journey to the Polygon of Suffering, and The Old FNG’s; he has worked with Greek composer Michael Karras, punk singer Excene Cervenka, recovering groupie Cynthia Plaster Caster, Chinese guzheng virtuoso Xu YuYen, St. Louis’ The Honkeys, Bobby Conn, and Marvin Tate. He has written incidental music for Redmoon Theater, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the Neo-Futurists, as
well as dozens of independent films. His first symphony, “Rumour”, premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in February 2014. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two sons.

Milam Smith is a mechanical engineer. After his university studies, he worked as a construction engineer and a toy designer.



David Goodman-Edberg is delighted to be working with Cabinet of Curiosity again after lighting Tabletop Tragedies. Working primarily in the words of dance and theatre, David has collaborated with such companies including Adventure Stage Chicago, Akvavit Theatre, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, Chicago Repertory Ballet, Chicago Tap Theatre, Eisenhower Dance Detroit, Factory Theatre, The Gift Theatre, Joel Hall Dancers, Manual Cinema, Mudlark Theatre, Organic Theatre, Red Tape Theater, Rough House Theater, The Syndicate, Thodos Dance Chicago, Trap Door Theatre, Visceral Dance Chicago, Water Street Dance Milwaukee, and Wildclaw Theatre. daviddesignsthings.com / @festivepterodactyls



Kevin O’Donnell has sound designed and/or composed for Steppenwolf Theatre, Court Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Chicago Children's Theatre, The Hypocrites, The House Theatre of Chicago (where he is a company member), Raven
Theatre, TimeLine Theatre and many others; and has received 20 Jeff Nominations (10 award wins). Recent regional credits include Olney Theatre Center, Le Petite Theatre du Vieux Carre, The New Orleans Shakespeare Festival, The Pasadena Playhouse and The Skirball Center (NYC). He is also a drummer, and has recorded and performed with Andrew Bird, Kelly Hogan, Jimbo Mathus and Ani DeFranco, among others.

Writer and Director Bios
Seth Bockley is a playwright and theater director specializing in literary adaptation, design-driven production, and new play development. As a writer his works include Gilgamesh & Enkidu, Tabletop Tragedies, Charisma! with Minneapolis rock band Greycoats, Rip Van Winkle; or, Cut The Old Moon Into Stars, the first commission by Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Cold Spring NY, 2666 (adapted with Robert Falls from the novel by Roberto Bolaño, Goodman Theater), CRISPR Kids, Laika’s Coffin, Journey For The Sun, Wilderness, February House (with Gabriel Kahane, The Public Theater, NYC), and adaptations from stories by George Saunders: Jon and CommComm, plus the “Cool Dads of America” sketch from A Prairie Home Companion. Directing credits include Gilgamesh & Enkidu; the multimedia documentary theater works Wilderness and Basetrack Live with En Garde Arts (Abrons Arts Center, NYC), 2666 (with Robert Falls, Goodman Theater), Lauren Yee’s Samsara and Philip Dawkins’ Failure: A Love Story (Victory Gardens, Chicago); Jason Grote’s Civilization (all you can eat) and 1001; the clown play Guerra, with Mexico City-based troupe La Piara (toured Mexico, Colombia, and U.S.) He teaches at the University of Chicago. www.sethbockley.com



Frank Maugeri is a designer of community, art, education, and events. Maugeri’s life revolves around leading the contemporary wave of participatory arts and how the participatory arts brings people together, creates dialogue, and crosses differences. As an artist, his work is visual and interactive,
 ranging from intimate productions to mammoth spectacles. When he’s not bringing art to life, he’s bringing art to lives through his work as an expert collaborator, community builder, ritual maker, educator, and innovator of curriculum and artistic programming. Frank guides Cabinet of Curiosity’s
 event experiences, ritual apprenticeship program, theater productions and ceremony activities. In Cabinets short 2 years he has created an enterprise that has developed 4 large collaborative productions, trained apprentices from across the nation, executed 2 large scale outdoor ceremonies with Chicago’s Blu Rhythm Collective and The Park District, and designed events for The Shedd
 Aquarium, Navy Pier, The City of Chicago, The Mayors Inaugural Team, University of Chicago, The Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, The Merchandise Mart, and many more. He concurrently makes his additional artistic home at Clayco, where he directs the businesses art salons, guides the community inspired civic art projects, develops the visual art’s community, and produces, designs and directs it’s grand fundraising event, Illumination. In 2016, Frank was named Community Programs Artistic Director at Chicago Children’s Theatre. There, he developed the brand of a once local police station into an arts hub, devised multiple education courses for families, created a teaching force and trained them in innovative curriculum and developed civic events, while performing as the community liaison between the neighborhood and the hub. Prior, he spent two decades as Producing Artistic Director at Redmoon
Theater, where he mentored hundreds of young designers, artists, performers and educators from across the nation, while simultaneously helping to guide the institution’s art, education, and community engagement. Maugeri proudly created art and experiences for The White House, The City of Chicago,
 Los Angeles Music Center and other cultural institutions. In his time at Redmoon Theater, Frank authored, designed, and created Redmoon's longest running production, The Cabinet, and conceived and led Redmoon’s celebrated annual events Boneshaker and New Year’s Revolution, employing objects
of his own creation, including his inventions The Momentary Opera, Nickelodeon’s, Mechanical Scrolls, The Libation Machine, The Bubble Man, Cake Hats, Redmoon’s interactive installations, and collaborative objects like The Drum Cart. Collaborative credits include directing productions which toured to Charleville-Mézières, Brazil, Japan, and Amsterdam as well as original works developed for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Maugeri is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago and trained in Animation and American History. He currently makes his teaching home at The University of Chicago.



ABOUT CABINET
Cabinet of Curiosity is composed of diverse project-by-project collectives who authentically collaborate on original celebrations and productions. Cabinet uses sophisticated puppetry and handmade devices to develop unique interactive experiences, productions and events. We focus on creating new types of gatherings, ceremonies, and rituals which promote community and interactivity
amongst people who may not normally mix. Our intention is to support multi-cultural professionals in the field of theatre, visual arts, dance, sculpture and music, while mindfully training high school and college age apprentices to become the future creators of new meaningful rituals. All of the objects and devices created by cabinet are engineered to expose their mechanical operations so they are simultaneously educational, informative, and magical. We embrace commissions which require unique elements of ritual, ceremony, procession, and pageantry. These commissions create funding that establishes an innovative revenue stream, reduce the responsibility of sustainability from the board, audience, and foundations, trains apprentices through a unique scholarship apparatus, builds community, funds our free and greatly discounted public work. We are committed to social engagement — both grand and intimate. Our purpose is to promote curiosity, community and culture. For us, the world is a Cabinet of Curiosity.

cocechicago.com
Facebook 
Instagram: @cabocuriosity

About Links Hall
Links Hall encourages artistic innovation and public engagement by maintaining a facility that provides flexible programming for the research, development and presentation of new work in the performing arts. Links Hall shares a building with Constellation at 3111 N. Western Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618, convenient to the Belmont/Clybourn & Western CTA Bus Stop in Chicago's Roscoe Village neighborhood. For more information call 773.281.0824 or visit www.LinksHall.org Links Hall programming is made possible by artists, audiences and generous supporters including: Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development, The Chicago Community Trust, a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Heather Beth Henson Fund, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Joyce Foundation, Links Hall Commissioning Collective, The MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince, The Martha Struthers Farley & Donald C. Farley, Jr. Family Foundation, National Performance Network, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Tickets can be purchased at https://www.cocechicago.com/tickets-farewell-fables

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