ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar
Chicago’s historic Fine Arts Building and Studebaker Theater co-produce
Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol
this holiday season
December 13–29, 2024
Tickets now on sale for the beloved one-of-a-kind rendition of the Charles Dickens classic at the historic Studebaker Theater
Featuring hundreds of handmade puppets, immersive sound design and live music, Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol is a holiday show unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
*Rated PG due to themes of loss and death*
Chicago’s historic Fine Arts Building and Studebaker Theater are proud to continue their partnership with Manual Cinema this year with their co-production of Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol. The beloved, one-of-a-kind rendition of Charles Dickens’ classic story returns for the holiday season at the Studebaker Theater, December 13–29, 2024. I'll be out for the press opening December 17th, so check back shortly after for my full review. Tickets are now on sale for $45-$65. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit fineartsbuilding.com/christmascarol.
“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Manual Cinema this year as we co-produce Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol at the Studebaker Theater this holiday season,” says Jacob Harvey, Managing Artistic Director of the Fine Arts Building and Studebaker Theater. “The Fine Arts Building is Chicago’s home for art in all forms. Manual Cinema’s innovative work incorporating theater, film, puppetry and music is a perfect fit for the Studebaker, which has hosted multidisciplinary artists for more than 125 years. We’re excited to invite audiences to experience the wonder and heart of their one-of-a-kind rendition of A Christmas Carol.”
Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol runs December 13–29, 2024, at the Studebaker Theater (410 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago). Tickets are now on sale for $45-$65, with student tickets available for $20 with proof of ID. Performances are Tuesdays through Sundays at 7:30 p.m., with matinees Saturdays at 3 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. There are no performances on December 19 or 25. To purchase tickets and for more information, visit fineartsbuilding.com/christmascarol.
In Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol, avowed holiday skeptic Aunt Trudy has been recruited to channel her late husband Joe’s famous Christmas cheer. From the isolation of her Chicago home, she reconstructs his annual Christmas Carol puppet show—over a Zoom call while the family celebrates Christmas Eve under lockdown. But as Trudy becomes more absorbed in her own version of the story, the puppets take on a life of their own, and the family’s call transforms into a stunning cinematic adaptation of Dickens’s classic ghost story. Featuring hundreds of handmade puppets, immersive sound design and live music, Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol is a holiday show unlike anything you've ever seen.
“Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol is an unconventional take on the Charles Dickens classic inspired by—and created during—the pandemic. It's also a production full of emotion that is very near and dear to our hearts. After two successful years at Writers Theatre, we're so thrilled that it has found a new home this holiday season at the beautiful Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago!” says Drew Dir, Manual Cinema Co-Artistic Director, Storyboards and Puppet Design.
Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol is adapted from the novel by Charles Dickens and devised by Manual Cinema, with additional writing by Nate Marshall. Storyboards and puppet design are by Drew Dir, with original score and sound design by Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter, and lighting design by Trey Brazeal.
The premiere of Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol took place virtually on December 3, 2020, and was streamed live from Manual Cinema’s Chicago studio to viewers across the globe.
Manual Cinema is an Emmy Award-winning performance collective, design studio, and film/video production company founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller and Kyle Vegter. Manual Cinema combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive stories for stage and screen. Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble, Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality. The company was awarded an Emmy in 2017 for “The Forger,” a video created for The New York Times, and named Chicago Artists of the Year in 2018 by the Chicago Tribune. In 2020 they were included in 50 of Chicago theater’s "Rising Stars and Storefront Stalwarts" (Newcity). Their shadow puppet animations were featured in the 2021 film remake of Candyman, directed by Nia DaCosta and produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions. In 2022 they premiered Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About A Terrible Monster, an adaptation of two books by celebrated children’s author Mo Willems, and a live adaptation of their 2020 streaming hit A Christmas Carol. In 2023 Manual Cinema completed production on their first self-produced short film, Future Feeling, and is currently touring with folk rock band Iron & Wine in 2024 creating live visuals on stage. For more information, visit manualcinema.com,
The Fine Arts Building is a home for art in all forms: from pioneers like Poetry magazine’s founding publisher Harriet Monroe, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz illustrator W. W. Denslow, sculptor Lorado Taft and the Chicago Little Theatre, to the ongoing legacies of painters, musicians, booksellers, puppeteers, dancers, photographers and craftspeople who inhabit the building today, the Fine Arts Building is buzzing with more than a century of Chicago creativity and innovation. A Chicago Landmark since 1978, the building features original manually-operated elevators, Art Nouveau murals from the late 19th century and the recently renovated Studebaker Theater, one of the city’s oldest and most significant live theatrical venues. For more information, visit fineartsbuilding.com.
The beloved, one-of-a-kind rendition of Charles Dickens’ classic story runs December 13–29, 2024 at the Studebaker Theater (410 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago). Tickets are now on sale for $45-$65, with student tickets available for $20 with proof of ID. Performances are Tuesdays through Sundays at 7:30 p.m., with matinees Saturdays at 3 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. There are no performances on December 19 or 25. To purchase tickets and for more information, visit fineartsbuilding.com/christmascarol.
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