Tympanic Theater Company Blog

Tympanic is a measly 3 days away from announcing our fourth season, but until then we wanted to tell you about our extra special, extra awesome, extra fantastically bizarre Season 3.5. What's  makes up a "Season 3.5″, you ask?   Read on to find out…

EXTINCTION FANTASIES: two apocalyptic romances
by Daniel Caffrey*
directed by Timothy Bambara* and Jamie Bragg
July 4th through July 18th
Sundays at 7:00pm, Thursdays at 9:00pm
The Side Project (1439 W. Jarvis Ave.)
For tickets and more information, visit www.tympanictheatre.org

featuring Jennifer Betancourt, Mick Greco*, Zach Livingston, Heather Moats, Jared Nell, and Chrissy Weisenberger*

ABOUT THE SHOWS
A deadly plague has quietly destroyed the tiny, rural town of Tarker, wiping out nearly the entire population.  Amidst the fading coughs and approaching gunfire, several survivors spark up new romances and repair wounded relationships in this pair of fractured love stories that begin at the end of the world.

*denotes Tympanic company member

Throughout history, Minnesota has been home to many great things: The Replacements, Mary Tyler Moore, The Hold Steady, The Mighty Ducks (sort of), and more cutting edge theatre than you can shake a stick at.  Some of you may have caught our Winter show at The Prop Theatre, AND THEN IT BURST, a collection of short plays by Minneapolis-based playwright and all around awesome theatre dude George McConnell. 

Chicago is fortunate enough to import some more great theatre from the Twin Cities this summer at (you guessed it), the always wild Prop Theatre.  Read on for the details.  I saw various work from many of these fine artists at The Bedlam Theatre Twenty Ten Fest a couple of months ago and was thoroughly blown away by their balls to the wall riskiness and humor (two things I always value in theatre).  Bottom line, I'm going to be at this show and so should you.  It's one night only, so spread the word and pack the house!  I promise it will be a blast.

FANCINESS Vs. THE VOID

Friday, June 18th, 2010

8:00pm at The Prop Theatre (3502-4 N. Elston Ave.)

The Cat Fish presents: FANCINESS Vs. THE VOID.  Three people are floating aimlessly though the ocean in a small shanty-boat after a mysterious apocalyptic event.  Can they find meaning in their lives beyond pure survival?  Is there any point to making art when there is no audience?  If love does not exist, is it possible to invent it?  A story of humanity lost and found, improbable romance, and fish singing country music.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cat-Fish/345545336962?ref=search&sid=1622755796.8456692..1

The Cat Fish is Savannah Reich and Samantha Johns, working in collaboration to create exciting new works of theatre.  We believe that theatre is a living experience that is born from artists communicating in mysterious ways, we believe that theatre is not a mirror to an experience but is itself an experience, and we believe in large dance numbers. Maybe you caught our show "Dali's Liquid Ladies" on tour last summer. You can check out some photos and reviews on our facebook page at

Script-Savannah Reich, Director-Samantha Johns.  With original music by Luc Parker of the Chickadee Mountain Martyrs.  Set design and construction by Lois Rhomberg. Featuring Paige Collette, Jon Mac Cole, Brandon Ewald, Kait Sergenian, Carly Wicks, and Kat Wodke.

We are packing our boat in a van and hitting the road!  This will be our first tour stop, it will be very exciting, and we hope to see you there!

 Thanks for reading, everyone! 

Dan

Here's a little Tympanic treat for you all…some of us will be performing in ROUGH HOUSE: THE FINAL FRONTIER (a space party) tonight!  If you're never been to one of The Rough House's parties/variety shows, now's your chance to experience one of the most unique theatrical events in the city.  These guys have transformed their place into one of the scrappiest fringe theaters in town and their variety shows are filled with twisted puppets, weird ass poetry, burlesque, musical acts, and all sorts of other madness.  Tonight's theme is space and Tympanic will be performing a little ten minute piece called…

LANDING THE COASTER!

written by company members McKenzie Gerber and Dan Caffrey

directed by McKenzie Gerber

Featuring company members Chrissy Weisenburger, Dan Caffrey, and Mick Greco

We can't give away too much about the piece, but can tell you that it features flustered spacemen, botched tupperware parties, and some other awkward surprises.

Other performers include:

Meteoric Max and Katy "Asteroid" Albert

David "Dark Matter" Amaral

Ian "Red Dwarf" Randall

Cosmonaut Chloe Beaujolais

The Stellar Brett Schneider

Jason Economus of The Exosphere

Celestial Bodies, Jordan Hoisington and David Fink

Mike "Milky Way" Oleon

Jupiter Josh Dumas

And more!

The Rough House is located at 2131 N. Milwaukee Ave. (right next to the Congress Theatre).  Doors open at 10pm and the show starts at 11pm.  For more info, visit www.roughhousetheater.com

Hope to see you all there.  Live long and prosper!

Dan

We are pleased to introduce you to the newest Tympanite in town, Timothy "Timmay" Bambara.  Tim most recently directed Ozma & Harriet for Tympanic Theatre.   He has been producing, directing and acting in Chicago for the past 4 years. He received his MFA in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2006. He is a recipient of the 2008 CAAP Grant and was a participant in the 2008 Chicago Director's Lab. Timothy is a founding member of Dramatis Personae, Inc. Favorite directing credits include Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Of Mice and Men, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Cook (asst. dir. to Henry Godinez, Goodman Theatre), Twelfth Night (asst. dir. to Jay Paul Skelton, City Lit), Den of Thieves and Where's My Money? (Dramatis Personae), and May is Special Time of Year, which was seen in Tympanic Theatre's Bastards of Young festival last fall. He will be directing Lost Generations with Prologue Theatre at the Landmark Festival this April and The Rise of Emperor Eric with Gorilla Tango Theatre this June. 

1.       What do you do when you’re not being a Tympanic Company Member?
 
Get into fights with Darth Vader.
 
2.       What is your favorite Chicago “L” stop? Why?
 
Addison Red Line – You can see my house from there! No I don't live at Wrigley field.
 
3.       Why on EARTH would you agree to be a part of this crazy band of HOOLIGANS!?!
 
I am in it for the fortune and glory.
 
4.       Who are some of your favorite artists…theatre, music, visual, any medium counts!
 
David Mamet, Jackson Pollock, Muddy Waters
 
5.       Tell us two truths and a lie.
 
I am ¼ Cuban.
I can run like the wind blows. 
I was actually sent here from the future.

Thanks for reading!

Susan

I’d be a liar if I said I don’t care about them or they don’t affect me.  I always tell myself not to put too much stock into what critics say, but I can’t help but get ecstatic whenever something I’ve worked on (as long as I’m proud of it) gets a nice review or bummed out when the opposite occurs.  Whatever the outcome, I always find myself feverishly checking the web for the first published opinion of our shows, usually well before the review is (or even should be) released.  It does nothing but stress me out and it’s a nasty old habit.  But you know what they say about those.

Critically speaking, Ozma & Harriet has been quite a strange trip.  While Tympanic shows rarely get unanimously praised or panned, the consensus usually at least leans one way or the other.  But Ozma’s been different.  It’s by far the oddest thing Tympanic’s produced, but it also happens to be my favorite show we’ve done.  I don’t know if the polar nature of our reviews is a testament to our team making strong decisions that elicit equally strong responses from our audience or merely proof that the script can’t make up his mind, but whatever the case, I love, love, love this show and everyone involved with it.  We only have one weekend left and I’d love to see you there.

 Theatre In Chicago has always provided a wonderful overview of…well, theatre in Chicago.  One of my favorite things to do is click on the “Review Roundup” section of whatever show I’m working on.  Whether the criticism is positive or negative, there’s always something pleasant about seeing the various editorial opinions on a piece of art you’ve helped create scribbled on the web in one collective splatter.  Read on if you care about reviews, and if you don’t, consider yourself lucky.

 http://www.theatreinchicago.com/review.php?playID=4035

 Or better yet, come see the show.  Then write your own review.  I promise you’ll have something to say.

 OZMA & HARRIET

Through April 18^th at The Side Project (1439 W. Jarvis Ave.)

Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00pm, Sundays at 7:00pm

Tickets are $15 general, $12 student/industry

For tickets and more information, visit www.tympanictheatre.org or e-mail admin@tympanictheatre.org

Thanks for reading!

Dan Caffrey

Artistic Director

Spring is blossoming its way into our windy city and what better way to prepare for her arrival than with a nostalgia filled garage sale!?!?  We've cleaned up the Ainslie House and to our suprise have been left with some pretty awesome garage sale loot…

- Computers

- Furniture

- Comic Books (loads of 'em)

- DVD's

- Pogo stick

- and much, much more!

Other elements of nostalgia include people dressed in propeller hats selling lemonade! 

THE DEETS:

When: Saturday, April 10th 9:00am – 3:00p

Where: 2454 W. Ainslie Street

So if you're looking for that odd prop, costume, set-piece or just some new furnishings swing on by and see what we got!  Or just come share a cup of delicious lemonade!

Susan