Displaying items by tag: Otherworld Theatre

The Conspirators are proud to present the world premiere of Ayn Rand's "It's a Wonderful Life" as Performed by the Conspirators Under the Direction of President Biden NO WAIT, Liz Cheney (RAND/CHENEY) written by Sid Feldman and directed by Wm. Bullion, at the Otherworld Theatre, 3914 N. Clark St, in a very limited run, December 20 - 22. The performance schedule is Friday - Sunday at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased at the door or online at www.conspirewithus.org. The running time is 80 minutes with no intermission.

The Conspirators bring RAND/CHENEY, their "was-going-to-be-annual-until-the-pandemic" holiday tradition back for THREE NIGHTS ONLY! A traditional TV holiday special goes awry when progressive factions demand better content; a series of sensible patriots led by President Biden—NO WAIT, Liz Cheney try to keep back the chaos. The centerpiece is a hilarious retelling of "It's a Wonderful Life" through the eyes of libertarian goddess Ayn Rand.

CONTENT WARNING: MAY CONTAIN VARIETY ACTS AND HOLIDAY-THEMED SONG AND DANCE.

The cast of RAND/CHENEY includes: Eva Andrews (she/her), Elena Avila (she/they), Meaghan Morris (they/them), Wm. Bullion (in he/his triumphant return), Olivia Anton (she/they), Sarah Franzel (she/her), AL SMART! (they/them), Evan Richter (he/him), Sam Erwin (they/them), Zach Foley (he/him), Brian Rohde (he/him), Demitri Magas (he/him), Andrew Bosworth (he/him), Donaldson Cardenas (he/him), Kate Akerboom (they/she) and Aimee Bass (she/her) on percussion.

Crew includes: Matt Bonaccorso (he/him, stage manager), Wm. Bullion (he/him, director), Sid Feldman (he/him, playwright, style coach, technical director), Mike McShane (he/him, lights), Sebby Woldt (they/them, sound) and Madison Rivers (she/they, music director).

ABOUT WM. BULLION (Director, Artistic Director)

Wm. Bullion is a veteran tragicomedian, director, and actor on the fringe of the Chicago theater fringe. Bullion is an Emeritus member of The Factory Theater, for whom he directed Prophet$ and Born Ready. He started Sliced Bread Productions in 1988 and put up some solid work before it folded in 2008. He co-founded The Conspirators in 2016 (and has proudly directed all their big pieces: Commedia Divina: It's Worse Than That; Viva La Mort; The Conspirators 125th Anniversary Jubilee, Feat. "The Ineptidemic"; Accidental Death of a Black Motorist; The Deckchairs, or Make the Titanic Great Again; and The Resistible Rise of Herr Helmut Drumpf) but he was a fool to think starting another theater group in Chicago is a viable, sustainable idea. Yet, here we are, getting grants and making stuff for YOU.

ABOUT SID FELDMAN (Author/Style Coach/Producing Director)

Sid Feldman co-founded The Conspirators and has written plays, adaptations, screenplays, reviews and essays. He has produced plays, concerts and events for numerous organizations including New Crime and Sliced Bread Productions (also with Wm. Bullion).

ABOUT THE CONSPIRATORS

The Conspirators are a (still relatively new) theater and performance collective in Chicago dedicated to provoking thought and action through dynamic, immediate theater art. The Conspirators work exclusively in a style of neo-Commedia called "The Style"—a highly theatrical performance mode developed by movie stars Tim Robbins and John Cusack from the techniques of Ariane Mnouchkine, Commedia dell'Arte, Bugs Bunny cartoons and punk rock, as historically performed by New Crime Prod. (R.I.P.) and The Actors' Gang. The company also offers Style workshops to interested performers of all calibers.

The Conspirators are proud to present the world premiere of Ayn Rand's "It's a Wonderful Life" as Performed by the Conspirators, Under the Direction of President Biden NO WAIT, Liz Cheney (RAND/CHENEY) written by Sid Feldman and directed by Wm. Bullion, at the Otherworld Theatre, 3914 N. Clark St, in a very limited run, December 20 - 17. The performance schedule is Friday - Sunday at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $15 and may be purchased at the door or online at www.conspirewithus.org.

For more show info, go to www.ConspireWithUs.org and follow The Conspirators on Facebook and Instagram.

The Conspirators latest show is an absolute laugh fest, and may just be their funniest so far. Subversive in its social commentary, which hits you in your funny bone, The Conspirators have chosen Dante’s Divine Comedy for their latest show, “Divina Commedia: It’s Worse Than That.” They lead us through those circles of hell in which we find ourselves today, perhaps without realizing it.

We are introduced to a sleepless clergyman who has come to his sanctuary to work on tomorrow’s sermon. An upper middle class matron—described as a suburban Atlanta business heiress—wanders into the church in these wee hours seeking comfort over a dream plaguing her, and with this conceit, the humor ramps up.

First circle we meet is an unrelenting packaging line in an Amazon warehouse, with the cast moving those familiar boxes at a rapid pace. Our protagonist for the set needs to pee, but the line can’t stop. Soon perhaps everyone in the line is in the same predicament. No stopping to pee! The contortions and jumpiness of the denizens of this circle of hell suffer on endlessly with no relief. And we realize in our laughter they are stuck there, forever!

Another circle finds us at a community meeting chaired by a Karen, that meme of entitlement and complaint that is familiar to us all. After a modest proposal to spend a small sum on a group project, the discussion opens, and Karen the chair discovers all in attendance have an opinion, negative of course, and each happens to also be named Karen. The chair Karen is in her circle of hell, as each attendee carps and whines with no possibility to resolve these Karens' issues, they just want to complain, each in their own take on unresolvable “problems” with the proposal.

There are seven more osuch circles (one is "Ron Paul's Drag Race" with a remarkably funny appearance by Senator Mitch McConnell and Cher), all devised by the sharp pen of Sid Feldman and directed by Wm. Bullion, running at what seems to be a most congenial place for the Conspirators, the Otherworld Theatre at 3914 N. Clark St. in Chicago. Between each circle the heiress reflects acidly on the suffering with the clergyman, who serves the role of Father Virgil to guide her, a witty take on Dante’s original.

The production is in The Conspirator’s distinguished take on traditional Italian Commedia dell'Arte, which they dub “The Style,” with thick make-up drawn from Kabuki, “and with a dash of Bugs Bunny.” The exaggerated delivery, punctuated by drum rolls from an onstage percussionist, leads the audience to savor the lines—giving them added impact.

This time around the make-up has an added embellishment of very expressive lines, giving each character a distinctive mask that lends itself well to the roles. The Conspirators productions are deceivingly erudite, seriously referencing weighty underlying material, and bringing them to bear on contemporary life.

But the most important thing is how funny it is. You don’t need to know anything at all about the intellectual underpinnings of their shows, because the laughs are involuntary and completely overwhelming. Audiences will applaud dutifully at many shows. But you can’t fake laughter, the most honest of responses. “Divina Commedia: It’s Worse Than That” is an almost exhaustingly funny show. The Conspirators’ runs are typically very short. Absolutely don’t miss this one, through November 19 at Otherworld Theatre.

The title alone is the tip-off that “The 125th Anniversary Jubilee” from The Conspirators is out of the ordinary—an irreverent show that is both laugh-inducing and thought provoking.

“Jubilee” consists of a sampling of skits from The Conspirators past performances, as well as “imagined” skits from an impossibly distant past before the troupe was founded, including a 19th century riff on Sherlock Holmes revolving around the old saw, “Do you have Prince Albert in a Can.” Another piece, a supposed 1945 skit, ‘Harry Truman's Fitful Night’ finds Truman struggling to express to Americans the enormity of the nuclear holocaust at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We witness Truman irked that the Bhagavad Gita line, “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds” was already taken, used after a test detonation by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. So laughs are both highbrow and lowbrow.

These and other samplings, wrapped around a lengthier one-act French comedy of manners from 1898, make the evening a good introduction to the unique approach The Conspirators use. Known as “The Style,” it is based on a mix of classic Italian Commedia del Arte, Kabuki (actors are heavily made-up), and with a dash of Bugs Bunny. The exaggerated delivery, punctuated by drum rolls from an onstage percussionist, leads the audience to savor the lines—giving them added impact.

The core of the show, the one-act play by a French commentator, author and playwright Octave Mirbeau, is a send-up the social foibles of his time, a Moliere-esque comedy of manners, set at a town council debating what to do about an outbreak of typhoid fever at a local military base. The parallels to our ongoing battle with the Covid pandemic are unmistakable as we witness the council heed the advice of a medical professional who is a “plague denier” and then vote to do nothing, later turning 180 degrees when the disease inevitably strikes a favored member of one of their own bourgeoise.

For first-timers at a Conspirators show, the musical numbers that open the show may seem to come from left field, but very quickly the magnetic qualities of the unique format will draw you in. Written by Sid Feldman and directed by Wm. Bullion, the show draws also taps Monty Python and SNL material.  “The Conspirators’ 125th Anniversary Jubilee Featuring the Ineptidemic” left me laughing, and looking forward to the next 125 years.

The show runs through November 19 at Otherworld Theatre, 3914 N. Clark St., Chicago. Visit https://www.conspirewithus.org