Items filtered by date: Monday, 12 July 2010

Pete Guither has once again made his mark on modern theatre, this time pushing the envelope of artistic creativity to new realms with the latest rendition of his own creation, The Living Canvas - Demons. As part of National Pastime Theatre’s Naked July Festival, Guither ingeniously showcases his ability to intertwine the beauty of the naked body with flowing motion, mesmerizing projections and a riveting storyline that invokes a wide range of emotions.

The story is about an autistic girl and her sister who so desperately wants to break through to her. As the story progresses, the audience, along with her sister, are taken into an autistic mind that at times is chaotic while at other moments becomes a calm, warm haven. Superbly conveyed with the use of spellbinding music played over eleven talented performers (demons) dressed only in complex projections, the theatre is transformed into a world like no other that is both visually compelling and highly sensual.

Back for it’s seventh run in Chicago since 2001, The Living Canvas changes its theme for each production barring its fundamental premise of body acceptance in which audience members are challenged by the cast at the end of each performance to strip down and join them on stage in order to get a taste of what it is like to be “Living Canvasses”. “What are bodily flaws to one might appear as beauty to another,” leading cast member, Emily Mark, explains during the invite while also touching on being comfortable in your own skin. In the particular performance I attended, over a dozen people from the crowd took to the stage to dance with the performers and perform instructed motions such as swimming. The show finally comes to an end with a fun Q&A session that offers the opportunity for cast members and director to field questions related to the production. This is certainly a show not to be missed and one that will have you coming back to see it again. Who knows - maybe you’ll even take part in enjoying a liberating experience on stage.

The Living Canvas – Demons is playing at the National Pastime Theatre (4139 N. Broadway) on Friday and Saturday evenings at 10pm through July 31^st. For more information please visit www.thelivingcanvas.com or call 773-327-7077.     

When is the last time you saw full frontal nudity in the theater? Was it “Hair”, “Oh, Calcutta!” or maybe “The Blue Room”? Maybe you have never seen a play with nudity in it, well, here is your chance to experience the liberating effect of live theater specifically designed to give you the feeling that your body - despite its quirks or flaws - is OK just the way it is.

Laurence Bryan, my old friend and classmate from DePaul, is the Artistic Director of National Pastime Theater and he has assembled a really wonderful assortment of plays that each utilizes nudity in an artistically sound fashion. I have already seen two of the one act plays, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” deftly directed by another talented DePaul Alumna, Carolyne Anderson, and “The Living Canvas: Demons”.

I highly recommend buying the festival pass or daily pass to enjoy more than one show because they are all very different in their approach, some farcical, and some more sensual or dance oriented and taken in combination you really get the full effect of  a democracy of positive body image that the Naked July Festival is trying to convey.

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a light, funny, very clever take on the original tale by Hans Christian Andersen with a satirical political twist thrown in for good measure.

“The Living Canvas: Demons”, is the seventh show by this company, directed by founder Pete Guither and, by using projected light over nude dancer and actors bodies, beautifully portrays the journey into the mind of an autistic girl and her sister’s attempt to understand that world. It was tremendously moving and exciting to watch. The performance of the lead dancer Emily Mark, who portrays Lily the autistic, was worth noting as she was not only an accomplished dancer but also an accomplished actor in expressing without words a very precise and deeply moving sense of what it must be like to be trapped in a body and mind afflicted with Autism. Also, I think it is a tremendously courageous task to undertake a role like this involving nudity from beginning to end. The neat thing about “Living Canvas” shows is that at the end they allow the audience to strip down and join them onstage under the lights and a lot of people actually went for it and joined in. That in itself was a beautiful, free love kind of thing to see happen in a theater setting in the year 2010, not 1968!

I’ll be honest, I was skeptical. I have always felt that nudity in the theater is something to be avoided at all costs to avoid damaging the delicate psyche of a good actor. However, when it is undertaken in the way that Naked July Festival has with a real eye for liberal thought and artistic merit, it is a tremendously exciting and liberating experience rarely encountered in traditional theater going.

I especially enjoy returning to the atmospheric and historic National Pastime Theater (4139 N. Broadway), which was an actual speakeasy for almost twenty years and fills it’s lobby with wonderful local artwork for sale in the theme of the shows currently running.

I highly recommend attending the Naked July Festival: Art Stripped Down, and I look forward to seeing the last two pieces, “Eros” and “The Tumultuous Tale of the Tragically Transparent Tunic” next weekend. See you there!

Call 773.327.7077 for performance times or check in at www.np2.com.