I contributed a small, stealthy art effort to this really interesting theater project going on right now in Chicago — can't say what I did exactly or show pictures without spoiling it, but if you're in Chicago at all now through August 13th, I'd encourage you to check it out:
July 12 — August 13, Tuesday — Saturday
Downtown Chicago, multiple locations
3 times a day: 11am, 2pm & 5pm
$35/ticket: chicagoshakes.com
Created by
One Step at a Time Like This, visiting artists from Melbourne, Australia. Presented by
Chicago Shakespeare Theater World's Stage Series in association with the
Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture.
Audience members are invited on an extraordinary journey through downtown Chicago, guided by audio tracks, mobile phone communications and embedded prompts throughout the cityscape that shift perceptions and encourage guests to make and remake their environment. The artists' collaborative investigation extends to include audience as well as unwitting passersby, and notions like private vs. public and concrete vs. imaginary effectively intersect, overlap and merge, resulting in a uniquely resonant experience.
The project is receiving great reviews (click underlines to read them whole):
Time Out Chicago: "A deliciously devised, surprise-laden piece of theater-as-walking-tour... the prods to reexamine Chicago spaces are a delicious jolt to the system."
—
5 STARS
Chicago Tribune: "… wholly immersive of the psyche. I went stressed out, shoving it between other commitments, and wholly cynical about how a company from Melbourne could possibly teach us anything about life in Chicago. They could. They did… one of those rushes of feeling and experience and self-actualization that usually cost you a great deal of money and involve hot-air balloons or space or something weird and ridiculous."
—
4 STARS
Chicago Reader: "… blessedly MacGuffinless from beginning to end… didn't turn into a self-guided tour (or) one of those colossally condescending attempts to reintroduce me to my city, help me see it afresh, etc… Their piece isn't about getting us to see the city but about getting us to see, period."
Newcity "... I can’t say this emphatically enough: 'Go do it!'"
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RECOMMENDED
Place-specific presentations of
en route have received critical acclaim in Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Australia's Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe Festivals. The company is the recipient of a London 2012 Festival Cultural Olympiad commission to create
en route in London as part of next summer's Olympic Games.
Special thanks to
Greta Honold for the invitation to participate. Great project, great folks.
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