Baudelaire in a Box, Episode #6: Elevation (in Chicago)
After a successful October weekend at Brooklyn’s Jalopy Theater, brought the latest installment of Baudelaire in a Box to Chicago.
Baudelaire in a Box, Episode 6: Elevation
was performed
March 5-8, 7pm, 2014
at the new Links Hall
3111 N. Western Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
$15 advance tix available on-line. “More if you’ve got it, free if you’re broke” tickets at the door.
Welcome to Oobleck’s19th-century movie house of ill-repute, Baudelaire in a Box, Episode #6: Elevation. Charles Baudelaire’s notorious poems are set to music and performed by Adelind Horan, Amalea Tshilds, Kate Douglas, and Nora O’Connor (performing compositions by Amy Warren), as yards and yards of Dave Buchen’s beautiful and witty paintings scroll by as an interactive backdrop.
They are joined by Jim Becker (Iron & Wine, Califone, Paulina Hollers) on mandolin & violin and Ted Day on cello.
Dubbed “an act of extravagant artistic idiosyncrasy” by the Chicago Reader, Baudelaire in a Box is a serial cantastoria project based on the work of Charles Baudelaire. Over the course of seven years (culminating in 2017, the sesquicentennial of Baudelaire’s death), the project will adapt each poem from Fleurs du mal as a unique cantastoria, pairing each musical adapation with “crankies” designed and illustrated by Dave Buchen. Over 30 poems have already been adapted and performed in Illinois, New York, Connecticut, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, and Wisconsin, by a growing group of musical collaborators.
It is a project so ambitious, so immense, that it cannot be contained on a single web page. And so:
Dave is blogging about the process here, at the Baudelaire in a Box Blog.
A video explanation of the cantastoria art form is presented by our colleague Clare Dolan here.
And learn more about Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal here.
Photo by Kristin Basta.
related articles:
The Casket has Closed
A huge THANK YOU to all the dedicated artists, performers, composers, volunteers, donors, and audience members who made Closed Casket an unbelievable… we’ll leave it right there. An Unbelievable!
It exceeded even our foolhardy dreams for it. We even found our way onto a segment on NPR’s All Things Considered!
We’ve turned our last crank. The scrolls of artwork have been cut into sections and given to our collaborators and supporters. But the project lives on in photos and videos (stay tuned for updates), as well as studio albums and EPs of music from the series, with more on the way:
We also have some leftover merch from the show—artwork, mugs, totes— for sale here.
posted 08/08/2017
Half-day Closed Casket tickets available
Breaking News: Half-day ticketing options are now available for the Saturday, August 5, mega-performance: Afternoon (w/ lunch) & Evening (w/ dinner). That’s right: delicious food is INCLUDED. Click for tix.
posted 07/24/2017
Music, Poetry and Art from Baudelaire in A Box July 13
Thursday July 13 at 6:30pm
Seminary Co-Op Bookstore
5751 S Woodlawn Ave. Chicago IL
Chris Schoen and Emmy Bean preview musical selections from Theater Oobleck’s upcoming Closed Casket: The Complete, Final and Absolutely Last Baudelaire In A Box, a project setting all of Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal to music and performing it in tandem with scrolling illustrations. Following a brief presentation, the performers will be joined in discussion by Ira S. Murfin, on the experience of adapting, commenting on and annotating Baudelaire’s 150 year-old work through music, translation, and visual media.
posted 07/08/2017
Snail Band Baudelaire benefit July 12
Wednesday July 12 at 7pm
Weegee’s Lounge
3659 W. Armitage, Chicago IL
Suggested donation at the door, $20 (includes one free drink)
Raffle tickets $5
This performance is 21+
Slow down with Theater Oobleck and Snail Band, together at Weegee’s Lounge for one night only!
The show is a benefit for Theater Oobleck’s upcoming CLOSED CASKET: THE COMPLETE, FINAL, AND ABSOLUTELY LAST BAUDELAIRE IN A BOX — a festival of music and poetry August 4, 5, and 6 at Constellation in which all members of Snail Band are participating.
At this very special air-conditioned performance, the band will perform a few songs from Baudelaire in a Box as well as other slow and gentle songs, and we will raffle off TWO FESTIVAL PASSES — each an $85 value. Plus a preview of some Baudelaire merch, conviviality, and more. Our travel expenses for Closed Casket went well over budget so any additional monies will go to offset these unexpected costs.
Snail Band came into being in May of 2016 as part of Opera-Matic’s Joyful Passage: A Serenade to Humboldt Park, singing serenades of snails and slowness to a very secretive snail sculpture near the Humboldt Park Lagoon, with lovely lyrics by Cin Salach set to music by Ronnie Kuller as leisurely waltzes and unhurried tangos. Since then, Snail Band has slowed down various other Opera-Matic events in neighborhood parks, singing snail songs and performing instant odes generated by community event participants. Weegee’s Lounge is Snail Band’s first indoor venue, which is fitting, as snails are extremely photogenic and also very good at lounging.
Snail Band is Emmy Bean (Eighty Foots) on singing, Ronnie Kuller (Mucca Pazza, Mister Tom Musick) on accordion, piano, and singing, Julie Pomerleau (Bobby Conn) on violin and singing, and Joey Spilberg (Lamajamal, Schtedoidish) on double bass.
posted 07/08/2017
Official Video for "The Drag"
We sometimes talk about crankies being a kind of low-tech proto music video. And that’s true! But sadly you can’t share them very easily on social media. So, please to enjoy this newfangled Official Music Video from our latest Baudelaire In Box album, Unquenched, available now at our Bandcamp site!
The Drag (Official Music Video)
From Unquenched: Music From Baudelaire In A Box Episode 9
Available at: theateroobleck.bandcamp.com
“The Drag” was composed by Ronnie Kuller, setting Mickle Maher’s translation of “L’avertisseur,” by Charles Baudelaire.
Videography by Cat Jarboe.
Snake images used with kind permission of Joseph Farah. See more of his beautiful reptile and amphibian photos at: reptilesofcolorado.com/about-me.html
posted 05/16/2017
The King Of Rain
Theater Oobleck is pleased to announce its first album of original music with The King Of Rain, featuring music from Baudelaire In A Box Episode 7: The King Of Rain.
The album features all 15 songs from the original 2014 show, recorded by all six original musicians: Emmy Bean, Ronnie Kuller, T-Roy Martin, Chris Schoen, Sad Brad Smith and Joey Spilberg.
“The tunes borrow indiscriminately from Tin Pan Alley pop, vintage country, and coffeehouse folk … and they often feel self-consciously maudlin or perversely jaunty, as though they’re tweaking the turbid angst of Baudelaire’s poetry” —Chicago Reader
The King Of Rain is available now as a digital download ($9) or CD ($12) at our
Oobleck Bandcamp store. CDs come with a 20-page booklet featuring song lyrics and original illustrations by Oobleck founding member Dave Buchen.
For more information about our Baudelaire In A Box project, please visit baudelaireinabox.wordpress.com
posted 09/15/2015
The Reader Recommends "Baudelaire"
From Philip Montoro in The Chicago Reader.
This seventh episode of Theater Oobleck’s Baudelaire in a Box sets lively new English translations of poems from the 1861 edition of Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil to witty acoustic songs played by a six-piece ensemble…
The translations can be playful too—somehow I doubt Baudelaire’s original text uses “hummus” for a rhyme. Only once, on Sad Brad Smith’s rendition of “Grieving and Wandering,” does the troupe match bleak music to bleak verses, and the effect is so wrenchingly mournful it’s almost startling.
Full review here.
posted 12/11/2014
Adelind Horan
Adelind is a Brooklyn-based actor/musician. She’s been touring her verbatim one-woman show about mountaintop removal in Appalachia for the past couple years (Best Documentary Play, United Solo Festival 2012) and will be performing it again on November 18th at Theatre Row! Shakespeare, improv, comedy shorts, and short films are her ongoing creative endeavors. She’ll be shooting her first feature film this summer and will also be appearing in Equus this winter at the Gallery
Players. Her website is here.
Amalea Tshilds
Amalea Tshilds studied painting at Bard College before turning to music, performing on guitar and voice with such acts as the Paulina Hollers. Her first solo recording, Broken Tiles, was released in 2006. Amalea is also the owner of award-winning restaurants Lula Cafe and Nightwood and the mother of two small, dazzling children. She lives in Logan Square in Chicago.
Kate Douglas
Kate Douglas is a NYC-based composer, writer and performer. She has sung with artists such as Todd Almond and Lisa Sokolov, and her compositions have been featured at the New York Musical Theatre Festival as part of a concert of work by new composers. Her concert piece The Imaginary Menagerie has headlined at Joe’s Pub and is currently in residence at The Manderley Bar at The McKittrick Hotel. The next chapter of The Imaginary Menagerie, The Death of Katherine Hayes, was performed this summer at Ars Nova’s ANT Festival. Her first record, The Blue House EP, is due to be released later this year. Her website is here.
Amy Warren
Amy Warren is an actress, singer and erstwhile songwriter, very happy to be working with Dave Buchen and the wonderful folks of Theater Oobleck again! Member of former Chicago band Tallulah, recordings with The Aluminum Group and
Cooler by the Lake, she has written music for LATE at the Piven, Paris by Night at Trinity Rep and PULP which won the 2004 Jeff Award for Best Original Music.
Nora O’ Connor
Nora is a Chicago-based musician whose vocal talents are the secret weapon behind some of the city’s best performances and recordings. For much of 2013, O’Connor toured internationally as a singer in Iron and Wine, and she continues to record and perform with longtime collaborator, Andrew Bird. O’Connor also plays bass and sings back-up for Kelly Hogan (supporting Hogan’s release I Like To Keep Myself In Pain on ANTI- Records) and in 2010, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy enlisted O’Connor and Hogan as primary vocalists on gospel legend Mavis Staples’ Grammy Award-winning album You Are Not Alone. In the studio and on the stage, O’Connor has backed (among others) Neko Case, Jakob Dylan, The New Pornographers, Archer Prewitt, Justin Roberts and Robbie Fulks. Though she may be primarily known for her signature honey-sweet vocals, O’Connor is also revered among her musician peers for her chops and versatility. She’s a solid sender on guitar and bass, an enthusiastic and inspired collaborator, and always ninja-nimble and professional to a T — just a few of the reasons why this lady’s phone never stops ringing.
Dave Buchen
Dave Buchen is a founding member of Theater Oobleck, for whom he has written fifteen plays, including “Spukt” and “The Passion of the Bush.” His Oobleck play “Innocence and Other Vices” was published last year by Hope and Nonthings. He has acted in dozens of Oobleck plays.
He is also a graphic artist, and is currently creating cantastorias
(scrolling images) for all the poems in Charles Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal.” This multi-year Oobleck project — called “Baudelaire in a Box” — has already produced six full “episodes” with musical collaborators from Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico.
He has also designed and written several books for adults and children, some hand-printed, and some published traditionally. The spanish-language version of his book “Why is a Tiger a Tiger? A Bestiary of Etymology” will be released this year.
Dave is also co-curator of Banners and Cranks (also known as The Singing Picture Show) a yearly festival of cantastoria that he has organized in Chicago, New York, and Puerto Rico.
Dave has lived in Puerto Rico since 1999. There he has organized several festivals and collaborated with numerous local artists and groups, including El Circo Nacional de Puerto Rico. In 2012, he formed a circus band for them, for which he plays the clarinet. In 2013, they collaborated on a show based on a folktale by Italo Calvino.
