Oobleck Founding Member Mickle Maher (There Is a Happiness That Morning Is) has been named to the Goodman Theatre’s Playwright Unit for 2013/14.
He joins three other Chicago-based authors in the year-long residency program designed to support and develop new works, culminating in staged readings at the Goodman this coming summer.
Photo by photo by joe mazza – brave lux inc.
See Broadway World for more details.
posted 12/12/2013
Theater Oobleck is pleased to participate in the Chicago Commercial Collective’s first Off-Loop Tour, aimed at exporting the best of Chicago theatre to colleges and universities throughout the Midwest.
Along with our There Is a Happiness That Morning Is, the touring productions include: A Steady Rain by Keith Huff (Chicago Dramatists), Unveiled by Rohina Malik (16th Street Theatre), Honeybuns by Dean Evans (Collaboraction), and Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology by Anthony Moseley (Collaboraction).
The tour will go from Fall 2014 to Spring 2015, and tour booking begins now. If you know of a college, theatre, and the circuit will begin in Fall 2014 and run through Spring 2015. If you are associated with a college or university, and would like to book any of these shows, please contact Associate Producer Benjamin Brownson at (312) 724-7604 or via email.
Videos, photos and additional information are here.
Meanwhile, you can tell your friends all over the country: many theater companies continue to present their own productions of Happiness.
Capital T Theatre (Austin, Texas) and WSC Avant Bard (Washington, DC) just wrapped up productions (the reviews are here and here, and upcoming there is:
Available Light Theater, Columbus Ohio, January 17th.
The Catamounts (Boulder, Colorado), opening February 28.
posted 12/10/2013
Theater Oobleck’s anthology of plays, More If You’ve Got It, was reviewed in the inaugural issue of the Chicago Art Journal.
Critic Kerry Reid said:
For me the one company that mattered, the one that challenged the old gods and old orthodoxies — of what a play means, of how it is created, of what yardsticks measure a “successful” company — was Theater Oobleck…
Read this collection. Pass it along. Produce these plays. Please.
Read the full Journal here. (It’s a 40-page pdf, so might take a couple minutes to download.)
posted 10/31/2013
Big news: Theater Oobleck is embarking on a collaborative circus arts production with El Circo Nacional de Puerto Rico. We will develop the work — a melding of circus arts and Oobleckian narrative, addressing issues surrounding emigration from Puerto Rico — to premiere in both Chicago and San Juan in 2015.
The project is being made possible through the generous support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund. You can read about all the wonderful projects they are supporting this year by reading their press release.
The populist El Circo Nacional de Puerto Rico was founded in 2010. It has performed regularly throughout the island at festivals, schools, theaters, and in the streets.
posted 10/07/2013
Gapers Block came out to the Hideout Inn to catch our Baudelaire in a Box “Episode 5” reprise. They said:
Like Baudelaire’s poems, which connect profound urban ennui to sometimes bawdy, sometimes gory imagery, the illustrations linked one non-sequitur to the next with sometimes humorous, sometimes distressing strokes.
Although the French read Baudelaire with great seriousness, one can only imagine that the poet himself meant for them to be read — or sung — as they were last night
The full review is here.
We had a great night. We thank 80 Foots Per Minute for warming up, the incredible Ronnie Kuller for making us a part of her month-long musical residency, and the Hideout for hosting.
posted 10/03/2013
Do you want to keep tabs on your favorite Theater Oobleck ensemble members? Here it is… a busy calendar of events from a busy bunch of people.
October 2 through October 19
And in other ensemble news, Dave Buchen’s annual hand-printed calendar is done and available for purchase.
Jeff Dorchen delivers a weekly “Moment of Truth” every Saturday morning on the radio program This Is Hell. It is available for streaming or download.
posted 10/01/2013
The folks over at the City of Chicago’s Theater on the Lake have invited us to bring back Mickle Maher’s There Is a Happiness That Morning Is for one final week. Diana Slickman and Colm O’Reilly will reprise their roles, and the wonderful HB Ward (who played Oscar Madison in our “Strauss at Midnight”) will fill the shoes of the wonderful Kirk Anderson.
“Back by Popular Demand” is a theater-marketing cliché, of course, but in this case we can back it up. Fans of the show have been dropping us notes on Facebook, and you can read what they said about the first two runs of the show.
posted 07/09/2013
On June 19th, Theater Oobleck celebrated its 25th anniversary with performances of new work and from its very first season, 1988.
The event was presented by Pivot Arts, and was part of the “Rough Magic” series, which harnesses the creativity of the Chicago theater community to benefit innovative organizations.
Soup and bread were supplied by Soup & Bread.
Theater Oobleck raised a total of $1720 for Vital Bridges, The Peoples Music School, and the Preston Bradley Center.
posted 06/24/2013
Oobleck’s runaway hit, There Is A Happiness That Morning Is, is currently enjoying not one, but two, national productions. The Catastrophic Theatre in Houston is reprising their 2011 production from May 10-May 25, and the Cleveland Public Theatre is offering a brand-new production, May 9 – May 25.
You can read the Cleveland Plain Dealer review here and the Houston reviews here
Oobleck will also be bringing back our own production for one final weekend, at the City of Chicago’s Theater on the Lake, July 10 – 14.
posted 05/22/2013
Episode 4 of Baudelaire in a Box featured this song — “Le Guignon” — by The New Town Drunks. They have now released it on digital CD.
You can purchase the entire album from their website.
posted 05/13/2013
posted 02/26/2013
Happiness playwright Mickle Maher talks about the power of public sex, the actor’s prerogative, and why the play was almost about mummies in this half-hour podcast from Talk Theatre in Chicago. Includes bonus stale bread metaphors!
posted 02/26/2013
posted 02/26/2013
Proceeds from the performance of There Is A Happiness That Morning Is on Thursday, February 28 will go toward the amazing and worthy Soup and Bread.
posted 02/26/2013
“This. Play. Is. Killer.”
Such a book nerd seemed to like the show.
posted 02/26/2013
WBEZ’s Dueling Critics Kelly Klenman called Happiness “the most remarkable mix of poetry and drama that you are ever likely to see.” Listen to the segment on theatre week.
posted 02/16/2013
“If the American theater harbors a precedent for Mickle Maher’s astonishing 2011 play There Is a Happiness That Morning Is, I’ve never found it . . . “
“ . . . richer, funnier, and more heartbreaking than ever.”
— Justin Hayford, Chicago Reader
READ THE WHOLE THING HERE:
There is an astonishment that There Is a Happiness That Morning Is is
posted 02/14/2013
Thanks to Time Out’s Kris Vire, for including us on the teevee in his roundup of notable shows.
posted 02/14/2013
Allison Cuddy’s previews Happiness and interviews Mickle.
READ AND LISTEN HERE
posted 02/14/2013
posted 02/14/2013
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