Possession: Baudelaire in a Box, Episode #5
Coming in November!
In the latest installment of Baudelaire in a Box, Theater Oobleck presents 16 new cantastorias adapted from the work of Charles Baudelaire.
Baudelaire in a Box, Episode 5: Possession
Wednesday – Sunday, November 14-18, 8pm
at Links Hall
3435 N. Sheffield
$15 suggested donation, “more if you’ve got it, free if you’re broke” tickets available at the door.
$15 Advance tickets available on-line.
Additional performance at
Wisconsin Book Festival
Sunday, November 11
2:45pm
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
227 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin
Theater Oobleck returns to Links Hall this November with Possession: Baudelaire in a Box, Episode #5, 16 sung poems of poison, betrayal, and shame to be washed down with longing, lust, and liquor. Bathe in 16 poems by Charles Baudelaire set to music and performed by Jeff Dorchen, Ronnie Kuller, and Chris Schoen while yards and yards of paintings by Dave Buchen scroll by as in a 19th-century movie house of ill-repute.
These three very different musicians have each adapted five poems from Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal. Mucca Pazza accordionist Ronnie Kuller performs her five poems – including “The Fountain of Blood” and “Beauty” – in the original French. Oobleck’s own Jeff Dorchen flies in from LA to sing his adaptations of such poems as “Metamorphosis of the Vampire” and “The Ghost.” Chris Schoen performs “Love and the Skull,” “The Cracked Bell,” and three more. The songs are performed live accompanied by scrolling paintings in a diptych “cranky.” As a nightcap, the prose poem “Get Drunk” will be performed by all the musicians in front of painted banners.
Dubbed “an act of extravagant artistic idiosyncrasy” by the Chicago Reader, Baudelaire in a Box is a serial cantastoria project based on Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal. 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 Chicago, New York, North Carolina, San Juan, and Madison, Wisconsin, by Buchen, Schoen, and a motley cast of collaborators.
It is a project so ambitious, so immense, that it cannot be contained on a single web page. And so:
Here’s a selection of videos from past Episodes.
Want an audio taste? Here’s a sneak preview from the forthcoming Baudelaire in a Box album “Heaven or Hell or Wherever,” featuring Schoen, Emmy Bean, John Szymanski, Ann Speroni (Art of Flying), and Heather Trost (A Hawk and a Hacksaw).
Dave is blogging about the process here, at the Baudelaire in a Box Blog.
Chris blogs his translations here.
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.
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
