Naked Theatre's Debut

Hey All.

This summer I have a lot of things going on in the theatre world of Chicago. I moved here in the middle of May. Foss referred me to a group of his past students that had started their own company Naked Theatre and could use some help. When I joined them, it was the 4 actors, a lighting designer, and a stage manager. They were still in the rehearsal process so I just really showed up to watch and get to know the show. This is really a production all about collaboration. These actors direct, produce, designed the show themselves, along with one also being the playwright. This is the core that all theatre should have with all theatre productions. It proved to me how important listening to every part of a production team is. People may bump heads but a stand still is not productive, compromise and move on.
They were interesting rehearsals. A scene or a few would be done then someone may respond with some notes or they would talk about how it felt. Then do the scene again. The stage manager would also chime in every once in a while with line notes or questions about something that looks strange.
The production is called See You In The Mourning and is about 4 siblings that only meet at funerals. It is being done in a theatre that used to be a funeral home, an embalming table is in the dressing room, weird huh. After working in the space, I can't really picture the show anywhere else. It is really dark with an eerie appearance. It only has 12 dimmers so the lighting really plays on shadows and stark white/amber light. Naked Theatre's mission is to create theatre that strips away the excess and over-production, and get to the root of storytelling.
The set then well really doesn't have much, a casket, bench, occasional chairs, and only a few props here or there. The focus on story and the words is refreshing. There is no 'look at the cool stuff we have and can buy' because they really don't have much money.

Now my role in this whole thing is to be as flexible as possible and help where ever I can. I am house managing and the crew during productions. There is a lot to do with the publicity side of things such as emailing the press and others for publicity. It's a lot of time to send so many emails so I have helped by taking some of those responsibilities. I believe I'm also the only one with a car so I use it to pick up things from stores or set pieces from around the city as well a chauffeur people around if they need to get somewhere CTA doesn't get to easily.

It has been a blast meeting and working with these people. I can see the importance of the people you know in the industry. A lot of Naked's donations are from either family or friends in the industry which has helped them put on the show they wanted. And they have helped me jump in to the industry and starting to make connections with people who know people. More on the people you know later.