End of the Year Theatre Awards

At the end of 2008 all the local Chicago publications released some top 10 and best of lists for all the theatre in Chicago and some of my shows won accolades and mentions, so here they are:

NEW CITY CHICAGO

BEST SHOW OF THE YEAR: No Darkness Round my Stone
MOST MEMORABLE SHOW BY A SMALLER THEATRE TROUPE: Termen Vox Machina

WINDY CITY TIMES

BEST SHOW OF THE YEAR: Termen Vox Machina
BEST SET DESIGN: No Darkness Round My Stone

ON CHICAGO THEATRE
BEST SET DESIGN: Termen Vox Machina

Termen Vox Machina: Critics still raving

New City Chicago was added to the large group of critics who have given rave reviews to my show Termen Vox Machina. (Those other papers would be: Time Out Chicago, Chicago Reader, Windy City Times, Centerstage Chicago, Chicago Critic, Steadstyle Chicago, Metromix, etc.)

TERMEN VOX MACHINA
THEATRE REVIEW
My high school Latin might be a little rusty, but loosely translated "Termen Vox Machina" means "Termen and the Voice in the Machine". And yet it might as well stand for "easy to describe, harder to explain." I won't claim a complete understanding of the meaning of the new one from Oracle Theatre - but I can say that whatever it means, it has great onstage value, suceeds spectacularly and proves Oracle to be one of the most technically gifted and fiercely ambitious theatre companies around. With "Machina" based on the life of Lev Termen (aka Leon Theremin), the famous Russian scientist, spy and inventor of the electronical musical instrument bearing his name, Oracle has taken an elusive and ambiguous science-fiction radio radio drama origionally written by MDeegan and performed by a Los Angeles theatre troupe (the seven-episode podcast is still available for streaming on the internet), and applied their trademark technological finesse while preserving the source materials strong aural prescence. The remarkable atmospheric score and film noire underscoring is by composer Johnathen Guillen. The play combines this score very much in the way a good music video might serve a good song. If youre a fan of Ken Nordine's Word Jazz, or Joe Frank, or any of the quasi-theological spoken-work radio serials, albeit with a hint of science fiction, romance, and a heaping of Cold-War espionage politics, you won't be dissapointed.

You may experience visual overload, as "Machinas" unconventional narrative is brought to life by director Max Traux's assaulting visuals, as well as an eight person cast -- appearing live onstage, via video projection, or as a hologram -- who mouth an pantomime the pre-recorded soundtrack with astonishing technical precision. Four days later, I'm still haunted by its soud, provoked by the imagery and convinced that a second visit could reap richer intellectual awards. In an age when most plays are out of your head by the time you've ordered the appetizer to your post-show dinner, that's saying a lot.

- Fabrizio O. Almeida

Termen Vox Machina was also listed as the #3 show to see in all of Chicago according to Windy City Times. The top 5 also included works at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and the Goodman which placed #5)

Another rave for Termen Vox Machina!

WINDY CITY TIMES
THEATER REVIEW
Termen Vox Machina
Playwright: MDeegan (sic)
At: Oracle Productions, 3809 N. Broadway
Phone: 773-244-2980; $18
Runs through: Aug. 3
BY JONATHAN ABARBANEL

The Theremin is the ethereal-sounding electronic instrument often used in science-fiction films. (Think of the theme music for the original Star Trek.) This is ironic, perhaps, the life of its inventor, Russian electronics genius Lev Sergeivitch Termen, seems like a work of science fiction itself. Termen (1896-1993) lived in Russia and the Soviet Union most of his long life, except 1928-1938 in the United States, where he renamed himself Leon Theremin and scandalized society by marrying a Negro ballerina. She was the second of three wives in a picaresque life of close escapes, financial shenanigans, espionage (he invented electronic spying), pioneering electronic music (he created Theremin orchestras and was soloist with the New York Philharmonic) and political fortunes tied to the whims of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

It’s all recounted in Termen Vox Machina, but you’ll learn much of it indirectly and not literally. A radio play intentionally written for the stage, it’s the story of a shadowy life told in glimpses and impressions rather than as facts-and-dates or chronological history. Few situations are fully explained, few characters are completely charted, yet the total effect is nearly wonderful and certainly highly theatrical. The work jumps off from Termen’s middle years after his return to the Soviet Union (1938) and after World War II. In his fevered brain, Termen conducts an ethereal review of his life, loves and times by channeling the radio waves he employed in his scientific work. He constantly must "retune" and seek "a steady frequency" as Lenin, Stalin, his wives, other liaisons and his daughter all appear before him (although his precise relationship to each woman isn’t always discernable).

In an unusual and creative theatrical presentation, the sound and voices of the 85-minute show are entirely pre-recorded by actors from the Filament Theatre Company in Los Angeles, which created the work, and physically performed by Chicago actors who brilliantly lip-sync all the dialogue even as several play multiple roles. The scenic design (Tyler Burke) features at least five (maybe six?) layers of curtains made of semi-transparent plastic sheeting. Actors step back and forth through them, creating increasingly diffuse and ghostly images with each layer of removal, lit with eerie moodiness by Mac Vaughey and Eric Van Tassell. There’s even an ominous figure with a light shining from his mouth (Casey Chapman). Also, some figures appear in video (by Gimpydog Productions), sometimes projected on the body of another actor (also Chapman). Carl Wisniewski leads the hard-working ensemble as Termen. Wonderfully expressive and physical, he sweats buckets in the intimate storefront, helping to create not only the mood of old-time radio mysteries but also the expressionistic confusion of memory.

Termen Vox Machina is off-Loop at its best, a creative and surprising objet d’art.

Perfection!!

HIGHLY RECOMENDED!

Look at Termen Vox Machina

Here are some images from my show: TERMEN VOX MACHINA
please come and see it - 3 weeks left!

You can still see it!

Some audience members have reviewed my show, Termen Vox Machina, online via the Time Out Chicago webpage. We have been getting great reviews from critics, but its most pleasing when a audience enjoys your work. Here are the blurbs:

"This amazing production on that tiny stage, with the actors not only playing several roles each, but lip-synching all of them (sometimes in Russian!), deserves a look-see. We were thoroughly entertained and caught up in the post-modern approach to this radio show/play. Oracle players deserve a big round of applause." - Nancy Albrecht

"Very Inventive show. A joy to watch." - Sharon

That added onto recommended reviews from:
* Chicago Reader
* Time Out Chicago
* Chicago Critic
* Metromix

And being the critics pick in:
* Centerstage Chicago
* Steadstyle Chicago

You cannot miss the show! It runs until August 3rd in Chicago!
Go to: www.oracletheatre.org - to buy tickets

Rock the Vox: More Termen Praise

Latest Review for my show, from Chicago Critic:

In the tradition of old-time radio shows like “The Shadow,” director Max Traux has taken a pre-recorded sci-fi drama and mounted it on stage (at Oracle Theatre) with live actors lip-synching the dialogue aided by multimedia video and sound. With a set filled with layers of see-through plastic sheeting, “Termen Vox Machima” unfolds as an ambitious theatrical event that delivers.

Anchored by Carl Wisniewski as Lev Termen (aka Leon Theremin), this middle aged everyman spy, inventor and inventor is obsessed and overtaken with the voices in his head. Theses voices take Termen into the vast mysterious world of Russian-American Cold War espionage as he plummets into the depths of Ether as the voice of his machine forces him back into his past. Wisniewski does his best to keep up with the prerecorded script evoking more than merely excellent lip-synching. He actually manages to convey, through looks, gestures and physicality, all the rage, frustration and joy Termen experienced during his turbulent life.

The fast pace and excellent use of video and sound helped establish and maintain the tension as this spy mystery unfolds. The complicated plot fueled with fine supporting work from David Boren, Casey Chapman, Cassandra Kaluza, Stephanie Polt, David Steiger and Justin Warren made for a most intriguing show. The strong work of Carl Wisniewski and the ensemble helped me through this mystery.

The mixture of live actors and prerecorded audio has promise. Kudos to Oracle for stretching their art into new vistas utilizing modern media. RECOMMENDED!

---

Visit www.oracletheatre.org for all the information!

Termen: Time Out Review

Our review just came in from Time Out Chicago:

Oracle’s latest multimedia experiment is like Dr. Frankenstein: It brilliantly reanimates a dead performance style: the static, old-timey, staged radio drama.

Termen’s genesis is intriguingly Info Age avant-garde. A few years ago, while running a small experimental company in L.A., Truax spent months recording colleague Deegan’s nonlinear sci-fi collage reimagining of Lev Termen—the Russian electronic-instrument pioneer who, most famously, invented the theremin in 1919—as a serialized radio webcast. Borrowing from 1930s radio serials like The Shadow in its use of spiky, ambient orchestral textures and scratchy radio feedback transmissions, quick-cut dialogue and hyper suspense, Deegan’s text differs radically in its Joycean wordplay, which careens and confounds like a marathon of slam poetry.

In the staged version, Truax has his actors lip-synch every line as the original recording plays in its entirety. Risking mockery at first, the choice pays off, lending a weird, unsettling vibe entirely appropriate for the inventor of an eerie electromagnetic instrument one plays without ever touching. Oracle’s stage is segmented with rows of transparent plastic sheets—manifesting waves of metaphysical ether—through which Wisniewski, as a haunted, time-traveling Termen, summons characters from his past while searching for the source of a voice emanating from one of his wireless inventions.

This risky venture radiates its own dimension-altering energy.

****

DONT MISS THE SHOW!

This weekend - COME SEE THE SHOW

Hope everyone had a great fourth of July weekend. I have rested up and been laying low, which has been very nice. I just want to relay to any Chicago friends, or anyone that may in the Chicago area - please come support live theatre and come see my show! TERMEN VOX MACHINA at Oracle theatre. It runs every Thursday-Saturday at 8 and Sunday at 9. We have been getting great houses for all of the shows thus far, and I don't want to see that stop. Its an amazing show and promises to be unlike anything you've ever seen. I am so proud of the show - AND everyone in it is immensly talented. So take some time and come see the show.

Here is the trailer:


Visit www.oracletheatre.org for all the info or shoot me an email: jcaseychapman@aol.com

2nd Review

This is taken from the 2nd review to pop of of my show: TERMEN VOX MACHINA at Oracle theatre.

This is taken from centerstage Chicago:

The production looks fantastic, thanks to Tyler Burke's set—made entirely of several layers of plastic curtains and full of disturbing associations—Joan Pritchard's costumes, and Mac Vaughey and Eric Van Tassell's lighting. Director Max Truax has guided his agile cast to some fascinating stage pictures. This is a sci-fi radio drama like no other.

*Editor's Pick*

1st Review in

Our first review for my new show TERMEN VOX MACHINA playing at Oracle theatre just came in. It's from the Chicago Reader, and it reads:

"Two years ago, with L.A.'s Filament Theatre Ensemble Max Traux directed this swirling, hallucinogenic text as an audio play. Now, as a member of Oracle Productions, he's taken M Deegans beguilingly non-literal piece-in which the life of Leon Thermin (Lev Termen: musician, physicist, inventor, KGB informant) is rewritten as a pulp spy novel, shredded and reassembled in random order. Traux has live actors lip synching nearly every word in this neo-Expressionist pantomime. Traux has an extraordinary gift for creating mysterious, multivalent stage images: a man with a glowing mouth (Casey Chapman), a seemingly infinate void into which actors literally dissapear. In many instances in which he allows dissonance to creep in between sound and sight, the results are powerfully evocative."

YAY!

look for another review tomorrow in Time Out Chicago!

Color me Tired : My show

Just an FYI for any of you in Chicago. My new show: TERMEN VOX MACHINA opens this weekend. Saturday in fact (which is sold out unfortunately). It also shows Sunday at 7. And every week until the 3rd of August. Here's the schedule:

Thursday - 8:00
Friday - 8:00
Saturday - 8:00
Sunady - 7:00 (industry tickets available)

visit www.oracletheatre.org for more info
OR
text TERMEN to 41411

.............................................................................................. i am so tired i could die - this show is why. so come enjoy why i am so restless and grumpy right now. its awesome!

TermeNemreT

COMING SOON - TERMEN VOX MACHINA
opening June 28th - Oracle Theatre

More info including show times, the trailer, poster, and more at:
http://www.oracletheatre.org/