Written and directed by Greg Allen
Previews Thursday and Friday, March 8 and 9 at 8:00 p.m.
Opening Night: Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 8:00 p.m.
Regular performances continue through April 14: Thurs/Fri/Sat at 8:00 p.m.
Tickets are $20, $10 for students/seniors with ID, or
pay-what-you-can on Thursdays.
All performances take place at The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland
For tickets or information, visit www.neofuturists.org or call 773-275-5255.
CHICAGO – Greg Allen stages his 28th production for The Neo-Futurists, a nightmare comedy titled The Strange and Terrible True Story of Pinocchio (the Wooden Boy) as Told by Frankenstein’s Monster (the Wretched Creature). The show opens Saturday, March 10 at The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland.
Neo-Futurist Founding Director Greg Allen presents Carlo Collodi’s original 1883 Italian masterpiece through the eyes of Mary Shelley’s nameless hideous Monster, using a barrage of puppets, absurd costumes, mesmerizing stagecraft and his trademark dark humor and meta-theatrics. Definitely NOT a children’s story, this stage adaptation includes all the outrageous, bizarre and violent scenes which are usually cut from other adaptations of Pinocchio. Allen parellels the stories of these two motherless, un-born creatures to explore the nature of love, betrayal, mortality, fatherhood, forgiveness and the meaning of life itself.Pinocchio/Frankenstein promises to be among the best of Allen’s award-winning work.
Greg Allen states, “The Monster sets out to put the record straight, to tell the true tale of Pinocchio in all its violent hideous outrageous glory, to tell the parallel story to his own. As he says in the play ‘This is a tale of woe. A tale of murder, of misery, of fatherlessness. I love it. I hate it.’”
Greg Allen (Playwright and Director) is the Founder of The Neo-Futurists and creator of over 50 productions including Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind (30 Plays in 60 Minutes), which has been running every week in Chicago since 1988 and in New York since 2004. His plays for The Neo-Futurists include The Last Two Minutes of the Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, H20, A Child’s History of Bombing, Boxing Joseph Cornell and K., his award-winning adaptation of Kafka’s The Trial. His legendary production of all 7 hours and 9 acts of Strange Interlude inspired angry hecklers and instant standing ovations in the Goodman Theater’s Eugene O’Neill Festival. His restaging of K. was seen at The Hypocrites last fall, and his show The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett As Found In An Envelope (partially burned) In A Dustbin In Paris Labeled “Never to be performed. Never. Ever. EVER! Or I’ll Sue! I’LL SUE FROM THE GRAVE!!!” was mounted in the Steppenwolf Garage last summer. A proud graduate of Oberlin College, Greg teaches performance and playwriting at the University of Chicago, The Theater School at Depaul and the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Center, as well as in residencies at universities and theater programs all over the world.
The cast includes: Robert Fenton (Pinocchio) who has worked with American Theater Company, Griffin Theatre, Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. and TimeLine Theatre; Guy Massey (The Monster) who is known for his performance in Theater Oobleck’s The Strangerer and has also performed with the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theater and many others; Dan Kerr-Hobert (Gepetto) whose previous work with The Neo-Futurists includes Crisis (A Musical Gameshow), Fear, Mr. Fluxus and design and direction of the site-specific puppet rock musical, Beer; Tien Doman (The Blue Fairy) who has worked with The Hypocrites, NewLeaf Theatre, Court Theatre, Northlight Theatre and TimeLine Theatre;Thomas Kelly (Fire-Eater) who is an improv performer and has worked with the Annoyance Theater; andChris Rickett (The Fox) who is a member of the Saratoga Shakespeare Company and has performed at Theater Wit.
The staff includes: Dan Kerr-Hobert (Director of Puppetry); Joe Schermoly (Set Design); Gina Patterson(Lighting Design); Rachel Sypniewski (Costume Design); Chas Vrba (Sound Design); and Benno Nelson(Assistant Director). Marlana May Carlson serves as stage manager.
THE NEO-FUTURISTS
The Neo-Futurists, performers of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind and creators of over 60 other original, full-length productions, are a collective of wildly productive writer/director/performers who create immediate, non-illusory, interactive performance presented at head-slappingly affordable prices.
The Neo-Futurists are partially supported by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, Alphawood Foundation, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation, The MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and a CityArts 2 grant.
