May 1, 2006
`Jungle Book' enjoyable, but second half bit of a dull read
By Chris Jones
Chicago Tribune arts critic
Published May 1, 2006
Of course, no children's theater worth its charter is going to stick Disney-like characters on its stage. For one thing, that would necessitate the hiring of a lawyer. So Emerald City -- a growing kids' troupe on the North Side -- has created an hourlong original adaptation of the work, which resides in the public domain. Alyn Cardarelli's show bills itself as a musical (with score by Steve Goers), but that's probably overstating things. This is more of a play with some simple music.
The show works very nicely when it comes to re-creating the jungle ambience. In Ernie Nolan's energetic production, a snake slithers in the aisles, chirpy monkeys pop up unannounced and the hunting by the man-cub Mowgli and the wolves is staged with considerable imagination.
And there are decent actors on the stage -- including Stephen Rader's pleasingly complex Shere Khan. All are dressed in terrific costumes by Kate Stransky that require the use of a child's imagination to see the critter but also don't run so far from the literal that the kids are wondering what happened to the pictures they've seen in books.
Things are less sure underfoot when we get into the gobs of adapted Kipling text, which land with a bit of dull thud here. With dialog more stilted than necessary, Cardarelli hasn't yet found a real way into the spoken material (and thus the deeper themes of the work) for kids.
This is very much an enjoyable, affordable and worthwhile hour for all ages. But the show's elements of critter-driven spectacle and its spoken scenes remain two distinct halves. Ideally, they'd meld into a seamless hour in a theatrical jungle gym.
`Jungle Book' enjoyable, but second half bit of a dull read Chicago Tribune
April 21
Chicago Sun-Times, Delia O'hara
Emerald City re-explores 'Jungle Book'
Think Bollywood, not Hollywood. Think Kipling, not Disney.
The Emerald City Theatre Company has gone back to the sources to re-imagine Rudyard Kipling's classic tale of a boy raised by wolves in the jungles of India, The Jungle Book. Emerald City's production, which premieres this week, is a musical that combines the lush production numbers of contemporary Indian movies with Kipling's story of Mowgli, the "man-cub," his adventures among the animals that took him in after he was left alone in the jungle as an infant -- and his struggles with the animals who yearn to make a meal of him.
"I love using 'The Jungle Book' to introduce children to musical styles from India," says Karen Cardarelli, Emerald City artistic director.
The play incorporates some of Kipling's poetry from the book, and emphasizes Mowgli's relationship with his wolf family, which protected and helped him, and which was barely mentioned in the Disney animated version, Cardarelli says.
The new Emerald City production also uses story-songs in the style of the Bollywood musical, and serves up plenty of dancing. "Kaa the snake is a killer dancer," Cardarelli says.
The show "celebrates the theme, 'Be true to what you are,' " Cardarelli says. But it also gives the audience 60 minutes of "what-if?"
"What a great fantasy for kids, to get to live in the jungle, to have your best friends be a panther and bear!" Cardarelli says.
The company's longtime creative team of Alyn Cardarelli (book and lyrics) and Steve Goers (music) this time teams up with Ernie Nolan, who comes to Emerald City from Coterie Theatre in Kansas City. Nolan choreographed the show and will direct.
Kent Haina plays Mowgli. Ted White and Isaiah Brooms are his mentors, Baloo the easygoing bear and the wise Bagheera. The villains, the tiger Shere Khan and the jackal Tabaqui, are played by Stephen Rader and Jon Cunningham. The wolves are Vincent Rideout as Akela, Joshua Sumner as Father Wolf and Star Velazquez as Mother Wolf (and Kaa the snake).
"The Jungle Book" is suitable for children ages 5 and older. This production is the last in Emerald City's 10th-anniversary season.
Emerald City re-explores 'Jungle Book'
March 18
Center Stage
Come enjoy this dark fairy tale as retold by the Tantalus Theatre Group. Street commedia, giant puppets, and theatrical slight of hand combine to weave a fantastic story of love and betrayal. Watch as a mortal man is trapped in the land of the faeries and must overcome his very nightmares to be reunited with his true love despite the best efforts of the mischievous faeries who long to keep her for themselves!Serpent Woman, The @ the side project Tantalus Theatre Group - Theatre Events on Centerstage Chicago - in Chicago, Illinois
August 3
I was cast in “Neighborhood Watch,” a play by Gregory Hardigan. It will play at The Chopin Theatre, September 9,10 and 11th.
July 9
Tantalus Theatre presents the world premiere of the rock musical, “Slide.” I am playing the role of the antagonist, Boss Guy. Somewhere between a rock opera and a bar act, Slide enters a world of factory-made beauty, where the inner workings are oiled with blood and agony. It is a journey through hope and horror into the infinite possibilities of humankind. Springboarding off of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Slide follows an immigrant family’s arrival in an amazing new land of unbounded beauty. But that beauty comes at a terrible price. As the inner workings of the new land's all-purpose factory are revealed, the family discovers that it is their very lives that are greasing its wheels. Broken and alone, one of them begins an impossible journey to make peace with the machine. Slide runs July 11 through August 30, every Monday and Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. at Joy Blue (1401 W. Irving Park Rd.). Suggested donation of $10.June 26
My scene, “Baby Won’t You Let Me Follow You Down,” was voted third place for best Director in Sketchbook 5, Collaboraction's 5th annual theatre festival. We were also featured in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Reader. Overall it was a successful 2 week run at The Chopin Theatre in Chicago, IL.May 2
Loveaboveall productions begins shooting, “Family Values” in Chicago. I will be playing the roll of Jemarie Patrick (supporting lead). The feature film explores the idea that family amongst friends can be stronger than the ties you have with the biological one.May 23
The International Theatre of Chicago presents Charles Mulekwa’s, “A Time Of Fire” as part of its mission to raise the profile of international playwrights in Chicago. Omo, a God-fearing student, Ssaasi, a thief for whom war is a way of life, and Kadogo, a small man with a big gun, all seek safety in a cave overlooking a battlefield. But they end up bringing the war with them. This is a serio-comic look at three men caught up in a bloody civil war. The presentation will take place at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, IL.March 15
The premiere of Independent Film, “Regretful Decision,” opened in Chicago. Regretful Decision will be competing at the Black Film festival this summer in Chicago.July 26
The Chicago SunTimes - Hedy Weiss
'Slide' sounds great but slips on story line "Somewhere on the dark highway between a rock opera and a bar act." That's how the Tantalus Theatre Group describes its new musical, "Slide," now onstage in the little back room of the Joy-Blue Club on the corner of Southport and Irving Park. It would be difficult to improve on their given compass points, except to add that the show attempts to serve as a reminder that with freedom comes the need for responsibility. The question remains: Is this highway that the Tantalus artists talk about a smoothly paved and pothole-free one? By no means. The songs in the troupe's musical odyssey -- primarily the work of musical director and keyboardist Ed Plough and guitarist Steve Clark -- are full of promise, with some soulful, soaring harmonies melded to alternately poetic and sophomoric lyrics. As for the show's "book" -- the work of Kalena Victoria Dickerson -- it has a few clever sequences that bear echoes to the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, but is in need of a massive overhaul. The narrative line is needlessly opaque at times, and the characters' relationships need considerable clarification. Yet watching this two-hour production unfold, it's possible to imagine that this may have been what the earliest workshops of musicals like "Urinetown" and "Rent" looked like -- raw, ragged, even laughably incoherent at moments, but with a genuine spark of talent and a tremendous amount of energy behind it all. The story line for "Slide" (at least as much as could be deciphered) is as skewed and needlessly patchy as the program's cut-and-paste graphic design. Ostensibly it was inspired by Upton Sinclair's muckraking classic The Jungle, which exposed the horrors of the Chicago meat-packing industry and the exploitation of those who labored in it. But the "factory" referred to here seems to be a cross between a corrupt and corrupting music production corporation and a Wal-Mart. Its monstrous Boss Man (the deftly enigmatic Isaiah Brooms) undermines both the hapless aspiring artist Jurgis (Austin Oie, working in a kind of James Dean mode) and the vocal princess known as the Frail Woman (the graceful, silvery-voiced Joanna P. Lind). These two fall in love and are quickly torn apart by nothing less than the sheer cruelty of the world. This pervasive human cruelty wounds all the characters, including Jurgis' mentally slow younger brother Stanislovas (played with sweet guilelessness by Brian Troyan) and the brothers' much-abused mother, Antanas (the forceful Mikalya Brown, who at one moment literally tap-dances her rage). Everyone in "Slide" is brutalized, and not surprisingly, most of them behave brutally in response. The score, featuring more than three dozen songs that range in style from grunge anthems to lyrical confessionals, is played by an onstage band that includes Plough, Clark and percussionist Ed Dalton, with many of the actors picking up instruments along the way. Glen Cullen has directed, with sets and stark lighting by Marc Chevalier and nifty costume design and choreography by Symphony Sanders.July 22
The Chicago Reader - Lawrence Bommer
“Slide – Very freely adapted from Upton Sinclair’s meatpacking exposé The Jungle, Tantalus Theatre Group’s ambitious two-hour rock opera/bar act delivers a strong score and dedicated performances. The company transforms Sinclair’s muckraking depiction of the Chicago stockyards circa 1905 into a brutal but maddeningly indeterminate portrait of a “music plant.” Wannabe star Jurgis, an immigrant as in Sinclair’s book, pursues his dream and loses his way, his wife and his family. Finally he achieves a perverse peace by surrendering to the status quo of the music-making machine. Ed Plough’s songs, well performed by the tenacious ensemble, unleash a ton of eloquent anger and end with a lovely lament. Though this adaptation is too abstract, never arriving at specific parallels for the abuses Sinclair detailed, it’s progressive spirit rings as true as Sinclair’s did 100 years ago.The Chicagoist -- Justin Sondak
“The Tantalus Theatre Group has built a reputation for provocative, boundary busting work ranging from modern interpretations of Greek myth to powerful, immediate public performances. Their new rock musical/bar show Slide channels Upton Sinclair, relating the story of an immigrant family succumbing to the capitalistic machine as an allegory for mind-numbing lack of imagination afflicting today’s music and art industries. Its protagonists move to a beautiful but creepy town wehre art production is meticulously regulated and the factory provides all necessities. Their lives keep getting worse. They face death, ostracism, and dislocation, eventually succumbing to the loathed Machine. Much is asked of this ensemble and they deliver, easily shifting between rock performances and storytelling while taking on multiple characters. They perform original music, many playing three or more instruments, dance, act, sing perform their own stunts… if you ask nicely, they may even bring you a beer. Most impressive is Mikayla Brown, a triple threat who brings great pathos to the martyred mother Antanas. Austin Oie is convincingly naïve as leading man Jurgis but less convincing in his character’s darker moments. Isaiah Brooms shines as the charismatically evil Boss Man whose pearly white grin barely conceals the fangs. Slide is an entertaining and effective rant against The Man but it fails to sustain dramatic tension. Set One’s contest of human wills becomes the stuff of conspiracy theory in Set Two. If you’re willing to overlook that, or better yet if you share this perspective, this show is for you. Regardless, it’s much better than your typical bar entertainment.
