Thursday, October 1, 2009

Look For ChiIL Mama This Weekend: Whoop De Doo, Home Depot, The Hundred Dresses



It is our pleasure to invite you to join us at the Experimental Station on Friday, October 2, 5-10pm, for Whoop De Doo ,a faux-public access, traveling kids show.  We will collaborate with the Experimental Station, the Smart Museum, and Chicago TV's Chic-a-go-go!   Whoop Dee Doo will be bringing this kid-friendly show to the South Side for one evening only.



Whoop Dee Doo features pre-planned performances accompanied by active audience participation. Structured like a high school talent show, Whoop Dee Doo highlights a diverse array of performers from the community in which it temporarily resides, and engages audiences of all ages and cultural backgrounds. Program components have also included skits, game shows, contests, and dance intermissions. 



This event is free and open to the public. Audience seating will be limited. Kids and adults in costume will be given seating priority.
Whoop Dee Doo has performed with such venues as the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Deitch Projects in New York, Rocket Projects in Miami, and our most recent show was with Loyal Gallery in Malmo, Sweden.

Our performers ages have ranged from three years of age to sixty-five, and acts performing on the show itself have ranged from professional drill teams to opera singers, break-dancers, Celtic bagpipers, drag queens, punk bands, science teachers, tap dancers, and dog trainers. We have highlighted twelve year-olds in game shows on the same stage as Amanda Lapore, and pancake-eating contests follow live R&B music videos in-the-making. Civil War re-enactors cut off faux bloody limbs as educational tools, while West-African dance troupes, bloodhounds, and Christian Mimes await their turn on stage.

One of Whoop Dee Doo’s main goals is to promote diversity in every show and display talent from all ages, backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities, often times collaborating. The unlikely combination of performances and bold set design creates a fantastically original experience.

Whoop Dee Doo has brought together hundreds of members of the community, and has a place for anyone and everyone to contribute. Because it is a kid-friendly show, Whoop Dee Doo embraces a huge range of tastes and sensibilities, which strips away all divisions between high and low art. Whoop Dee Doo is a truly inclusive event, it invites a cross-generational dialogue, and the project itself blurs the lines between curating, art-making, performance and community, without sacrificing content for the project to be made more accessible.









This is the first Saturday of the month, which means Home Depot Kids Workshops from 9-noon.    Come on by and make a firehouse bank.  

All workshops are free.




Finally, Sunday afternoon we're looking forward to reviewing The Hundred Dresses by Chicago Children's Theatre.   It's on The Royal George Theatre Mainstage for a limited run, from Sept. 25 - Nov. 1.


The show is a new musical by Ralph Covert (Ralph's World) & G. Riley Mills, based on the Newbery Honor Book by Eleanor Estes and recommended for ages 6 and up.

Check out Chicago Children's Theatre's Website for interviews, video excerpts, and show study guides for teachers.  There's even a blog for children to share their personal stories of experience with bullies.  Here are the details from their site.


Share Your Story

Have you ever been a Maddie, a Willie Bounce, a Peggy, a Wanda, or a Jack? Have you ever had an experience with a bully, either as a target or a bystander? Tell us about it, and we'll post some of them on our blog for the whole Chicago Children's Theatre community. Everyone has an experience to share. We especially want to know:

- What did you do?
- What do you wish you had done?
- What will you do next time?

Each week, we will select a few submissions to post on our blog. Email your stories to shareyourstory@chicagochildrenstheatre.org, and view other stories at http://www.chicagochildrenstheatre.org/blog. Be sure to check back each week for more stories, including submissions from the cast and crew of The Hundred Dresses!

The Hundred Dresses is the perfect complement to the elementary curriculum, based on the Newbery Honor Book by Eleanor Estes. Give your students the opportunity to see the story come to life on stage! We also provide student discussion guides, bullying prevention tips and post-show talk backs. For more information or to book tickets, call GroupTix at 877.447.7849, or visit them online.

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