Tickets are now on sale for Le Petit Cirque, with four performances ONLY January 17-18 at Adventure Stage Chicago. Don't miss musician Laurent Bigot's "circus of sound," as part of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival!
Here at ChiIL Mama, we've been raving about the International Puppet Theater Festival since the very first announcements. Shows are selling out fast. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity!
Seating is limited. Call the Adventure Stage Box Office at (773) 342-4141 or visit the website to get tickets today.
**Charter Humanist Members, CHF Members, teachers, and students must purchase regular-priced tickets for this program.**
Presented in partnership with Adventure Stage Chicago and the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, and supported by the Cultural Service at the Consulate General of France in Chicago.
We're marking our calendars NOW for next year's Stages, Sights and Sounds component of the infamous Chicago Humanities Festival. Every spring their annual International Children's Theater Festival is one of our favorites. Their offerings are truly multicultural magic and world class!
Check out ChiIL Mama's show reviews and our photo filled recap below, along with official video clips. We had a crazy busy spring so we could only catch 2 of the shows this year, but boy were they excellent picks!
We caught the first show of the fest,The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer and one of the last, as well. Kaguya, a hybrid Japanese/European puppet show created in Prague, was truly a treat!
The crazy Aussie creativity of Alvin Sputnik, and the Windy City collided in the best possible way, to kick off The Stages, Sights and Sounds Festival 2014.
It was our great pleasure to be invited to a sneak peek, press preview and reception again this year. We were especially stoked to see The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer, since it sold out, as did most of the other shows!
Seas have risen; many people have died. Alvin Sputnik is our only hope. This wee survivor of extreme climate change must venture to the bottom of the ocean to save humanity, even as he tries to heal his broken heart. Using a beguiling blend of puppetry, animation, and music, this performance carries us along on Alvin’s momentous undersea journey. This enchanting micro-epic has charmed audiences around the world and garnered awards on three continents.
Recommended for ages 12 and up
"An endearing Australian solo show . . .
akin to a theatrical Wall-E."—The New York Times
Kaguya: The Bamboo Princess was a fabulous way to wrap up the fest. The audience was entranced and Nori Sawa left everyone wanting more. He is one of the most endearing, charming characters I've ever met, and he's quite impressive with his command of puppetry, physical theatre and story telling. Both shows inspired us, enlightened, entertained and rocked our world.
The runaway favorite performer of 2012, Nori Sawa brings a new show to this year's festival—Kaguya: The Bamboo Princess, his unique version of a legendary Japanese folktale. This tenth-century story is likely Japan's oldest narrative, and it tells the tale of Kaguya, who was discovered as a baby inside a bamboo shoot. Her story—from her adoptive parents to her many admirers, among them the Emperor—is one of loyalty, magic, and transcendence.
Recommended for ages 10 and up
"Nori Sawa's art has always been a fusion of East and West."—The Prague Post (Czech Republic)
Nori Sawa
Born in Japan but now based in the Czech Republic, Nori Sawa began his professional activities in Europe for the Cultural Ministry of the Japanese Government. He has performed and taught theater arts in more than 20 countries and was last seen in Chicago at Stages, Sights & Sounds in 2012. In 1999, he was awarded the Franz Kafka Medal for his global artistic activities.
ChiIL Mama's ChiIL Picks List:
Chicago Humanities Festival's annual
International Children's Theater Festival
Hope you got to check it out before it sold out. We gave you the heads up on Stages, Sights & Sounds on ChiIL Mama's Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google + for months.
Stages, Sights & Sounds brims with possibilities, offering lively theatrical and hands-on experiences for every age. You can see performers from faraway countries and also discover Chicago gems. You can find inspiration in stories classic and new told through puppetry, theater, words, and pictures.
This year we celebrated our 15th year of presenting fresh, original performances from around the world with 48 performances May 6–24 at three Chicago venues. Watch a video trailer on the CHF blog.
CHF welcomes school and educational groups of 10 or more students, teachers, and chaperones. To make reservations, call the CHF Box Office at 312-494-9509 or email groups@chicagohumanities.org. Some schools may qualify for free tickets and subsidized bus costs.
Plan ahead for 2015. Sign up for Stages, Sights & Soundsemails to get the inside scoop.
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Paige in Full and Kick Off Party for The Chicago Humanities Fest's Stages, Sights & Sounds 2013 at the MCA. It was a true pleasure to mix and mingle...
We were even given a thought provoking "homework" assignment to go on our name tags. It proved to be a good ice breaker and conversation starter. We were asked to provide the first theatre-music-art-or event that "sparked" or inspired your love of the arts. (even if the love of my life did write Evel Knievel)...
We met the masterminds behind the fest...
And we got to catch a sneak peek at the excellent Paige in Full show...
We were sent home with sweet goody bags full of tasty treats from another of our Chi-town favs, Vosge's Chocolate!
ChiIL Mama was elated to be invited to the special VIP kick off party for the Humanities Festival's Stages, Sights & Sounds 2013 and the "final rehearsal" for Paige in Full last night at The MCA.
Over the next two weeks we'll be checking out two more performances from the Stages, Sights & Sounds Series, H.G. and Murder on the Midwest Express as well. We highly recommend you take advantage of this stellar, family friendly 6 show lineup. Loads of school groups will be expanding their brains in the coming days, with school matinee shows, and the nights and weekends are open to the public.
The fairy tale theme is exciting and compelling, and these world class productions have come to us from Switzerland, Scotland, Canada, Mexico, Maryland, and right here in sweet home Chicago. This year's overarching Humanities Festival Theme is Animal: What Makes Us Human, and these productions fit right in.
Shows are selling out quickly, but there's still time to purchase tickets.
Pictured: Lisandra Tena as Mujer Azul and Miguel Nunez as Coyote
It's an incredible staging based on real stories from the hood, skillfully interwoven with traditional Hispanic folktales.
**FLASH TICKET GIVEAWAY**
ChiIL out with 4 free tickets from ChiIL Mama to your choice of remaining Augusta and Noble shows! Be the first to comment below and you're an instant winner. Tell us "What fairy tale do you think most closely resembles your personal story?" and what time/date do you want to see the show, and the tickets are yours!! It's painless and easy.
(WORLDS COLLIDE ALERT: Our friend, Laura K, Co-owner of Matty K's Hardware in Lincoln Square designed the costumes! I would seriously wear the coyote's rockin' hoodie and/or the flowing dyed robes of Blue Woman!)
We were moved by the story line, the excellent acting and by the commitment of Adventure Stage to embracing community and a sense of place. This must see production brings forth stories of the underrepresented and gives them a voice.
Paige in Full was old school and contemporary at the same time, with an overarching Mixed Tape theme as an expression of personality and individuality.
Paige is candid and charismatic, and her voice is a great addition to the series. In the post show Q & A she confided that she began to write her own shows because she didn't see her life, culture, clothing styles and music represented in the plays she was seeing. We're elated her reality's finally being seen and heard... loud and clear. Highly recommended!
Writer and performer Paige Hernandez brings us her unique coming-of-age story, a 21st-century not-so-fairy-tale about Everygirl's search for acceptance, meaning, and her one true love. For ages 12+.
Using the language of hip-hop—dance, rhymes, and beats—Hernandez retraces her life growing up in Baltimore, recounting the joys, losses, and big bad wolves (who turned out to be heartless young men). Blending humor and honesty and embodying more than a dozen characters, she reveals (and helps us remember) not only the perpetual absurdity but also the universal struggles of adolescence.
Mixing live on stage for Paige In Full is Chicago D.J. Sadie Woods.
Part exhibit, part experience, h.g. is an extraordinary retelling of Hansel and Gretel andre-imagines what fairy tales, and theatre, can be. For ages 10+ (*absolutely nobody under 10 admitted--walk through exhibit/performance*).
Last year's Stages favorite (and Chicago's own) Theatre Un*Speak*Able returns this May with its latest physical comedy gem, this time a whodunit about a murder on the high-speed rail tracks between Chicago and Toronto. For ages 10+.
Montréal's L'Illusion, Théâtre de marionettes (puppet theater) uses the original Hansel and Gretel tale by the Brothers Grimm to reflect on poverty, fear, imagination, and change. For ages 6+.
Marionetas de la Esquina's humorous storytelling and whimsical puppetry awaken this sleeping princess as never before in a contemporary take on the classic tale. For ages 5+.
This highly visual, gentle story tells the tale of Cloudia, a cloud expert whose lifelong dream is to see the Cloud Man, a rare creature who lives a quiet life up in the sky.For ages 4+.
