Studio Mangiameli show to present new insights into world of flamenco dance

By ERIC SCHELKOPF

Chiara Mangiameli, founder of Chicago-based Studio Mangiameli, www.studiomangiameli.com, and female lead in Rick Bayless's acclaimed "Cascabel," will present her annual show at the Vittum Theater, 1012 N. Noble St., Chicago, from May 30 to June 1.

"Tides" will feature more than 40 dancers, of all ages and from various backgrounds, addressing the events that changed their lives through flamenco dance and song forms with live accompaniment by musicians. More information is available at http://www.studiomangiameli.com/#!shows/c5k2.

I had the chance to talk to Mangiameli about the upcoming production.
  

Q - "Tides" will open later this month. What was your idea for the show and how have your students taken to it?

The idea for this show (as well as most of the theatrical student showcase productions I've directed so far), was to weave some of the dancers' personal experiences into the various choreographies, in order for them to have an investment in the dances that goes beyond simply memorizing steps. 

http://vimeo.com/87824537

"Tides" is ultimately about moments in our lives, experiences, that have left us reeling in some way, altering the landscape of who we are. It's about transformation, resilience, the ability to surprise oneself by surviving, thriving, adapting and growing.

Q - What are some of the fundamental things that you try to convey to your students?

As far as the actual dance form, I try to convey the idea that flamenco dancers are also musicians. They are a reflection of the dynamics, rhythm and mood of the music at any given time. 

Not just through constant movement, but also through stillness, because that too, is part of the musical landscape. Ultimately to reflect the music you must listen, be receptive and make yourself tender and emotionally available to it. 

Quite possible a life long struggle for any dancer.

I try to convey that personal expression is crucial, not just because it reaches and impacts the audience, but because it's transformational for the performer. It teaches us to invest ourselves fully in what we're doing. Not be a bystander to our own experiences.

Q - "Tides" will also feature original live music from several flamenco and world music players, including Carlo Basile of Las Guitarras De España, guitarist Diego Alonso and percussionist Bob Garrett, who will soon to appear in Sting’s new musical, "The Last Ship." Why did you want to work with them and what do you think they bring to the show?

I've worked with the same musicians for years now and I find that with each project, we come closer to understanding, anticipating and finding ways to emphasize our individual aesthetics and strengths. Carlo brings a beautiful classical guitar sensibility and approach to composing music and Diego brings the more syncopated, percussive elements of the flamenco guitar as well as a keen understanding of all flamenco song forms and variations.

Together, these two guitarists bring a wealth of ideas and emotional depth and maturity to the work. Bob is the glue that holds it together with his tremendous knowledge of world percussion.

Q - World-renowned flamenco singer Vicente “El Cartucho” Griego will be the show's special guest. What do you think he brings to the production?

Vicente is a friend and tremendous singer. His voice, much like his personality, is larger than life, warm and soulful. He's also extremely well versed in all flamenco "palos" or songs and brings great authenticity and energy to the stage.

Q - You will again be part of "Cascabel" this summer. What made you want to do the show again? Why do you think it has been such a hit with audiences?

How can I possibly turn down the opportunity to dance with Rick Bayless six days a week, taste his food every day and collaborate once again with the incredible talent that Lookingglass manages to recruit? It also gives me a needed hiatus from my studio to gather inspiration and ideas. 
  

It's a way for me to go back to my acting roots while incorporating flamenco into the mix.... it's coming full circle with my career in some way and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of Chicago's thriving theater community. I think it was successful because it combined an extremely high end dinner experience with phenomenal and very unique talent and acts, and a very romantic tale of lost love. 

The word "magical" was one I heard a lot from audience members...

Q - What do you think of the flamenco music and dance scene in Chicago these days and where do you see it headed in the future?

There is no doubt that the community is growing and that flamenco is getting more recognition in Chicago. As with most art forms I think the dancers, singers and musicians that are most invested in it  will struggle, study and create until they've found their own voice beyond the strict tradition of flamenco and the burden we all sometimes feel in trying to internalize and personalize an art form that is not a part of our culture.

Dream Loud show to benefit low-income Chicago students

By ERIC SCHELKOPF

Cassie Moran knows how important it is to give students the resources they need so they can achieve their dreams.

Moran, founder of the Chicago-based music management company Moxie Rock, www.moxierockmanagement.com, is teaming up with the nonprofit organization Supplies for Dreams to present the Dream Loud benefit show on May 24 at The Cubby Bear, 1059 W. Addison St., Chicago.

Supplies for Dreams, www.suppliesfordreams.org, provides Chicago Public Schools students with resources and extra-curricular activities, including basic school supplies and one-on-one mentoring.

Dream Loud will feature bands Jose and Me, Common Shiner, Cellrs, The Dead Hands and The Holy Motors. The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door, available at www.ticketweb.com.

I had the chance to talk to Moran about the upcoming show.


Q - Great talking to you. How did the show come together and what are your goals for the show?
 
I became involved with Supplies for Dreams in 2013 when I chaperoned a field trip and was able to interact with the CPS students (Supplies' Award-a-field-trip program). After this, I immediately wanted to become more involved and eventually joined the Associates Board for the organization. 

The board is comprised of young professionals from a variety of backgrounds. Aside from Award-a-field trip, we also provide all of our partner schools with school supplies and provide one-on-one mentoring for the students.

After speaking with several musicians about the organization, it became clear to me that there was an opportunity to put together something that encompassed both my passion for the organization and the local music scene here in Chicago. One of the main goals of the show is to spread the word about this organization to the 20 and 30-somethings in the city and provide information on ways to get involved. 

The second goal of the show is to provide these local bands with an opportunity to support an organization that directly influences the youth in this city.
 
Q - I know that you manage the band Common Shiner. How did the lineup for the show come together? Do you think the bands complement one other?

One thing that was really important to me in putting together this lineup was that these bands were all local and that they were excited about supporting the organization. All of the bands on this lineup have been very enthusiastic about Supplies for Dreams and our goals to expand both awareness and our programs in the next year - when I initially pitched the idea, they immediately wanted to be a part of it and help. 

As with any bill I put together, I spend a lot of time focusing on how the bill builds throughout the night and how the sound transitions between the bands. I think the lineup has depth and accomplishes the build I was looking for.
 
Q - This is a busy month for you. You are also the exclusive talent buyer for The Throne Room in Chicago, which opens this month. How are you able to juggle everything?

With a lot of organization and support! I am lucky and grateful that I have a team in both Supplies For Dreams and The Throne Room that is ready to pitch in and help when needed. 

Photo by Kelly Burke

Both of the owners of The Throne Room have been very supportive of Supplies for Dreams and our mission, and likewise, my fellow Supplies for Dreams board members are very supportive of my position at The Throne Room! 

I won't say I'm not very busy this month! But it's a very good kind of busy! Not everyone gets to spend so much of their time focusing on the things that they love to do.

Q - Can we expect you to organize more benefit shows like this in the future? Are there any particular charities that you would like to work with?

Absolutely. I plan to make Dream Loud an annual staple in Chicago for Supplies for Dreams. 

And I would absolutely like to support some other organizations I feel passionate about as well. Another organization in particular would be Trio Animal Foundation. 

I've had the opportunity to participate in a few of their volunteer days at the shelter they work with. Trio helps rescues and individuals by paying the medical bills of homeless pets in the city. 

The other organization I would like to work with at some point is Rock for Kids, which focuses on providing music education to children in need.

Q - What do you think of the current music scene in Chicago and how do you think it compares with other music scenes around the country?

I think we have a lot of potential to be a really solid and connected scene. Right now, I think we're a bit fragmented in comparison with some other major cities. 

You tend to see a lot of bands get to the next level and then leave Chicago, instead of staying and really solidifying what Chicago music is. In the past year, however, I've really seen a major effort to bring the local scene together (e.g., The Music Summit in 2013). 

We have such a wealth of talent here, so the more we can come together, work with the city and each other, I think the more successful we'll be at defining Chicago music as a whole.

Cold Basement Dramatics presents "The Half-Life of Memory"

By ERIC SCHELKOPF

Cold Basement Dramatics in Chicago continues to present thought-provoking productions.

Its latest production, "The Half-Life of Memory," tells the story of a deteriorating former Manhattan Project physicist who has discovered that radioactive material can be extruded from his memory.

Written by local playwright and actor Jason Lindner, "The Half-Life of Memory," will run from June 6 to June 29 at the DCASE Storefront Theatre, 66 E. Randolph St., Chicago. More information is at www.coldbasement.org.

I had the chance to talk to Lindner about "The Half-Life of Memory."


Q - I understand that the character of Salek is loosely based on one of your relatives, Professor Severin Raynor, who worked on the Manhattan Project. Did his stories inspire you to write "The Half-Life of Memory?" 

Many years ago I was introduced to the Radium Girls… in the early days of misunderstood radioactivity they were employed painting radium on the dials of watches – so those dials would glow in the dark… they used very fine brushes to do their work and that meant licking the brushes to make sure they kept their point.

You can only imagine what happened to the poor radium girls with the glow-in-the-dark tonsils. But no one knew what would happen– they didn’t understand the consequences.

That was the dawn of the atomic age and from there knowledge was something that was always the second step. Even as the most brilliant scientists in the world began to build the atomic bomb, the drive was about how to finish and not what would happen when it was done. But then it was done.

Starting from a point of this kind of darkness, mystery, and confusion behind atomic power, I was inspired by the work and tales of my relative to write "The Half-Life of Memory." He was a seriously tough guy – one of those tough guy Jews - more Mickey Cohen and less Woody Allen. 

He helped build the casing for the bomb, he was a renowned professor and in his declining years, fell into dementia. What might that be like, I considered, to be faced with the fact of the bomb, of your integral work, on something that had caused such horror, especially if you had spent your life suppressing it, not thinking about it? 

What might an addled mind exhale into a warped reality to force you to remember? That was where "The Half-Life of Memory" germinated – and, of course, the story is quite a bit different than the real life of Severin Raynor, but it was certainly the impetus, and I looked to his spirit for inspiration and for recrimination if something seemed not quite right.

He was a fascinating guy and a sarcastic son of a bitch. He told me that he moved to the suburbs so as to be out of the blast radius if an atomic bomb landed on Chicago. 

He told me (winking) that paganism was where it’s at – because of the proliferation of nymphs. He told me that if you fight with brass knuckles to try to punch up under the ribs and maybe pop a lung. I was eleven at the time.

He and his wife traveled the world, she was a famous photographer. They together had a power and grace that I still remember and when she was gone, after her own bout with Alzheimer’s, I remember him as a wrecked shell – jagged and hard, but still with a biting wit and lung-popping hilarious dark humor.

Did I mention "Half-Life of Memory" is a comedy? Well, there’s a lot of comedy in it, anyhow.

Q - How long had you been working on the play and is it being staged as you envisioned? 

I originally wrote "The Half-Life of Memory" as my thesis for graduation from the MFA playwriting program at the Yale School of Drama (‘02). It hasn’t exactly sat in a drawer since that time, but I have been careful with it, considering how I would like to revise it for subsequent production.

The amazing folks at Cold Basement were excited enough to give me the space, time, and process I needed to really make the show hum as it does in its present form. It wasn’t exactly as labor intensive as gleaning radioactive material but it does have a certain glow now.

As for staging – though I have a kind of vision, I don’t feel that’s really the realm of the playwright alone. I leave it up to our capable director, Sophie Blumberg, and the actors, and amazing technical folks. It’s a collaborative process that has a beauty to it in all of its composite parts.

I guess all that is to say – "The Half-Life of Memory" is most certainly not being staged as I envisioned it, and that is the most wonderful thing about it – because my vision is limited to just me… and in collaboration, a theatre piece becomes alive as the power of all these wonderful minds are unleashed on it. 

It would be terrible if a play was staged as I envisioned it… how boring is that?

Q - What would you like audiences to take away from "The Half-Life of Memory" when it opens next month? Is the play as timely now as when the Manhattan Project was going on in World War II?

Growing up, I thought that when any family got together for a meal, or for Thanksgiving, or whatever, the topic of conversation would always be WWII. My family was made up of survivors of the holocaust and they left Europe in the 1950s.

For me, WWII then will always be present and as part of a meal or a conversation as a piece of chocolate cake and a cup of coffee. That being said, the fact of the war and the Manhattan project are secondary in the play. 

Of course the play didn’t exist during World War II (it would have been pretty prescient if it did).

However, the backdrop of the building of the atomic bomb is used in "The Half-Life of Memory" as metaphor to tie more specifically to the theme of trying to understand the past and living with guilt or regret. This is a memory play within the context of the Manhattan project, but the war is only one war and the bomb is just another bomb, wars rage and bombs hit their targets in ourselves all the time.

What do we do with the explosions? Where do they go? If the universe is conserved (a preoccupation of mine these days) then memories and present events “happen” simultaneously. What are the implications of that on a scientist who is slowly losing his marbles?

Of course, every audience member will take what they will from this story, but I hope they are affected and have a chance to consider legacy, memory, and have a bit of a laugh through the dark cynicism of it all. 

Severin would have appreciated the laugh.

Q - You've written and performed for Second City. Why do you think Second City is such a launching pad, especially for budding comics?

Second City maintains a kind of raw energy that makes it spectacular – the ions of charged atmosphere bleed from the walls. The fact that as a neophyte I could stand on the same stage and breathe the same particulates that a Belushi or an Ackroyd or Colbert once breathed made for a real charge and as a young comic that makes all possibilities seem vibrant and accessible.

In my first class, the first exercise we ever did involved marching up on stage and announcing “I am an Improv God, so Fuck it!” Everything from there was an attempt to keep up that kind of free expression. It’s a beautiful place.

Q - What are your favorite topics to write about and why? How has it been seeing your work showcased by the likes of Disney and Fox TV?

I’m a dark humor and satire guy – all of my plays live in a kind of morass of comedy, dark and thick as nutella, on pumpernickel. My plays tend to be story based with characters inhabiting a story, rather than the other way round – though I am envious of writers whose characters seem to talk to them in the corners of their living rooms, that’s not really my speed – I like a plot and a story and then the characters live inside there.

There are so many talented people out there it is truly depressing… I mean.. uh inspiring (but also depressing). You consider that you have these gifts to bear and then you go somewhere like Disney and see a bevy of Kings from the Orient with myrrh to spare all piled into a corrugated metal warehouse. 

It’s a tricky thing because out there in the large entertainment conglomerates they are beholden to many masters. There’s perfection that can be achieved in that system, but there’s great restriction too.

Q - Do you have any dream projects?

I am fascinated by the possibilities of technology in theater – I wonder what can be done when the proscenium is atomized and an audience is online as well as in person. What possibilities does that open up?

I recently wrote a play that was performed by an actor in Singapore (the director was in Argentina) for an audience at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. It was rehearsed and performed entirely via Skype. 

That was exciting to me – how can we open up the world like that? Three dimensional projection technology and artificial intelligence are aspects I’d like to weave into future projects too.

Also, interactivity is not a fad, people desire their theatre to give them the option of investing in it as more than an observer. What is the extreme there, how can we move people with what they are able to contribute while still giving them a story and allowing them the chance to be captivated.

How does the theatrical medium stay vital in that context? I’m not sure – but I am excited to find out.

On the other hand.. just give a solid director three blocks and a few top-notch actors and it’s possible to magically perform any play in the world.

The Dodos coming to Chicago on heels of acclaimed album

By ERIC SCHELKOPF

San Francisco duo The Dodos expands its musical horizons on its latest album, the critically acclaimed "Carrier."

The Dodos, www.dodosmusic.net, will perform with Neko Case at 7:30 p.m. May 13 at The Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St., Chicago. Tickets are available through www.ticketmaster.com.

I had the chance to talk to percussionist Logan Kroeber about the album.


Q - Great talking to you. How has the tour with Neko Case been going? Do you think you complement each other?
 
We are having a great time being out with her and her crew. Musically I think we're different enough to have a nice contrast between the bands, but we're not weirding out her audience either. At least so far.
 
Q - "Carrier" has received a lot of critical acclaim. In sitting down to make the album, what were your goals and do you think you accomplished them?
 
In hindsight the goals I had then have faded a bit. What stands out to me now is that we started writing some new styles of songs and that we started a new creative relationship with the Pellicci brothers, who engineered and mixed the album.
 

Q - How did the passing of Christopher Reimer shape the album? What is his lasting impact on the band?

There was some atmospheric guitar stuff Meric did that was directly inspired by him, but I think his lasting impact on us will be more personal than musical. Just his patience and style of humor more than anything.

Q - This is the first time the band has recorded an album in your hometown of San Francisco. How did that affect the recording process? Was it a more relaxed atmosphere?
 
It was not that different than in the past, because we tend to work long hours regardless of where we are. But Tiny Telephone is a unique environment that we're stoked to be a part of. 

I guess it was more relaxed in that I shaved about 10 miles off my bike ride to the studio versus the "No Color" sessions.

Q - What do you think of the San Francisco music scene and where do you see the band fitting into it? 

It's doing pretty good. A lot of people are bemoaning bands leaving SF right now, but I'm looking forward to seeing what springs up in their places. 

I don't know where we fit into it all, just that we're happy to be here. 

Q - How do you think the band has evolved since first forming and what direction do you see the band going from here?
 
We're a little more dependent on technology for some songs now, but the main evolution has probably been the way our shared rhythmic sense has gotten weirder and more obscure. Teaching our songs to a third party always underscores this for me. 

It's really fun so I hope we continue down this lane.