Vaudeville Vivat!

Vaudeville Vivat! Closed in May 2010.   It was a unique look at how comedy from the early 20th century and the early 21st century could cross in a partly scripted and partly improvised comedy revue

Playground Theater, Chicago, IL
Saturdays, 10pm, April 10, 17 May 1, 8, 15, 22

For Ticket info, visit the link at the top of this page

“Vaudeville Vivat!” is a new show created by EP Productions combining multi media, sketch, improv, music and dance into a two act show.

This show will utilize an ensemble to create a modern comedy variety show with the look and feel of a 1916 vaudeville show complete with an entire vaudeville ensemble featuring Chicago actors that accents their special talents.

The show asks, “Can the last 100 years of American stagecraft and performance be combined into a modern performance with a 1916 style with modern minimalistic techniques?”

“Vaudeville Vivat!” will be structured similar to a classic vaudeville or showboat performance with an improvised storyline thread that ties sketch comedy, improv, multi media, dance, improvised choreography, improvised songs, classic vaudeville songs, traditional vaudeville acts, and circus acts

Vaudeville Vivat! Production Team:
Executive Producer: EP Productions
Director: Dave Jennings
Movement/Choreography Director: Jeff Gandy
Musical Director: Amanda Murphy
Set/Aesthetics Designer/Scenic Artist: Kristin Abahalter
Technical Director/Producer: Tyler Samples
Producer: Megan Kelleher
Multi Media/Film Production: Endless Eye Productions/ Jeremiah Hammering

Vaudeville Vivat! Cast:
Christina Igaraividez
Jason Adams
Katia Piza
Mo McKibbin
Sam Guinan-Nyhart
Shane Campo
Todd Obuchowski
Wolfgang Stein
Zephian Michaels

PHOTOS BY Tze-Liang Chiam & Bindu Kodwaney

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Process: Vaudeville Vivat!

They say you have to walk before you can run. It’s true. Especially when putting together an ensemble based show. With a group that has never worked together as a whole, there is a huge deal of getting everyone on the same page while still striving to keep the unique visions and ideas flowing through the piece.

With “Vaudeville Vivat!” the cast was chosen because of their strengths in improvisation, singing, movement, mime, and general performance, but the first rehearsals focused on just “being.” When Director Dave Jennings met with the cast for the first time, there was just table talk—or rather floor talk, sitting in an empty apartment the cast just talked about the ideas and hopes they had. Past experiences and expertise played a major part in the scene creation and improvised pieces.

“I wrote my senior thesis on the history of burlesque entertainment in Minneapolis” said Katia Piza, who would later develop a character based on Eva Tanguay, one of the most famous burlesque dancers of the early 1900’s.

“I graduated from Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Clown College” added Todd Obuchowski, who is creating specific mime pieces based on classic vaudeville acts.

So, then the process continued. Simple improv exercises in moving in space that are well known to students of improvisation as their first week’s curriculum were used to just get the cast to know each other. Soon more difficult exercises we layers on top of thos simple ones to make the impossible—possible.

Movement Director Jeff Gandy started by just having the cast walk across the room to a beat while “Mika” pounded from a boom box. Teaching them a very simple step or movement and then adding character and spirit to it. Rarely do improvisers get a chance to learn movement and choreography. Then as Jeff counted up to eight repeatedly the cast would start to improvise their own 8-count choreography and then have the rest of the cast repeat the movements… it looked amazing. Improvised choreography became the basis of an opening number that the cast would then work to create the music for.

During all of this, the cast would also work on their own, researching vaudeville acts, watching youtube.com videos, and reading Wikipedia entries while at their day jobs. A special cast only blog was set up where videos, thoughts, poems, and literature were posted and shared “Did you know the light switch was invented in 1916?” The process was not just about creation, it was about education. There were homework assignments given. In a scripted play the cast would be memorizing lines, but in this case, they would have to memorize history.

During the forth week of rehearsal, the cast brainstormed a list of words they associated with Vaudeville and the year 1916. Musical Director Amanda Murphy took that list and found a set of words that highlighted the feel of the show and time period and used that as the basis for the opening and closing songs. “Most of the music from this time period had strong alliteration, and so I chose words that shared that along with a certain rhythm and feeling that was important to the show,” Amanda Murphy explained to the cast. The lyrics will allow for the characters to improvise lyrics and solos while keeping in tune with the entire ensemble.

And so now in the sixth week of rehearsal, where the cast meets anywhere six to ten hours a week, and communicate via Facebook, email, and text messages during their off days, there is a semblance of a whole that is coming out of the work. They are creating a show that will remain malleable throughout the six performance run and is steeped in history and performance style not often seen today will meld with the modern improv show.

They are not just walking and running, but they are dancing, singing, moving, and improvising—with a support and communication that seems supernatural.

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Alum Work Together in Chicago

It’s always easier working with someone you have worked with before… and that is just the case with “Vaudeville Vivat!” the new show being produced by Extended Play Productions (TheEP).

“Vaudeville Vivat!” will be structured similar to a classic vaudeville or showboat performance with an improvised storyline thread that ties sketch comedy, improv, multi media, dance, improvised choreography, improvised songs, classic vaudeville songs, traditional vaudeville acts, and circus acts.

The show is being created by the ensemble with a combination of techniques borrowed from from Second City, Comedy Sportz, the Brave New Workshop, the iO, musical theater, the University of Minnesota Showboat, and echos many other theatre companies and styles in a way that has never been done before.

It makes sense: the ensemble is pulling from what they know and who they know.

From the great North: University of Minnesota Alumni Dave Jennings (Director, Executive Producer, BFA 2006), Kristin Abahalter (Aesthetics/Scenery Designer, MFA 2005) and Katia Pizia (Ensemble, BA 2005). These three have a common education and experience that makes the process move faster and bigger when bouncing ideas and having a common language with each other.

From the Second City Training Center: Jeff Gandy (Movement/Choreography Director) is on staff at the Second City where Dave Jennings (Director), Mo McKibben (Ensemble) Todd Obochowski (Ensemble), and Wolfgang Stein (Ensemble) have all completed the Conservatory Program. Christina Igaraividez (Ensemble) has studing acting and improv at the Second City. Todd even directs Wolf in his “Ankle Todd Show” at the Playground Theater. Sam Guinan-Nyhart (Ensemble) Dave Jennings (Director) and Zephian Michaels (Ensemble) first met as students in Dean Evan’s Mime Class at Second City. Zephian Michaels is also in the Second City Musical Improv Conservatory Program with Tyler Samples (Producer) and Amanda Murphy (Musical Director)– where all three get the chance to study music and vocal performance. Jeff Gandy also previously directed Stein in “Halibut’s Christmas Show” a few years back (Gandy is also a graduate of the Second City Conservatory).

The World of Work has even made it into “Vaudeville Vivat!” since Dave Jennings, Megan Kelleher (Producer) and Jason Adams (Ensemble) first met while working/acting/improvising at the Museum of Science and Industry. Megan is also a force to be reckoned as a performer at pH Theater, Director at the Annoyance Theatre, and works in the Accounting Department of Second City. Kelleher also directed Jennings in the Annoyance Theater’s Christmas Pageant in 2009.

From iO theater’s training program, most of the cast has studied the Harold in some way including current students Mo McKibben and Tyler Samples. Former students include Todd Obochowski and Wolfgang Stein. Jeff Gandy performed on the iO house team “Otis” and in the show “The Fowler Family Radio Hour,” which played all over Chicago and toured across the country.

Zephian Michaels and Shane Campo have been friends and performed on stage in musicals and plays in their home state of Florida. Shane lived in NYC for awhile before the two friends moved to Chicago and perform in their two person improv group “FDR” who produce their own improv night at The Spot Club on Chicago’s North Side.

Even the Executive Producers– Extended Play– made up of Dave Jennings and Tyler Samples have a long history— having been roommates for the last year and a half since moving from the Twin Cities where they both studied at the Brave New Workshop and went to college (Dave Jennings UMN 2006, and Tyler Samples Macalester 2006).

It’s amazing how so many circles have crossed to make up an amazing creative force poised to take on the world of improv here in Chicago with something Chicago has never seen before.