In two weeks, the Loft’s very own theatre troupe, B.O.O.K.: Theatre With A Spine, will present its stage adaptation of Marcus Zusak’s award-winning, 2002 comic mystery, I Am The Messenger. Performed by area teens, this exciting, hilarious, and at times unsettling production will overtake the Evanston Public Library’s Community Room space on the first floor.  You’ll watch an energetic ensemble of actors and technicians create the story and evoke its settings, hear live music, and see short video segments produced and directed by members of the acting troupe.  TWO PERFORMANCES ONLY!  FREE! 

About IATM: When 19 year old cabdriver Ed Kennedy – local deadbeat, hopeless card player, and sad-sack lover – unwittingly stops a bank robbery he begins receiving Aces in the mail.  Each playing card, inscribed with clues, leads Ed to different addresses around his hometown where he must act to change the lives of the people inside.  He has been chosen “to care,” he has been chosen to be “the messenger,” but by whom?   Would you follow the cards?  Would you have the courage to complete each clue even in the face of mortal danger?  And just who is behind Ed’s mission?  Come to the Evanston Public Library on July 25 or 26 to see our theatre troupe rock this “story of laughter, fists, and romance” live. 

Where: Evanston Public Library, Community Room, 1st Floor

When: Saturday, July 25 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, July 26 at 3 p.m.

Cost: FREE!

(This production is recommended for anyone 12 years old and up).

Summer programs in the Loft are just around the corner and we here on staff are ramping up our preparations for what plans to be a fun, exciting three months.  First up: OUR SUMMER THEATRE PRODUCTION!!!

This summer The Loft’s theatre troupe, B.O.O.K.: Theatre With A Spine, will present a stage adaptation of Marcus Zusak’s hilarious and moving comic mystery novel, I AM THE MESSENGER.  We are looking for male and female teen actors, musicians, artists, scavengers, writers, anyone technically-minded, and anyone who loves this book who want to create exciting theatre out of Zusak’s great coming-of-age story.

In order to be a part you must be:

*15-18 years old.

*Willing to commit to 2-3 reharsals/meetings per week through the months of June and July.

*Game for a creative, playful, ensemble-based rehearsal/production process.

*Available July 19-26 for tech rehearsals/performances.

Interested?

Email Jarrett at theloftepl@gmail.com or talk to one of the staff in The Loft and tell us what you’re interested in doing. 

You’ve got beauty,” I tell her.  “You know that, don’t you?” 

Her face goes a little red as she accepts it.

“Will I see you again?” she asks, and to be honest, I think I’ll regret what I say next.

“Not at five-thirty in the bloody morning.”

She twists on one of her feet, laughing, silently, to herself.

I’m about to leave when she asks, “Ed?”

“Sophie?”

It shocks her that I know her name, but she goes on.  “Are you some kind of saint or something?”

Inside, I laugh.  Me? A saint? I list what I am. Taxi driver. Local deadbeat. Cornerstone of mediocrity. Sexual midget. Pathetic cardplayer.

I say my final words to her.

“No, I’m not a saint, Sophie.  I’m just another stupid human.”

We smile a last smile, and I walk away.  I feel her watching me, but I don’t look back.

-I Am The Messenger by Marcus Zusak.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the fact that for young adults out there who

A scene from The House Theatre's hit 2007 show, The Sparrow.

 really enjoy theatre, but who might want to see more stories on stage featuring characters like them, there aren’t a ton of options.  Sure, there are children’s theatre companies (and the best children’s theatre is inventive, depthful, whimsical, and true – theatre that all ages can enjoy), and there are a few theatre companies peppered throughout Chicago (like The House Theatre) producing shows for adults and teens alike.  There are even initiatives like Steppenwolf For Young Adults, a program that gives teens a chance to work with professional theatre artists and attend performances of books adapted to the stage.  If you look hard enough there are definitely some cool and exciting theatrical goings-on for young adults out there. 

But that’s the thing: You have to look hard.  I wonder why there aren’t more stage characters who are like Frankie Landau Banks or Marcus (a/k/a W1n5t0n) from Little Brother?  I wonder why there aren’t more stories for young adults on stage as true to freshman year life as Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, as epic and dangerous as A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, or as inventive and bold as Uglies by Scott Westerfeld?

I’m thinking hard on this because I realized that two of my favorite plays – Stone Cold Dead Serious by Adam Rapp and Four by Christopher Shinn – do tell stories that feature teens as main characters and are as moving, humorous, and compelling as any of the great YA novels we have in The Loft.  And then I realized that there are a lot of excellent YA-plays like these across the drama universe, but it’s rare to find them all in the same place. 

So what if we collected a stack of the best modern (and classic) YA-themed plays at The Loft?  Plays like The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow by

A scene from Jenny Chow.

 Rolin Jones, a play about an 18 year old adopted from China who builds a flying cyborg that she sends to China to find her birth parents?  Beyond being great reads, maybe you’ll want to suggest a few of them to your school theatre department for production or use scenes for acting team.

If there are any plays you think we should have in our (maybe) collection email me - jdapier@cityofevanston.org.   

(Btw - There’s one almost entirely teen-run theatre company in Chicago that is devoted to producing original pieces of theatre written and performed by teens.  It’s called Albany Park Theatre Project and their work is roofless, intense, and stun-stun-stunning.  I only didn’t mention them because I’m saving it for another post.  Stay tuned!).

-Jarrett

B.O.O.K.: Theatre with a Spine

The Loft’s Teen Reader’s Theatre Troupe

performs scenes from Laura Resau’s riveting novel, Red Glass.

Saturday, May 24, 3 pm, in the Loft!

Adults and teens are welcome!

With permission from and in gratitude to author Laura Resau. This program is funded by an LSTA grant from the Illinois State Library.

B.O.O.K.: Theatre with a Spine Rehearsal at 3 pm today, Saturday 5/10, in:

March 16, Sunday afternoon, 3 pm in the Loft.

Award-winning author and poet Marilyn Nelson comes to Evanston Public Library! Marilyn Nelson has won two Pushcart Prizes, two creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut for five years. Several collections of her poetry have been finalists for the National Book Award.

Nelson’s Carver: A Life in Poems, tells the story of George Washington Carver, an African American inventor, botanist, and scholar. Carver’s life unfolds in 44 poems in a stunning use of poetry as biography. Nelson will start her visit in the teen Loft, when B.O.O.K.: Theatre with a Spine (teen reader’s theatre troupe) performs scenes from Carver at 3 pm. Teens and adults are welcome to attend the performance! Then, at 4 pm, all ages are invited to hear Nelson read from selected works in the Community Meeting Room.

B.O.O.K. performs with permission from, and in gratitude to author and poet Marilyn Nelson and Front Street and Boyd Mills Press.

B.O.O.K: Theatre with a Spine, presents:

Scenes from Life as We Knew it, by Susan Beth Pfeffer (Harcourt, 2006)

Saturday, Feb 16 @ 3 pm, in:

With permission from and in gratitude to the author. Funded by an LSTA grant.

B.O.O.K: Theatre with a Spine (reader’s theatre troupe) Rehearsal!

Saturday, February 9, 3-5, in: