Schedule Change for 50 Plays August 20th!

August 20

Derek Is An Asshole – Jeff Bouthiette

Scratch’d – Hank Boland

The Saddest vacant Lot In The World – Jay Steigmann

Burka Betty - Kyra Lewandowski

ONLY THREE SHOWS LEFT!!!

(The Best of) 50 Plays by Joe Janes

ONLY THREE SHOWS LEFT!!!

(Dana Black in Berka Betty)

“Silly. Bizarre. Violent. Provocative.” – The Chicago Reader

Donny's Skybox Theater @ Second City, 1608 N. Wells, 4th Floor

Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. – August 20, 27 and September 3

$13.00 General Admission

$10.00 for Students

$8.00 for Students of the Second City Training Center

Go to www.secondcity.com for on-line sales or purchase at the door

(The Best Of) 50 Plays - Reader Review

Brian Costello from The Chicago Reader came to our opening night.

Here are some quotes...

"silly, bizarre, violent, and provocative"

"...the pieces showcase Janes's willingness to take risks of all kinds."

You can read the rest of the review HERE.

Twilight

It is not unusual for me to read a book long after its been published or not see a movie until it comes to DVD (or, now, streaming on Netflix). This is especially so if it is something that is wildly popular. Seems the more popular it is, the less interested I am. Maybe this goes back to my general attitude in high school, which applied mostly to other students and Top 40 music. If everybody likes it, I probably won't.

Once in a writing class I was teaching, I had a student who wrote a parody of Twilight. It was clear she had not read the book. Even though I hadn't either, she just wasn't able to address some of the logic issues I was having. My advice to her, and I stand by this, is that if you want to poke fun at something, you have to know it well. Read the book. The first film had yet to be made. Read the book, then write the scene. She cursed me, read the book, cursed me some more, and wrote a very funny scene poking fun at the over-the-top soap opera antics of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight.

Had I given that advice to me, I simply would have written something else and skip the pain of reading a 500-page book about dreamy vampires in love. My resistance to the book is also rooted in my love and affection for Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. High school. Vampires. Been there. Loved it. Don't spoil it for me. I once almost watched the first Twilight film. I'm a whore for free preview weekends on cable. However, I almost always have bad timing for them and hardly ever see anything I really want. Twilight was on. I left it on while I did other things. Pretty sure I followed the story pretty well, too, with only a few glances at the screen.

I know I did, because I recently read the book. On a challenge. This isn't a story about how I have been turned around and am now a fan. Far from it. However, I do have a different appreciation for it. Considered in the right context, it's actually a really enticing book. Weighed as a book for adults? Keep it away from my bookshelves, please. It's sort of like Rebecca Black's debut music video Friday. It's horrible. But when you consider she's barely in her mid-teens, well, then, that's a pretty damn impressive video, don't you think?

Twilight is a book written for young adults. That's the section I found it in after overcoming my embarrassment to ask the store clerk to help me find it. This book is not for grown-ups. You want grown-up literary vampires, hit up Anne Rice. These are vampires written for teens. Specifically, teenage girls. This book hits its target. Not me. It's also written in the first person of Bella, the smart, but klutzy girl who doesn't realize how good lookin' she is until all the boys at her new school fall all over themselves to meet her. All of them, except the broody Edward. Who can sometimes be nice. It reads like her diary. It's like peeking in on her most intimate thoughts, something her glistening mind-reading vampire boyfriend can't even do. It's made to stir the loins of young girls. Not my much older, hairier loins.

This book is not for me. It's for teenage girls. Or the teenage girl in you. For me to bitch about its existence is ridiculous. It was not designed with middle-aged bald guys in mind. For me to complain about it is like me lamenting about Sesame Street being condescending to adults or Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood failure to show an adult male perspective.

Now, I have read books for young adults that I enjoy. They do exist. But whether I enjoy them or not is moot. What matters is if the target audience enjoys it. Clearly, my Twilight book knows who it wants turning its pages.

So, if you're an awkward, but smart and somewhat pretty teenage girl, you'll probably really enjoy this book or the film. If you are not, watch Daybreakers. Good vampire movie. The kind where vampires actually kill people.

Opens Saturday!

(The Best Of) 50 Plays

This looks like it will be the shows that will be representing "50 Plays" during our run at the Skybox. Your opportunity to see some of the shows you missed or see some of the ones you liked again. Click on the "50 Plays" image at the top of the right hand column for tickets and info.

50 Plays Skybox Shows

July 30
A Love That Lasts Forever – Jen Ellison
Baby Blue Sedan – Cody Spellman
Four Men – Jason Fleece
Burka Betty – Kyra Lewandowski

August 6
Suddenly Stupid – George Lyons
Peter Pain – Dina Klahn
Baby Blue Sedan – Cody Spellman
Beat Noir – Bina Martin

August 13
Breakfast with Burt and Birdie – Rebekah Walendzak
The Machine Breaks Down– Don Hall
Scratch’d– Hank Boland
Mango Mouth– Emily Darlington Cooke
Burka Betty - Kyra Lewandowski

August 20
The Saddest vacant Lot In The World – Jay Steigmann
Butterfly Jar – Sydney Chatman
Derek Is An Asshole – Jeff Bouthiette
Burka Betty - Kyra Lewandowski

August 27
Moving Box – Rob Colletti
Violent Femmes - Leitia Guillard
Belmont – Hank Hilbert
Rover from Dover – Rich Cotovsky
Burka Betty - Kyra Lewandowski

Sept 3
Moving Box – Rob Colletti
Express Yourself – Cassie Ahiers
Hogan’s Real Piesca – Megan Smith
Burka Betty - Kyra Lewandowski

Next

(Dana Black in "Burka Betty" directed by Kyra Lewandowski which will be in the Skybox shows.
Photo by Stephanie Douglass)

50 Plays went well. For an event that crammed 50 directors and their casts (of over 200) into two weekends at Strawdog's Hugen Hall, things could not have gone better. Next up will be the (The Best of) 50 Plays at Second City's Donny's Skybox July 30th- Sept 3rd. Saturdays at 7:30pm.

Many people asked me how this compared to 365 Sketches. Both had their challenges. 365 was certainly more grueling. The writing process was more grueling, at times, and when we presented the shows they were over 11 consecutive nights, including midnight shows on Friday and Saturdays. We were pretty loopy by the end of it. 50 Plays had its technical and logistical challenges simply because we bumped up from 26 directors to 50 and the number of actors increased. Scheduling techs and shows was a small nightmare. Creating theme-based evenings got thrown out the window quickly because there were too many scheduling conflicts to juggle. We (and by "we" I mean "I") screwed up scheduling the shows and it wasn't caught until we were between weekends. This resulted in an encore performance of Baby Blue Sedan on the second Thursday and the addition of Belmont to the second weekend's Friday 8pm show. It's all good, though. Both were great shows. I hope you get to catch some of the Skybox shows.

Don has a nice summation of the Strawdog weekends on his blog. Click here.