Raven Theatre [WORKING TITLE] Fall 2014: The American Workplace

Chicago-area playwrights are now invited to submit scripts to [WORKING TITLE] Fall 2014 for a workshop presentation at Raven Theatre in November. Please note: The workshop is only open to playwrights who live within a 50-mile radius of Chicago's city limits.

[WORKING TITLE] Fall 2014 seeks scripts that explore the contemporary American workplace. The story can occur anyplace that Americans earn a living -- a corporate headquarters, a basement start-up, a county courtroom, a designer boutique, a delivery truck, a laptop at Starbucks, a customer service desk, NASA headquarters, a tollbooth?

Submission guidelines
Plays must explore the contemporary American workplace in a significant way.
Chicago-area playwrights only.
Unproduced plays only; however previous readings and developmental workshops are acceptable.
Full-length only; no musicals or adaptations.
Submit full scripts (word doc or pdf) plus a brief synopsis, character breakdown and contact information to susan@RavenTheatre.com
Submission deadline: February 28, 2014
Please include your LAST NAME and PLAY TITLE in the subject line of the email.
Playwrights must be available to attend several weeks of rehearsal at Raven Theatre.

For further information, please contact Susan Lieberman at susan@raventheatre.com and check www.RavenTheatre.com/working-title-new-play-development

ADA 101: The ADA & Cultural Spaces

Please join us for Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium (CCAC)'s Kick-Off Program . . .
ADA 101: The ADA & Cultural Spaces
Date: Monday, January 27, 2014
Time: 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Location: Lincoln Park Zoo, Judy Keller Education Center , 2150 N. Cannon Drive Chicago, Illinois 60614
Registration Required: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/ada-101-the-ada-cultural-spaces-tickets-9879217004 . If you encounter difficulties using this online registration, please RSVP to chicagoculturalaccess@gmail.com.
Description: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became federal law more than 20 years ago, but not all cultural organizations are aware of its implications, or about the recent changes in 2010. Join us for a brief ADA introduction geared towards beginners, especially focusing on how the law relates to cultural organizations like yours. To help make the topic more approachable, a panel of local cultural administrators will practically discuss how different-sized cultural organizations--representing a variety of budgets and facilities--have approached different aspects of the law.

Submit your own ADA questions prior to the session to ChicagoCulturalAccess@gmail.com. Submit questions by January 25. All questions will remain anonymous.
Facilitator: Robin Jones, Director, Great Lakes ADA Center
Panel members include: Christena Gunther, Elmhurst Historical Museum; Evan Hatfield, Steppenwolf Theatre; Lynn Walsh, Chicago Children's Museum and more To Be Announced

Accommodations and Accessibility Information:
• The event space is accessible to wheelchair-users and visitors who need to avoid stairs.
• Open Captioning and Assistive Listening Devices will be available.
• For further accessibility information or to request additional accommodations, please contact ChicagoCulturalAccess@gmail.com or call Lynn Walsh at 312-464-7679. We kindly request 2 weeks notice for other accommodations.

Directions
Lincoln Park Zoo is located off Lake Shore Drive at the Fullerton Parkway exit, just minutes north of downtown Chicago. From I-94, exit at either Fullerton Parkway or North Avenue and go east. CTA bus routes 151 or 156 both serve the zoo; for schedules, contact the RTA/CTA at 312-836-7000. Visit the CTA/RTA Travel Information Center.
Parking The zoo’s parking lot entrance is located at Fullerton Parkway and Cannon Drive (2400 North Cannon Drive, Chicago IL 60614). Parking fees are collected at the lot exit.
Rates: 0–30 minutes—No charge 30 minutes or more—$20 flat rate

An Ideal Theater Book Reading with Todd London

Todd London, artistic director of New Dramatists, will discuss his new book, An Ideal Theater: Founding Visions for a New American Art, a wide-ranging documentary history of the American theatre movement as told by the visionaries who goaded it into being, in a collection of over forty essays, manifestos, letters and speeches. Joining him for readings from the book will be Henry Godinez (resident artistic associate, Goodman Theatre; co-founder, Teatro Vista), Martha Lavey (artistic director, Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Derrick Sanders (founder, Congo Square Theatre), Chay Yew (artistic director, Victory Gardens Theater) and more.

A Reading with Todd London
Friday, January 31 at 4:00 PM
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
1650 N. Halsted Street
Chicago, IL 60614

This event is FREE and open to the public.
Please RSVP to Steppenwolf Audience Services at (312) 335-1650 or by emailing customerservice@steppenwolf.org.

Industry Ticket Offer

Hospitality Suite - Citadel Theatre Company, 300 S Waukegan Rd in Lake Forest, is offering free industry tickets to previews for shows February 3, 4, 5, & 6 at 7:30 pm, $10 industry rate tickets for Opening Night, February 7th at 8pm, and $10 industry rate tickets for Thursday performances at 8pm on Feb. 13, 20, 27, and March 6. For $10 tickets call 847.735.8554 or visit www.citadeltheatre.com and use code "Industry10." For free preview tickets please call ahead at 847.735.8554.

Links Hall Seeking Performance Applications for Thaw

Links Hall, a facility that supports new, innovative work by individual dancers, musicians, and performance artists, is looking for dancers, actors, and performance artists to submit performance applications for their annual fundraiser, Thaw, held this year at the Dank Haus on April 3rd. Last year over 700 people attended Thaw and for participating artists, it is an opportunity to be seen and heard by a large audience, to make a professional connection with Links, and to connect with other artists for a good cause. Click here to Apply.

Here is some information about last year's Thaw event: http://linkshall.org/THAW/tabid/170/Default.aspx

Applications for the Chicago Home Theater Festival 2014 are Open

Applications for Chicago Home Theater Festival 2014 are officially open! We are looking for locals who wish to participate and share their work throughout the month of May as we collectively reroute Chicago’s artistic map.

Our process is simple; our artists & hosts are matched based on shared interest and availability. If you are interested in this year's festival, please fill out our short application at our website- http://chicagohtf.org/. Here are a few ways anyone can get involved:
1. Hosts open up their homes to a small audience for one evening of conversation, performance, and video. Previous hosts have shared meals or stories relating to their personal history or home. Typically the evening does not last past 11PM.
2. Artists share an existing project, excerpt, or work-in-progress once, or develop an original site-specific/ site-responsive work within a host's home. Artists working in performance and/or video, including short films, comedy, dance, theater, puppetry, documentary, storytelling, etc.
3. Volunteers assist with key production values within production coordination, tour guides, social media, photo, video, or audio documentation. College credit may be available if applicable.

Last year was a wonderful success even with zero budget and little time to plan. Our successes even raised over $3,000 to directly pay our artists and hosts last year. Thankfully, we were awarded a grant from the Propeller Fund / Andy Warhol Foundation to jump start the process. This year we are intentionally building on lessons learned from 2013 and emphasizing a couple of key elements as we re-imagine who art is for, by, and where it happens. Here are a few of our intentions for this year:
• Chicago Home Theater Festival 2014 features 18 home venues in May 2014 (exact dates TBD)
• Explore a geographically unique range of neighborhoods with equal distribution within north, west, and south sides
• Reach out to varied home spaces including studios, apartments, houses, senior homes, youth homes, women's shelters, etc.
• CHTF hosts an incredibly diverse spectrum of people, disciplines, neighborhoods, practices, and cultural identities
• Hosts & artists can collaborate to develop original, site-responsive work about a specific neighborhood, home, and locale
• The application deadline is January 31st, 2014

Like us on Facebook for updates and sneak peeks on this year's festival. If you have any questions, please forward them to chi.htf@gmail.com. Consider sharing this call to your friends, colleagues, mentors. This festival spans the city and we wish to include an eclectic range of individuals, neighborhoods, communities, art, and cultures.

Industry Ticket Offers

ComedySportz - 929 W. Belmont Ave., is offering a FREE industry night – Tonight only, Thursday January 2. FREE TICKETS for any industry member to their 8pm performance. A 7pm reception will kick off the evening to meet n' greet with other theaters, and get 2014 started off right! All theater members, staff, and artists are welcome to attend. RSVP's not necessary, but appreciated: e-mail bruce@comedysportzchicago.com.

If you don't pay attention to me, I WON’T PAY ATTENTION TO YOU (on being an actor in the attention economy)

If you don't pay attention to me, I WON’T PAY ATTENTION TO YOU (on being an actor in the attention economy)
A workshop with Sarah Lewis of Lewis Forever
January 11 and 12 from 12-4pm both days
Sarah Lewis is a Berlin-based performer, director, curator and educator. Her present work focuses on knowledge dissemination through theatrical forms. Throughout this free 2 day performative discussion, participant-actors will use method acting techniques to observe, reflect, and enact how we construct and disseminate identity in the digital age. Open to performers and non-performers. Reserve here!

This workshop is part of DCASE’s OnEdge series - a new FREE series will spotlight experimental dance, theater, and genre-defying performances and workshops from national and international artists and companies. See the whole program here.

Remy Bumppo Rehearsal Space Available starting February 6.

Remy Bumppo's rehearsal space at 3717 N Ravenswood has availability starting February 6. Rates vary from $11 - $16 per hour, depending on hours scheduled per week. Approximately 800 sq ft, close to Addison Brown Line. Contact Rachel Thomas at rthomas@remybumppo.org or 773-244-8119.

Creative Chicago Expo Call for Proposals

The 11th annual Creative Chicago Expo will take place on Friday March 14 and Saturday March 15, 2014, from 10-4pm, at the Chicago Cultural Center.

The Expo connects thousands of creative individuals, businesses and organizations with local and national tools and resources to strengthen their enterprise. Last year over 7,500 attended this free event. Whether an artist, a musician, a fashion designer, an opera company or an artisanal chef, the Expo has something for you.

Vendors and Workshop/Info Session Proposals are sought. Deadline is January 2, 2014.

Use this online application to submit proposal(s) for 2014 Creative Chicago Expo Workshops and Info Sessions and to register to be an Expo Vendor.

Call for Projects for Danse Elargie

n 2010, Boris Charmatz, director of the Musée de la danse, and Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, director of the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, collaborated to devise a brand new type of event: over the course of a weekend, the Danse Élargie competition opens the stage of the Théâtre de la Ville to all generations of artists from a wide range of disciplines, and their most singular desires. The only rule is the maximum length of performance (10 minutes) and the minimum number of performers (no less than 3).

In 2014, with the experience of the first two competitions, and with the renewed sponsorship of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, the Théâtre de la Ville and the Musée de la danse are organizing the 3rd annual Danse Élargie competition, to be held on June 14–15, 2014 at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris.

Click here for more information.

Industry Ticket Offers

The Normal Heart - TimeLine Theatre at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. is offering $20 Industry tickets for Tuesday 12/17 at 7:30 pm at Stage 773 with code INDUSTRY20. (773) 327.5252 or timelinetheatre.com/tickets or at the door.

We Three Lizas - About Face Theatre at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. is offering half-price Industry tickets with code INDUSTRY. Tickets available at (773) 327.5252 or http://bit.ly/W3Ltickets or at the door.