Summer Sketchbook 2002
Collaboraction

Over the course of 13 days, over 150 contributors made up of actors, directors, writers, designers, musicial and visual artists present all forms of sketch work. From the record mixing of some of Chicago's finest DJ's to a wall of sketches by some of the most renowned visual artsts in the nation.


6/4/02 - 6/16/02


Over the course of 13 days, over 150 contributors made up of actors, directors, writers, designers, musicial and visual artists present all forms of sketch work. From the record mixing of some of Chicago's finest DJ's to a wall of sketches by some of the most renowned visual artsts in the nation. 20 world premiere sketch plays written by playwrights from around the country form the core of Sketchbook. Festival features environmental design by Wesley Kimler.
Summer Sketchbook 2002 contributing artists include: Dzine, Tony Fitzpatrick, Glenn Grafelman, marc Hauser, Wesley Kimler, Vera Klement, Mary Livoni, Teresa Mucha, Ed Paschke, Judith Rafael, Marcos Raya, Art Shay, oli Watt

?Summer Sketchbook, the annual festival of short works presented by CollaborAction, is all about taking chances. Playwrights, directors, designers and actors are given only seven minutes to make a dramatic impression with each of the 20 world premieres to be presented this year.
"We?re peering into the doodling mind of the working artist," said CollaborAction artistic director Anthony Moseley. "The ultimate goal is to create a very unique, open, progressive environment for theatre."
The festival, now in its third year, evolved out of the No MSG Added one-act festival the company sponsored in 1998 and 1999. Sixteen of the 2002 sketches clock in at seven minutes and four thumbnail sketches are under three minutes. Keeping the works short frees the artists, Moseley said. "That?s the whole idea of sketching, we can take risks."
Steppenwolf?s Jessica Thebus is returning to direct for her second Sketchbook. She describes the festival as "a really ingenious and exciting theatrical event.
"I love the challenge of what can be communicated in a really short piece," she said. "It?s just kind of a new adventure." The fact that the project doesn?t swallow two months of time and has a focused and finite time frame is also attractive, Thebus adds. "You can make a very free theatrical gesture without feeling like everything?s riding on this."
This year?s 20 works were selected from over 400 submissions. Participating playwrights represent the entire spectrum of experience. Pulitzer Prize winning Beth Henley or internationally known Wendy MacLeod, share a bill with new playwrights (such as Gerald Mortenson) or others better known in Chicago in another capacity (such as Sean Graney, the artistic director of The Hypocrites).
Graney has directed for Sketchbook before but this year submitted a script, The Wedding Album of Sandy Benito?s Wedding, a series of tableaux depicting the sad and tragic wedding of a one armed man whose bride cheats on him the night before their wedding.
Graney adds that for new people in the arts community, "It?s a good opportunity to just get to know other people in the field whom you may not have contact with."
Summer Sketchbook is also a mixed-media event. The plays are juxtaposed with a landscape provided by visual artist Wesley Kimler and soundscapes from Chicago DJs such as Anacron, Paul Leroy, Hiroki and Jesse De La Pena.
"We push these guys to really think of these nights as their own canvases," Moseley said. "It makes this real interesting bridge between works and it?s really unique and spontaneous."
Kimler, a CollaborAction board member, will come in overnight during the festival and create black and white abstract drawings on the back wall at the Chopin Theatre.
"CollaborAction is a very inclusive company and we try to embrace as many different styles and approaches as possible," Moseley said. "Everyone will get touched by something in an evening." JENN GODDU, PerformInk June 7, 2002

?With its pulsating dance music, hip deejays and free-flowing vodka lemonades, Collaboraction's 3-year-old Summer Sketchbook initially was more about creating a trendy event for young arty yuppies than functioning as a serious Chicago showcase for new, short plays.
But this year's Sketchbook, which opened in typically expansive and bacchanalian fashion on Tuesday night, has managed to significantly ramp up the quality. The pumped-up style of presentation still might seem gimmicky to some, but there's no question that this is theater with a frisson of excitement.
And whereas plenty of Chicago troupes constantly whine about the short attention span of today's audiences, Collaboraction has found the good sense to create a summer event that actually exploits it.
Despite the ongoing popularity of the 10-minute play, no one else in town has created an ongoing festival of these works. That's curious. At this year's Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville -- the place that first made 10-minute plays famous -- it was the shorties that got the only good reviews.
In actuality, most of the works in Sketchbook are about eight- minute plays. By insisting on a short length this year, Collaboraction has come up with a snappier set of works -- and has avoided getting too many retreads from other festivals.
The highlights of the 10 plays that made up Tuesday's opening night of Sketchbook (another 10 will be added into the rotation) include a droll piece from playwright Warren Leight ("Sideman").
Set in a jury room, Leight's "Nine Ten" is a delicious spoofing of trivial urban concerns and contains a very potent sting in its narrative tale. Lynn Bernatowicz's production is savvy and funny.
The other big name on display is Wendy MacLeod, who turned in a less-than-original but still poignant little piece called "Tornado" that involves the sadness of a woman cheating on her husband.
The best staged works of the laudably diverse night were "Cool Shoes," a provocative and wordless dance piece by Gerald Mortensen; Jimmy McDermott's delicately framed production of Sean Graney's darkly comic "The Wedding Album of Sandy Benito's Wedding"; and Karin Diann Williams' "The Fur Trigger," an edgy, naked affair about the aftermath of a one-night stand.
One might want to hit the bar during "Please No Spitting," a dumb play performed entirely on cell phones. "Last Night" by Jack Goodstein was a prosaic theatrical exercise, and Steve Amick's well meaning "They Said We Were Soldiers" lacked sufficient punch.
But the busts go by quickly.
And in terms of dramatic substance, by far the most interesting play of the night was Michael Garces' "Tell Her That," which deals with two hapless parents trying to communicate with their teenager.
It's directed by Joanie Schultz with palpable simplicity and care, and thus a lovely contrast to all of the Sketchbook's interesting noise.? Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune June 7, 2002

Performers
Dzine, Tony Fitzpatrick, Glenn Grafelman, marc Hauser, Wesley Kimler, Vera Klement, Mary Livoni, Teresa Mucha, Ed Paschke, Judith Rafael, Marcos Raya, Art Shay, oli Watt

Tags: Visual Art, American, 2002