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Michael Ingersoll 'wows' Metropolis
Jersey Boys star Michael Ingersoll put on a heart-stopping performance on July 21, 2008 at Metropolis, with a little help from his wife Angela, and his friends in The Jersey Boys, Jarrod Spector, Drew Gehling, and John Hickman. The day after the show, he went on to sell out two more performances at Metropolis - in a just few hours.
Word has it, there are two more shows in the works... Check back soon.
View the Photo Gallery from the show here.
Read the Daily Herald Review here.
Interview with Damn Yankees Director, Chris LoDuca
If you're tired of waiting until October for the fun of a World Series baseball game, you're a lot like Chris LoDuca.
That's one of the reasons he's directing Damn Yankees at Metropolis, starting in September.
"I want the audience to get the warm fuzzies about the way baseball and musicals used to be, all in the same day," said LoDuca. "I'm really setting this up like a baseball game more than I am a musical. I just want people to feel really good and sort of remember the good old days and I'm really making a fresh staging of the show, so people remember how fun musicals really are."
LoDuca, a Studio Manager, Designer, Video Director/Editor, Art Director and Creative Director who works in advertising, was asked to direct Damn Yankees earlier this year, and excitedly took the offer.
"When I came back from New York, the Metropolis Executive Director knew I was looking for a directing opportunity and asked me to come on board. I was thrilled and up for the challenge and sort of applied everything I've ever learned," said LoDuca.
LoDuca has learned a lot. Before working at Metropolis, he spent five years living in New York City. A member of Actors Equity and AFTRA, LoDuca has always been interested in theatre and performed in productions all over the Chicagoland area before moving to New York. Though talented (he even got called back for the part of Leo Bloom in The Producers), LoDuca decided that auditioning and acting weren't his forte and found himself working in marketing and advertising for Broadway shows. He was on a team that designed and put together all of the marketing materials for Avenue Q, from taxi-cab lights to marquees and posters. One thing led to another and soon LoDuca was directing short films for business pitches and decided to try on the directing hat.
One of his most well-known projects is "Stealing Kisses," a thirty-minute short film that LoDuca wrote, directed, shot and produced in Chicago (www.StealingKissesMovie.com). The film instantly received wide-spread recognition, featured on Chicago's WTTW and on Columbia Picture's Crackle.com. But directing a film is a lot different from directing for the stage. In film, the director also works with or plays the dual part of the cinematographer, making sure to get footage from different angles so as to make the viewer feel like they're right there in the action. The director also crunches all of his work into a short period of time- in LoDuca's case, four days.
Oddly enough, scheduling has been LoDuca's biggest challenge with Damn Yankees, too. In efforts to choose the most talented and capable cast, Metropolis gave the roles to many of Chicago’s most in-demand actors. As such, it’s important for LoDuca to work with their busy schedules.
"Directing for the stage is very different. For the stage, it's all about getting that moment in the scene and staging it in such a way that it makes a nice picture no matter where someone's sitting. It's more of a challenge in theatre because you're trying to convey something and you want everyone to see the same thing, no matter where they're sitting," he said. "You're dealing with different perspectives. When you're doing a gag or something that's funny, you have to be sure that that can be seen, but you don't want it to be like a cartoon, so there's like a feeling you have to find to make it just right. That's also true with serious moments. It has to be big enough for people to see and not too big to be bad acting."
As a director, LoDuca approaches his job from a "management perspective," he said. When working with the designers, he gave them his basic vision for the show, Jim Flora graphic designs, which are incredibly iconic of the 1950s. When they reconvene later in the process, they bring to the table their ideas and LoDuca tells them what to really "hone in on because they're doing well," he said, and "listen[s] to them and their creative thoughts on the matter," repeating the process until the design is finalized. When casting, he managed the process much like a baseball manager would a team. Of course looking for talented actors, singers and dancers, LoDuca particularly emphasized how much he believed an actor. Could that person be a ballplayer? Was that actress really confident enough to be Lola? David Kovac, who plays Applegate, has actually collaborated with LoDuca before. LoDuca knew that Kovac, a professional comic magician, was "so mysterious; so charming. You can't compare him to anybody else - there's no one else like him."
“When I cast, I'm looking for smart people who look like they’ll give ideas of their own, which is what I have. It's really neat when a cast member comes up with an idea that I'd never really thought about and when I start using and manipulating these ideas,” he said. “The best way to describe putting together a show is - it's like forming a collage.”
LoDuca's favorite part of the production so far is the collaboration between himself, the Choreographer (Kristen Gurbach Jacobson) and Music Director (Danny Singer). He says, "everyone is bringing something to the table. We usually come up with some pretty great ideas between the three of us."
LoDuca's tried acting, advertising, creative design and clearly he's now found a home in directing. Though still fresh into rehearsals (the production opens September 18), LoDuca enjoys working with his talented cast and design team, particularly at Metropolis.
"I love the Metropolis Theatre because it's so intimate. I've seen a couple shows there and you really feel like you're seeing the show, whereas if you're watching a Broadway show, you're in the balcony. You feel like you're really far away and you're not part of the action so much. Every seat at Metropolis is a good seat," he said. "It's way more calm at Metropolis than where I've worked before. It's just different. You get to have a little more fun."
He is having fun, putting together an unforgettable production of Damn Yankees so that the audience, too, will have a great time.
"It's going to be a really unique production of Damn Yankees unlike anyone's ever seen," said LoDuca. "The essence of the story is still the same, just the way it's being told and the way the audience is seeing it is going to be really fun and different."
Damn Yankees opens September 18. For more information, click here.
Interview with Bleacher Bums Director, John Hildreth
 When you’re sitting in the audience, laughing and enjoying a show, you sometimes forget that the actors on stage aren’t the only ones who put in hard work and dedication. There are the designers, who work on the show from the moment it’s conceived, thinking of how they can use sound, lights, costume, and props to bring the audience into the play and make them really believe what they’re seeing. There are the technicians, who perfect this lighting and sound; the crews that build the set; the stage manager who makes sure everything runs smoothly. But it’s the director who heads up this artistic team. The show you’re seeing was once just a vision in a few people’s minds, and he steered it into the finished product.
As Bleacher Bums prepares to take the stage this month, director John Hildreth steps back to reflect on the project with re:create.
Hildreth is no newcomer to Chicagoland theater. His extensive resume includes performing with the Second City Touring Company, directing work with Second City Detroit, teaching improvisation at Second City Chicago and at Columbia College in Chicago and work as an Ensemble Member at Lifeline theatre since 1999. At Lifeline, Hildreth has directed multiple MainStage shows and received two Joseph Jefferson Citations for Best New Adaptations. However, this is his first show at Metropolis.
“I’m glad to get the opportunity to work [at Metropolis]. I’ve known people who’ve acted here and seen shows and like the work that’s done out here,” said Hildreth.
Metropolis is different from many other theaters that Hildreth has worked at because it is a performing arts centre. As a performing arts centre, many different shows are being produced at the same time. The School of Performing Arts also shares the space with each production, making it difficult for a production to get a true feel of the stage long before opening night.
“[The space issue is] more extreme here than other places. At Second City, well, there’s a space crunch there with classes. At Lifeline, we have multiple shows in the same space. I’m used to having more time on the set in the space but that’s what makes this experience more challenging,” said Hildreth.
And he’s always looking for a challenge. It makes his job more rewarding.
“Technical stuff is the most challenging. There’s just not as much time as I’m used to having, working with designers before rehearsal, just because of how the space is and how busy it is here. Every time something comes up in rehearsal, you have to let designers know and trust the designers,” he said, emphasizing the fact that this production is a group effort.
In fact, most shows that Hildreth works on are group efforts. At Second City, all of the material is sketch comedy and therefore written by the performers. In addition to being director, Hildreth also plays the role of Head Writer, working with his cast to put together side-splitting comedies. The script isn’t set in stone at Lifeline either. Known for their world-premiere productions and adaptations, the director and actors frequently work together with the playwright to make script changes.
Even though he doesn’t have as much free reign with the Bleacher Bums script, Hildreth is still having fun with it.
“I like this script, this comedy, the fact that it’s a Chicago play. I believe this particular play was put together through improvisation. It has that feel to it. The original actors came up with their characters and situations and put it all together. It has a loose comedy feel to it, which is very familiar to me,” said Hildreth.
The actors in Metropolis’ production of Bleacher Bums also developed original characters. Hildreth sat down one-on-one with each of the actors to talk about their relationships at the beginning of the play and how they change by the end. He then paired actors up in scenes to work on those relationships.
“Working with the actors on their characters is my favorite part of the process so far. The actors really brought a lot to those rehearsals. It’s a good foundation,” he said. “It’s always good in a new show to find people you enjoy working with and I’ve found some good people in this cast that I look forward to working with again.”
Hildreth has seen a production of Bleacher Bums before. So what did he do to make Metropolis’ production special?
“I’m planning to have characters before the show, having them interact with the audience. We’ll have them out in character and costume to bring the audience back to 1977 Wrigley Field,” said Hildreth. “Once actors know the purpose of the whole pre-show, to get the audience into the feeling of the ballpark, and to set them back thirty years, to set the mood of the play- they can take over from there.”
But putting together a show like Bleacher Bums makes for some long days. Such is the life of a director, an actor, or anyone who works in theater. Hildreth shared with us how working on a show artistically can be a challenge, but how rewarding it is in the end.
“When I’m in rehearsal, it’s of course a strain because, you know, I teach during the day and rehearse at night. I don’t really see my wife. She’s used to it though. It’s only for seven or eight weeks, and you deal with it. It is tough,” he said. “That week before opening is going to be a whole bunch of long days right in a row but the payoff overall is successful.
“As a director, the reward comes watching the show be a success for the actors, watching them give great performances, sort of bloom in their roles, work well as an ensemble,” said Hildreth. “That’s the payoff for a director. And watching the audience enjoy the performance and the story.”
And he wants you to enjoy it. From the characters to the atmosphere, Hildreth and his team of actors, designers, and crew have truly recreated a typical, hilarious Wrigley Field game.
“I want the cast to take the audience on the roller coaster ride, ups and downs, of experiencing a Cubs game; the hopes inside the Cubs fan. And when they look at the characters, I want them to recognize or know someone like the characters,” said Hildreth. “I want them to laugh. I want them to enjoy it.”
Bleacher Bums opens June 25. For more information, click here.
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