So, you think you've seen all the sidewalk has to offer? A light in the attic? A giving tree?


Well folks, Not even close...


We're at it again! Yup! Pretty soon we will be bringing you dead ponies, prostitutes speaking in prose, a tennis shoe, a live auction, original music by Ian Hall (yes the Ian Hall of Woodstock, IL.) ,and many, many more TUG pleasures! 


It's gonna be a crazy awesome sauce filled time, hyped with laughs and tears (well, hopefully not tears) so here is what you need to know:

Theater Undreground presents An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein written by Shel Silverstein, on November 4th, 5th, 11th & 12th, 2011 at the Memorial Hall in Richmond, IL.

ABOUT THE SHOW:
Sass and sexuality—that 'adultness'—is what An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein is all about. It's a collection of 10 short plays about the darker side of parenthood, sexuality, and everything else. Moving outside of your comfort zone and traversing unexplored territory is a constant theme of Silverstein’s adult and children’s works. This play does the same. The series challenges the everyday decisions we make and the paths we choose to take on extreme level in ten vignettes.

Directed by Timothy R. Curtis, David Baker, and Brian Heinzelmann, and orignal music by Ian Hall.

This show is adult themed and should be viewed as a rated R production. This show contains adult language and adult situations. You must be at least 17 years old or accompanied by a parent to attend.

Ws:
WHO: Theater Undreground & Ian Hall
WHAT: An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein written by Shel Silverstein
WHERE: Memorial Hall Civic Theatre -10308 Main Street - Richmond, Illinois
WHEN: November 4th, 5th, 11th & 12th, 2011 at 8pm
WHY: Because the sidewalk ends, and we've seen it without the attic light. (spoiler alert: it doesn't end where you think it does)

TICKETS:
$10 (with $2 of every ticket sold donated to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Richmond, IL)

RESERVATIONS ACCEPTED:
Please contact theaterundreground@gmail.com or call (or text) at 815-575-9TUG (9884). Or even visit www.theaterundreground.com - Space is limited.

Dinner, drinks and our very First Annual Comedy Fest! All at the Memorial Hall! BOOM!

Here's the deal. I wanted to go see some Chicago stand-up comedy. 2 reasons. They're funny, and they're from Chicago, which is a cool, kick-butt comedy town. Are you with me? Then I saw where I was sitting—Woodstock, Illinois. There's no Chicago stand-ups here, and Chicago is over 60 miles away. Do you know what it costs just to drive to Chicago? It's a 120-mile round trip, and even at 30mpg and 4 bucks a gallon, I'm already in the hole $16. And that's not even factoring in driving time, traffic, stop lights, power outages, flashing stop lights, toll booths, puddles, pot holes, fix-a-flat, not texting and driving, hands free head sets, looking like a dork, not enough freon, sweaty ass syndrome, that noise your passenger side window makes, that thing that's clicking in the vent that you just cannot get to and if you could you'd destroy it, and that guy who cuts you off on the way there (exhale). So now you're all mad, which leads to more aggressive, lead-foot driving, and before you know it now you're getting like seven and a half miles per gallon. Do some quick math—miles per gallon, pain and suffering, divide by 3, carry the one—and yes, yes, now it costs $243.21 just to go to Chicago and back. Then by the time you get there you forgot what you went there for, so you go home and tell your friends that you went to Chicago and you watch them "oooh" and "ahhh" and tell you how lucky we all are that we live so close to the city. Well, we're not letting you fall for that, so that got us thinking. Wouldn't it be better if Chicago comics came to you? And what better way to do that than to invite our Richmond-native, Chicago stand-up comedy friend.

Chicago comedian and Richmond native, Kelsie Huff, will be featured for this night of extraordinary stand-up comedy, as 5 Chicago comedians come to you here, in Richmond, Illinois. She brings with her, the kates, an exclusive, all-female comedy group (that Kelsie founded) that encompasses the distinct voices of several up-and-coming Chicago performers. The hilarious kates provide an intimate night of comedy different from anything you'll see at a typical Chicago club or late night bar. Center Stage Chicago writes, "This informal evening of sharp, stand-up features a rotating cast of Chicago's best female jokers. Critics praise the cozy, sugar-fueled feel and the hosting skills of ringleader Kelsie Huff."

And, as you read earlier, it's not just comedy that's in store. For the first time ever Theater Undreground will dive into the foray of having dinner and drinks available at the Memorial Hall, and in doing so this Comedy Fest will also feature a couple of local Richmond businesses. When the doors open at 6pm, guests will have the opportunity to mingle with other comedy lovers during the cocktail hour, provided by the Olive Black Martini & Wine Lounge. The cash bar will available both for the initial cocktail hour and throughout the entire evening. This will be followed by a dinner served at 7pm by the Sherman Catering Company. Then, at around 8pm the show will begin when the kates take the stage and showcase this Comedy Fest.

Here's the W's
WHO: Theater Undreground
WHAT: 1st Annual Comedy Fest
WHERE: Memorial Hall Civic Theatre - 10308 Main Street - Richmond, Illinois
WHEN: August 13th, 2011. 6pm Cocktail Hour, 7pm Dinner, 8pm Show
WHY: You don't have to spend your gas money to see Chicago comedians. Instead Chicago comics come to you!

TICKETS: $25 (Includes dinner & show. The cash bar is separate.)

Since it's our first time doing this, and since we have to get an accurate count for food purposes, we're going to be selling tickets prior to the show. There will be 2 ways to buy your tickets.

1. Find a TUG person and give them money. Then that TUG person will either (a) give you tickets, or (b) hold your tickets for you at the Will Call window when you walk into the Memorial Hall. on Aug. 13th. And by the way, we'll have tickets for this Comedy Fest with us for our July 23rd free Improv show at Olive Black and at Stage Left Cafe, August 4th, in case you'll be there and want to purchase your tickets then.

2. Pay with credit card through PayPal (including the additional PayPal fees). Once we receive payment, we'll email you to confirm we got it and then we'll hold your tickets for you at the Will Call window when you walk into the Memorial Hall on Aug. 13th. If you're going to pay with this option, you should probably email us first so we can properly set it up for you.

Okay, that's that. Thanks for reading and thanks for all your tremendous support. Oh, by the way, all the proceeds of this event will be going to one of McHenry County's newest 501(c)3 organizations. Yep, that's us! Theater Undreground is proud to say that we're a 501(c)3 organization. Woohoo! Even though we've always been a non-profit company, we've now finally achieved tax-exempt status. Which also means that if you're in desperate need of finding a place to donate your money to, in order to write it off on your taxes, we'd be more than happy to oblige. We will even provide you with a receipt. How about that, eh?

For more information on anything above, you can email us at theaterundreground@gmail.c​om or call and leave a message at 815-575-9TUG (9884).

Cheers!
Tim Mosbach

And Now It's Over

Scoring for TUG's production of Dog Sees God : Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead was one of the most satisfying productions I've done since starting in the theater scoring business.

Taking on this theme was important to me because I have several friends that are gay and have a difficult time with their ability of self-expression. Or the family members not accepting their sexuality.

I've always been for equal rights. And this play needs to be seen and heard.

PFLAG was the perfect cause for the donation. I will say it again, I was very happy when the chapter president came up to me and personally thank me for suggesting them. How often does that happen? Most charities will just take the donation, but PFLAG really supported the show. Got the word, wrote letter's to the Editor's of the Woodstock Independent and the Northwest Herald. They came out to the shows and showed their support to TUG, the cast and crew and being a representative of their organization.

How much could you ask for?

Writing the score for the play was an interesting challenge (as I mentioned before) but how I wrote it was something else. I read the script from the time I got it in early December. Wrote ideas down. Met up with Tim and Tim. Talked about ideas for the play. But A LOT of the score for the play came from being there at rehearsals. Capturing the emotions of the play with the music right on the spot.

I fed off the actors. Their emotions of the character. They fed off of me.

Also playing the Beethoven and Chopin pieces was another challenges. For one, I'm the polar opposite fan of the B&C. I played them as a part of the self-learning process. However, I'm a Mozart & Liszt fan. Give me any Sonata and Transcental Etude and I'll run my fingers among the keys.

The kicker is, that, I haven't played any classical music in over 13 years.

That means all the classical music I played at the show came back to me in seconds plus some practise.

I'm no prodigy or natural. I'm just Frances.

With an "e" not and "i" cuz I'm a girl.

It was fun revisiting the classics.

I hope that anyone who watched the play recognized the Beethoven's Pathetique Sonanta Mvt 2. Which I added in because if you remember Schroeder played often.

It also gave more meaning and emotion to the specific scenes for the characters of Beethoven and Matt. Particularly the scene with "moonlight sonanta." and having me play it live also allowed for character recognition for Matt prior to the bullying.

The response from the audience was equally positive. Several came up to me and told me how wonderful of a job I did. One person emailed me and said that I made a huge contribution to the play.

My favorite moment was on closing day when these young girls came up to me and told me how great I did. One of them, an Asian girl asked my advice on writing. I gave her some, and told her my information was in the program and she can contact me whenever she'd like. Her face lit up.

I felt so amazing that I can be inspiring. I never thought of myself as being in such a position.

The cast was also responded to my music in such a positive way.

It was a new experience for the cast to have music specifically written for each scene.

In the end, I did what I've done in the past. Recorded the performances and created an album for the TUG producers, the Cast and Crew.

I created artwork and liner notes to go along with it.

Each person received an envelop with a copy of the liner notes, with a personally note from me along with a SPORK that included a URL to download the album.

Anne said, that "setting up the soundtrack for us- there is no better way to relive show memories than listening to the music that went with each scene."

I plan to perform some of the music in my future concert sets.

To end. Thanks again to Tim Curtis and Tim Mosbach for thinking of me. It was a great re-union to work with them on a production. And look forward to what the future for TUG to bring.

I renewed friendships and made new friends. Eric even enjoyed himself through the entire process and it was his first time ever seeing a theater production come together. So it was a new experience for him.

To close... I know the everyone who was a part of the show would like to show their thanks and gratitude to everyone who came out to the show.

This should annimate (if anything try it in IE)

until next time.

o/o