"Masquerade: calypso and home goes to Chicago" by ontheblog

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:54:00 PDT

Last month I had the opportunity to travel to Chicago to work on a project that On the Leesh has been involved with for quite some time, “Masquerade: calypso and home.” Along with the writer/performer, Roger Bonair Agard, Jennifer Conley-Darling, our producer, Bruce Steinberg, our production manger/lighting designer and myself, stage manager, traveled to The University of Illinois at Chicago to perform Roger’s one-man show about growing up in Trinidad.

We stayed in downtown Chicago, which was beautiful. We spent most of our time at the theatre on campus, gathering up our props and furniture pieces for the show. We had a wonderful experience working with the team at the theatre and with the Jane Adams Hull House Museum, which was the organization that brought us out there.

Since Slam-Poetry was first pioneered in Chicago during the mid-1980’s, Roger has performed there many times. Consequently we had many of his friends and colleagues among our diverse and enthusiastic audiences. After each show Roger gave a talkback where the audience could ask him questions about his performance and he could talk about the process of transitioning his poetry “concert” into a one-man show.

This was not the first time I have worked on “Masquerade.” I had the privilege of being the Stage Manager for the show when Roger performed during the Fortnight Festival (at the NYC based Barrow Street Theatre Company) earlier this year. Roger has been performing his show with terraNOVA for over three years now, ever since it’s debut at terraNOVA’s soloNOVA Festival 3 years ago.

Overall, doing a show out of town was a great experience. Good communication is key when you are setting things up over a telephone. It was very rewarding to be able to go to a place where you don’t know anyone and are able to produce something great no matter what the circumstances. It was a good reminder that you must be willing to make sacrifices, be flexible and be able to work with what is given to you. You always want to turn out a good product no matter what the circumstances are.

While I was there I also got a chance to walk around the city, meet up with some friends and visit Chicago’s biggest craft brewery: Goose Island. Thanks to terraNOVA and On the Leesh for giving me this opportunity to have some fun and do some theatre outside of my normal comfort zone!

Melissa Jernigan, Stage Manager. “jack of all trades, master of none”

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"Masquerade: calypso and home goes to Chicago" by ontheblog