CHICAGO – Quest Theatre Ensemble, the innovative company that has been offering free theatre to Chicago audiences for approaching fifteen seasons will bring its unique blend of pageantry, puppetry and music to a season of three distinctly different types of theatre.
The season will begin on Friday, September 30 with an updated and revised version of the company’s musical revue originally presented in 2008, The People’s History of the United States. This piece of epic theater employing a cast of 16 and featuring 100 puppets will return in an expanded and updated version adding events from the past eight years and a new original score with music by Scott Lamps and lyrics by Andrew Park.
As Americans prepare to cast their ballots in November, the Quest review will revisit moments in history that inform us as we consider present challenges.This new People’s History will run September 30 through November 6, closing just two days before the election and will be considered by the Jeff Awards as an original new musical.
In February, the company will employ puppetry and projections in their own take on the Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt musical of young love, The Fantasticks. For the final major production of the season, Quest will again collaborate with International Chamber Artists for a production in which Quest’s life-size puppets will provide a visual accompaniment to ICA’s performances of Ravel’s “Mother Goose Suite” and “The Carnival of the Animals” by Saint-Saens.
In between these three major productions, the company will produce a series of cabarets and its annual holiday pageant. A Halloween-themed cabaret will be presented on Thursday, October 27 at 8 pm. Blue Nativity, the Christmas pageant the company has mounted every holiday season since 2002, will performed at four locations around the city on Saturday, December 17 and Sunday, December 18, culminating in a performance on New Year’s Day at St. Gregory’s Church in Andersonville. A spring themed cabaret will be performed on Thursday, March 9 to celebrate the upcoming Vernal Equinox and the advent of warmer weather. Blue Nativity is free (donations recommended). The cabarets will have a recommended donation of $20.00 per person.
LISTING INFORMATION
The People’s History of the United States
Book and Lyrics by Andrew Park, Music by Scott Lamps
Directed by Andrew Park
Music Direction by Sara Cate Langham
Choreography by Lindsay Jouett
September 30 – November 6, 2016
Previews Friday, September 30 at 8:00 pm and Saturday, October 1 at 2:00 pm
Performances Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm, Sundays at 2pm
The Blue Theatre, 1609 W. Gregory Ave., Chicago
www.questensemble.org
Admission free, but reservations are highly recommended
Recommended for all ages
Reserve seats online at www.questensemble.org or by phone at 312-458-0895
Halloween Cabaret
Thursday, October 27, 8 pm
The Blue Theatre, 1609 W. Gregory Ave., Chicago
www.questensemble.org
$20 suggested donation
Blue Nativity
December 17 & 18, Touring Performances
Locations and Times to be announced
January 1 at 5pm
St Gregory the Great – 5535 N Paulina – Chicago, IL 60640
Quest Theatre Ensemble’s 15th annual Christmas celebration of Blue Nativity features visually arresting large-scale puppetry, soaring music and the greatest story ever told. Having toured the Midwest and Germany, Blue Nativity returns to the Chicago area with new and returning cast members from various tours.
The Fantasticks
Book and Lyrics by Tom Jones | Music by Harvey Schmidt
Directed by Kent Joseph
February 17 to March 26, 2017
Previews Friday, February 17 at 8:00 pm and Saturday, February 18 at 2:00 pm
Performances Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm, Sundays at 2pm
The Blue Theatre – 1609 W Gregory – Chicago, IL 60640
The Fantasticks is the longest-running musical in the world, and with good reason: this funny and romantic fable tells the tale of a boy, a girl, and their parents who plot to get them together by keeping them apart. The narrator, El Gallo, invites the audience to follow him into a world of moonlight and magic. This incredible musical features songs like “Try to Remember,” “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” and “Never Say No.” Join Quest for this timeless classic—sure to delight both the young and young at heart.
Spring Cabaret
Thursday, March 9, 8 pm
The Blue Theatre, 1609 W. Gregory Ave., Chicago
www.questensemble.org
$20 suggested donation
Carnival Tales
April 29 & April 30, 2017
Saturday at 10am and Sunday at 4pm
St Gregory the Great – 5535 N Paulina – Chicago, IL 60640
A Quest Theatre Ensemble and International Chamber Artists Collaboration performing Maurice Ravel, NEW AAR. By Cliff Colnot – “Mother Goose Suite” (World premiere) and Camille Saint-Saens – “The Carnival of the Animals” Featuring two pianos, a string quintet, flute, clarinet, percussion, and Quest Theatre Ensemble’s giant puppets!
ABOUT QUEST THEATRE ENSEMBLE
Quest Theatre Ensemble, founded in 2002, is known for its productions of established as well as original plays and musicals – and for its innovative visual design, frequently including large-scale puppetry. Past productions have included their annual holiday pageant Blue Nativity, performed in venues around Chicago every year since the company’s founding; Broadway musicals (A Christmas Carol: the Musical, Little Shop of Horrors, Into the Woods, Barnum); original pageants (Evolution/Creation, The Peoples’ History of the United States, The Four Seasons, Drum Circle Pandora) and original book musicals (Tomato Queen, Enter Love, All the World’s a Stage).
Quest Theatre Ensemble is dedicated to being the “People’s Theatre of Chicago” by creating productions that Inform, Delight, Inspire and Unite. Committed to making theatre accessible to everyone, the ensemble chooses stories that have universal appeal, finds innovative ways to engage the community and offers our productions free of charge so anyone can participate. Quest Theatre Ensemble is funded in part by generous grants from the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.
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