Round and round AGAIN

It took six hours to get the walls of this chamber pot done. After going to a family friend's home for dinner and more work (she will help me make a garment from hanji I worked on last year), I got home and started laundry and now have to weave MORE before I go back to my teacher tomorrow for another six hours. AAGH. It's great, and I love seeing him and his wife, but my body can't keep up.

I also fear that I have a new stalker. One can never be too careful, which I forget too often. It makes me kind of sad, though. Why do people who see my artwork first (and then either meet me or don't) get so distorted in their views of me as a person? Never mind; typing that out gave me the answer to the question.

I'm going to eat chocolate all night, avoid my taxes, and work until my fingers bleed.

In the meantime, anyone in Chicago who appreciates theatre should go and sit in one for five hours:

This is my personal invitation for you to come join me for my magnum opus - the outrageous 9 Act, 5 hour monster "Strange Interlude" - the closing production of the Goodman Theater's Eugene O'Neill Festival. After three months of rehearsals we have THREE PERFORMANCES in the festival - next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 6, 7, & 8. I have just heard they are almost sold out so I wanted to contact some people who have influenced and supported my work over the years and make a special entreaty for you to come.

Almost 1200 people will get to see my unique take on this rarely produced epic - the biggest and certainly longest production of my performance career. If you'd like to come, call the Goodman as soon as possible - (312) 443-3800. I would love for you to be there and share this once-in-a-lifetime event with me. The tickets are $20 (that's $4 per hour)! Friday night we do the whole thing in one shot starting at 6pm (three intermissions), but Saturday and Sunday we start at 2pm and you get a dinner break.

If you are unfamiliar with "Strange Interlude" (beyond Groucho's aside to the camera during "Animal Crackers") it is the story of Nina Leeds and her three lovers whom she manipulates to great comic/tragic ends. This is the play where O'Neill had the "brilliant" idea of having his characters speak their inner thoughts directly to the audience (hence the double length). This Freudian gem won him his third Pulitzer Prize in 1928 and has not been seen since the '80's (for good reason - no director in his right mind would take this on, therefore it's the perfect impossible task for me.)

I have taken certain Neo-Futurist liberties with the script to add extra levels of stage reality: O'Neill's famous stage directions and character descriptions, the actors' comments on the show, and the full acknowledgement of the audience throughout this preposterous play. The cast of five is awesome: the amazing Neo-Futurists Joe Dempsey and Dean Evans, the brilliant Merrie Greenfield (in the role previously held only by the likes of Glenda Jackson and Lynn Fontanne), the hysterical Brennan Buhl, and my favorite new Chicago actor Jeremy Sher are perfectly cast. I promise the show to be a wonderful mesh of horrifying and hysterical, often at the same time. And don't miss one of the funniest sex scenes ever staged!

For over two decades I and The Neo-Futurists have been proud members of the Chicago experimental theater community (along with Oobleck, Curious, Goat Island, 500 Clown, and others), and this is a unique opportunity to celebrate our work. I will be at all performances so say "hello" during one of the intermissions. If, for whatever reason, you absolutely cannot make it next weekend but would still like to see what I've done with the show, let me know and perhaps you can sit in on one of our final rehearsals this week at the Neo-Futurarium.
I hope you don't miss it,
Greg Allen
Founding Director, The Neo-Futurists