Neo-Futurists Announce Neoccasion Fundraiser, Fall/winter Class Schedule

Beer lovers: meet your artistic soulmates! Head to Andersonville for The Neoccasion: 30 Beers for 60 Minutes where local and regional micro-breweries bring their crafted beers to support The Neo-Futurists, one of Chicago's most beloved theatre companies and creators of the longest running show in Chicago, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.

For nearly a quarter-century, The Neo-Futurists have been home to a quintessentially Chicago experience with a national reputation. The Neos produce 250 events annually attracting over 25,000 audience members with a ticket price that has never exceeded $15. All proceeds from the event directly support The Neo-Futurists and ensure their ability to continue creating honest and immediate theatre that is accessible to everyone.

Reserve your tickets now for this overflowing evening, including an expansive tasting with over 30 local and regional craft brews and some of Chicago's finest pizza, a 30 minute beer-themed performance and a live auction with brewery tours, home brew-kits and other fabulous prizes on tap. Participating breweries include: 5 Rabbit, Argus, Finch's, Goose Island, Half Acre, Hamburgery Mary's, Haymarket, Metropolitan, New Glarus, Stone, Three Floyds and many more!

Schedule for the evening
Sponsor Reception begins at 7:00 p.m.
General Reception begins at 8:00 p.m.
Program & Live Auction begin at 9:00 p.m.

Ticket/Sponsor information
Tickets are available in sponsor package or individually, sponsor packages include access to sponsor reception with special reserve brews and an additional hour of tasting
Individual tickets are $77.97 (a penny a play for the 7,797 world premiere plays performed at The Neo-Futurarium, including Too Much Light... and prime time productions since 1988)

Sponsorship Levels
Lead Sponsor - $2,500
10 tickets to The Neoccasion
2 Reserved high-boys in the theater for ponsor & general reception
Preferred seating for the evening's artistic program
10 tickets redeemable for admission to any Neo-Futurist production
Logo representation in all print & electronic materials
Year-long donor roll listing in all programs

Benefactor - $1,000
6 tickets to The Neoccasion
Reserved high-boy for sponsor & general reception
Preferred seating for the evening's artistic program
6 tickets redeemable for admission to any Neo-Futurist production
Year-long donor roll listing in all programs

Supporter - $250
2 tickets to The Neoccasion
Preferred seating for the evening's artistic program
2 tickets redeemable for admission to any Neo-Futurist production
Year-long donor roll listing in all programs

All ticket sales and contributions are tax-deductible less the value of any goods & services received (estimated at $25 per person attending).

Fall/Winter class and schedule

IN-DEPTH PERFORMANCE CRITIQUE & WORKSHOP
Instructors: Ensemble members Mary Fons and Bilal Dardai
7-11 pm
Wednesday October 26
1 day intensive

You've written pieces and they are good. But they could be even better with an outside eye. In this performance workshop, your solo or group pieces will get up on their feet and get worked out; it's like a gym for your art. We'll work as a class to question, refine, uncover, and plump up or whittle down your short pieces for maximum effect. Mary and Bilal act as lead directors, but input from all is encouraged/taken seriously. Make your art crisper, cleaner, hotter. Open to all ages and experience levels, but note that this is not a generative workshop: You'll need to bring in stuff to work on.

SELF AS METAPHOR
Instructors: Alum John Pierson and Ensemble member Kurt Chiang
Wednesdays
January 4 through February 22
8 weeks

Turn your life stories into physical performance with the help of Neo-Futurists John Pierson and Kurt Chiang. In this eight-week workshop you will study and perform individual/group physical work and how it relates to the neo-futurist aesthetic using sounds, silences, simple objects and a little bit of absurdity and chaos. Class will include a basic core workout, and some fundamental mime technique. We analyze music and soundscapes and it's affect on physical performance, so access to simple sound editing software, although it isn't required, would be cool for you to explore outside of class in order to create your own soundscapes for pieces we do in class.

Intro to TML: writing and performing the two minute play
Instructors: TBD
Saturdays.
February 25 - April 4
8 weeks

Ever wonder how Neo-Futurists create plays for Too Much Light? This workshop will explore the process and tools needed to create a 2-minute play in the Too Much Light style. We will examine specific play formulas and styles that recur on our stage. Students will write from their own life experiences and then examine staging techniques that will equip their scripts with mind-blowing, low-budget, renegade-theatrics. This class will mimic the actual weekly process of the show Too Much Light, focusing on our techniques for generating ideas and showing you how to write, stage and perform your own scripts. The class culminates in a student-written performance of 20 plays in 40 minutes in our theater - with a live audience and everything! No experience necessary.

All classes are $250.
All 1 day intensives are $55
All classes are held at the Neo-Futurarium at 5153 N. Ashland Ave.
Class size is limited to 15 on a first-come first-serve registration.
To register, go to www.neofuturists.org and click on workshop and classes. Payment can be accepted online or by sending a non-refundable registration check for half of the amount ($125) made out to "The Neo-Futurists" to The Neo-Futurarium at 5153 North Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL, 60640. Full payment is due at the first class.

THE NEO-FUTURISTS
The Neo-Futurists, performers of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind and creators of over 60 other original, full-length productions, are a collective of wildly productive writer/director/performers who create immediate, non-illusory, interactive and head-slappingly affordable performances.

The Neo-Futurists are partially supported by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, Alphawood Foundation, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation, The MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation,and a CityArts 2 grant.

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