Neo-Futurists Open DAREDEVILS' HAMLET, 8/21

Danger ahead! The boys are back in the Neo-Futurists' season opener, Daredevils' Hamlet, opening Saturday, August 21, 2010 at The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland.

Buckle up for this high energy thematic homage to Shakespeare's Hamlet. Following the 2005 original production and pinnacle of jackassery, the men in jumpsuits seize your attention once more to explore themes of madness, revenge and passion through stunts, skulls, live music and striptease. See them test the limits of the human body! Watch them perform amazing feats of courage with complete and total idiocy! Be there as they mash up this classic tragedy with personal revelation, feats of daring-do, and reckless regard for their own safety!

Creator, Ryan Walters, states, "The physicality of tumbling, stunts and even some wrestling pushes our personal boundaries of body and mind. Through that, we're investigating what it is to be man of action versus man of thought. Can a real daredevil be both? "

Show up early to play four-square with the daredevils themselves before the show!

The daredevils are: Brennan Buhl, member of Barrel of Monkeys who appeared in the Neo-Futurists' presentation of Strange Interlude through the Goodman Theatre's Eugene O'Neill festival; John Pierson, a Neo-Futurist of fourteen years who recently created CRISIS (A Musical Game Show); Jay Torrence, former Artistic Director of The Neo-Futurists who wrote and co-directed Roustabout: The Great Circus Train Wreck; Anthony Courser, who is an ensemble member of Barrel of Monkeys and has appeared with The Neo-Futurists on Picked Up and The Fool (Returns to His Chair); and creator, Ryan Walters. Walters is the current Artistic Director of The Neo-Futurists, having been an ensemble member since 2002. He created and co-wrote the original Daredevils, which was remounted at Theatre on the Lake, and also co-created and co-wrote Picked Up (one of the Top Five Best Shows of 2008- "Newcity").

Director, Halena Kays is the co-founder and former artistic director of Barrel of Monkeys where she created and directed the majority of their public performances including their critically acclaimed long-running show: That's Weird, Grandma, called "the best reason to live in Chicago on a Monday night" by Time Out Chicago. She is a member of the Hypocrites theatre company and a former member of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care unit. Kays co-created and directed the original production of Daredevils and directed Fake Lake for The Neo-Futurists.

Other contributors include: Michael Govier, Assistant Director; Dan Broberg, Set Designer and Scenic Painter; John Szymanski and Kurt Chiang, Co-Sound Designer; Maggie Fullilove-Nugent, Production Manager and Lighting Designer; Heather Riordan, Official Daredevils Physical Trainer; Miranda Anderson, Stage Manager and Trevor Dawkins, Official Daredevils' Intkern, tumbler, stage hand and all around regular guy.

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, the Chicago Community Trust, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation, The MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, a CityArts 3 grant, The Mayer and Morris Kaplan Family Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development, and is a participant in the New Generations Program, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation/The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by TCG.

Photo Credit: Mandy Currado-Gutwaks

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