Rocking the Lobster by Alyse Kittner

This has nothing to do with SFAFG and only a little to do with rock lobsters. And, you will have to suffer through a brief history of my childhood.

My sister and I had the same babysitter from when I was 2 – 15. (Yes, I had a babysitter when I was 15 – I needed someone to drive me around.) Everyday of every summer we would pack up our swimsuits, towels, tennis rackets, a cooler of food and head to the local YMCA. Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings we had swimming class, Tuesday and Thursday mornings we had diving. And, during the hot, hot, hottest part of the day (1-3pm) on Tuesdays and Thursdays we had tennis league.

Teresa (our babysitter – better known as Tre) was super cool. She was 16 and got to drive my mom’s car. Because she was super cool – she had awesome music.  That is where the rock lobsters come in.

It is about a 15 minute drive from our house to the Y. Exactly enough time to listen to Big Butts by Sir Mix-A-Lot and Rock Lobster by the B52s. Now, I have no idea why we picked those two songs, but they were on Tre’s mix tape.

Picture it: the Westside of Cincinnati, 9:45am, 73 degrees outside, and a car with a 9 year-old, 11 year-old and our fearless leader Tre screaming the lyrics to Big Butts and Rock Lobster. The stereo on the Toyota Camry is cranked up as loud as it can go and all of us are singing along: <high pitched> “Rock Lobster!!!” or <low pitched> ”Doing workouts like Jane Fonda”.

So, my performance in SFAFG is dedicated to my former babysitter – Tre. For introducing me to the world of Rock Lobsters, teaching me how to make rice crispy treats, and covering up for me when I was in high school and threw a party while my mom was out of town.

Tre – you rock.

Mythology and Electricity

by Mary Rose O’Connor

Rehearsal room: Monday night.

Cast members Alyse Kittner, Bobby Libby, stage manager Christina Dougherty and I work through what I consider to be the core or the seed of Song For a Future Generation, a three minute monologue about the life, death and history of an entire race of people. Pretty heavy for a futuristic dance party in outer space, huh?

The story of this monologue is a poetic mixture of mythology and science, ultimately the central theme of this play: destruction is the result of our obsession with creation. People inevitably lose themselves or destroy themselves trying to capture something that came very naturally to start. In Song For a Future Generation, everyone’s chasing to find their own identity, or racing against time get back to “the beginning.” A recurring question throughout this play is “If you don’t know where you’re from, how do you know who you are?”

So here we are, working line by line, trying to understand this story. And as much as this hip, dance play is about the future, we are spending the majority of our evening talking about Shakespeare and Greek mythology. As a huge nerd, these are my favorite rehearsals. It’s also in keeping with the theme of our evening that we, as theatre folk, have to go back to the beginning as well. EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE HERE.

Prometheus stealing fire.

Like pretty much everyone in theatre, I work a monotonous office job, plugging numbers into a computer screen. Coming to rehearsal is my livelihood. Not only is this one of the funniest groups of people I’ve ever met, but it’s incredibly refreshing to be intellectually stimulated by having these conversations. I get a jolt of energy every time I walk into a room with these people, and it’s electric. You can feel it. Everyone kind of feeds off each other’s positivity and creates this world that I’ve never really seen so clearly in other rehearsal processes. It truly gives this space play, which intellectually talks about science vs. human connection, a real beating heart.

So what next? Our first runthrough tonight, and this weekend, going back to the beginning: the script. Playwright Joe Tracz is coming to work with us on this exciting adventure and make sure we’re all on the same page (bad pun).

So, are you intrigued by any of this? Are you itching to unleash your inner nerd and also rock out to some 80s new wave? Come see Song For a Future Generation.

Supernova

Song For a Future Generation

In the future, on a space ship orbiting a star set to explode at any minute, three clones named Marika are throwing a theme party. At the party there’s an angst-y psychic, a fighter pilot & his party animal best friend, a time traveler in search of the girl of his dreams, a shape-shifter, a bounty hunter, an escaped convict, and the galaxy’s last living rock lobster. In the style of 1980s teen movies (and set to the tune of new-wave dance hits), these characters are all trying to find their match, their identity, and real human connections in a world of technology… all before the star explodes.

Lights Out Theatre Company is thrilled to invite you to the world premiere of Song for a Future Generation, a science fiction spectacle dance party play by Joe Tracz. Under the direction of Executive Artistic Director, Mary Rose O’Connor Song for a Future Generation opens February 18, 2010 at EP Theater, 1820 S. Halsted, Chicago.

Performances run Thursday through Saturday, February 18-March 13, at 8pm. Special industry performances are Monday March 1 and March 8 at 8pm. Tickets are $15, or $10 for industry.

For reservations:

GO TO BROWN PAPER TICKETS

Song for a Future Generation features:

Andrea Decamp Amanda Goodyear, Angela Johnson, Jaclyn Keough, Alyse Kittner, R. Alex Kliner, Bobby Libby, Anne Litchfield, Jonathan Matteson, Jessica Neilson, Claire Tuft, and Haily Wineland.

Stage managed by Christina Dougherty, with costume designs by Bradley Burgess-Donaleski, lighting design by Casey Diers, sound design by R. Alex Kliner, choreography by Anna Lucero, and property design by Lindsay Monahan.