Chicago's Neo-Futurists Celebrate Tenth Anniversary of Going Blind, Sept. 16 | Playbill

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News Chicago's Neo-Futurists Celebrate Tenth Anniversary of Going Blind, Sept. 16 To celebrate their tenth year of high-speed theatre and comedy, Chicago's Neo-Futurist troupe will throw a Tenth Anniverary Benefit Party at The New Athenaeum Theatre, Sept. 16, 1998.

To celebrate their tenth year of high-speed theatre and comedy, Chicago's Neo-Futurist troupe will throw a Tenth Anniverary Benefit Party at The New Athenaeum Theatre, Sept. 16, 1998.

Among the various events for the evening will be a take-off on their 30 Plays-in-60-Minutes format of The Futurists' Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, "30 Bands in 60 Minutes". The 30 bands will run the gamut from rock to pop to blues to jazz to swing all within the confines of sixty minutes.

Also scheduled for the celebration is the eagerly-anticipated Chicago premiere of Bingo, an animated short by Oscar-nominated animator Chris Landreth, based on a script by Neo-Futurist Greg Kotis and featuring the voices of several ensemble members.

The event will be hosted by Chicago Poetry Slam founder Marc Smith, and contain performances throughout the evening by Neo-Futurists past and present.

Neo-Futurism was founded in 1988 by Allen, who told PBOL last year that he got "tired of doing theatre for just my friends," and created the wildly successful Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, a collection of 30 plays in 60 minutes, in which the audience has the opportunity to choose the order in which the plays are done. Allen, a teacher of theatre history at Columbia College, bases his performance theories on the Futurist manifestos of F.T. Marinetti. "Futurism," an artistic movement based on speed, movement and violence, was founded in 1910 by Marinetti. Allen continued, "I wanted to explore the performance theories of Futurism, Dada, and Environmental Theatre. What I saw in the Futurist theories was speed and incredible energy, even today his [Marinetti's] theories are considered outrageous."

The Neo-Futurists 10th Anniversary Benefit will take place Sept. 16, at The New Athenaeum Theatre. For tickets ($30 and up) or more information call (773) 275-5255.

-- By Sean McGrath

 
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