These shows are available for you to enjoy for free on Youtube at the links below!
Re: Connection will be premiering on YouTube Saturday September 18th at 7:00pm. We have worked together with a team of dancers and poets who have been writing and dancing over the course of the last year. Emma and Casey Brayndick have co-directed and edited the footage to create a twenty minute collaborative dance piece about the need for connection in this time when that feels especially vital.
https://youtu.be/-yPYU-l56aw
https://youtu.be/-yPYU-l56aw
This world premiere of an original seven part episodic Zoom play, Elevator Music, by Mike Brayndick, combines science fiction and contemporary comedy with a double love story. Enjoy the adventures of a Dream Keeper in the 23rd Century and a young writer in the 21st working security in a suburban apartment building. Dreams are not just for the future. Sometimes we need to live them now. Available to watch free on Youtube.
Episode One:
https://youtu.be/4rJ8siFvKFA
Episode Two:
https://youtu.be/pE66MkqBTnc
Episode Three:
https://youtu.be/q_IsX8vPiTA
Episode Four:
https://youtu.be/WisJ0L6kp1Y
Episode Five:
https://youtu.be/BF6paYThma8
Episode 6:
https://youtu.be/fq6YOQzdOBQ
Episode 7: https://youtu.be/u7SqwbesFPU
Watch the whole play!
https://youtu.be/eVw43-d46RM
Episode One:
https://youtu.be/4rJ8siFvKFA
Episode Two:
https://youtu.be/pE66MkqBTnc
Episode Three:
https://youtu.be/q_IsX8vPiTA
Episode Four:
https://youtu.be/WisJ0L6kp1Y
Episode Five:
https://youtu.be/BF6paYThma8
Episode 6:
https://youtu.be/fq6YOQzdOBQ
Episode 7: https://youtu.be/u7SqwbesFPU
Watch the whole play!
https://youtu.be/eVw43-d46RM
Scenes For A Green World a tale of friendship and love.
A heart-warming revelation of the lives of two remarkable women who approach each day with vitality and strength. These best friends meet at the Lincoln Park Conservatory to discuss everything under the sun, and usually not the wartime of their childhoods. Artist, Hiroko Takahashi, was imprisoned along with her family in the Heart Mountain Internment Camp, and Dina Novak, botanist, survived the Holocaust in Europe. Some health issues, and the visit of the younger generation cause a change in their routine. Sparks fly when Dina’s granddaughter, Sadie, meets Hiroko's Osaka born nephew, and the two young people can't at first seem to get on the same page. Scenes For a Green World explores the potential for redemption when reconnecting to one’s early years can be both a curse and a blessing. What can be nurtured to blossom out of the dark ground of the past to sustain the future for oneself and others?
https://youtu.be/iydhFneIn8A
A heart-warming revelation of the lives of two remarkable women who approach each day with vitality and strength. These best friends meet at the Lincoln Park Conservatory to discuss everything under the sun, and usually not the wartime of their childhoods. Artist, Hiroko Takahashi, was imprisoned along with her family in the Heart Mountain Internment Camp, and Dina Novak, botanist, survived the Holocaust in Europe. Some health issues, and the visit of the younger generation cause a change in their routine. Sparks fly when Dina’s granddaughter, Sadie, meets Hiroko's Osaka born nephew, and the two young people can't at first seem to get on the same page. Scenes For a Green World explores the potential for redemption when reconnecting to one’s early years can be both a curse and a blessing. What can be nurtured to blossom out of the dark ground of the past to sustain the future for oneself and others?
https://youtu.be/iydhFneIn8A
Lost and Found, a comedy of love, hope, and marriage. Lost and Found is a dramatic comedy that unfolds three parallel stories that all begin at a Lily Pond in Chicago. Meet a stamp-obsessed salesman and his frustrated librarian wife; a veterinarian who unexpectedly becomes rooted in the life of a tree doctor; a teacher and his partner whose anxiety about getting married heightens as they search for a mysterious woman of mythic proportions; and a comfortably married couple who do their best to do good while keeping the spice in their romance.
Can something lost be something gained? https://youtu.be/MRvq4WugR-o
Can something lost be something gained? https://youtu.be/MRvq4WugR-o
This Old Guitar written by Pete Blatchford, directed by Pat Henderson, and featuring Baird Brutscher. A rock musician out of his time reminisces about the greatest hits of his life. Just click this link https://youtu.be/-gzlLoI9hvg to watch this short play for free on YouTube!
In Dan Ochoa's new short play, Amy Passaro, You Broke My Heart, directed by Pat Henderson, a young man helped by a quirky new friend seeks solid ground after a case of ghosting leaves him wondering if anything is the way it seems. Who really was Amy Passaro, that mysterious woman who seemed better than a dream? And who are we meant to be when love visits briefly and then vanishes like smoke? https://youtu.be/U4y2KkueDPs
A new episodic, dramatic comedy. What do Physics, K-Pop, Beowulf, and Jungian psychology have in common? Words of course! In A Play On Words, four members of a university consult with the prestigiously progressive Dynamic Dictionary to suggest what words they should remove from their upcoming edition. Personalities and professional prerogatives clash as they figure out who among them might be best to lead the group into the future. And in the process they discover why the words we use really matter. In five episodes by Emma Brayndick, and four monologues by Mike Brayndick, find out what words will make the cut.
Watch the whole play here:
https://youtu.be/92W4j3XpI5w
Watch the play in episodes here:
Part One, Verily, It Is https://youtu.be/N9nzlJYH7Ug
Freja's Monologue, The Answer My Friend https://youtu.be/NT76rsLmHqw
Part Two, Ready Steady... https://youtu.be/tdzVr4yea_k
Billy's Monologue, A Monologue for Monday https://youtu.be/kAcr0oyBwZE
Part Three, The One Before, The One Before, The Last One https://youtu.be/grKBc9SeCek
Lexi's Monologue A Lexicon for Lexi https://youtu.be/tSwgIFTTw-8
Part Four, Cyno-not-so-sure https://youtu.be/oFvh9jrVdzE
Raef's Monologue, In The Beginning Was The Word https://youtu.be/6cd7yJk1rug
Part Five: The Last One https://youtu.be/fI0or_l34K0
https://youtu.be/92W4j3XpI5w
Watch the play in episodes here:
Part One, Verily, It Is https://youtu.be/N9nzlJYH7Ug
Freja's Monologue, The Answer My Friend https://youtu.be/NT76rsLmHqw
Part Two, Ready Steady... https://youtu.be/tdzVr4yea_k
Billy's Monologue, A Monologue for Monday https://youtu.be/kAcr0oyBwZE
Part Three, The One Before, The One Before, The Last One https://youtu.be/grKBc9SeCek
Lexi's Monologue A Lexicon for Lexi https://youtu.be/tSwgIFTTw-8
Part Four, Cyno-not-so-sure https://youtu.be/oFvh9jrVdzE
Raef's Monologue, In The Beginning Was The Word https://youtu.be/6cd7yJk1rug
Part Five: The Last One https://youtu.be/fI0or_l34K0
Autumn Lights series of short plays. The plays include Deliberate Acts, Missing Person, Faking It, and I'm Glad You Made It. If you didn't have a chance to catch these entertaining pieces in the last month on our Youtube channel, you can see them all together in one combined show.
https://youtu.be/Wo14aLkijFI
https://youtu.be/Wo14aLkijFI
In Deliberate Acts, a couple celebrate their anniversary at home while watching astronauts walk in space. Can there be something in common after all between repairing the international space station and healing the world? Find out in this touching and thought provoking take on the question of whether love is a kind of accidental free fall, or more of a deliberate act. https://youtu.be/MLPmBE5200E
I'm Glad You Made It. This 15 minute play is the first in a series of new short works that we will be presenting this autumn. In I'm Glad You Made It, when a walker meets a silent and shadowy figure at a city street corner, the walker makes an essential plea across a tangible divide. Enjoy this lyrical piece for five actors who speak into this darkness as if they are one unified voice about resilience and renewal during troubled times. The play will of course be available to view on youtube anytime for free after the premiere. https://youtu.be/W6_LY-ASZQg
Enjoy another comic short, Faking It written by Andrew Thorp and directed by Pat Henderson.When Barb and Dan, a rather creative young couple facing too many months cooped up, try to connect with friends through separate group chats, a comic competition ensues over the only good internet connection in their living room.
https://youtu.be/qv1Jr21uuwI
Lisette Dances Divine. When the young heiress, Lisette de Jungen, appears in 1920's Chicago on a secret assignment for a magazine, mayhem ensues at the dress shop that doubles as a speakeasy, Parle Doucement (speak softly). The not overly faithful shop owners, Harry and Therese, along with Harry’s British manservant Manfred, and their shop clerk Coralie, are doing business with the help of Harry’s old friend, Captain James, and the singer, Claire de Voix. Find out whether Harry actually loves his wife, and whether romance is in the cards for Lisette, Manfred, Claire, the Captain, not to mention Coralie, and the young policeman, Bobby Ketchum. Other characters include the irascible Little Al and his autodidact moll, Jennie Bea Goode. Enjoy this comedy with a sardonic and sweetly entertaining twist of drama, dance, and a song or two besides. https://youtu.be/QD_RT3q7z7I
ENJOY THESE SHORT PLAYS FOR A COMIC BREAK.
Did you miss any of the Summer Shorts? Never fear, you can watch all three here: Three 10-15 minute comedies combined into one evening!
https://youtu.be/G1rcknvJ1r
Or watch each one individually at the links below.
GUERILLA THEATRE by Dee McIntosh
https://youtu.be/vAjx-3oxb0o
A young actor in contemporary London, Samantha, requests a favor of her old friend, nurse Julie, and recounts a criminally comedic tale of street theatre that didn't quite go as planned. Featuring Dee McIntosh and Emma Brayndick and directed by Mike Brayndick
AROUND AND AROUND WE GO by Pete Blatchford
https://youtu.be/bGJ11IjoIq0
When a pitchman pitches his best idea yet to an associate he has known for what seems like forever, they play out a game of competitive marketing that plumbs the lower depths. Featuring Pete Blatchford and Daniel Ochoa and directed by Pat Henderson
WORKING IT OUT by Mike Brayndick
https://youtu.be/0vEPmDyULfU
A young woman in love, Sylvia, rings her boyfriend for their usual evening chat, and finds that he is preoccupied with strenuous self-development, putting a bit of ridiculous strain on their long distance relationship. Featuring Mike Friend, and Emma Brayndick and directed by Mike Brayndick
Did you miss any of the Summer Shorts? Never fear, you can watch all three here: Three 10-15 minute comedies combined into one evening!
https://youtu.be/G1rcknvJ1r
Or watch each one individually at the links below.
GUERILLA THEATRE by Dee McIntosh
https://youtu.be/vAjx-3oxb0o
A young actor in contemporary London, Samantha, requests a favor of her old friend, nurse Julie, and recounts a criminally comedic tale of street theatre that didn't quite go as planned. Featuring Dee McIntosh and Emma Brayndick and directed by Mike Brayndick
AROUND AND AROUND WE GO by Pete Blatchford
https://youtu.be/bGJ11IjoIq0
When a pitchman pitches his best idea yet to an associate he has known for what seems like forever, they play out a game of competitive marketing that plumbs the lower depths. Featuring Pete Blatchford and Daniel Ochoa and directed by Pat Henderson
WORKING IT OUT by Mike Brayndick
https://youtu.be/0vEPmDyULfU
A young woman in love, Sylvia, rings her boyfriend for their usual evening chat, and finds that he is preoccupied with strenuous self-development, putting a bit of ridiculous strain on their long distance relationship. Featuring Mike Friend, and Emma Brayndick and directed by Mike Brayndick
Lives Of The Zebra Finch! Enjoy a full-length dramatic comedy set in the Montrose Harbor area of Chicago. Marla Harrison doesn’t know what to do when the childhood friend, who almost married her husband, moves back to Chicago. Carl Harrison, a scientist connected to a study of the mating habits of the Zebra Finch, discovers that a failed engagement can cause havoc long after it has ended. John Martin, a software engineer, learns that trying to emulate the past romantic entanglements of others multiplies your problems in the future. And Sarah Martin, a real estate agent who couldn’t marry the man of her dreams, has to live with the one now sleeping next to her who seems to dream mostly of robots. The children of these two couples, recent college graduates back at home, have their own plans that could make everyone reconsider the meaning of love. Find out whether these three couples adapt new ways to feather the nest or decide it is best to flee the roost forever. Lives of the Zebra Finch combines comedy with gentle pathos in an entertaining mix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04slaaWkp7I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04slaaWkp7I
Myriad uses improvisational movement and music to explore the multiplicity of the human experience. The dancers wrote poetry based on their own lives, the process of finding themselves, and building community with others. During the viewing party you will be able to chat live in comments with the director and some of the dancers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQVw9gUly2w&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQVw9gUly2w&feature=youtu.be
All About Armando follows the same characters from What About Martha, only three months later. Stephane the frustrated florist now runs a spice shop, Martha the psychologist of unique methods does webcasts, the finicky instruction writer Martin now writes a food blog for men who can’t cook, and Alison works for the mysterious Armando of Armando’s Restaurant. Josh the film professor is now writing about food in film. A series of confusions unfold when these characters conceal information they should have shared, reversing the situation of the previous play. Truths are hilariously revealed during a webcast that once again shows that honesty may be in short supply, but the need for love and connection is endless.
https://youtu.be/uOjDGrJvfj8
https://youtu.be/uOjDGrJvfj8
What Moves Us. What Moves Us, is a piece from 2018 that connects live poetry with improvisational dance and music. This piece was created by the DOTS ensemble led by Emma Brayndick. It considers why we choose to move, the place art holds in our lives and why people need it now more than ever.
https://youtu.be/wVDek_dzygg
https://youtu.be/wVDek_dzygg
What About Martha?
When a young woman, Alison, who works IT temp support, confides a secret she sets off a chain reaction of exponential comedy. With a delightfully quirky cast of characters, that includes a film obsessed professor, a writer of instructions, a political telephone pollster, an opinionated psychologist and a frustrated florist, What About Martha?, asks the question we would perhaps all like to answer: can we truly be ourselves and be loved back for it?
https://youtu.be/iQ45OPDSKeo
When a young woman, Alison, who works IT temp support, confides a secret she sets off a chain reaction of exponential comedy. With a delightfully quirky cast of characters, that includes a film obsessed professor, a writer of instructions, a political telephone pollster, an opinionated psychologist and a frustrated florist, What About Martha?, asks the question we would perhaps all like to answer: can we truly be ourselves and be loved back for it?
https://youtu.be/iQ45OPDSKeo
Mot Juste, an improvisational dance piece exploring the many words we need to say just the right thing. Many languages have words which we don't have a direct corresponding word for in English, and they can be poignant, funny, inspiring, and precise ways to express our myriad of experiences and emotions. Along with live music, we used movement to explore language, and language to explore emotion. Join us to see if we can find le Mot Juste--or just the right words.
https://youtu.be/_IX-QgaNTfI
https://youtu.be/_IX-QgaNTfI
How to Make a Rainbow written and directed by Mike Brayndick. How to Make a Rainbow is a play about the art and life of Joseph Cornell. The self-taught American artist, who lived most of his life in Queens just outside New York City. In his basement workshop, Cornell created box constructions and collages, drawing from his interest in astronomy, dance, music, fine art and popular culture, and exploring themes of time, memory, and childhood. Visit New York City during the Worlds’ Fair of 1939, the wintry Russian Steppes, and Renaissance Florence, Italy. Follow the life of an original artist whose bond with his brother and his mother led to intriguing visions evoking the pathos of time lost and the transcendence of time lived fully. Meet some of the figures key to his work including the Medici Princess, Emily Dickinson, the tightrope walker Blondin, and the ballerina Marie Taglioni. Step right up folks. Step right up! https://youtu.be/CDPqY-DgYpQ
Fragments/The Catch is an evening of dance in two parts. The first part is a play with movement, Fragments From The Permanent Collection by Mike Brayndick. Directed by Emma Brayndick. Fragments From The Permanent Collection follows a lonely astronomer who approaches a manuscript typist on the majestic central staircase of the Art Institute of Chicago as the arc of a relationship plays out in miniature in a series of intertwining scenes.The second is The Catch an improvisational dance piece which combines dance with music and poetry written by the ensemble about the many meanings of the word "Catch".
https://youtu.be/-2oc0K6T7V0
https://youtu.be/-2oc0K6T7V0
Pieces of Klee is a biographical play that explores the life and evokes the world of Paul Klee's art through dialogue, dance, and poetry. Relevant to current times, Paul Klee's art, which is by turns mysterious, playful, comic, and whimsical, was created by a man who lived through many of the traumatic events of the 20th century. Quietly defiant to the rise of Fascism in Germany, his is a story of love, creativity, and wonder in the face of enormous pressures and difficulties.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bWkf-LHQIA&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bWkf-LHQIA&feature=youtu.be
Seeking Something, a dance piece created this past year by Dancing On The Spot. The ensemble wrote poetry based on questions in prompts written by our friends and family, just like a seek help column, but rather than advice they received poetry. We danced to that poetry alongside live improvisational music. We explored some of the questions people ask themselves about direction, individual integrity, and love in an uncertain world.
https://youtu.be/NaXOWmzWUAo
Roundelay is a rollicking farce featuring the former production team of a British telly mystery series reunited by the joyfully diabolical actor Amelia, who wants to do good in her own fashion. This is a film of a production of this one act comedy performed at Berger Park Coach House Theater. Directed by Pat Henderson and written by Mike Brayndick.
Watch a brief trailer here: https://youtu.be/zoEfQXeACuQ
Click here for the full show: https://youtu.be/-Zx8eCHES2o
Watch a brief trailer here: https://youtu.be/zoEfQXeACuQ
Click here for the full show: https://youtu.be/-Zx8eCHES2o
Check out our virtual production of the one act comedy, Only You Could Think That. Directed by Pat Henderson and starring Erin Caswell and Baird Brutscher. Only You Could Think That visits a philosophical café where the quirky proprietor is intrigued by a frustrated consultant who turns people’s small problems into big ones to put their lives into perspective. This play explores the theme of personal responsibility in a complex world. https://youtu.be/mn4HsJYw9zw |
Called Home By the Sea is a drama set in the 1950's that combines realism with a hint of magic. This story of a young girl and her war-widow mother explores themes of love, loss and beginning again. When twelve year old Annie gets into mischief in the East End of London, her mother Molly takes a job as cook in the town of St Just in Cornwall. Annie is not thrilled with her new home, nor with the Innkeeper, Ben Treleyn who seems rather taken with her mother. Then, she meets Nora Grenlow, a reclusive old woman who lives in a stone cottage on the cliff edge by the sea. Is Nora far more than she seems, and does the heart really know where it best belongs?
Here is our 2019 production of Called Home By The Sea which was performed at Berger Park Coach House Theater. https://youtu.be/SFwY3e6INLY
Here is our 2019 production of Called Home By The Sea which was performed at Berger Park Coach House Theater. https://youtu.be/SFwY3e6INLY
The More Things Change a double bill of one-act plays.
In Double Date, when Denise Arnold, a high school science teacher, meets David Joyce, a copywriter for a software company, through the Bumble dating site, she thinks she may have found the man of her dreams. But to make sure he is not just an illusion, she decides to do a dating experiment of her own devising, much to the chagrin of her long-suffering roommate and former girlfriend, Avery James, a musicologist and bartender. Avery can’t prevent Denny from nearly splitting herself in two to test whether true love is possible, and complications and comedic soul-searching ensue for everyone before things come back together at last.
Here is a link to our virtual production of Double Date https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEuqycuWlbQ
In The Ninth Planet, when Chris Markham, historian, and his wife Melly, go on a last-ditch weekend to save their marriage, leaving their adopted home in posh Hampstead, England, they have no idea what awaits them in their former Chicago neighborhood. Because, sitting in the same café from twelve years ago, are their equally unsuspecting friends Al and Jan Warren. Jan a progressive school teacher is working on a novel about the things that shape our lives, and Al an English professor is grading papers on Jack Kerouac. The two couples had bonded twelve years before during Obama’s campaign for president. Chris, enjoying recently inherited wealth, has undergone a political sea change. Old values and old friendships are tested when old secrets also are revealed on a late-summer weekend in Lincoln Square.
Here is a link to our virtual production of Ninth Planet https://youtu.be/rRyywBi6Ows
In Double Date, when Denise Arnold, a high school science teacher, meets David Joyce, a copywriter for a software company, through the Bumble dating site, she thinks she may have found the man of her dreams. But to make sure he is not just an illusion, she decides to do a dating experiment of her own devising, much to the chagrin of her long-suffering roommate and former girlfriend, Avery James, a musicologist and bartender. Avery can’t prevent Denny from nearly splitting herself in two to test whether true love is possible, and complications and comedic soul-searching ensue for everyone before things come back together at last.
Here is a link to our virtual production of Double Date https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEuqycuWlbQ
In The Ninth Planet, when Chris Markham, historian, and his wife Melly, go on a last-ditch weekend to save their marriage, leaving their adopted home in posh Hampstead, England, they have no idea what awaits them in their former Chicago neighborhood. Because, sitting in the same café from twelve years ago, are their equally unsuspecting friends Al and Jan Warren. Jan a progressive school teacher is working on a novel about the things that shape our lives, and Al an English professor is grading papers on Jack Kerouac. The two couples had bonded twelve years before during Obama’s campaign for president. Chris, enjoying recently inherited wealth, has undergone a political sea change. Old values and old friendships are tested when old secrets also are revealed on a late-summer weekend in Lincoln Square.
Here is a link to our virtual production of Ninth Planet https://youtu.be/rRyywBi6Ows