September 7–October 6, 2018

• Location
• Prop Thtr • 3502 N. Elston, Chicago
• Tickets
• $15 or pay what you can
• Reservations
• (773) 492-1287

Synopsis

An actor on the popular soap opera Another Day is killed off, but he refuses to leave the show. The producers have no choice but to stage his funeral, and when he remains intractable, the funeral goes on, day after day, stuck in the twilight soap opera world of attenuated time and constant drama. The cast of the soap opera begins to become unhinged as they replay the same moments over and over. Like shipwrecked passengers, they turn on each other, breaking down the boundaries of civilized behaviour. At the same time, the man, perpetually in his coffin, playing dead, begins to have an afterdeath experience of the bardos, or in-between places, that are described in the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. At the same time, a writer, who is composing the entire project, is concerned with the formal narrative elements of their story and its themes.

(Not) Another Day attempts to explore the way time is experienced, as an elastic perceptual band that binds us together, and as an eternal inner state. With the use of video, beats, and live actors singing, (Not) Another Day is a funny and sad thought: maybe our souls are only the idea and memory others have of us after we are dead. Maybe we can’t really finish things satisfactorily, we can only try to tolerate ringing (non) endings. Produced and enacted by The Curious Theatre Branch, now in its 30th season, as a sung play experience, a non-opera with video.

Cast

Onstage: Paul Brennan, Leo Brün, Brook Celeste, Troy Martin, Beau O’Reilly, Vicki Walden, Julia Williams. Video: Ian Belknap, Jayita Bhattacharya, Kelly Ann Corcoran, Kelli Cousins, Benjamin Johnson, Shalaka Kulkarni, Pippin Mueller, Zoe Pike, Maggie Vaughn

Video Production

Jeffrey Bivens

Music Engineering

Ralph Loza

Production Assistance

Justin Botz, Sid Branca, Stefan Brün, Charlotte Hamilton, Simone LaPierre, Genevieve Wurst

Photos

Video

Merch