Raffi is one of the foremost children's singer/songwriters in the world. He's turning 70 this year, and to celebrate, he's doing a #belugagrads special tour. Many of the kids who first turned on to Raffi now have kids themselves, and are therefore "Beluga Grads." The concert will be an amazing singalong for kids and families.
He'll be coming to Chicago (The Harris Theatre at Millenium Park 205 E. Randolph Drive ) on Saturday, April 8, and we've got a special arrangement to give two tickets away to the show! Read on for details on how to win your tickets!
Raffi has had an amazing career for over 40 years as a singer, songwriter, producer, author, lecturer, and tireless advocate for children. He is best known for his work as a children’s entertainer and advocate whose string of gold and platinum-selling recordings includes his iconic song, “Baby Beluga,” He was once called “the most popular children’s singer in the English-speaking world” by the Washington Post and “Canada’s all-time children’s champion” by the Toronto Star.
Raffi is a recipient of the Order of Canada and the United Nations’ Earth Achievement Award. He has published three books for adults and holds four honorary degrees.
“I love singing with and for children and families,” says Raffi. “In 2018, I look forward to hearing more ‘Beluga Grads’ and their kids singing favorites like “Baby Beluga,” “Down By The Bay,” “Bananaphone!” plus more from my recent Best of Raffi album.”
In 2010, Raffi founded the non-profit Centre for Child Honouring. With the motto “Respecting Earth & Child,” the Centre is at the heart of a global movement that views honoring children as the best way to create sustainable, peacemaking societies. The concerts that he is preparing will all benefit that Center.
There are a number of ways to get entered into the giveaway, including spreading the word on Facebook, Twitter, or checking Raffi out on Amazon. However, the easiest and best way to enter is to honor Raffi's career, and just do something nice for a kid. See the entry form below for details. The giveaway ends on March 28, so enter today!
If you just want to buy tickets for the Chicago date, they range from $29.50 to $75.Tickets are on sale now for the Harris Theater performances. The VIP $75 tickets will include an opportunity to meet Raffi in person after the show. (Please note, the tickets in the giveaway do not include that opportunity.)
Here are some of the other dates, in case you live in a different city:
Last Saturday, my son and I spent about 5 hours on a beautiful Saturday afternoon watching shows at the Chicago Fringe Festival.
It was the last weekend of the Fringe, and it was a lot of fun. It was (I think) my son's first Fringe festival, and I don't think he'd been to 3 shows in one day.
PLEASE NOTE: As with many of the theatre shows I review on this site, I did receive free entry to the shows with the hope that I would write about them. My opinions remain my own, uninfluenced by the price. I take my integrity seriously, and so should you.
While the shows are now over, many of these companies are Chicago based and continue to run programs that it is possible to see. I also think it's good to give artists a review of their work.
All told I saw 9 shows at the Fringe this year, and had a great time doing it. I hope to go to at least as many shows next year!
Here are the reviews of the shows we saw on the last Saturday of the Fringe.
That's Weird Grandma by Barrel of Monkeys
That's Weird Grandma is a show by Chicago group Barrel of Monkeys. They do something smart and pretty interesting. They go into schools and work with kids on storytelling. The kids write the stories, and then the improv troupe acts them out, the best of the stories they collect and put together into their shows, which appear regularly on Chicago stages (after the Fringe festival, they are starting another open-ended run at the NeoFuturarium.) In this way, they are getting paid by the schools to work together to develop material, and at the end, the student writers get to see their work put on by a professional company rather than just sit on a refrigerator somewhere. It's Win, Win, Win!
The show was a lot of fun, mostly because the stories all featured amazing kid logic. One of the stories was about a pie that doesn't want to be a cannibal and refuses to eat other pies. Another one featured a kid who wished for wizarding powers and what happened once she got them. A third story was a monologue by the monster that lives under the bed. The stories were all printed in the program, so you could compare the source material with the adaptation.
The 55 minute show had 15 stories in it, performed by a cast of 7 or so plus a musician who provided musical sound effects for all the shows. The costumes and props are relatively minimal (although there was a unicorn head that was fantastic as a mask. The acting was fine and entirely servicable, although perhaps a touch too broad all the time. It would have been nice to see on occasion, a lighter touch. Perhaps the best thing that can be said about the acting is that it never makes fun of the subject matter. The actors are there to serve the story, and they do.
This was an enjoyable show, and I'd highly recommend seeing a version of it if you get a chance.
(as I mentioned they will be doing an open ended run at the Neo Futurarium in the fall)
See a video about the process behind That's Weird Grandma
Semi- Circus Murmurations
The next show we saw was a circus from new circus group Semi Circus. Semi-Circus started in 2016 as a circus collective. They use circus skills, physical theater, improv and other skills to create plays. Murmurations is their first show.
The show starts off as a kind of therapy session. A therapist comes in and asks an audience member if they have been working on what they talked about last week. She then asks other audience members. Slowly the company comes in, and each of them has a quirk. Throughout the course of the show, each person stands forward to do their act as a way of dealing with/ expressing their quirk.
By the way, a murmuration is a formation of starlings that make complex and interesting formations as they fly. This is a good word for this kind of work, as the actors murmurate (assuming it's a verb) as they display their skills and their foibles.
The show was a very lovely mix of circus and theatre. There was a lot of comedy, some very impressive skills, and a lot of heart to the show. One particularly moving part for me was when the therapist does her bit, which involved a talking belly (her own). It was funny, brave, hilarious, and moving all at once.
The company is directed by local circus writer Kimzyn Campbell, and two of her children are in the show as well. It reminded me a lot of the Montreal circus company Sept Droits de la Main (7 Fingers of the Hand), a group of young circus artists who have now built seven or eight shows that tour worldwide with a similar aesthetic. The 7 Fingers are more virtuosic in their circus skills, but the ability to really share stories while in a handstand, or while juggling, or by doing barrel rolls is in some ways more important, and these young performers have that.
I look forward to seeing the next iteration of either this show or a new one.
Find out more about Semi Circus on their facebook page.
Melody by Tiffany Lawson Dance
The last show we saw of the Chicago Fringe was Melody by Tiffany Lawson Dance. Billed as an original superhero ballet, the show follows young dancer Melody, who has super powerful feet, and uses her dancing to vanquish bad guys. Her friends include Hoops, Hugs, and Courage, and they help her to get through to defeat her evil twin Dissonance. There is a live band, including a trombone player that was a lot of fun to watch and listen to.
Looking at their website, this looks like a show that they toured to Chicago libraries this summer. It seems like a great fit for a library's young audiences program.
However, my son is 9, and we were hoping for an actually choreographed superhero ballet, complete with lots of athletic moves and powers. This was more like a way to get kids to see their first dance show.
Don't get me wrong, the show was great for the 3-5-year-old set, who got to dance, and sing, and see live music and dance being played out. There were a lot of interactive little pieces, including a pre-show by one of the performers who is apparently also a kid's music singer, and he played some nice interactive songs (and plugged his CD!) During the show, director Tiffany was very proactive in making sure that kids would be included, would get up and dance, and helped encourage them.
This was listed as an all ages show, but without the participation element, I think the story, the performance, and the dancing were all too simplistic to be of much interest to non-parents or older kids. If you have younger kids, though, I think this would be a lot of fun. (My son would have loved it 6 years ago!)
Apparently, they do a lot of stuff that is not kid oriented, and I'd be interested to see that sometime!
Well, that wraps up my Fringe reviewing this season (unless some of the later Fringe's in the season want to fly me out to their Fringe to do more reviews, put me up, pay my per diem, and a small stipend! (I am open for suggestions!)
The Chicago Fringe starts its 8th annual festival this weekend!
If you don't know about the Fringe movement, you should! Fringe is an international movement that started close to 50 years ago in Edinburgh, and has since spread across Canada and the United States.
Fringe festivals are great ways for independent artists to tour their shows across the world. The festival takes care of all the pesky details (having a tech person, renting a theatre, etc) and the artists typically get 100% of the door (artists pay a producing fee up front) In Chicago, audiences also pay for a one time $5 membership button that helps support the festival, and then all box office revenues go to the artists.
During the 10 days of its operation, the festival will present over 50 artists from around the country (and right here in Chicago also!) in over 200 performances using 5 venues in the Jefferson Park area. That's a lot of shows!
The shows in Chicago are chosen by lottery, so it's a little bit of mixed bag of what will be performing. With 50 shows though, there's usually something for everyone, and this year is no different.
Tickets are $8-10 each, depending on if you buy a multipack. You can also buy an all access pass for $175. Please remember you also need to purchase a membership button for $5 to gain admission to all the shows. You buy the membership button once, and it's good for the entire festival.
The best way to Fringe
Devote a couple of days to the festival. Buy a multi-pack of shows, which will bring your price down.
Go with friends or family. It's great to experience 4 or 5 shows together. It will give you a shared vocabulary like nothing else.
Go to as many different shows as you can. Some will be great, some will be less than great. All of them will be supporting individual artists doing their work, and that's a good thing.
Don't be discouraged. Some of the shows will be (to be polite) not your cup of tea. Do your best to select stuff you will like, but be adventurous. That's where the reward lies.
Hang out at Fringe Central. My best memories of Fringe festivals have been meeting potential audience members, other artists, and having a drink or a meal with a bunch of strangers brought together by their love of theatre.
I'm profiling a few shows from this year's festival that strike me as great for families and kids, and I'll also preview a couple of shows that are more for adults. I haven't seen these shows (yet) but I've performed in a number of Fringe festivals, and seen hundreds of Fringe shows, so I have a pretty good idea of what to expect. But I also like to be surprised!
GREAT FOR FAMILIES
KIDS FRINGE The Chicago Fringe is for all ages, but is doing a pretty good job of trying to aim for the family set as well. For kids under 12, they are producing a series of Kid Fringes, with workshops, arts and crafts, games and small performances. Expect a lot of storytelling and some fun workshops for kids.
There are 5 different afternoons of activities: Click here to find out more and purchase tickets.
MELODY Is an original superhero ballet with live music. Presented by Tiffany Lawson Dance (from right here in Chicago), the show features a superhero who fights crime through the sound waves of her dancing shoes. But watch out when her evil twin enters the arena and threatens a family reunion.
MURMURATIONS Five friends in a support group gather together to talk about their quirks, and use circus, puppetry, dance, and physical theatre to work and bond together. Produced by Semi-Circus, a Chicago company of interdisciplinary circus artists.
EAST OF THE SUN WEST OF THE MOON This Scandinavian folk tale uses layered vocals to weave story, song, and poetry to bathe the audience in the winds and magic of ancient Norway. Produced by the Hnossa Project of Brooklyn NY, it has had sold out runs and great reviews in New York City and Rochester NY.
Edna The Stomper is an all ages musical about a 7 year old kid who stomps everywhere she goes and drives her family crazy! Features songs, stomps, and some puny monster puppets. This is the world premiere, written by Chicago local Laura Toffenetti and directed and produced by Sarah Sutliff of New York's Rebel Playhouse.
DANDY DARKLY MYTH MOUTHI'm friends with Dandy Darkly on facebook, and he's a legend in New York City as kind of an alt-cabaret R-Rated clown/storyteller. This will be his first show at the Chicago fringe, and it will explore religion, addiction and social media obsession via satiric tales concerning a heroin-chic Persephone, Cosmopup Laika, virtual reality revelations and humanity’s premiere popinjay, Cha-Cha the Caveman, all set to an original musical score. Don't miss this (and don't bring the kids!) Click here to find out more and purchase tickets
MISTERO BUFFO This show from New York won the 2016 Best Physical Theater Show at the United Solo Theater Festival and the Encore Producer's Award 2017 at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Based on stories of the Bible re-told by Nobel Prize winning clown Dario Fo, this looks like another definite don't miss! It says it is good for all ages, but the ideas in the show are pretty radical, if they are staying true to Dario Fo. Click here to find out more and purchase tickets
Raffi is a recipient of the Order of Canada and the United Nations’ Earth Achievement Award. He has published three books for adults and holds four honorary degrees.
