Duck for President Takes Chicago, Part 2: Libraries and Parades

Upon a brief swing through Chicago's northern suburbs (namely St. Charles, at the Norris Cultural Arts Center), we wended our way to Chicago proper for a full two days off.  We found a reasonably-priced hotel in the city, parked the van and got ready for a mini-vacation in a city.  Indeed, as I'm sure I've said a few times before, the breaks and sit downs that sometimes accompany our one-off schedule grant us a nice chance to get familiar with a town, take a break from the constant movement and, if we're lucky, have a good adventure or two unrelated to ducks, diaper-changing pirates and musical-singing mice.

This was also the fifth time we'd driven in close proximity to Chicago, but the first time we'd actually taken an exit marked "Chicago," so that was an achievement in itself.

The actual days in Chicago passed without much group interaction.  Which is probably a good thing.  While I have made many of my best friends on Theatreworks tours, living and working with the same six people 24/7 for weeks on end can be challenging, and the opportunity to get away and do your own thing, without worrying about the van or the rest of the company is one of the things that keeps you sane.  Every evening, we'd return to the hotel with stories: David caught up with some longtime friends, Courtney found a few spectacular restaurants serving breakfast potatoes (her favorite!), Matt explored a few funky neighborhoods, Nic caught a slew of movies and Kristen ate every kind of vegan food imaginable.  My days were mostly spent in the museums or at a theater: the zoo, Chicago Art Institute, lunch with my friend Eva and productions of K. by the Hypocrites and Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind by the Neo-Futurists (who, in performance, thoroughly molested my copy of Time Out Chicago; it was fantastic!)

And then it was showtime!  Our venue at this juncture was the Harold Washington Public Library, right there on State Street, in the very center of things.  What's more, we were performing as the centerpiece of Bookamania, the library's celebration of children's books:

(image from the Chicago Public Library, and the T-shirts they gave us!)

To do a show about books in a library is pretty spectacular, and being the "featured guests" on all their advertising of an event is also rather cool.  And, because of all the other activities scheduled that day, we had loaded our set in a day prior (and found a spot for the van near the library), so we all arrived for call time via the famous Chicago "El", did a sound check and took our half-hour break.  It's amazing how little things like that can entirely transform the experience.

Both performances were fairly packed.  The houselights stayed at half in order to let audience members come and go as they pleased, and the ebb and flow of people in the house took a little getting used to on our part.  The houselights, however, did allowed us to see audience reaction in a theater setting, something we rarely get to do.  And, since the show was free, the audience was a good mix of adults and kids, ranging in ages from tiny to middle-school, and hailing from nearly every ethnic, social and economic background you could imagine.  You had yuppies next to families from the projects, and everybody was cheering for the Obama joke!  I've always been a big fan of libraries in general, but this was one of those days that reminded me how truly central they can be to an urban environment -- a great equalizer, to a degree.  I also enjoyed watching scores of spellbound kids repeatedly rebuff their parents' attempts to get them to "move on to something else."  Were there ever a question about the power of theater, their mesmerized faces would have settled the debate.


After loading out (through the innards of the library, which was a kick for me!), we took lunch and agreed to meet with our luggage at a designated spot, where we would all dive into the van and head off to Wisconsin.  However, Chicago had other plans for us.  Little did we know, November 20th was also the day of the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival, an evening parade akin to Macy's Thanksgiving variety, but with more light-up stuff.  Quite cool, until you realize that the street and "El" station closures mean that David is now circling our meet-up location, and that all Chicago freeway entrances are inaccessible via city streets.  We lugged our stuff through the throngs of people to meet David and the van, tumbled in and, through the windshield, watched Rudolph and Santa pass above us.  A warm holiday glow briefly fell over the van.


And then we high-tailed it out of town.  Off to Janesville, WI and then my home state of Minnesota!


Call tomorrow: 7:15am, Super 8, St. Joseph, MN.


Kid Quote of the Day: At the opening of "Babymouse," a little girl exclaimed, "I LOVE that one!"  She then proceeded to mimic Kristen's expressions and physicality for the remainder of the story.


Adult Quote of the Day:  The house crew for the library venue was a neat group. One in particular, with a cane and a camouflage coat, was everybody's favorite. Nic especially.  "He's a wizard," he whispered to me backstage. "I don't think he actually needs the cane."  The world may never know.