Welcome to Filament’s on-going blog series, providing insight into the world of Hank Williams, both the real-life man and the production of Hank Williams: Lost Highway coming to the Athenaeum Theatre June 8 – July 8.   To kick off the blog, we’ll take a look at The Drifting Cowboys – the name Hank gave every band he ever played with – and what life as a touring country musician of the ’40s and ’50s was like.  Stay tuned for our next entry, where you’ll get to meet Filament’s own Drifting Cowboys!

Before we started work on Hank Williams: Lost Highway at Filament, if someone asked us what defined Hank Williams’ music we would probably have had any number of descriptions to offer: “heartbreak,” “loneliness,” or even “yodeling.” Now that we’ve done deeper research into the world of the play, we’re surprised at some of the things we’ve been able to add to this list of defining characteristics. For instance: “road trips.”

While Hank’s lyrics often touch on the classic, romanticized country theme of traveling far from one’s home on lost highways and the lonesome whistles of trains, we were surprised to learn that a huge daily volume of decidedly un-romantic travel played a huge role in the lifestyles of Hank and his band. In order to make money, Hank Williams and the Drifting Cowboys had to spend each night of each week in a different Southern city. He and the whole band piled into the bucket seat of a car and spent all day squeezed together in close, hot quarters. Travel schedules were punishingly tight: gas station stops couldn’t even last the time it takes to cook a hamburger, so the boys would buy a bag of donuts and a gallon of milk and call that dinner before they jumped out of the car and onto a stage that night.

With all this time spent in the car, when did Hank find the time to sit back and write his famous songs? The answer is that more than one of them was written on the road. In interviews, Hank’s former bandmates recall the fact that Hank was the kind of artist who would think up a whole set of lyrics all of a sudden. On tour, however, there would be no room to pull out a guitar–or even a notebook–with the whole band crammed into a car. So on more than one occasion, Hank would announce that inspiration had struck, and a band member would pull the cardboard out of a freshly-laundered shirt so the songwriter could scrawl the lyrics out right then and there. These humble means produced some major hits, including the well-loved “Jambalaya.”

The Cowboys were surely delighted when Hank’s popularity earned them a coveted spot in the lineup of the Grand Ole Opry in 1949, but even this event didn’t get them more time at home with their families. Opry members were required to perform the Saturday show in Nashville twenty-six weekends out of every year. Though the Opry was a prestigious platform, it hardly paid well: even in the 1960s, the paid to artists was only $44 dollars a show. To keep their earnings up the band had to take off first thing Sunday morning to play a huge outdoor show in one of the “country music parks” in states as far away as Pennsylvania, where the fees were more like $1000 a show. The rest of the week, the Drifting Cowboys rode across the Southern states with Hank for smaller shows, live radio performances, and various publicity events. Many of Hank’s bandmates had families in Nashville, as Hank himself did—but in the average week, it was rare for the Cowboys to spend more than an afternoon with their loved ones.

Over the years many musicians came and went through Hank’s band.  They were fired, quit, or drafted into military service.   The important thing is that, even though they came and went, these men spent a lot of time with Hank and many of them would have been considered friends of his. There was certainly a love and respect that was built up over the many weeks and years of traveling as they saw the country together, and changed the course of popular music along the way.

Now that you know a little bit about the historical Drifting Cowboys, look out for our next blog post, taking you behind the scenes with Filament’s Drifting Cowboys as seen in Hank Williams: Lost Highway.

The Filament Theatre Ensemble is thrilled to announce that the 2012 recipient of Allie’s Gift is Vanessa Valliere.

Vanessa is a theatre artist with a diverse background including acting, physical theatre performance, clown, directing, and dance. Vanessa has performed and assistant directed at the Neo-Futurists, understudied and assisted at The New Colony, performed as back up dancer/clown for Steinomite and Sssnake (two Chicago musicians), performed in a devised piece for Collaboration’s Sketchbook, and performed with a vintage dance troupe called the Tackie Annies. She also performs and tours regularly as a cheerleader/clown for Mucca Pazza, Chicago’s own thirty-piece circus punk marching band.

Vanessa recently quit her day job to pursue her art full time. Her diverse talents, passion for her craft, and warmth and good humor exemplify so many of the qualities that Allie Powell demonstrated in her life. Vanessa will use Allie’s Gift to study with the internationally-renowned master teacher Paola Coletto. Her study is part of the creation of a solo show that will tour the country as part of New Belgium’s Tour de Fat, and ultimately land in Chicago for a hometown performance.

Allie’s Gift is an annual financial gift given to a Chicago artist in honor of Allison Powell, Filament’s business manager from February 2010 to her untimely passing on January 2, 2011. Allie had a business mind with an artistic heart. Like so many of us, Allie aspired to ultimately earn a living in the arts, but held day jobs in the meantime to support herself and save money for graduate school. As she wrote in her first correspondence with Filament when discussing her day job, “I love art, but I also love food.” She worked with us to begin setting a path for Filament to create a financially sustainable model where we may one day support an administrative staff as well as the artists who work with us. The Filament Theatre Ensemble will award Allie’s Gift annually on her birthday to one Chicago artist who demonstrates passion, dedication, and a love for their art in addition to a financial need.

We are so honored to be celebrating Allie’s memory through the giving of this award. Her parents, Dayle and Will Spencer, and friends Susanne Brooks, Luisa Engel, Sarah Yost, and Polly Wood have given generous donation tso the Allie’s Gift fund, ensuring that we could extend this gift in her honor. We are grateful to their contributions, just as we are grateful for Allie Powell, who continues to inspire all of our work.

Over the next several weeks, as we enter into rehearsals for Hank Williams: Lost Highway,we will be featuring articles delving into the story of Hank Williams’ life. Who were the Drifting Cowboys? What was Mama Lily really like? How did he come to write the music that has changed the world in some many wonderful ways? These are just a few of the things we will be looking into and sharing with you through videos, pictures, and audio clips from that period in American history.

We are really excited to be exploring the music and life of this wonderful American Legend with you and look forward to sharing more in the weeks to come!

Visit the Hank Williams: Lost Highway Show Information Page to find out more about how you can get in on the fun!

Below is an article that appeared on Theatre in Chicago on March 17th. In honor of our dear friend and collaborator, Allison Powell, we continue our support of our fellow theatre artists in Chicago. We encourage theatre artists to apply for this year’s Allie’s Gift. We look forward to connecting with you.

When Allison Powell first contacted Filament Theatre Ensemble about becoming involved with their company, she described her artistic aspirations for herself and for the future of the ensemble, but was also forthcoming about the reality, her reality, of trying to pursue a theatrical career while also being committed to one of those “day jobs” that can keep one from spending as much time and energy as one would like on the artistic endeavors that one loves. Or as Powell herself put it, “I love art, but I also love food.”

Sadly, Allison Powell passed away unexpectedly in January of 2011, having served as Filament’s Business Manager and occasional playwright (her work Choose Thine Own Adventure was produced by Filament in October 2010). To honor her memory and her belief that artists should be paid for the work they do, Filament created Allie’s Gift, a one-time annual award of up to $350 given to “one Chicago artist who demonstrates passion, dedication, and a love for their art in addition to financial need.” Explains Filament Artistic Director Julie Ritchey, “One of Allie’s major goals in her work with Filament was to work towards paying our artists and ourselves a livable wage. Allie’s Gift is a small way we hope to honor that goal and her legacy, by helping a local theatre artist cover career-related costs that they would not otherwise be able to afford.”

The inaugural award, handed out in May of 2011, was given to Kevin Crowley, an actor and musician who had recently completed a run as the title character in Filament’s spring 2011 production of Orpheus. “Kevin wrote us and told us that he was in the process of writing a one-man show that had lots of music in it,” says Ritchey. “In order to compose this music, he wanted to buy himself a keyboard because he had no access to one except at the library downtown. We thought that was a perfect example of what Allie’s Gift was intended to be used for.”

And so, Filament is now accepting applications for the second annual Allie’s Gift, to be awarded in April of this year. Details and specific application requirements can be found at www.filamenttheatre.org/category/allies-gift/, and include a letter introducing yourself and describing your intended use of the award money, a statement of your current financial situation, and a resume. Supporting materials including photos, demo reels, etc. are encouraged but not required. Applicants need not be involved with Filament Theatre Ensemble to be eligible. Applications are due by 5pm on Friday, April 13. The award will be announced on April 26. Applications should be sent (as pdfs) to gift@filamenttheatre.org. Questions about Allie’s Gift, the application process, or Filament in general can be directed to info@filamenttheatre.org.

We’ve been receiving many questions from audience members about how we arrived at the portrayal of Angus’s memory loss in our production of Michael Healey’s The Drawer Boy.  It has been a collaboration between the playwright (who sculpted the character and his thought processes), the director, the dramaturgeand — of course — Will Kinnear, who has taken on the challenge of playing this enormously difficult role, and who does so with honesty and grace.  We love that our audiences are curious about Angus’s background, and at how we arrived at the choices we made, and we would love to share some of the research and resources we used in rehearsal!

One of the major challenges in The Drawer Boy is how to represent Angus’s memory loss. As written, Michael Healey provides a generous and empathetic portrayal of the character, with a full inner life and clear thought process. In transferring the writing from the page to a living, breathing character, the production team of The Drawer Boy wanted to dive deeper – to gain an understanding of the symptoms and effects of brain trauma, so that we might represent Angus as truthfully as possible. Together, with the help of our dramaturge Kati Sweaney, we researched different kinds of amnesia and brain trauma, in order to fully understand the character and the unique inner-working of his mind.

One of the main cases we studied was a man named K.C., who suffered a traumatic brain injury following a severe motorcycle accident. According to the website on K.C. and his history:

“The motorcycle accident drastically impacted K.C.’s personality and memories. His once thrill seeking-character was changed to a soft spoken and calm person. He is still able to gather his own and other’s thoughts, feelings and intentions, since that part of his brain was unaffected. His humour and sarcasm remain intact, yet he is unable to remember any previous personal memories (referred to as retrograde amnesia) or store new ones. K.C. has no problem recalling that an event has occurred but is unable to associate that event to him. It is as if someone else experienced his memories and just told him about them. Therefore, he has no personal attachments to his past memories. K.C. is no longer able to commit any new type of information to long term memory (referred to as anterograde amnesia) and details of his personal occurrences exist only in the present, vanishing from his reality as soon as he thinks about something else. However, he can learn new information or skills normally, like sorting books but he doesn’t remember actually learning it.”

There are also some fascinating interviews with K.C., which provided us with a helpful frame of reference for understanding someone whose memory loss is in so many ways similar to Angus’s.

Another patient we studied was Clive Wearing, a gifted musician who suffered from a virus, leaving him with both retrograde and anterograde amnesia.  Fascinatingly, Clive exhibits no symptoms at all when he is playing the piano or conducting, which you can see in this video:

Like K.C. and Clive, Angus does not fall along one clear, clinical diagnosis of amnesia, but exhibits symptoms of retrograde amnesia, anterograde amnesia, and repressed memory. He can remember basic tasks such as knitting, running the tractor, baking bread, etc., but cannot maintain a conversation, recognize new faces, or remember events from long in the past. And, although one review mischaracterizes Angus’s injury as having “unlocked Rainman-like abilities with numbers,” both the script and our research suggest that Angus was always intelligent and academically-minded (he had planned to go to university), so his ability to do the accounting on the farm would still be part of his procedural memory.

We are so thrilled that our audiences have been as curious as we were to find out more about Angus, and the cause and symptoms of his memory loss.  Please do not hesitate to contact us of you have more questions, or would like to find out more about our process and research!

We of the Filament Theatre Ensemble would love to invite you to our JEFF RECOMMENDED production!

The Drawer Boy
by Michael Healey

Produced in collaboration with The Den Theatre and performed at The Den’s beautiful space at 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave.

• Pay-What-You-Can Previews (Thursday January 19 and Friday January 20 at 7:30pm)
• Opening January 22 at 3:00, with a reception to follow catered by Native Foods.
• Performances Thursday-Saturday at 7:30pm, and Sundays at 3:00pm through February 25.
• See below for details and more special events!
• Click here to purchase your tickets now! 

Nick Polus and Will Kinnear in The Drawer Boy

Special Events

Mark your calendars for these exciting opportunities to delve deeper into the world of The Drawer Boy.

Theatre Thursday Thursday, January 26 at 7:30pm
Stay after Thursday’s performance for a special post-show conversation with the artists and a reception catered by the Birchwood Kitchen at this fantastic event through the League of Chicago Theatres.

Arts + Environment XChange Sunday, February 5 at 3:00pm
Filament and The Den are pleased to host Chicago’s Arts + Environment XChange first ever Xchange Xclusive, a networking event for artists and businesses with a passion for the environment. Stay after the show for a discussion on Sustainable Practices and Partnerships, and a unique opportunity to network with like-minded artists and professionals.

Film Screening Sunday, February 12 at 5:00pm
Want to learn more about The Farm Show, the Theatre Passe Muraille production that inspired The Drawer Boy?  Join us after a matinee performance for a screening of Michael Ondaatje’s 1974  documentary The Clinton Special – and see footage of the real Miles Potter in action!

Marco Minichiello, Nick Polus, Will Kinnear in The Drawer Boy

ABOUT THE DRAWER BOY:

Join Filament Theatre Ensemble and The Den Ensemble for The Drawer Boy, the award winning play by Michael Healey inspired by the Theatre Passe Muraille’s landmark production of The Farm Show. The Drawer Boy examines the relationship between two WWII veterans whose lives are turned upside down when a young actor visits their farm to gather research for a play. What unfolds is a powerful and often humorous journey, as the two older men begin to rebuild the story of their lives, the truth of which has long been left unspoken.

Directed by Julie Ritchey, Filament Artistic Director

Featuring: Filament Theatre Ensemble member Marco Minichiello (Miles) with guest artists Will Kinnear (Angus) and Nick Polus (Morgan)

Production Team:  Michael Healey (Playwright), Julie Ritchey (Director), Noel Huntzinger (Costume Design), Chad Bianchi (Scenic Design), Melissa Schlesinger (Sound Designer), Will Dean (Lighting Designer), Kati Sweaney (Dramaturge), Luke Heiden (Assistant Director), Jen Bukovsky (Stage Manager), Kris Kontour (Technical Director), Ryan Martin (The Den Theatre Artistic Director), Jane Phillips (Production Manager), Peter Oyloe (Marketing Director and Graphic Design)

Artistic Director Julie Ritchey reflects on 2011, and our dear friend Allison Powell.

To say that I am grateful for the many blessings that filled this last year would be an understatement. Filament has grown in ways I never thought imaginable in such a short time. From new supporters, audience, collaborators, our astonishing advisory board members – we have been graced with so many generous people, ready to cheer us on and provide support and insight whenever we need it. It has been a year of tremendous joy, and for that I am profoundly thankful.

This New Year also carries with it a degree of sadness, however, as January 2 marks the one year anniversary of Allison Powell’s passing. With every step forward Filament has taken, I have felt a pang of sorrow at the realization that Allie is not here to share in our celebrations. We recently performed Choose Thine Own Adventure at a children’s theatre in Wisconsin, and it was so marvelous and surreal to hear her play spoken again. Her presence was so strong, through all the jokes and irreverence and thoughtful use of text – in a way it was like having her in the room again.

As I reflect on this anniversary, mixed in among the tears and the ache of missing my friend, I feel a kind of gladness. The depth of sorrow comes from a depth of love, and I feel so fortunate to have known and loved Allie.

I think back to the day I met Allie: She had seen online that Filament was looking to hire a business manager, and she applied with the most

Opening Night of "Choose"

heart-warming cover letter I’ve ever read (I still have it saved, and read it often). We met for an interview, and the second she walked out the door I called Peter and Christian to say that my conversation with Allie felt more like the best first date of all time than it did a job interview. That moment was so characteristic of every conversation I ever had with Allie – she is funny, charming, intelligent, and beautiful. As soon as the rest of the company met her, they fell in love just like I did. How could they not? How lucky we are that her life brought her to Chicago, that she saw that listing, that we happened to meet, to collaborate, to become friends.

How astonishing it is for any one of us to find ourselves on the earth at the same time as each other. Think of all the events that led up to your birth. If your mom had been sick on the day of the party. If your grandmother had moved to a different town. If your great-grandfather hadn’t survived the war. If, if, if, back and back and back in time. If any one moment had aligned differently, you would not be here. What a miracle it is – and as an atheist I do not use the word miracle lightly – that with billions of people on the earth, and infinite individual human choices, we find ourselves sitting across the table from any one of the remarkable people we are fortunate enough to call friends.

Allie helped lay the groundwork for all the developments this last year has brought. I see her work, vision, and ideas with every step we take. She helped to point us in a new direction, and I will work tirelessly to help finish the work that she could not. I am so grateful that Allison Powell is part of my story, of Filament’s story – of all of our story.  I miss my friend. I will always miss my friend.

As 2012 begins, let us celebrate. Let us remember the miracle that in the vast sea of people and places and choices, we have found each other. Let us hold our friends close, and cherish the overlapping of our lives. Let us treasure all the moments, good and bad, that have led us to be right where we are, loving the people we love. Let us not forget for a moment what a gift it is that we have shared another year together, and that we will share in this next year to come.

What a year it has been!

Thanks to you, Filament has become an emerging leader in sustainable theatrical production. Our work has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, TEDx, and we even had an article about our ticketing platform make it all the way to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). We’ve received some great publicity, but it’s your voice that matters most:

“The entire experience, top to bottom, was incredibly awe-inspiring and wonderful.
Intimate, gorgeous, professional. This theatre company should be a model for
companies leaps and bounds above it.”

 -Audience Member, From the Circle

Your support, encouragement, and feedback have helped us to grow, shaped our programming, and kept us feeling inspired. Thank you.

Hearing what our work has meant to you has pushed us to keep moving forward. Currently, we are working closely with Alderman John Arena of the 45^th Ward to secure a new home in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood, which will allow us even more opportunities to work, share, and grow with you as together we explore folk theatre and a healthier relationship with our environment.

And we have even more exciting news to share with you. As we wrap up 2011, we received word from an individual donor who will double match all donations up to $5,000 thru December 31st. You give us $10 – we receive $30. If we meet our goal of raising $5,000 – it becomes $15,000!

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Filament Theatre Ensemble. Donations can be made by clicking the link below:

Or by mailing a check to:
Filament Theatre Ensemble
2748 West Giddings St.
Grdn Apt.
Chicago, IL 60625

We’ve shared our stories, you’ve shared yours. Help keep this circle going.

Warmly,
The Folks at Filament

ALDERMAN ARENA SPONSORS LIVING DIORAMA TO CREATE HOLIDAY MEMORIES

CHICAGO, IL – As part of his continuing effort to reinvigorate the historic Six Corners area of the 45th Ward, Alderman John Arena and Arts Alive 45 have partnered with Filament Theatre Ensemble to present “Four Actors in Search of a Holiday Memory.”

Four actors from Filament will improvise holiday vignettes, set in a retro storefront along the Milwaukee Avenue corridor in the Six Corners shopping district.
“This is another imaginative use of storefront space to draw attention to the potential of Six Corners,” Alderman Arena said. “I want to demonstrate my commitment to rebuilding our business districts through a unique partnership with art and culture.”

The living diorama begins Saturday, December 17th between noon and 3 p.m., at 4047 N. Milwaukee Avenue. The audience will stand, framed by the U-shaped store windows where the actors will perform.

The theatre production is part of an all-day holiday affair, sponsored by the Six Corner Association, featuring a holiday sing-a-long accompanied by acclaimed organist Jay Warren on a historic Kimball pipe organ at the Portage Theater. Following the performance, the Portage Theater will show the film, “A Christmas Story.”

Marketing Director Peter Oyloe explores some thoughts on our everyday use of plastics in a very consumer-centric society. What are the effects and what can be done to offset the damages that have been and will be done?

One of the last consumer grade materials that we have been able to recycle at any significant volume has been plastic. It has traditionally been very difficult for recycling systems to tell the over 20 consumer grade plastic formulas apart and therefore to recycle them. Though they may look and act alike, chemically they are not all compatible with each other. Currently, as a country, we are only recycling about 27 percent of the plastics that we use. The impact is huge:  “I will just throw this one plastic bottle away,” said seven billion people…

Recently I came across an interesting TED Talk by a man named Mike Biddle who has made it his life’s mission to take this abundant “waste” material develop an elegant, yet sophisticated, solution for sorting and, finally, reusing this valuable substance.

As our quest for oil becomes ever more destructive, politically challenging, and dangerous, the cost of goods made from petroleum (LOTS OF THEM) such as plastics has risen significantly in recent years. It can cost, depending on the grade of plastic, a dollar to several dollars per pound for the raw material. So why haven’t we been finding better ways to deal with these mountains of valuable trash that we have been shipping all around the world?

Mr. Biddle has found an exciting solution to some of the issues surrounding plastic wastes and has been able to turn huge quantities of these materials into food for new products; all the while aiding in the cleanup of cities we currently use as waste dumps around the globe. It is my hope that his work inspires others to find more elegant solutions to how we handle our waste. Even though we no longer want something it most certainly has value somewhere. We learned early on in our schooling that energy is neither created or destroyed, in this same manner the act of “throwing something away” only means it ends up somewhere else for someone else to deal with. It does not go away. The video below shows Mr. Biddle talking about the work he is doing as well as some very powerful images of where “waste” ends up.

A couple more tidbits for you to explore…

1. One of the largest man made structures in the world is and was the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island in NYC. It was opened in 1947 as a temporary solution for NYC’s waste but soon became the full time waste dump of America’s most populous city. It is now the site of a 30 year effort to convert this massive island of trash into a nature preserve called Freshkills Park.

2. Each year Americans create nearly 210 million tons of solid waste. Over two thirds of it is edible.

3. Waste Land is a documentary that follows the three year project of  Vik Muniz a very well known Brazilian artist as he helps several “catadores” or “pickers” create artworks out of the garbage of Jardim Gramacho, in Rio de Janeiro, the largest garbage dump in the world.  These “pickers” live and work in this man made landscape of waste gathering materials which they bring to recyclers with hopes of making a modest living. It is a powerful character study of these proud people and the effects they and Mr. Muniz have on each others lives.

4. Here is a news video of one of the “Trash Villages” in the Chinese city of Guiyang

The first synthetic plastic was patented by Alexander Parkes in the UK in 1856, but it was in the 1940s and 1950s when plastic really began to become mainstream and its life as a very everyday throwaway commodity began in earnest. With 7 billion people on this planet and a rapidly dwindling supply of oil from which to craft such materials we must find ways to conserve/recycle as well as develop renewable and biodegradable alternatives to our addiction to plastic.

There is a company that is working on such a product. Their name is Cereplast and they produce bio-plastics which they have divided into two classes. The first is what they call Cereplast Compostables which are plastics derived of plant starches such as corn, potatoes, tapioca, and algae. They are designed to degrade in tradition compost type conditions. Where as a traditional plastic may take up to 1000 years to degrade entirely in such conditions these bio-plastics might take 128 days. This of course is not ideal for durable goods such as sunglasses or baby seats so for these applications they have developed a material they call Cereplast Sustainables. These are plastics derived of bio-based resins that use 70 percent less petroleum than traditional plastics but still maintain the same level of durability.

Work is being done, and as you can see the hardest work before these sustainable plastic producers is how to get the same level of durability and mold-ability as traditional plastics while keeping costs down and producing at scale. However, as there are multiple usage scenarios for our current plastic needs, it is unlikely that there will be one end all be all solution. It is easy to see however that we can do our part to cut our usage and find ways to recycle as much of our “waste” as possible.

In nature “waste equals food”. It is only in our current resource usage scenarios that “waste equals trash”. As we develop elegant ways to balance our desire for consumer goods with healthy life cycle considerations we will find ourselves in much cleaner cities where we all do our part to feed the world that has for so long fed us, abundantly.