Check out the Semi-Opera "Here Are Lions" at Elastic Arts Through June 2nd

Here Are Lions is a semi-opera directed, written and created by David Amaral with music composed and created by Joshua Dumas that is being performed at Elastic Arts (2830 N Milwaukee) on the weekends through June 2nd. The production is being produced and performed by New Beast Theatre Works, which creates dynamic and boldly new theatrical experiences aiming to explore innovative methods of storytelling. The company has produced two semi-operas, Light Waves & Their Uses (Spring 2011) and One Thing & Everything Else (Spring 2010), and in Summer 2011, New Beast collaborated with Vintage Theatre Collective to create Oedipus Rex Play, a meta-theatrical retelling of Oedipus.

The play takes place during the amid the 1968 National Democratic Convention in Chicago and deals with issues of self-discovery, memory, and social change. Tickets can purchased here or email newbeastworks@gmail.com and more information about the play can be found below.

About the Play: In June 1968, a young salesman returns home to Chicago to care for his mother who is suffering from dementia. As she drifts between confusion and clarity, we see glimpses of her past, her son’s future, and the social change sweeping Chicago and the nation in the late 60s. Our guide on this journey is the man’s father, killed in WWII, but whose ghost is shunted through time and space whenever a story is told. He tumbles through the twentieth century, witness to wars, counter culture, corruption, and the mundane. Prodded by his mother’s social worker, a peace activist, the son begins to engage in the turmoil surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention. His mother deteriorates. The protest movementexplodes. The ghost finds his family. The son begins to discover a place at home and in nation, until plucked from both to serve in Vietnam. Years later, drifting, turned onto the streets, we find him still searching.

The Company: New Beast Theatre Works creates dynamic and boldly new theatrical experiences aiming to explore innovative methods of storytelling. The company has produced two semi-operas, Light Waves & Their Uses (Spring 2011) and One Thing & Everything Else (Spring 2010), a semi-opera named Best New Theatrical Form by the Chicago Reader. In Summer 2011, New Beast collaborated with Vintage Theatre Collective to create Oedipus Rex Play, a meta-theatrical retelling of Oedipus.

The Artists: David Amaral (director and co-creator) is the founder of New Beast Theatre Works, and has directed the company’s previous productions. He has worked extensively with The Building Stage (Dustbowl Gothic, Moby-Dick, Noir, Master Builder, The Franklin Expedition) and wrote and directed Oedipus Rex Play for Vintage Theatre Co. Joshua Dumas (composer and co-creator) is an artist and composer. He is a New Beast company member, he participates in Vintage Theater Collective, and he co-founded the Summer is for Fireflies. He recently worked on the Plagiarist’s I Am Saying This Right Now, scored Jerzy Rose’s feature film Some Girls Never Learn and is finishing work on a dance film, Mirrors Are Just Water Specified. www.quieterrors.com