INFILTRATION

A performance experience brought to you by the Chicago-based Salonathon and Neofuturist collaborative love affair. Click our menu at the top left corner for additional information. EVENT PAGE

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Infiltration + WITCH HAZEL

WITCH HAZEL is a performance project curated by Chicago artists Imp Kid, Casey Deven, and Ariel Zetina. WITCH HAZEL presents non-narrative or semi-narrative performances that are ways to reclaim or reexamine growing up queer in the ’90s and 2000s, and transforms these issues from adolescence into celebration for trans*queer people today. Come see WITCH HAZEL tonight at INFILTRATION, quickly followed by Too Much Light. Doors open 10:30pm. Neo-Futurist LILY MOONEY interviews. 

  I want to know if you have an origin story as a group. Or, if you all have different origin stories. Or, your opinion of origin stories, in general. So: WITCH HAZEL, origin stories. Go. 

We wish we could remember exactly why we initially called the project WITCH HAZEL, besides the fact that it has the word ‘witch’ in it but is something that is decidedly mundane.  Initially, we were going to adopt the term WITCH HAZEL to use for a name of a workshop where we would show each other work every week in an effort to keep us motivated.  But then that never happened for a year.  It wasn’t until Joe Varisco met Ariel and booked her a slot at Salonathon that WITCH HAZEL premiered its first work.  But speaking of origins, the very first performance was lisafraanqus, the ORIGIN story of Lisa Frank through the lens of the play Equus (Lisa Frank is a sad gothic girl until her eyes get stabbed out with Crayola crayons.  She can only see bright colors, rainbows, and ponies after that and it inspires her to create the most beautiful folders and stickers ever).

  WITCH HAZEL makes some of the most striking performances I’ve seen in Chicago. They give the feeling of witnessing or participating in a private ritual. Do you think about ritual in the conception of a piece? 

It is really important for WITCH HAZEL’s work to transport the audience to another world, and rituals do this really effectively, especially in settings like bars where it’s hard to completely transform the space with design.  Rituals exist in both a magic world and a realistic world, so by enacting a ritual, it’s possible to transport an audience from the realistic to the magical, but without ever leaving the reality (like a dream).  We are all interested in orchestrated performance in real life (ceremonies, funerals, etc.) and repetition of mundane ritual (a coffee every morning, smoking every night) and how people, not just priestesses or magicians, create these vibrating spaces.  In our pieces, we always try to adapt a pre-existing ritual or aesthetic form to be the container for the content, so there’s organization and gravitas to our silly mess.

  How does WITCH HAZEL begin making a performance? 

Pieces start from the silliest image possible, but one that’s a metaphor for a much bigger idea.  For example, our first long work FISH (which we did at Dfbrl8r gallery in August), came from a memory that we all shared of using a sweatshirt turned inside out, the neckline around your head so that you have long hair.  Ariel used to do this with a red sweatshirt so she could be the Disney mermaid of the same name, which brings up questions of gender identity, gender performance, Disney princess narratives, parent & queer child relationships, etc. etc.  After this first image is made, we stage a lot more pieces, usually trying to go with our initial ideas (because they’re usually the best), even if we can’t yet see the connecting tissue clearly.  In this creating process, Ariel produces electronic tracks and writes text, Deven raps and choreographs, and Darren stages and designs the visual.  From there, we either ask other performers to perform the work, or we perform it ourselves, depending on the needs of the project.

  I google-image-searched “witch hazel” and this was the second result. …Thoughts? 

Lists are our favorite way to organize images (it’s so clean!) and this is such a good list because all the titles are really boring words but all become really interesting together!  Horizontal spreading is our favorite (obviously).

  Another name for witch-hazel, the plant, is, apparently, “winterbloom.” How did you handle last winter? How are you feeling about this one? 

We all hate winter and do not hesitate to complain about it from the very first cold day to the very fucking last. We performed our piece S.A.D., an Ingmar Bergman-inspired piece where we waxed poetic about the winter but then danced with a Mermaid (the wonderful Caroline Kingsley aka Winnifred Coombe) wearing cute swimsuits. So yes, the project WITCH HAZEL blooms in the winter, but as individuals, we do not.

  Please tease me about what you’re planning to do at the Neo-Futurarium tonight. 

WITCH HAZEL presents INAUGURATION, the imagined inauguration of the first white, male, gay, cis president. It’s MC’d by MC DEV_N_ (a Macklemore wannabe), there’s a go-go dance to a straight-from-Boystown Katy Perry remix, lots and lots of air horns, policemen eating donuts, and a really sexy ice cream sundae. We’re trying to make it as annoying and gross as possible.

I can’t wait. 

  Purchase advance tickets to TML + INFILTRATION here, and arrive at 10:30 for WITCH HAZEL. 

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WITCH HAZEL presents INAUGURATION part of THE NEO-FUTURISTS & SALONATHON present INFILTRATION this FRI, SEPT 26, 10:45 pm  the NEOFUTURARIUM 5153 N ASHLAND ave  *my country tis of thee*america the beautiful*same love

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INFILTRATION artists Tien Tran and Kieran Kredell of LADY/WATCH, Sid Branca, & Medicine Women.

INFILTRATION PHASE II is about to begin. Be prepared to experience art at any moment!

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Infiltration+Winnifred Coombe

Winnifred Coombe is the creation of Chicago performance artist CAROLINE KINGSLEY, who embodies Winnifred in order to enchant, mystify, and engage her listeners with the power of speech. Neo-Futurist KURT CHIANG interviewed her. Come see Winnifred Coombe at INFILTRATION, Friday September 19th, quickly followed by Too Much Light. Doors open 10:30pm.

Tell me about your relationship to Chicago. Artistically, and personally.

Well I was born here, and I started performing Winnifred here. So, I think it’s a pretty great place to grow up as a real girl or a magical Victorian alter-ego.

Your website solicits appearances of Winnifred Coombe at corporate events. I want to hear about one of those.

It can be anything from reading tarot cards to spice up a company Halloween party, to performing a kind of oration-roast of someone retiring, to giving a rousing quarterly speech Winnifred-Wolf-of Wallstreet-style. I also really like to do personalized divorce ceremonies or blessingways for pregnant woman. Basically if you want some one to take charge of the party, Winnifred can.

As a Neo-Futurist, I rarely get to develop and portray characters. But the last play I did outside our theater, I briefly portrayed a suffragette. I didn’t get real deep into some sort of transformation, but I did enjoy feeling like a fiery orator, and using the words I had to say as rhetorical weapons. In fact, it felt as if I were a better, smarter version of myself. Do you relate to Winnifred in some way?

I absolutely picked Winnifred as a mouthpiece because she is the most fiery, magical version of myself I could conceive of. The funny part is that in Winnifred’s day, women couldn’t speak in public unless they were channeling spirits – hence the ties between the early women’s suffrage movement and things like seances and trance-lecturing. Also, I think when someone tries to tell you when you can and cannot speak, it comes with more fire. I’m lucky that my foremothers fought for my right to speak publicly, so I don’t have that kind of pressure, but performing as Winnifred helps me heighten the things I want to say.

There’s this video of you performing on a boat with Salonathon, and you look exceedingly confident. Have you sailed before?

Ha! I’m actually not much of a sailor. My dear friend and the artistic director of my theater company Dog & Pony Krissy Vanderwarker is an avid sailor, so she’s taken me out once or twice. She pointed out that I was yawning a lot – which usually means one is feeling seasick.

What do you want the audience to experience – or take away with them – after your performance Friday?

Gah! I feel like that’s asking “how do you want people to feel after they talk to you.” I hope people like Winnifred, and find her interesting, but mostly I just really excited and grateful to share this thing I created. I guess I want them to have fun, and a little something to think about – I don’t want them to want to throw up or anything.

Also in regards to this Friday: September 19th will be the anniversary of New Zealand’s Electoral Act of 1893, which gave all women in NZ the right to vote. This is in contrast to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provided that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex,” which was passed in 1920. That’s a 27 year gap. Thoughts? 

There’s no doubt we were behind the times in a lot of ways when it comes to women’s rights, and still are. I’m real excited to see a female president. My next project is Hill and Bill: a Billary Broadway-oke Musical – it’s another way to explore my fascination with women in power in America – and also sing a lot of great parody songs with my partner who has a great Bill Clinton impression and pretty awesome dance moves.

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THIS FRIDAY! Come experience the INFILTRATION with this week's artist DAVIS HAINES!

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MEDICINE WOMEN for INFILTRATION (09.05.2014)

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Infiltration+Medicine Women

Neo-Futurist TIF HARRISON interviewed tonight’s INFILTRATION guests, MEDICINE WOMEN, an “ever-evolving choir mothered by Quinn Tsan and Jessica Marks.” Buy your tickets right now, and become captive.

1. If you google “Medicine Women,” the first thing that pops up is the question “Did you mean: medicine woman?” Do you always perform as a duo, or do you change it up? Do you ever invite others in to perform with you?

Quinn and I choose the songs and make the arrangements, but we’ve sung with up to 9 women at a time.  The form of Medicine Women is rather nebulous, and we structure the number to fit each piece and venue.

 2. According to Wikipedia, a medicine woman is “a traditional healer and spiritual leader among American Indians, or Native Americans in the United States and First Nations in Canada.” Does this definition fit with how you would describe your sound and the work you do?

Before we chose a name, all the women that sang with us and the two of us especially noticed the special healing power of singing together.  When you sing with the group, because you breathe together, your hearts start to beat in unison.  This magical energy is cultivated at rehearsals and surely shared with our audience members.  We think the name is rather apt, even though it started as sort of a joke.  You know, Dr. Quinn and the Medicine Women.

 3. When I feel like I’m about to get a cold or am having trouble sleeping, I’ll make myself a mustard bath (equal parts mustard powder, baking soda with essential oils) and it will always works. Do either of you have a favorite home-remedy?

Jess likes to put a tablespoon of tumeric into a glass of warm water, wait five minutes and drink it down at the first sign of illness.  Also raw garlic and a shot of whiskey. Quinn tends to add cayenne to her hot tea and some honey for the throat.

 4. What are you excited by, or looking forward to, most about performing at The Neo-Futurarium?’

We’re very interested in creating an atmosphere of ritual in a space where it is completely unexpected. The Neo’s have a very particular brand of theatre that is completely immersive in some ways, and we aim to bolster that energy by forcing the audience to take our spoonful of harmonic sugar.

 5. This isn’t a question; The photo of the two of you on your website is wonderful. It is visceral and evocative and made me whisper, “Whoa.” while doing data entry at my day job. Thank you for that.

Thank you thank you!

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LADY/WATCH for INFILTRATION (8.29.14)

Screencaps by JI Yang

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Infiltration+Sid Branca= yessssssssssssss

Friday, August 22nd will be our third performance as part of our Infiltration series, a collaboration with Salonathon and us Neos in our State Park space before TML every Fri in August and September. Since I’ll probably be frantically setting my props for TML during Sid’s performance and won’t get to see it (shit!), I thought I would interview her and get a little insight into who she is.

I love your name. It reminds me of Fernet Branca, a digestif that I enjoy over ice. Do you have a preferred digestif?

Thanks! Every time I see those Fernet Branca ads around town, I feel like I have some really wacky cousin running around that I haven’t met yet. I would love to hang out with her. I actually really love Fernet Branca, and weird bitter intense drinks in general. I am also a huge fan of Malört–bartenders all over this city regularly make fun of me for ordering Malört and club soda, which is called a Lake Michigan and is totally refreshing and great.

When did you first encounter Salonathon? Would you consider it your artistic home? What keeps you coming back?

So in an attempt to figure out when I first went to Salonathon, I searched for “Salonathon” in my gmail archive. There were 920 results, daaaaang. The first related email is from July 18, 2011, so I guess I’ve been attending since near the beginning of this whole crazy thing. The first time I performed at Salonathon was December 19, 2011, at the request of the lovely Kelly Kerwin. The theme was, appropriately, Endings/Beginnings. I did a monologue that included the line “This hangover has taught me that today is a new day and that the future is ours,” which in hindsight was pretty on point.

The Salonathon community is definitely exactly that for me–a community. The people I have met and grown closer to as a result are some of the most important people in my life. I’ve seen a lot of really incredible work, and a lot of daring and beautiful attempts at something new. I’ve witnessed people change and grow as artists over time. I’ve begun collaborations. I’ve fallen irrevocably in love, over and over. I’ve gotten to share many things both rawly new and intimately familiar with a room full of people I value.

The world is a kind of a terrifying and overwhelming place to me a lot of the time, but I know Salonathon has my back and that means a lot. It’s that, as much as the performances themselves, that keeps me coming back whenever I can.

What is your favorite article of clothing right now? Why?

I recently acquired this big red plaid flannel that makes me feel like a character on The Adventures of Pete & Pete, and I am really excited for fall weather so I can wear it constantly until I am gross.

Where do you live? What’s your favorite thing about your neighborhood?

I live in Ukrainian Village! I love all the signs in Cyrillic lettering, and the weird little dive bars, and the bells of the church across the street from my house. But I think my favorite thing about where I live is my roommate, Amanda. She is my best friend and is great, and a room of our apartment is essentially the main office of First Floor Theater, of which she’s the Managing Director and I’m a company member. She is eating a croissant next to me while I am typing this and I am obviously trying to figure out if she can see what I am typing right now.

I feel like every time I see you, you have a different look. Would you consider yourself a chameleon?

Totally. I try to approach every day of my life like I’m attending a theme party, but I’m the one who gets to pick the theme! Sometimes I will even assign myself one, or ask my friends for a prompt. (I often also try to dress in response to a given Salonathon theme even if I’m not performing that night.) I am a complicated and somewhat fractured person with a lot of different interests and like, so many feelings, and it’s sometimes fun for me to try and channel those into different looks. Artistic practice is often a process externalizing some kind of interior experience, and that’s also on some level happening when you decide which black band t-shirt with the sleeves cut off you’re going to wear that day, ya know?

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Infiltration+LADY/WATCH

Friday, August 29th @ 10:30 we head into the fourth installment of our collaboration with Salonathon by featuring LADY/WATCH, the performance-duo spawn of Kieran Kredell and Tien Tran. Enjoy this correspondence between them and Neo-Futurist Kurt Chiang. Can’t wait to see you deep down and all up with INFILTRATION.

Hello Tien and Kieran. Can you please begin by describing the relationship that is being established in the following picture?:

Great question. This is LADY/WATCH in a nicely wallpapered nutshell: two devastatingly awkward individuals doing their best to appear confident and self-assured. For each of our pieces we like to begin by selecting/considering a subject, defining our own personal relationships––as LADY/WATCH––to that subject, and using that information to inform the direction of the piece. This photo was taken before our Pride Weekend performance at Berlin. In devising the piece, we began by asking “Who would LADY/WATCH be if we put them back in the closet? Probably, miserable.”

My idea of quintessential Chicago art is when people take genres/forms/things and fuse them together. You describe yourselves (on your Facebook page, at least) as a “Chicago-based queer performance art dancejoker duo.” I’m curious how you define “performance art” as well as “dancejoker.” Can you elaborate?

When we use “performance art” to refer to ourselves, we are describing a style of storytelling that simultaneously draws on multiple mediums and techniques. We come from a collective background of hip hop and modern dance, clowning, sketch comedy, and improv. And sometimes puppetry. There didn’t seem to be a single word that aptly described the perspective with which we told these stories, and so we made one up––”Dancejoker”. We wanted to emphasize the dance parts and the joking parts of our work. Those were the parts that brought us together in the first place––our mutual desire to make people laugh through movement. We also wanted to further confuse our parents when asked, “So, what is LADY/WATCH?” Mom, Dad, we’re dancejokers.

Tell me what the audience should expect from you guys this weekend.

This weekend, audiences can expect us to get real weird with them. Expect to enter a David Lynch-ian bizarro world full of movement, paper folding, and wigs.

And can you tell me what is happening here?:

This was from the end of a piece we did at Salonathon a couple years ago. In it, one of us (Tien) played a bloodthirsty unicorn hunter, and the other (Kieran) a unicorn. The twist–after all these centuries of myth and legend, no one stopped to tell that unicorn hunter one important fact: unicorns are, in fact, vampires. So the unicorn kills the hunter and they both become unicorn-vampires. The End!

What is your favorite way to move?

This is a tough question. In truth, any movement is good movement. We’ve had pieces consisting of tiny, controlled movements, even one in almost pitch darkness. To actually answer your question, though: we love to entertain ourselves. Often we’ll stand in front of Photobooth moving our bodies around until somebody says, “Wait. Do that again.” Then we know we’ve got something to work with.

Once Infiltration is done, there’s the idea to create some guerrilla theater works in collaboration with Neo-Futurist ensemble members. Any ideas yet?

We’re still waiting for this first phase of Infiltration to take place before we get into more detailed conversations with the Neos about the guerrilla portion, but we’re definitely excited to get the proverbial ball rolling. Oh man, once that ball gets rolling it’s going to get so weird. It’s going to be the weirdest, rollingest ball ever.

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SID BRANCA for INFILTRATION (8.22.14)

Photographed by Kiam Marcelo Junio

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CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS!

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DARLING SHEAR for INFILTRATION 8.15.14

Come back this FRIDAY, 8.22.14 for INFILTRATION artist SID BRANCA.

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NANGYAYARI NA: A Multidimensional Mixtape  for The Neo-Futurists and Salonathon present: INFILTRATION screen grab from video by JI Yang costume by Mister Junior Special thanks to the crew Jæ Sea + Mitchell Ed Mittelstedtt + advisor Rosé Hernandez & curators Jane Beachy Malic White Joseph Varisco

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Neos, Meet Salonathon "If Junio’s performance is any indication, “Infiltration” will be well worth the pre-show wait."  -NewCity Stage

The Neo-Futurists and Salonathon Present: INFILTRATION, a collaborative project that connects underground artists throughout Chicago. On Friday nights in August and September, the Neo-Futurarium features work by artists who frequently share their work at Salonathon, a weekly performance series at Beauty Bar that aims to create a home for emerging underground and genre-defying art. Curators Jane Beachy, Joseph Varisco and Neo-Futurist ensemble member Malic White have put together a lineup of performers whose work explores “infiltration.” This fall, Salonathon artists collaborate with the Neo-Futurist ensemble on guerrilla theater pieces throughout the city that interrogate what it means to be a fringe artist in Chicago: Where is our home? Where do we want to explore? What does the art world look like when the underground infiltrates the mainstream? 

Keep up with the event by visiting the INFILTRATION Tumblr page at infiltration2014.tumblr.com

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NEWCITY RECOMMENDED

Friday night with thirty minutes to go before the doors to the Neo-Futurarium open, a line already snakes down Ashland and around the corner onto Foster. With patrons ranging from traditional theater-types to bros to hipsters and various types in between, it’s readily apparent that “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” (TML from here on)—the longest-running production in Chicago, which recently celebrated a twenty-fifth anniversary—is still drawing in crowds and then shaking them up in the Neo-Futurists’ signature style.

Many know what to expect from the sometimes hectic, rapid-fire “30 Plays in 60 Minutes” structure of TML because they’ve seen it before and many more have only heard secondhand what they’re in for when attending this unique production. After entering the theater, audience members are promptly given a “menu” which lists the name of thirty individual plays, each with a unique number before it. In order to move the show along, audience members are asked to yell the number of the show they’d like to see next in the moments immediately following the end of the previous play. This results in an excited barrage of numbers being shouted from all corners of the audience in between each vignette and serves to not only jolt the audience but to amp up the action on stage as well.

With titles like “The One Time I Didn’t Hate Kids.” and “I don’t need any help.” these brief plays range from sight gags to physical comedy to one-liners to occasional forays into the deeper aspects of the human condition. Each delivers in its own way—though the quirky comedic bits tend to work best, especially when coupled with a more oblique reference to emotional implications.

Both the menu list and the cast change from week to week, resulting in a world-premiere every time the show is run. This gives the proceedings an air of improvisation even when it’s scripted. The actors expressly don’t play characters and though their personas might change from scene to scene they’re always fully themselves, allowing the audience to connect with them over the course of the one-hour running time.

In August and September, the Neo-Futurists are collaborating with Salonathon (a weekly performance night at Beauty Bar) to feature a series of underground artists’ projects in the hour before TML called “Infiltration.” The first artist—Kiam Marcelo Junio—opened the series the Friday night I attended and gave an especially provocative performance involving lots of earth, water, glue and glitter. The nearly nude Junio criss-crossed a tarp laid out in the center of the performance space, tossing dirt about and looking at audience members with varying levels of intensity while a voice-over track played thoughts around traditional society and change vs. permanence. If Junio’s performance is any indication, “Infiltration” will be well worth the pre-show wait.

And if the audience comments I overheard—ranging from sheer admiration to confused anger to questioning wonder—were any indication, this is exactly the kind of exposure that underground artists affiliated with Salonathon are seeking. (Zach Freeman)

At the Neo-Futurarium, 5153 North Ashland, [phone], neofuturists.org. $10-$15 at the door or $14-$19 online. Open Run. “Infiltration” runs through September 26.

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INFILTRATION Artistic Associate Emily Beh sharing some magnificent DIY swag featuring our rad ass logo, a collaborative design of the Neo-Futurist wild kid, Salonathon snaps by Dav Yendler, mashed up with lavender love by GRADES front fella Kortland Chase!

Swing by this Friday for the next installment of INFILTRATION featuring Darling Shear and grab some freebie merch.