January 1, 2010 - A lot can get done in a year.

Here we go. Set building today.

On the writing of music, by the wonderful Jason Rico.

Gustav Mahler once said "If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music."

And that's what I'm usually doing. I write these little black odds, lines and squiggles all over pieces of paper. I give these pieces of paper to someone who either hits, taps on, blows in or runs some hair along a device that makes sound. If all goes as planned, the sound you hear matches the squiggles I put on that piece of paper. That is how I write a perform my plays. I call them movements instead of acts, and instruments instead of actors, but to me, the concept is the same and I have the extra advantage of writing in a language everyone understands.

Once in a while, a composer reads a book or a poem and thinks, "Hey, this would sound great set to music!" That's how songs and operas are born.

Occasionally, a composer is gifted with not only music, but story writing ability and can create a great play or book himself so he can add a musical line to it.

But sometimes, a composer is selling computers and a coworker runs up to him, so excited he thinks she may explode and she says:

"Oh my gosh, you have to read this play, because I know the playwright and he is conceiving it as a musical and I know you'd be perfect for it because the play is perfect for you and this needs to happen as soon as possible."

Or something to that effect.

And that is how a straight play entitled "Escape From the Haltsburg Boys Choir" becomes a fantastic musical produced by The Ruckus.

"Escape.." is a wonderful project to work on for many reasons. The Ruckus is all over some new stage work. Aaron Dean is a fantastic playwright and perfection to work with. The material is so well written that the songs (almost) wrote themselves.

I got lots of influence from pop music and 17th century choral music to name a few sources and had the unique opportunity to be able to craft some of my own lyrics, which isn’t always the case for a musical. I also have the honor of having seen the type of production The Ruckus puts on which helps me adapt my ideas to their stage ideals.

The official blurb can be read on a preceding entry, but I'd like to give you a little more insight, without ruining the story. Imagine yourself a kid with not much memory of your parents, if any. Imagine you have one of the most beautiful treble voices in Europe. Imagine someone wanting to cut your balls of to keep you that way. Do you remain a choirboy forever or search for what else is out there, be it fantastic, grotesque or life threatening?

Come to the world premiere in January and find out, cause lemme tell you… you better use 'em or lose 'em.

Born in 1978, Jason Rico is an American composer of instrumental, vocal and theater music. He has created a body of work in multiple genres including symphonic, wind ensemble, choral, art song, chamber music and opera. Rico studied composition with Michael Schelle at Butler University and with Andrey Kasparov and Adolphus Hailstork at Old Dominion University and completed the doctorate program in music at Manhattan School of Music. Rico’s compositional style has been praised for it’s complex and truly American style. He is currently Music Director for Quixotic, a sketch comedy troupe based in Chicago.

2010: Now, with more Ruckus.

Well hello there. Did you miss us?

We of The Ruckus took a breather for most of November. Well, we did do this:

Zombies for MONEY MONEY MONEY video shoot, song: "Dollar Signs on my CAT Scan." L to R: Paul DuPont, Aaron Dean, Jes Mercer,

Byron Melton (center, not a zombie), Mark Goldfarb, Cory Wolf, Jenny Westervelt. Photo: Jeffrey Fauver.

The video isn't up yet, but we assisted MONEY MONEY MONEY in the creation of their video for "Dollar Signs on my CAT scan." You can hear the song at their website. Many thanks to everyone who came out to zombie or to be an 80s hipster (yeah, weirdest party ever) and especially to makeup artist Nora Hess, who made the gruesome faces you see here with basically no time or money. We loved working with her. Check out the rest of her stuff on her Facebook Fan Page.

Anyway, we spent November doing the things you do after you've produced 13 plays in a 36 seat theater -- we napped. A lot. And ate a lot. Then December hit and we went back to the business of getting awesome. As a part of that getting awesome, we made a lot of big, terribly exciting decisions we want to tell you about. We're very fortunate to be smack in the middle of a successful first season in Chicago, due in no small part to the remarkable Chicago artists we've met and worked with along the way. Five of them in particular were integral to the creation of our first two productions, and we got great big art and administrative crushes on them, so we thought it was time to make our move and seal the deal. We yawned, pretended to stretch while reaching for the popcorn, and cozied up to Timo Aker, Aaron Dean, Kate Holst, Byron Melton and Brian Ruby, whom we now gleefully welcome into the fold as company members. We're now thirteen in number and couldn't be more excited to work shoulder to shoulder with such a talented, smart, clever, and good-looking bunch.

Seriously, go look at their company pages. They're an attractive group.

We're also bidding a sad and fond farewell to two of our founding members, Ryan Dolley and Mitch Vermeersch, who've decided to depart to pursue other projects. They'll succeed wherever the wind may take them, we're sure, and we'll always be indebted to them both for their creative efforts and for the role each of them played in getting us moved to Chicago. They will surely be missed.

We're also positively glowing about some changes we've made to our season. The first big change is the addition of Kristian O'Hare's remarkable world-premiere play, The Gay American. Kristian is a remarkable talent, and I'm honored to be directing his work again. Here's the official blurb:

Farce meets docudrama in The Gay American, an unblinking and provocative investigation of the sexual politics of sex and politics. We follow the rise and fall of former New Jersey governor James McGreevey through the impact it has on those around him-an Everyman-like Congressional Page, his miserable daughter Morag, silently simmering wife Dina, and ambitious aide Golan-and watch his carefully-crafted rising star go supernova in the crucible that is the American political theater.

Cool, right? We're totally stoked. Look for casting information soon.

The second addition is a workshop.... of a musical. Yep. New company member Aaron Dean is working with gifted Chicago composer Jason Rico (fan page here) on an original musical winningly titled Escape from the Boys Choir. Official blurb for that one:

Escape... sends us on a perilous journey with a group of boys on the verge of adulthood. While the boys are not unlike those you might meet on a Chicago street corner today, the world in which they exist is more akin to that of The Brothers Grimm. To our intrepid young escapees, the Tatzelwürm is nearly as terrifying as their heartless choirmaster, the Witch as mysterious as the first pangs of love and lust, and the sweet smell of freedom as lovely as a beautiful young face. Escape... combines the fantastical with the all-too familiar, and the result is a painfully honest, surprising, affecting and seriously funny portrayal of the pain and beauty of adolescence and the beginnings of sexual awakening. If that weren't enough, there's a sadistic groundskeeper, a hallucinogenic mountain-dwelling invertebrate, shape-shifters, kidnappers, and more testicular humor than you can shake a stick at.

They had me at "hallucinogenic mountain-dwelling invertebrate."

The original work of these three remarkable artists will be seen at our home for the season, Rogers Park's The Side Project Theatre, and replace the previously annouced Linear A by Ryan Dolley and the postponed 11-Detroit, to be developed by the company at a later date.

You'll be hearing more from our new company members and these talented writers in the coming weeks -- right here, in our super awesome blog.

To break it down for you: we of The Ruckus feel like the luckiest kids on the block. Five new remarkable faces have been added to our little family, two really killer pieces of new work added to what we think is an already stellar season, and we've many many more months of awesome ahead of us. We're grateful for your support, your interest, your comments, and for all the beers you've drunk with us at Poitin Stil. The Gay American is up next. Hope to see you, at the show and after, in May.

Love love,

Allison Shoemaker and the rest of The Ruckus

(Ghafir, Timo, Joshua, Aaron, Katie, Jeffrey, Joel, Kate, Byron, Seth, Melissa & Brian)

PS - More MONEY MONEY MONEY hijinks below.

Associate Artistic Director Joshua Davis, being super professional.

The dance routine. Yep. Dance routine.

Best. Party. Ever.

(Company member Timo Aker with the lovely Jes Mercer, who was really very hungry.)

Money on my mind. Dollar signs on my CAT scan. Thanks, MONEY MONEY MONEY, for letting us play.