The Neo-Futurists

Although created as an ensemble to perform a specific show, The Neo-Futurists have grown to become one of the most highly regarded experimental theatre companies in America.

The Neo-Futurists founded by Greg Allen in 1988. Neo-Futurism, inspired by the Italian Futurist movement from the early 20th century, is based on an aesthetics of honesty, speed and brevity.

The Neo-Futurist aesthetic demands that everything that transpires in their theatre be non-illusory, which is to say that they pretend nothing; actors only play themselves.

All plays take place on a stage, specifically, the stage on which they are performed, in the present. If one of the performers reports that something has happened, you can bet that it happened.

Much of their work contains the possibility of failure, a unique theatrical component that keeps them and the audience honest. Their plays are wildly eclectic, touching on all genres and tones; plays may be political, satirical, personal, tragic, comic, abstract, musical, surreal, poetic, and so on.

The bottom line is that Neo-Futurism does not buy into the "suspension of disbelief"—it does not attempt to take the audience anywhere else at any other time with any other people. The idea is to deal with what is going on right here and now.

From humble beginnings as the first late-night theatre production in Chicago, They have expanded into a company that mounts full seasons of adventurous, smart, interactive theatre while still pursuing the ideas that inspired our creation.

They signature show, Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, which had its first performance on December 2, 1988, is now in its twenty-third year, making it the longest-running show in Chicago today.

Too Much Light..., with its ever-changing "menu," is an attempt to perform 30 plays in 60 minutes.

The single unifying element of these plays is that they are performed from a perspective of absolute honesty. They always appear as ourselves on stage, speaking directly from our personal experiences.

Each short play is written by a performer, honed by the ensemble, and randomly collaged with twenty-nine other plays through high-energy audience participation.

Each week, these plays shift as ensemble members add new plays to the existing body of work. Each night of the performance, They create an unreproducible living newspaper collage of the comic and tragic, the political and personal, and the visceral and experimental.

They sometimes create "theme" shows for special occasions such as Halloween, Pride Weekend, and Mother's and Father's Days.

The Neo-Futurarium. Situated over a funeral home in Chicago’s Andersonville neighbourhood, the new permanent home boasted a 150-seat theatre, a lobby/rehearsal space of equal size, a kitchen, and a dozen other small, funky rooms.

Their 1996 season opened with an original adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, simply called K... The show’s original run was doubled through January of 1997, then remounted as one of the Chicago Park District’s encore productions at Theatre On The Lake. It then toured to New York for the first New York International Fringe Theatre Festival where it won the Best Director Award for Greg Allen. Back in Chicago Greg also won an After Dark Award for K. for “Outstanding New Work”.

In the summer of 2000 they had two simultaneous award-winning hit productions at two International Fringe theatre festivals: Too Much Light won the prestigious Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett As Found In An Envelope (partially burned) In A Dustbin In Paris Labeled "Never to be performed. Never. Ever! EVER! Or I'll Sue! I'LL SUE FROM THE GRAVE!!!" won an Overall Excellence Award for Comedy at the New York International Fringe Festival.

That same summer Sean Benjamin’s show Devolution followed its successful run at the Neo-Futurarium with a run commissioned by Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs at the Storefront Theatre.

Today The Neo-Futurists continue to expose and explore new artistic territory, all consistent with their original mission to create interactive, highly personal, emotionally and intellectually challenging art for the general public.

THE TEAM

Dan McArdle, Managing Director

Ryan Walters, Artistic Director

Jessica Mondres, Operations Director

Greg Allen, Founding Director

Bilal Dardai, Booking Coordinator

Candice Conner, Box Office Manager

Jim Moore, Facilities Manager

Jay Torrence, Graphic Designer

The Neo-Futurarium

5153 N. Ashland Ave. 2nd Fl.

Chicago, IL 60640