Raue Center For The Arts continues to honor its mission of enriching the lives of all through the arts by bringing “I Am The Machine Gunner” to McHenry County on October 9 at 8:00 pm and October 10 at 3:00 pm.
Raue Center has been working with their new in-house production company, Williams Street Repertory (WS Rep), University of Maryland, the Generous Company and the Center for International Theater Development for the past 18 months to develop the legit theatre piece. “We heard the community’s outcry for more thought-provoking, emotional programming,” says executive director, Richard Kuranda. “What better to meet that demand than to bring Equity Theater to McHenry County. The cast features the talent of James Knight matched with the poetic, vulgar translation by John Freedman, the chief critic for the Moscow Times.”
Running October 9-10, “I Am The Machine Gunner” will make its second stop on its American Tour at Raue Center in Crystal Lake, IL. The violent, aggressive yet poetic translation of Yury Klavdiev’s work transcends time, place and person to capture the struggle of a young Russian gang member trying to find the same honor in his own battles that his grandfather found fighting Germany in WWII.
James Knight performs the one-man play and his performance is almost too real for comfort in what NPR calls “a no holds bar portrayal of the plays’ 2 unnamed characters.” Obsessed with memories of his grandfather’s stories about fighting the Nazis, he repeatedly finds himself conjuring up the horrors of that brutal combat. All the while, he’s trapped in his own contemporary war with battles over turf and what passes for honor. In a brisk, arresting 50 minutes, a lot of emotions and issues are triggered amid the raw street language and chilling battle descriptions. “I Am The Machine Gunner” is intended for mature audiences only.
Tickets are general admission and $35 each. The audience will sit on stage for the one-man performance, so seating is limited to only 120 people per performance. Being up close and personal for the show will certainly add to the intensity of the performance, especially during a startling scene when hundreds of bullets rain down on to the stage. Tickets are available online at rauecenter.org or at the box office, located at 26 N. Williams Street in Crystal Lake. They are open Monday and Wednesday-Saturday from 12 pm – 4pm (closed Tuesday and Sunday). In addition, they are open one hour prior each performance, but don’t wait until then to purchase your tickets – they are going fast.
Raue Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of all through the arts. They are proud to provide quality programming to and strive to make it pertinent, available and affordable to all. Raue Center is delighted to welcome you back this year and looks forward to the next years and continuing to “Rock the Raue.”
No comments:
Post a Comment