The Musical Monster with Heidi Joosten and Tobi Osibodu

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AMERICAN PSYCHO doesn't sound like a typical musical. With an EDM-infused score mixed with chorale arrangements of 80s classics, it takes us onto the dancfloor, into the night and inside the mangled mind of...

Killing Time with Kate Lass

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AMERICAN PSYCHO is a sleek and stylish musical, based on the best-selling novel by Bret Easton Ellis and set in the epicenter of excess. It also has one of the most infamous axe scenes this side...

Chasing Authenticity with Alec Phan

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I love the way The Bengsons kind of ignore the rules of Musical Theatre and chase the authenticity of their lived feelings with weird sounds and weirder poetry! I love how Time is confirmed to be totally subjective and how much sense that makes. 

The Truth Inside with Royen Kent

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What we as a cast and crew want most for our audience is for them to feel comfortable leaning in and being baptized by the powerful message of this story. What’s great is that this message is applicable to all our lives: we can choose to rebel against fear and death by giving love anyway.

Emilie Modaff: Be Afraid and Live Anyway

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It’s such a thin line I’m walking playing Abigail. I want to honor her story and her voice but I don’t want to imitate her, right? And the Bengsons don’t want us to recreate their performances (pro tip: nobody can). They want us to tell the damn story and bring ourselves, our truths, our experiences to it. When I find myself thinking “Abigail sings this riff like this, she delivers this line with a different cadence,” I hold onto what they told us. I feel deeply honored to play this part. I feel connected not only to the material but to the real Abigail Bengson. The intimidating responsibility I started out feeling has quickly shifted into a comforting blessing.

Believing in Love with Lucky Stiff

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Hundred Days uses musical storytelling in a concert style, and I tend to direct plays that feel like experiences more than direct narratives so it felt like a good fit. It's also a story (in the words of one of our performers) about "how punk it is to love someone knowing we're all going to eventually die," which is a fun way of saying it encourages us to radically believe in Love. And I work hard every day at believing that so it helps to know we're all going through it.

She Got the Beat: Making Music with Kyra Leigh

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The world of Arcadia is built on a BEAT -- the gorgeous pop/rock rhythms of The Go-Go's! The dynamic divas lent their songbook to Head Over Heels, making for a truly unique jukebox experience! Kyra Leigh, the music director of the Chicago premiere of Head Over Heels, tells us more...

More is More: Diving In with Elizabeth Swanson

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Kokandy Productions' HEAD OVER HEELS just extended through September 8th -- marking the end of a four month journey to Arcadia! Co-director Elizabeth Swanson takes a look back at the rehearsal process, the hit show, and all the quirks that made this artistic vacation so special...

Mad About Them: Queries with Parker Guidry

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Parker Guidry (they/them) is currently starring in Kokandy Productions' smash-hit musical Head Over Heels, now playing through September 8th at Theater Wit. We gabbed with Parker about the show, the shoes, and all that goes into being a Vision of Nowness...