It's only been a little over a year since the premiere of Plasticene's critically-heralded production of The Palmer Raids, but the show has already led several engaging lives. Since its first run at the National Pastime Theatre, the work has been remounted at the last spring's PAC/Edge Performance Festival at the Athenaeum, and plans are now underway for a second remounting'this time at the SoHo Ohio Theatre in New York City Dec. 4-14. 'We decided to choose to do it and get the experience and get the feedback, instead of just talking about how great it would be to go beyond [the company's term for touring],' says managing director and scenic artist Collette Pollard.

Pollard, hired as Plasticene's first full-time managing director, is a part of a lot of change taking place for the company this year, including a new workspace in Wicker Park. 'This year we are making great strides and taking great risks to grow and get beyond Chicago's financial and theatrical limitations,' says artistic director Dexter Bullard, who directs The Palmer Raids.

And the show itself is a risk of sorts for Plasticene, an eight-year-old company that creates original physical theatre by experimenting with contact improvisation and object encounters to develop non-text based action and situation. Unlike past productions'such as Come Like Shadows, doorslam, Refuge and 4x4'that started from a scenic source, the creation of The Palmer Raids was inspired by a chain of historical events that shook America in the early part of the 20th century. The play also breaks from Plasticene tradition in that it includes speech and features the human voice as a key element to the show.

As far as how the actual work was created, however, Plasticene company members chose to stick with what was successful in their previous eight endeavors. 'We each spent a month or so before rehearsals researching specific facets and people involved in the bombings and the Palmer Raids,' says Bullard. 'Then, as always, we began to play. We took texts from various sources and began writing the verbal action alongside the physical action.'

Since the subject of the show is the Red Scare of 1919, there was no shortage of information available to the cast. They drew from well over 100 newspapers, biographies, period articles, books, Web sites and congressional records. The 'play' that Bullard refers to is Plasticene's process of creating a show through improvised rehearsal. The cast gets together with the story line, images, design ideas and objects they've chosen and create the script together over a period of several weeks, through interaction and trial and error. Along with the script, they also choreograph the physical exercises that accompany it. 'Plasticene makes theatre through a unique five'step process: resource, exploration, scoring, performance and exchange,' says Bullard.

What emerged in the case of The Palmer Raids is a show that examines the paranoia and undemocratic nature of America following the fallout and backlash of the vicious terrorist bombings that crossed the nation in 1919, including one at the home of Atty. Gen. A. Mitchell Palmer. While the raids were at the same time real and witch hunts, the end result was often violent arrest and deportation.

The final 'script' wasn't acted through until the first preview at National Pastime on Sept. 12, 2002, and some of the material was eventually rewritten for the first remount at PAC/edge. As their date with New York approaches, those involved are once again looking at what tweaking they might want to do.

'Having done it a year ago, to come back and re-examine the decisions we made is a great opportunity,' says creator/performer Mark Comiskey. 'We'll be doing little edits as we're teching the show. Our shows are very flexible.'

Flexibility, it seems, is Plasticene's middle name. Their productions have appeared in spaces throughout Chicago'Chopin Theatre, Steppenwolf Studio, the Athenaeum, Link's Hall, the Blue Rider, Lunar Cabaret, National Pastime, the Storefront Theatre at Gallery 37 and the Viaduct. 'If you are a gypsy theatre like Plasticene, you are accustomed to loading into and remounting in various spaces even in Chicago,' says Bullard. 'There are always adjustments to make regarding design and staging, but a company that is designed to tour like ours is flexible enough to expect snags and find solutions.'

The Palmer Raids trip to New York is not the company's first venture on the road. Refuge also visited NYC for a Drama League Directors Project; Volume XII went to Pfeiffer University in North Carolina; and doorslam hit the road twice, to the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wis. as well as to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. 'They were usually educational gigs or cultural centers or fringe fests,' says Bullard. 'But our past experiences were certainly positive, great ensemble builders.'

And collectively, the creators and designers of The Palmer Raids have a ton of experience touring out-of-state (and country) as well as in the city. Bullard led a Second City touring company to Vienna; creator/performer Dominic Conti went to Williamstown and Westport with Steppenwolf's Orson's Shadow; and Sharon Gopfert joined Redmoon and The Hunchback at the Public Theatre in New York. 'We're used to packing,' says Gopfert. 'Our group is very experienced and organized.'

The group began talking about the idea of independently taking a show out-of-state about a year ago, and the process of planning and solidifying the details started in earnest about three months later. The key to touring, of course, is having a space to tour in. 'Over the summer I went online, typed 100 seats into Google and started investigating,' says Bullard. 'Then I started asking around. I have some friends in New York, and I talked to my colleagues at DePaul.' While there are plenty of dark New York theatres to choose from, price range plays an important role in the decision-making process. 'There is a jump in expenses. A New York venue is a little more expensive but Chicago's not cheap either,' adds Bullard.

He estimates the cost range for a not-for profit to produce out-of-state could be anywhere from $10,000-30,000. Luckily, The Palmer Raids is a remount and a lot of the initial expenditure has already been laid out, so it's not as expensive as mounting a brand new show on the road. 'That's part of our mission,' says Bullard. 'To build a show in Chicago and then take it beyond.' Plasticene has not yet been able to find a benefactor to aid in funding The Palmer Raids New York trip. 'Touring is not very fundable,' adds Bullard. 'People who have money generally want to spend it to better their own city.' There is the National Performance Network that offers a certain amount of grant money to companies wanting to tour, but it's very competitive and is brokered out of New York.

Plasticene continues to rely on mail-in and individual contributors but are still short of the total needed to travel. They held a benefit Oct. 27 at the New Leaf Studio to help supplement what they have. 'We had a good turnout, not fantastic, but it was within our expectations,' says Bullard. Right now they're relying mostly on box office and teaching income. 'Economically it might not be the best time, but the company is ripe and the message is right,' says Comiskey.

The company decided to take The Palmer Raids, rather than a show such as And So I May Return, exactly because of that timely message. It's topical and is designed to talk specifically about problems the nation is facing today, such as the Patriot Act. And So I May Return would also be much more expensive to remount, as there are nine actors to pay and video screens to move halfway across the country.

Part of the organizing, in fact, was planning the drive of production manager/lighting designer Carrie Kennedy's accoutrements (including microphone lines, 16 folding chairs, 3 folding tables and overhead projector) and Lori Hall'araujo's costumes, as well as miscellaneous other necessitates, east via moving van. 'But we get to fly,' says Conti. 'Luckily our resources, our stuff, is our actual set, and that makes it easy. It's very travelable.'

Like many in the Chicago theatre community, all of those involved in this tour of The Palmer Raids have day jobs they'll be leaving behind as they board the plane. 'My first concern is with working out the scheduling conflicts,' says sound designer Eric Leonardson. 'Second is being poor while away from home.' About half of the Plasticene staff are teachers, and the trip coincides with either finals week or winter break. The others had to make arrangements to work crazy hours before and after the run. 'It's a financial sacrifice,' says Gopfert. 'But everybody's managed to do it.'

The other thing they've managed to do is get back into shape. Plasticene is physical theatre, and The Palmer Raids is chock full of demanding physical actions. Some of the choreographed sequences pitch the performers in feverish motion, with everyone running around pushing tables on castors, throwing chairs. 'The challenge of this play when you've put it away for a year is to get your breath under control. To be able to speak clearly when just having done this crazy physical stunt,' says Gopfert. 'I do a lot of breath exercises.'

These choreographed sequences include slow-mo bomb detonations with tables and chairs and bodies flying across the stage and a drill team routine that has the cast using chairs instead of rifles. One challenge when facing the road is adjusting the choreographed sequences to the new venue. The Ohio Theatre is slightly narrower than their past spaces, and the designers will need to create a new wall to catch the projections from the overhead upstage. 'I know the space is conducive to the show,' says Conti. 'But we're going to have a few 12 hour days in tech to get up and running. There are things that are unknowable. There could be a large amount of restaging to do.' And when you get into an out-of-town space and things go wrong, you can't just make a phone call to a friend for help.

Such uncertainties are making things a little hectic for sound designer Eric Leonardson. The sounds and music in The Palmer Raids are captured from the voices, breath, whistling and clapping of performers Comiskey, Conti, Gopfert and Tere Parkes and processed live and in real-time. 'I wish I could hear [Ohio Theatre's] sound system because Plasticene has it's own. It's more reliable but rather heavy,' says Leonardson.

The Palmer Raids is also the first time Leonardson has used a computer to perform, and he has been working to upgrade the programs he wrote for better execution and control of the sounds. 'One challenge was in teaching myself how to use some new hardware and software specifically for this show in a short amount of time,' he says. 'Those moments leave me stressed.'

To help take out as much of the unknown as possible, Plasticene hired New York public relations consultant Ron Lasko of Spin Cycle. Lasko, well versed in Chicago theatre companies from his work at the New York Fringe Fest, says it's an interesting challenge to market an out-of town show. Most New York theatre companies depend on friends and family to fill out the first few performances before word-of-mouth and advertising can take effect, and the farther a company is from home, the less of these audiences they have to depend on. So touring companies must rely much more heavily on past reviews to jump-start the buzz. 'Fortunately, Chicago theatre has a fantastic reputation in New York these day with the recent successes of artists and companies like Steppenwolf, Mary Zimmerman, Richard Maxwell and the Neo-Futurists,' says Lasko.

Conti agrees and has few reservations about his upcoming patrons. 'New York audiences are pretty receptive to the avant-garde, and The Palmer Raids isn't something you see everyday. As Dexter says, 'They've never seen this before. They have no idea what's coming.''

 Visit Plasticene's Web site (www.plasticene.com) for more information.