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BY LUCIA MAURO
Since 1987, Live Bait Theater has cast its creative net across Chicago’s Near North community, gathering a huge talent pool eager to explore fresh ideas while promoting social change. Yet, despite its sprawling tentacles, the company has maintained an inviting intimacy among its artists and audiences.
Artistic director Sharon Evans, who co-founded Live Bait with executive director John Ragir, sweeps into the storefront theatre’s new 50-seat flexible space–The Bucket–and points to the now-bare windows. "I’d love to hang photos from past productions in the windows," says Evans. "What we do is clearly about the work."
And even without Evans’ enthusiastic declaration, anyone who wanders into Live Bait’s cozy lobby–awash in framed pics of world-premiere shows, quirky colors and velvety, angular furnishings out of a Lewis Carroll story–would know that this troupe places its collaborative theatre projects on a high pedestal.
On the other hand, it’s easy to take Live Bait for granted. A quick glance at its eclectic programming palette might cause one to lump it in with the scores of off-Loop theatres doing a broad range of work. But look closer. Or better yet, hang out with Evans, Ragir and managing director Lotti Pharriss for a few hours and realize that–besides premiering 65 world premieres in its 14-year-history and boosting the careers of writer-performers like Maripat Donovan and Jim Carrane–Live Bait is seriously engaged in its community.
The theatre was formed to produce new work by emerging Chicago playwrights and solo artists. A "writer-driven" theatre, it presents pieces that employ a rich and compelling use of language, explore unconventional subject matter and contain powerful visual components. Its outside involvement naturally centers on issues of literacy and varied forms of artistic expression.
Live Bait not only premiered Love Child, Luther Goins’ hard-hitting play about unwed teenage moms earlier this year, it has been conducting improv, acting, poetry, scenic design and painting and drawing workshops for the past six years at the nearby Maryville/Madonna Center, a teen-mother residence. Some of these young women’s poems were incorporated into the play.
In 1993, the company premiered Kenn L.D. Frandsen’s adaptation of Connie Fletcher’s book, "What Cops Know." Last summer, Live Bait pioneered "Police-Teen Link," a successful pilot program bringing together police officers and youth in improv/acting classes at North and West side parks to allow these antagonistic parties to get to know each other as human beings. Live Bait recently received an $8,800 grant from the Richard Driehaus Foundation to beautify the Sheridan el stop with murals.
These examples illustrate how a theatre can be directly involved in social issues and, in turn, bring those "world experiences" on stage. This holistic approach has been the driving force behind Live Bait. As Evans remarks, "Everything is integrated with the community. It’s kind of like being in the flow."
Unlike the classic actor-centered Chicago theatre model of post-college friends getting together to put on shows, Live Bait was founded by two people who had been involved in the corporate and writing/visual art worlds. Evans, who holds a degree in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, worked as a wine buyer for Convito Italiano; Ragir received an MBA from New York University.
"Our original idea was to have a theatre and a café," says Ragir. "That was conceptually appealing but, realistically, the café would have been a full-time job."
When the Mashed Potato Club opened in what is now the Bucket space, it grew so quickly that the noise level and patron spillover into the lobby interfered with Live Bait’s productions on its 75-seat mainstage. The restaurant has since relocated, and Live Bait’s co-founders do not anticipate combining food and theatrical fare again (unless it’s the subject of a play, like Evans’ wine-themed Blind Tasting scheduled to premiere next year).
Evans also points out that The Bucket is not being treated like a "second space." It can easily serve as a mainstage and, this fall, will be the setting for Edward Thomas-Herrera’s abstract documentary-style play, Death on a Pink Carpet, inspired by the stabbing death of Lana Turner’s mobster boyfriend by the star’s teenage daughter.
Together they’ve built a strong and cohesive board, and do some pretty aggressive niche marketing. They created the much-anticipated annual fundraiser, "Doodles of the Stars," featuring drawings by celebrities. And they’ve developed a comprehensive outreach program that is not–as it might be in some cases–used as a pseudo-altruistic strategy for getting grants.
Plus Live Bait’s work speaks for itself. Always risky and enlightening, its repertoire (even shows that miss the mark) has something urgent to say about the state of the world. These works often explore the lives of artists and writers (from Evans’ Starving Artists to Kelly Nespor’s adaptation of I Was Really Very Hungry: A Portrait of M.F.K. Fisher). Ragir –who heads Live Bait’s reading/puppetry program at the Uptown Library–produces, writes and directs works. Managing director Pharriss is a solo writer-performer who debuted her Genetic Material here in 1999.
Evans began as a solo performer herself and has championed the solo form. Since 1995, Live Bait has hosted the summer-long "Fillet of Solo" Festival, but has been encouraging one-person artists from the get-go.
"A lot of emerging playwrights start out as solo artists," says Evans. "The work is focused on content and narrative, and they can take greater risks. There’s such an urgency to these stories. I look for a generosity of spirit in solo performers–they genuinely feel like they have to tell you something. It’s not about 'here I am.’ I also like people who take true personal risks, and I love to laugh."
Evans likens solo performance to being an athlete: "You have to stay in shape. It requires incredible concentration and physical endurance."
Judith Harding’s solo journey back to her Celtic roots, Angela’s Asses, runs through April 1. Then Live Bait premieres Night Battles, Donald Gecewicz’s adaptation of Carlo Ginzburg’s historic book about the trials of the Benandanti during the Venetian Inquisition in the 16th century. Each season has a theme–like "Romantics, Misfits and Mystics"–that Pharriss says "creates a thread" for audiences.
Live Bait is also available for rentals, but the shows must fit its mission of new work. So you’re not likely to see a production of Death of a Salesman here. The theatre, as Evans says is "more La MaMa than kitchen-sink."
Evans further links their social-artistic drive: "You can take a chance with socially relevant theatre and not be a goody two-shoes. You have to be a citizen of the world. You have to engage around you or else you’ll be a lesser artist."