Two students from Highland Park and Deerfield in virtual musical about Roaring '20s Nov. 13-22
Jordyn Norberg of Highland Park is one of six middle school students who wrote and performs virtually along with six adult mentors in Chicago's Tellin' Tales Theatre presents "Six Stories Up in The Roaring '20s."
High school senior Bennett Davishoff of Deerfield is the Radio Announcer. The show harks back to the time of prohibition, flappers, the jazz age and the silver screen.
In this original musical, 13-year-old Jack is transported to a 1920s radio show when he visits a vintage car museum during the pandemic. He becomes one of the actors in the funny and touching stories of the people who lived through the decade that roared and finds the similarities between then and now. The thirteen performers come from the north and south sides of Chicago, the suburbs, and Madison, Wisconsin.
The show runs virtually Fridays, Nov. 13 and 20 and Saturdays, Nov. 14 and 21, at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays, Nov. 15 and 22 at 2 p.m. 16th Street Theatre in Berwyn is host on Vimeo with closed captioning available. General tickets are $15; kids/disabled are $10 and a family ticket is $35. Order tickets through tellintales.org or call (312) 540-1330. Running time is approximately 70 minutes.
Jordyn Norberg of Highland Park, an 8th grader at North Shore Academy, has done theatre since she was 3 years old through Starland Company and Sarah Hall's Deerfield Performers Troop. In "Six Stories Up in the Roaring '20s" she plays a young flapper who wants to be a star. Her adult mentor/performer is Sarah Bowden of Chicago, a hard-of-hearing playwright and teaching artist whose plays have been produced in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Stockholm.
Bennett Davishoff of Deerfield, who makes a special appearance as the Radio Show announcer, is a senior at Cove School in Northbrook. He has appeared in a number of plays including "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" and "Shrek: The Musical."
The show is a hilarious and often moving musical peppered with personal stories told by students and adults with cerebral palsy, ADHD, autism, Kallmann Syndrome and dwarfism, as well as their non-disabled peers. It is geared toward adults and children age 9 and up.
This year's "Six Stories Up in The Roaring '20s" is the final production of Tellin' Tales Theatre's 24th season. This is the 23rd year that TTT has produced a Six Stories Up show.
About the Mentoring Program:
Six Stories Up is an annual mentoring program developed by Tellin' Tales Theatre where middle school children and their mentors write and star in a full-length play with the theme changing every year. In August, storytellers were paired with middle school students with and without disabilities. Each team took on a different aspect of the 20s and was given the mission to bring it to life while weaving in personal stories and insights about what's going on today. In mid-September, Artistic Director Tekki Lomnicki and Stephen Donart drafted a final script, linking the six vignettes together into a cohesive final script; music and lyrics were added as well. All participants will perform Six Stories up in The Roaring Twenties under the direction of Lomnicki, assisted by Sue Nunamaker.
About the Cast and Crew:
The cast and production team is an exciting mix of ethnicity and ability. Mentors include Mama Edie McLoud Armstrong, Sarah Bowden, Stephen Donart, Bill Drudge, Simone LaPierre and Tekki Lomnicki. High school senior, Bennett Davishoff makes a special appearance as our radio announcer. Apprentices include CJ Kozlowski, Jordyn Norberg, Alayah Penrice, Samantha Rogan, Saleem Ross and Paloma Sagel-Vidal. Carl Ulaszek spearheads set design, composer Mike Przygoda creates the original score and Lindsay Porter does film production.
About Tellin' Tales Theatre:
The mission of Tellin' Tales Theatre is to shatter barriers between the disabled and
non-disabled worlds through the transformative power of personal story. We bring together children and adults from both communities to share their stories in theatrically innovative productions and programs to promote awareness, understanding and acceptance. Artistic Director Tekki Lomnicki led storytelling programs for Gallery 37 and After School Matters for over a decade. The idea for the initial Six Stories Up came from her work with these programs, which included students with and without disabilities. Lomnicki, herself a person with a disability, took the process a step further to include adult mentors with disabilities. Six Stories Up in the Roaring 20s is a result of this mix, and strives to remove all barriers between artists, including race, ethnicity, gender, age and ability.