Almost there...

Tech Week. That magical time when everyone involved in a show comes together to make sure everything happens as it should. It's exciting to say the least.

At the Factory, there is an extra sense of anticipation because we're bringing a world premiere to the stage and that premiere is more often than not, the product of people within our ensemble.

Jenny & Jenni marks the playwriting debut of longtime Factory ensemble member Shannon O'Neill, as well as the Factory main stage directorial debut of ensemble member Laura McKenzie.

Previews begin tomorrow night and we are really thrilled to bring audiences in for the first time. It's

pretty cool to be able to present something that no one has ever seen before. For only 10 bucks, Factory Theater gives people the opportunity to be able to say, "Jenny and Jenni, 2010 first preview...I was there, man, I was there." Come check it out. It feels good.

Ensemble Update

Need a Factory fix before the summer? Check out what some of our ensemble members have been working on:

Matt Engle, after recently closing Legion with Wildclaw Theater, is back as a buccaneer at Navy Pier. Check him out. Watch him shake his pirate treasure. At the end of May, he begins rehearsals for Factory's LEAGUE OF AWESOME!

Corri Feuerstein, founding director of Will Act For Food Theater Company, recently produced the currently running Ten Unknowns by Jon Robin Baitz. Shows run Thurs.- Sun. through May 29. Go here for more details. All food donations benefit the Lakeview Pantry.

Laura McKenzie is part of the two-woman comedy rock extravaganza known as the Laura On Laura Comeback Tour. Shows run on Thursdays through May 20 at the iO Theater. Click here for more info. Click here to read the review in the Tribune.

Eric Roach will be appearing in The Odd Couple, a little-known diddy by some dude named Neil Simon. Previews are May 18-22 and opening night is May 23 at the Raven Theater. Click here for more info!

Now go see some shows!

Why We Love* the 80's Part I: My Hair

Hey! Dancin'! is really bringing back the good ol' 1986 memories. Out of everything that comes to mind when I think of my childhood during that great* decade, what really stands out are my epic struggles...with my hair.

Now, granted, that gorgeous* lady isn't me, but because I couldn't find any pics of my own 80's hair ("couldn't" meaning "wouldn't") she graciously donated her face for this post.

80's hair was big. And my baby-fine, heat-resistant, curl-resistant, everything-resistant coif just wasn't up to the challenge. I tried to spiral perm my hair so many times that I'm shocked it didn't simply go on strike and fall out. I remember buying bottles of Rave #4 and using an old tooth brush and a curling iron with a circumference the size of a fishing pole to coax my bangs 3 inches off my forehead -- only to watch them wilt and fall the moment I stepped out into a mild breeze.

But the ultimate futility?

Banana clips.

Other girls had curly, frosted-tip manes flowing in a perfectly centered cascade down the middle of their backs while I had long, anemic straggles, incapable of even holding the clip in. Walking down the hallway at school was inevitably too much jostling for my languid hair to handle, and the clip would simply slide all the way down and sit on my back or, worse yet, completely drop out and hit the floor.

Hey! Factory! How about doing a show that takes place in the 90's? Flannels, ripped jeans, baggy clothes...not only could I finally put away my pencil-sized curling iron and bottles of Aussie Liquid Cement spray, but also I didn't even have to wash my hair. In fact, not washing my hair made me look fashionable! Now that's my kind of decade.

Key:

*- an indication of slight sarcasm

Factory In The Field

We have a lot of Factory folk doing outside projects and generally having a life outside the Factory. So for today's feature, we thought we would highlight who's doing what in Chicago. I think I have all the info, but if I have it wrong, please correct me. And then I'll get to it whenever I feel like it.

On to the ensemble people and their doings:

Sara Sevigny is in her final weekend of Solid Gold Cadillac at the Athenaeum. A huge Factory group is going on Thursday for industry night, so you know that'll be a rockin' crowd. Yay Sevigny! Join her PhP board too, so you can do a bunch of online things that I don't yet understand.

Chas Vrba will be in Hizzoner, starting this weekend at the Theater Building -- I believe. I can't think of one actor who belongs in that play more.

Christine Jennings is in Mop Top Festival and is anxiously awaiting the start of baseball season. Colin Milroy is also looking forward to baseball season -- but also to the impending birth of his second child. Hey Colin (and Paul Metreyeon) -- two kids are twice as fun as one! Really! They really are!

Laura McKenzie will be showing it in That's Weird, Grandma for six Sunday matinees at the Neo-Futurarium, starting April 12. Showtimes are 2 p.m. We need a Factory kids field trip for that one!

A true slacker in every sense of the word, Corri Feuerstein (pronounced FOY-er-stine) is following up a successful understudy turn in Mop Top Festival by directing "American Notes" by Len Jenkin for Will Act For Food. It goes up May 8 at the Prop Thtr. Everyone's favorite scholar C.W. VanBaale appears in the show, and America's Funny Man Tucker Curtis will understudy C.W.'s role on Memorial Day weekend. Evil Twins fan Nick Booth is doing the sound, and sex kitten Cat Dughi has volunteered her services for the company's foodraising benefit, Cans For Cash (May 18). All photographs by (who else?) the great Paul Metreyeon.

Matt Engle is back from the road and is apartment hunting. He wants to be near the el and pay less than $1200 a month. He still thinks The Proposition is a shitty movie. Learn!

Heather Tyler will be shooting a SAG short film, "Broken," over the weekend with Open Flame Films. She plays heroin Mom. Not to be confused with heroine Mom. Heather has "a big kitchen scene making cookies as the one-year-sober Mom, a death scene as the return-to-the-juice Mom, and a few random scenes as ho-mom who's gotta make a buck." Heather apparently also did something bad in a past life, because she will also be working with an ADD eight-year-old. Apparently, his real mom says to give him a Mountain Dew if he gets tired on set. FUN!!!!

Carrie J. Sullivan is in charge of these here parts, and you better kowtow or she'll have your ass in a Sybaris sling. She is knocking everyone's socks off on stage in Mop Top Festival in a terrific performance. Come see her -- particularly on Actor's Night, which takes place this coming Monday, April 6, at 8 p.m. at the Prop Thtr. Come see us! It's good! I'm working box that night! We can spoon!

Allison Cain is also in her final weekend of Mariette In Ecstasy at the Lifeline Theatre. Do those guys ever do a bad show?

Eric Roach can be seen in the upcoming Strawdog Theatre production Red Noses, which opens April 18. There are a ton of Factory friends in that one! It's gonna be a good'un! Strawdog!!

Congrats to Angie Martinez, who is ADing the next Factory smash hit Dead Wrong, for casting the show over the weekend! Previews are June 19.