Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of the innovative productions featuring live music, shadow puppetry and overhead projects by Manual Cinema is when the audience gets invited on stage after the performance.
“People just want to know how we do it, how we put it all together,” said Kyle Vegter, one of five artistic directors of the Chicago-based production company. The audience also gets to touch puppets, create shadows on a screen and meet the directors.
Manual Cinema brings its production “Lula del Ray” to College of Lake County on Wednesday, and if the critics are right, the audience will be dazzled and amazed at this unique coming together of many art forms.
“People enjoy the novelty of it. It’s something not many people have seen before,” said Vegter, who plays cello and sings in the production.
“Lula del Ray” is a feature-length animated film about a lonely young girl looking to escape her boring life and who become enamored with a band that plays country music. It’s performed with overhead projectors, shadow puppets, actors in silhouette and live music, with some taped music and little dialogue.
Vegter and other Manual Cinema directors, Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Julia Miller and Ben Kauffman, are fascinated by cinema, art and innovation. They founded the design studio and film and video production company in 2010. Since then they’ve created more than three shows including their first production, “Lula del Ray,” which they’ve brought to North America, South America and Asia.
Vegter and Kauffman wrote original music for the production. It features country-inspired music reminiscent of Roy Orbison and Patsy Cline. They chose that music genre because “it has to do with the story we’re telling,” Vegter said. “It’s set in the 1950s or ’60s, in the American Southwest. It’s a story about loneliness and growing up and leaving home, and all those are themes that run throughout country music. I think the combination of the themes, the setting, all of that together — it was really natural for country music to be an influence.”
Vegter pays cello and sings, Kauffman plays electric guitar and sings, and another guitarist also performs.
“We use the cello as a full string section, like those big orchestrations that Roy Orbison used,” Vegter said. Most of the music is live, but we are playing with the idea of what’s real in the world, what’s not, so there are times when Lula del Ray hears a song on the radio, and during those moments in the show, some of the music is taped. Every once in a while, we’ll blur the lines — she hears the songs through a TV store ad, it starts as playback and as the main character gets wrapped up in the music, the band enters and we play live.”
All five artistic directors perform during the presentation, but sometimes send their cast on the road when they’re busy. They’ll all be there for the CLC production to meet the audience after the show and demonstrate how they do what they do.
“We have four shows that are actively touring right now, and all have the same aesthetic,” Vegter said. “They all use overhead projection and shadow puppetry.”
After the show, the most common question the audience asks is, “how do you do that?” followed by, “Will you show us everything?”
More Top Picks Kitchenaid K400
“We try to do that. That’s why we invite everybody on stage. People are kind of mesmerized by the level of communication that has to happen between the puppeteers and musicians, and how the show unfurls.”
Vegter said the directors are particularly excited about performing at CLC.
“We tour so much and we are on the road so much, so we don’t’ get a chance to perform in the Chicago are as much as we’d like. We’re always excited to perform for our home audiences.”
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
‘Lula del Ray’
When: 7:30 p.m. April 27
Where: Studio Theatre, James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts, 19351 W. Washington St., Grayslake
Tickets: $15-$30
Information: 847-543-2300; jlc.clcillinois.edu/