"Hailing from Chicago, Theatre Y’s youth ensemble presents “Little Carl,” a play that addresses gun violence through puppets, masks and poetry. The company relocated to North Lawndale in 2022, and its youth program — led by multidisciplinary artist Marvin Tate and puppetry artisan Michael Montenegro in partnership with the Firehouse Community Arts Center — is one of the ways in which the theater is working to create a community-oriented arts hub in the West Side neighborhood."
The sixth Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival runs Jan. 18-28 at various venues across Chicago.
Visit ChicagoPuppetFest.org for schedules and tickets.
Chicago Puppet Fest presents:
Theatre Y & Michael Montenegro's
LITTLE CARL
Featuring Marvin Tate
Friday, January 26 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, January 27 at 2 pm + 7:30 pm
Sunday, January 28 at 3 pm
Location: The Biograph’s Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave.
Cost: $30/$20 students & seniors
Ages: 12 and up. Running Time: 80 mins
Photo Credit: Karl Soderstrom
Script written by Michael Montenegro.
Prologue and epilogue written by Marvin Tate.
This is the ensemble's third iteration of this play,
last performed at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in May 2023.
In Little Carl, Theatre Y’s Youth Ensemble grapples with the difficult issue of gun violence by creating a dream play using puppets, masks, and poetry, making beautiful imagery as an antidote to despair. Members of Theatre Y’s youth program have steered this project, guided by an extraordinary set of tools and support from veteran masters of their craft including multidisciplinary artist and North Lawndale native Marvin Tate, puppetry artisan Michael Montenegro, Theatre Y Co-Founding Artistic Director Melissa Lorraine and the Firehouse Community Arts Center. Youth from Chicago’s west side have created each aspect of the vision, while maintaining a critical distance from the work to protect them from re-traumatization or any feelings of exploitation.
Chicago Shakespeare partnered with Theatre Y of North Lawndale to present this original work of puppet theater developed with youth from Chicago’s West side, North Lawndale local Marvin Tate, puppetry artisan Michael Montenegro, and the Firehouse Community Arts Center.
Photo Credit: Karl Soderstrom
MUSICIANS AND SINGERS 2024
The singing ensemble includes Pastor Reshorna Fitzpatrick, Jasmine Keith, and Kyndal Keith, a three generation trio hailing from the Historic Stone Temple Church located in the North Lawndale Community.
FRED JACKSON JR.: In 2010 he became a member of AACM. Also around this time he went to Poznań, Poland on a “Made in Chicago” tour. This would be his first time traveling to Germany was with the AACM New Generations ensemble (under the direction of Ben Lamar Gaye). He was in the first inaugural band of “The Bridge” that played at the MCA in 2010. Since then because of the the Bridge he has been to France many times. (he also toured France in 2017 with that same ensemble from the “Bridge”). He went back to school in 2012 - 14 and received his Masters in Jazz studies from DePaul where he studied with Mark Colby, Dana Hall, Dr Robert Lark, Tom Matta (composition) and many other professors. He has always been a student of music. He studied extensively the music of the African diaspora for ten years, mainly the North and west regions. Magic Carpet allowed him the opportunity to study music from all over the world. He had the honor of performing with some of Ethiopia’s finest vocalist and musicians. Abonesh Sedinew, Tigist, Teddy Akililu and many others. He also performed and studied the music of the Middle East. Chicago has allowed him to play all types of music from House, Funk, Jazz, Reggae, and many other genres.
In 2020-21, he was awarded the “Fresh Works, New Voices” grant from the Jazz Institute of Chicago allowing him the opportunity to record his latest album of original compositions, Genre. This grant also gave him the opportunity to study with Chicago born saxophonist Steve Coleman, and document many interviews of musicians.
Nowadays, he continues to work on his publishing Spacetonic Music (Music publishing label since 2017). The current ensembles he performs with, just to name a few, are
Magic Carpet (Chicago), Sitarist (Shanta Nuerulla of AACM), Adam Zanolini’s Heliacal Rising Of Sothi, Mai Sugimoto Quartet, AACM’s Great Black Music Ensemble (directed by Mwata Bolden), his band Erudition Project and newest ensemble “Where’s Charlie”.
“My life is has been a total dedication to Music” . 🎶
F. Jackson Jr, Musician / Artist / Multi-instrumentalist / Composer Dean of the AACM School / Ravinia MDRTP Teaching Artist/ Ravinia S.I.S.T.E.M.A. Orchestra Instructor/ LLAA Music Instructor
BILL MACKAY: is a guitarist, composer, and improviser based in Chicago. A renowned solo artist and accomplished collaborator with projects that include cellist Katinka Kleijn (Stir, 2019), Nathan Bowles (Keys, 2021), and Ryley Walker (SpiderBeetleBee, 2019), all released on Drag City Records, MacKay has pursued his musical investigations with obsessive rigor, releasing seven LPs since 2017. A deep radiance envelopes even MacKay's most dissonant explorations, and his trajectory travels seamlessly from the avant-garde to folk modes and further. In his music, tradition is invited to be reinvented. MacKay is also a poet, visual artist and polyglot, and is a member of both the avant-garde rock outfit Black Duck (with Douglas McCombs) and the experimental groove-drone project BCMC (with Cooper Crain). Among other publications, his work has received praise in the Chicago Reader, New York Times, Mojo, Uncut, Downbeat, Paste, Pitchfork, and NPR.
