The Waltzing Mechanics
One of the more resonant observations made in Waltzing Mechanics' latest iteration of "EL Stories," the company's ongoing documentary theater project featuring verbatim anecdotes collected by the ensemble, who go out and interview people on the CTA, is the near-universal way we isolate ourselves while waiting for a train.
All of that changes, though, when we come across a busker on the platform. "I took out my earbuds," goes the refrain in story after story. "I took out my earbuds."
We hear about the guy who straps empty bottles to the bottom of his shoes and his legs — an ad hoc drum kit — and then boards the train to play a solo or two. Or the member of the Chicago Symphony chorus who leaves a day of work feeling bereft and comes upon a man playing the mandolin on the platform.
Or the doo-wop singers who board a train in the dead of winter and belt out Sam Cooke's "You Send Me," and the whole car lights up with "this sudden realization that this is awesome!" until a guy in long beads and dirty hair stands up and tries to define the moment: "That was an experience! We all just had an experience," and the spell is instantly broken.
Director Tara Branham's cast is a winning, musically talented group (at various points an acoustic guitar, mandolin and ukulele are played) who are, alas, occasionally drowned out by the very music they make. - Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune
EL Stories XVI: Listen to the Music. Directed by Tara Branham (who adapted these stories alongside Mechanic Patrice Foster), this 16th edition is chockfull of stories dealing with musicians of one kind or another. Whether they’re told from the perspective of someone talking about music they heard in and around the subway – like the person who sees a homeless man create a makeshift drum kit out of bottles and Folger cans – or by Ryan, a Rogers Park guitarist who pops up several times and gives this collection a solid arc of sorts, these stories have a rhythm and verve to them that can’t be explained away by the mere introduction of music into the show. Whatever Tara did, she injected an adrenaline into the format of the show that gave it the momentum of (I really apologize for the upcoming pun) a speeding train, so that I didn’t realize that the hourlong show was almost over until a performer onstage announced it to the audience. The time flies, which is, for a show like this, never a bad thing.
Listen to the Music is by and away my favorite EL Stories of the eleven editions I’ve seen thus far.... If you’ve seen EL Stories before, see this one. It gets it right from beginning to end. And if you haven’t seen this show before, get to it! You will be spoiled by the fact that this will be your introduction to the franchise.... I think the intention of this show was always to take something that everyone in Chicago can relate with (read: commuting) and tell personal stories that were at the same time relatable. But if EL Stories: Listen to the Music is anything to judge by, the idea of “editions” will cease to matter to audience members, as they’re carried away by what is, and was this past Saturday night, an unadulterated, unpretentious, purely entertaining night of great theater. - Spenser Davis
https://chitownstorefront.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/el-stories-listen-to-the-music-16th-edition-and-the-best-one-yet/