PennyBear: A Collection of Miniature Plays & Curious Diversions

[Forsythe]

Opening this Friday, June 20!
Please come see it. We've got at least a couple of reviewers coming opening night so you would be doing us a huge favor if you came out this Friday. Bring your friends!

PennyBear: A Collection of Miniature Plays & Curious Diversions
written and performed by Marla Caceres, Padraic Connelly, Jon Forsythe, & Nancy Friedrich
written and directed by James Whittington
Fridays 10:30PM
June 20 - August 1 (No show July 4)
Apollo Studio Theater
$10/$8 students.

“PennyBear” approaches sketch comedy with an eye for the hilariously dark, the painfully honest, and the delightfully unique. PennyBear: A Collection of Miniature Plays and Curious Diversions features brand new scenes exploring everything from unicorns in love to big life milestones. The show also features the return of crowd favorites like “Trunk”, which was named “Best Sketch” of the 2008 Chicago Sketchfest by Nina Metz in the Chicago Tribune.

Following this run at the Apollo Theater Studio, PennyBear: A Collection of Miniature Plays and Curious Diversions will move to the International NYC Fringe Festival this August!

[proxy]

Pennybear's first show was hilarious.

Go see this one, too.

boom.

[nancyfriedrich]

Hello CIN

It would be our pleasure to have you at our show.

Pennybear: A Collection of Miniature Plays and Curious Diversions

Friday( tonight) @ 1030pm at The Apollo( sheffield and lincoln)

Afterwards we will go out for drinking.

and you can come with us.

We will tear up the town together.

It will be delightful!

Nanc

[Thousandth Member]

This show is funny and informative. You will learn where to get the best Chinese food in Uptown. And how Unicorns date.

[Forsythe]

Check our great review in the Chicago Reader. The online version shows the R and N by our listing (for Recommended and New, respectively). The print version is missing both the R and N, which is a misprint, fyi.

PennyBear: A Collection of Miniature Plays and Curious Diversions
Two elementary school students have been caught with weapons in class and await the police while their principal attempts to empathize. "I have lots of knives," she coos. "I've been married twice." And she too would like to kill some people - the board of education for starters - but doesn't follow through on it. This seven-minute scene, one of a dozen brief gems in PennyBear's second full-length evening of sketch comedy, typifies everything this quartet of subtle, simpatico actors do well. They and their savvy director James Whittington warp reality just enough to let absurdity out, then play that absurdity for truth rather than laughs. The result is consistently engaging, honest, and hilarious - though almost none of the pieces has a satisfying ending. -- Justin Hayford
Through 8/1: Fri 10:30 PM, Apollo Theater, studio, 2540 N. Lincoln, 773-935-6100, $8-$10.


Pretty glowing, right? Check us out people!

[Forsythe]

Her review:

I caught a performance by PennyBear at this year's SketchFest in January, and the local troupe made a big impression with their unusually vivid characters and clever material that often verges on the disturbing. This is not your standard sketch group.

Their current show, "PennyBear: A Collection of Miniature Plays and Curious Diversions" is a mix of new and old material, and the four writer-performers are just as strong and confident as I remember. Nancy Friedrich has a nicely demented thing going on under her pretty-girl surface—it's as if her eyeballs are about to bounce all over the place any minute. Jon Forsythe brings an awkward intelligence to the table, and it's a good balance to the straight-man energy of Marla Caceres and Padraic Connelly.

Co-written and directed by James Whittington (who recently worked on the current Second City mainstage revue), the show is observational and darkly weird. One bit has a father reading the pamphlet from a tampon box to his daughter (the scene goes beyond the standard "ew" of the premise); another is just a quick joke about amorous unicorns reaching climax.

Almost all of it works, and the glue holding these scenes together is a voice-over that mimics that sound of an old instructional record: "Now, let's begin emotional warm-ups."

It's retro and funny and it gives the show a polish most sketch revues lack.

Through Aug. 1 at the Apollo Theater Studio, 2540 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets are $10 at 773-935-6100.

[nancyfriedrich]

it would be lovely to have you there.

1030 Apollo, sheffiled and lincoln,

[Forsythe]

Yo, how you doing you cool cats? It'd be real cool to see you at this show.

[Forsythe]

After taking a Friday off due to the 4th of July, PennyBear is back this Friday at 10:30pm. Please come check us out.

By Rory Leahy
Thursday Jun 26, 2008

This second revue from the sketch comedy group Pennybear does not have any grand ambitions. There is no unifying theme or gimmick, other than a bookend bit with an offstage announcer. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do, which is to create a solid hour of sharply written, character-driven comedy. Written and directed by James Whittington, it features a tight ensemble of four excellent young actors, all of whom are becoming very familiar in Chicago's sketch/improv scene: Marla Caceres, Padraic Connelly, Nancy Friedrich and Jon Forsythe.

The Chicago Tribune declared the opening sketch, "Trunk," to be the best sketch of the 2008 Sketchfest, which seems hyperbolic, and it's surely not possible to see every sketch at Sketchfest, but it is indeed a very funny and endearing piece. Two teenage girls are voluntarily locked in the trunk of one of their boyfriends' cars in order to sneak into a drive-in movie. While there, they talk about the usual teenage girl issues of growing up and growing apart in hilarious fashion. Other great sketches in this vein include a hapless single father trying to help his teen daughter through her first period, and a raunchy, macho discussion about sexual myths between two male friends.

Pennybear seems to be going for a dark vibe here (there are also scenes about school violence and loveless marriages) but what comes across the strongest is the material's relatability to everyday life, which surely says something about everyday life. They manage to make even some of the more pedestrian premises, such as a passenger being frustrated by a bizarre airline employee, seem fresh and interesting. Bottom line: This is a consistently enjoyable show from a group to watch.

[Forsythe]

Just bumping this thread - and probably annoying those that are sensitive to sketch show promotions. Get over it, I say... by coming to our show!

[Thousandth Member]

Here's what TimeOut has to say:

PennyBear, a group of iO grads, opts for patient, slice-of-life scenes in its new sketch revue, material that never veers too far outside the realm of reality. A single dad and his daughter share a coming-of-age moment over her first period; a middle-aged mama’s boy works alongside a woman whose husband keeps her on a short leash; and in a repeat scene from the last show, two teenage girls, stuck in a car trunk, discuss sex and relationships.

The cast never grasps for humor; instead, the laughs come from familiar situations that take a turn to the slightly absurd (or sometimes very absurd, like one moment involving unicorn splooge). PennyBear doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but the work of these uniformly charming actors—particularly standouts Nancy Friedrich and Marla Caceres—elicits a steady stream of quiet-but-appreciative laughter.
— Dyan Flores

[John P. Glynn]

Pennybear: Come for the patient scenework, stay for the unicorn splooge.

[nancyfriedrich]

Only 3 more weeks to catch this show!! Come tomorrow night! It would be Swell to have you there! I'm serious! You!

Pennybear @ The Apollo Studio Theater 1030pm
The apollo is at Sheffield and Lincoln
very near fullerton red line, and halsted bus, and lincoln bus, and fullerton bus, and not bad to walk to from many places as well.

We are taking this show to NYC fringe, come see it! See it tomorrow,and then tell your NYC friends to check us out. We would be greatful and delighted.

Thanks

[Forsythe]

I hope to see you all at the show. It's good, I swear.

[nancyfriedrich]

Only two show left

Come see us tonight!
We would be delighted to have you there.
thanks for reading.

1030pm at The Apollo Studio
( lincoln and sheffield)

[Ldub]

Do yourself a favor and go see this show. The scenework is amazing and so is the acting. You'll definitely leave the show caring about each and every character.

[Greg Tavares]

Here PennyBear:

Give Theatre 99 a call so we can talk about your show -- we love for groups to come perform during our festivals in January and May/June.

Theatre 99
843-853-6687