Butterbird Christmas Debuts Live at the Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts

On December 7, 2015, we put on our first radio play, Butterbird Christmas.  This inaugural performance was given at the Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts to a standing room only crowd.  (Click here to view the performance on our YouTube channel.)

With scripts in hand, the players read their parts aloud into wireless mics, accompanied by the Calumet Jazz Duo and our foley artists.  The gallery was decorated with 1950’s newspaper advertisements and photographs of mid-century scenes from Northwest Indiana, in particular, the Grandfield family (the inspiration of Butterbird Christmas).

           

The Family Folklore Players took a cue from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Senior Players and set up their stage to mirror the radio plays that these pros perform regularly at the Chicago Cultural Center. Additionally, Koni Shaughnessy (of 90.9 FM), took us under her wing and explained the whys and hows of creating sound effects, she read our play and made recommendations for sound effects.

Members of Family Folklore Foundation Inc. and the Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts worked together on this mutual labor of love.  The sound system was fine tuned, decorations for Christmas and Hanukah decked the hall, Addycake’s baker, Mallory Keller, brought designer cupcakes in the seasonal colors represented in our inter-faith tale, the band set the mood, and the foley artists lined up their sound gear.  

The play began on time at 4 o’clock and the whole cast and crew did a wonderful job!  The audience was friendly and seemed to enjoy the humor and mini tragedies featured in the story. Sue Ross of the Post Tribune reported and photographed the playand the article appeared December 19th.  A great time was had by all and the event was a success. We were able to raise funds to support other arts endeavors for our community and very humbled by the out-pouring of support we received in the planning/ execution of this program. Now, we’re focusing on finishing the post-production on our documentary of the making of this project.

 If you would like to listen to our fully mastered radio play mix click here.

Art Teacher’s Resource Fair at the Munster Performing Arts Center

On September 27th 2014 Mandi Renslow and Meg DeMakas ran a booth at the annual Art Teacher’s Resource Fair at the Munster Performing Arts Center in Munster, Indiana. This is a lovely event where area artists and non-for-profits showcase their products. We were there to market our “Butterbird Christmas” live performance on 12/7/14 and to explain to teachers how we can offer creative arts activities for the students at their schools. 

Seven teachers from seven different schools signed up to have our organization bring experiential learning projects to their schools. Along with having a table set up we participated in the artistic activities that were going on around the art gallery networking away the whole time. It was a wonderful event!!!

Butterbird Beginnings

In 2013, we decided we would like to branch out into the fictional realm, but weren’t sure exactly how we would accomplish this. We thought about producing a play, or maybe even hosting a poetry slam session.  Then our founder, Dr. Meg G. DeMakas, wrote a short story entitled, Butterbird Christmas. Our board read it and loved it since it was an homage to Lake County life in the 1950s. 

 

 

It is based loosely on Dr. Demakas’s year as an Indiana transplant in an Ohio neighborhood. Over the course of the short story, the five Grandville siblings suffer a gauntlet of trials and tribulations reminiscent of a Jean Shepherd yarn.  We realized then and there that it would make a great play.
After spit balling that idea around, our communications director suggested that we produce it as a radio play. Her reasoning was two-fold. She comes from a theater and film/TV production background. She pointed out that a radio play would open our casting options and be much easier to budget.

After convening with our board, Dr. DeMakas decided to adapt her story into a radio play. Fashioned in the style that was so popular during the 1930s & 40s, Butterbird Christmas has the elements of good drama…ranging from near tragedy to ultimate joy.  A mix of It’s a Wonderful Life and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, we knew that we must figure out a way to produce this radio play. So, our board held a brainstorming session and decided that we would need to start pursuing grants to make this project a reality.