You can find an old-school overhead projector on eBay anywhere between $55 to $150. Shipping will cost just about as much. You may find yourself scrolling for one of these after experiencing the production of Manual Cinema’s “The Magic City.” Before the real show even began, you could find the magic of storytelling spilling out into the lobby of The Chicago Children’s Theatre, where the youngest audience members were creating shadow puppets and using these classroom relics to tell their own stories. My ten-year-old naturally entered and began begging to use my phone because he was “sooooo bored,” but no less than two minutes later, he and another kid there were combining their shadow puppets– a super cat and a hungry monster– to take down a clearly menacing evil garbage truck.
After entering the theatre, you discover there are two sides to the world of The Magic City. Audiences are invited to watch both come to life. The story of dealing with grief, change, and learning how to open your heart is told on a screen while off to the side, you can see all the magic happening “behind the scenes”. Manual Cinema uses handmade shadow puppets, projections, and cinematic techniques to help Phillamena (Ellie Duffey) build worlds out of junk, build walls between new family members, and in the end, break those walls down to let others in and grow her city. The 50-minute story is narrated and sung by Alicia Walter at the perfect pace for young audiences (recommended for 6 and up).
Without ever speaking a word, the characters show us the highs of feeling safe and loved and the lows of loss and change. There is no patronizing to the young audience; they are trusted to handle the complexities of the themes in the stories and are invited to feel the sadness, anger, and joy of Phillamena and her new stepbrother, Lucas. The visuals of the puppetry and projections are as powerful as the story. I watched the kids in the audience going back and forth from watching the screen and then glancing stage-left at the actors and puppeteers putting the storying together in real-time. They didn’t want to miss a point from either perspective.
As we left the theatre, the excitement of what we had just seen could still be felt. Many of the kids went right back to the projectors and shadow puppets to keep the play going. The construction of the pieces in the show inspired every audience member to know they can create beauty out of junk and turn uncertain change into joy.
The Chicago Children’s Theater 50-minute production of Manual Cinema’s The Magic City runs from Jan. 25th through Feb. 16th on Saturdays and Sundays at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. in the Pritztker Family Studio Theater at 100 S. Racine. For tickets and additional info go to https://chicagochildrenstheatre.org/event/manual-cinemas-the-magic-city/