We are so excited to announce the launch of the Pivot Arts Podcast! Episode 1: Staying Creative in Quarantine is now live. Enjoy an eclectic mix of short performances and interviews with artists and experts. Subscribe via Apple, Spotify and other major podcasting platforms — just search for “Pivot Arts Podcast.” And take a listen on the link below!
Episode 1 features Neo-Futurist Theater members, Ida Cuttler and Jorge Silva, in conversation about staying creative during the pandemic. We’ll hear excerpts from their popular show and close out with music by Jovan Landry.
The Neo-Futurists are a popular theater collective best known for their long-running show, The Infinite Wrench, that includes 30 plays in 60 minutes. According to the Chicago Tribune: “The Neo-Futurists have created the most successful online show of the pandemic.” We’ll hear from company members, Jorge Silva and Ida Cuttler, about their creative process and listen to short plays including “Eden” written by ensemble members Trevor Dawkins and KR Riiber, plus “Ongoing Covidspondence,” conceived by ensemble member Neil Bhandari as a series of monologues in the form of letters, written and performed by Ida Cuttler. This episode closes out with featured music artist, Jovan Landry.
This episode was sponsored by FLATS, a Chicago-based apartment community, and created in partnership with Audacious Machine Creative, with editing by Jeffrey Nils Gardner and original music composed by Andrew Hansen. Graphic design by Vin Reed. Your host and producer for Pivot Arts is Julieanne Ehre.
Guest Bios
Since becoming a company member of the Neo-Futurists in 2014, Ida Cuttler regularly contributes to the ensemble’s ongoing show, The Infinite Wrench, as a writer, director and performer. Ida’s world premiering solo-show Comfortable Shoes saw a six week run at The Neo-Futurist Theater in 2019. Ida is a proud ensemble member and teacher with Playmakers Laboratory Theater, a non-profit theatre and education organization serving Chicago Public School students, and has regularly adapted student stories in their show That’s Weird Grandma since 2016. She is a bookseller at Women and Children First in Andersonville.
Jorge Silva is a writer/performer, producer, and the Managing Director for The Neo-Futurists (Chicago, IL). Silva was previously the Producing Coordinator for the Goodman Theatre serving as the producing liaison for community engagement projects and the curator for artistic programming. He earned a dual degree in Government and Theatre (Advanced Undergraduate Theatre Program) at Cornell University’s College of Arts & Sciences. An Artistic Affiliate with Teatro Travieso (Wooster, OH), Silva has also had extended stints with dog & pony DC and Smithsonian Institution’s Discovery Theater (Washington, D.C.). Recognitions include nominations for a Chicago Latino Network Award and several Alliance for Latinx Theatre Artists of Chicago Awards. Silva also works with the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, The Posse Foundation: Chicago, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Writing Department), and Latinos Progresando’s MEX talks.
Loving those final beats by Jovan Landry? We’ll be interviewing her later in this series!