Quest Theatre Ensemble Hosts 10th Anniversary Celebration, Now thru 11/18

Quest Theatre Ensemble celebrates ten years as "the people's theatre" of Chicago with a full weekend of events including an Anniversary Exhibit, Friday and Saturday night performances and an all ages Quest Fest Fun Day. With events planned for everyone in the family, there's plenty of opportunity to support the company that says, "We don’t care if you’re old, young, rich, poor, tall, small, skinny or fat. Art belongs to everyone. Theater should be free. Everyone is welcome." All proceeds support Quest's mission of bringing free theater to the people of Chicago.

Anniversary Exhibit and Performances
Friday and Saturday, November 16 & 17, 2012, 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
Advance Tickets: $20 ($25 at the door - cash only). Includes 2 drink tickets, light nosh and one grand prize raffle entry (Grand Prize - one hour of Quest entertainment at a private event)
Anniversary Exhibit opens at 7:00 p.m.
Live entertainment begins at 8:00 p.m.
Dress code: casually festive

About the Anniversary Exhibit
Quest Theatre Ensemble specializes in visual spectacle and familiar stories told in a new way—from towering half moon puppets created for Blue Nativity to a vast collection of masks, drops and cut-outs from a decade of over 40 shows, pageants and spectacles. Quest’s handcrafted art, born from cardboard, papier-mâché and other found objects, has been praised by critics, embraced by audiences and featured in festivals in Chicago, across the Midwest and abroad.

The Quest Anniversary Exhibit features an installation of set pieces, design elements and some of Quest's signature masks and puppets from their colorful ten year production history. Chat with designers and ensemble members while you reminisce about your favorite Quest moments.

About the performances
Relive the best moments of Quest's history with Friday night's musical retrospective, performed by original cast members. On Saturday, enjoy the soulful musical performances of Ida Jo (www.idajo.com) and Scott Lamps (www.scottlamps.com). Make sure to pick up some extra raffle tickets for fantastic prizes donated by your favorite local attractions and businesses including the Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, John Hancock Observatory, and wine tastings at PRP Wine International.

Quest Fest Family Day
November 18, 2012, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Suggested Donation: $5, no advance tickets required

Stop by the Quest Fest Family Day, a non-stop fete of family fun with hourly events for kids. The day culminates in a rousing drum circle led by Sister Drum and Sheboom where everyone gets an instrument to take part in the fun! Specializing in music based on West African rhythms, Sister Drum and Sheboom is an all female percussion ensemble led by Aimee Bass, who lent her heart, hands and drums to Quest productions including The People's Wizard of Oz, National Day of Puppetry, Lollapalooza Opening Spectacle 2005, Quest Fest 2006 and 2007 and Blue Nativity.

Quest Fest Family Day schedule:
11:00 am - Anniversary Exhibit Opens
12:00 pm - Bagels with Quest Designers
1:00 pm - Puppet Making for the Whole Family (Dress for mess!)
2:00 pm - Make a Shaker (Get ready for the drum circle!)
3:00 pm - Drum Circle with Sister Drum and Sheboom (No experience necessary. All ages welcome!)

Quest Artistic Director, Andrew Park, states, “Quest started with a radical idea—a vision for Free Theatre so unlikely and improbable that we were usually dismissed as dreamers, hippies or worse. It’s hard to discern if we were too dumb to listen, too young to care or too idealistic to see the impracticality of our pursuit, but we believed that art is a basic necessity like air, water, food and shelter and art must be made available to all people regardless of their income or social status. Thousands of people attend our performances every year, and those who are able to contribute a little more do, enabling those who have little or nothing to give to still take part.

It’s a community gathering where all things are possible—and Quest is the only theater that some Chicagoans attend because we’re the only theater that they can afford."

Memorable moments of Quest Theatre Ensemble's ten years
2004 - provided puppets and puppeteers for The Weatherman, the feature film starring Nicholas Cage
2005 - conceived and performed the opening spectacle for the Lollapalooza music festival
2007 - toured Europe with the production of Blue Nativity
2009 - nominated for the 2008-2009 Non-Equity Jeff Award for New Work for its 2008 production, People’s History of the United States.
2010 - awarded its first Non-Equity Jeff Award (in the category of Artistic Specialization) for the production of Evolution/Creation. Evolution/Creation garnered four additional nominations in the categories of Production – Musical, Director – Musical, New Work, and Music Direction.
2012 - named the 2012 Andersonville Arts/Service organization of the year by the Andersonville Development Corporation.

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