ANDERSONVILLE — Since the announcement of the end of "Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind," the Neo-Futurist theater group has been showered with community support, both with donations and attendance.
So if you happen to catch one of the last two performances of the longest-running play in Chicago this weekend, consider yourself lucky.
"All month fans have been coming out. The first two weeks of December were completely sold out," said Artistic Director Kurt Chiang Thursday. "This is going to be another one of those weekends."
The Friday performance has already sold out of pre-sale tickets, but will be selling the other half of available spots on a first come, first served basis for the 11:30 p.m. show, he said.
Saturday's show — which includes a reception at 9:30 p.m. and begins at 11 p.m. "on the dot," to ring in the New Year promptly after the show — is also sold out, Chiang said.
While the weekend "feels like closing night of the show" for customers, "the cast is just doing our thing," said Chiang.
"With the show not continuing into the New Year we still have every intention of making more short Neo-Futurist work," Chiang said. "The people in that ensemble stay in the program for a long time.... because we have a lot of agency."
At the end of November, confusion swirled about the future of the program when Neo-Futurist Founder announced he was revoking the Chicago company's right to perform "Too Much Light" and planned to relaunch it with an activist spin.
“Faced with the pending inauguration of Donald J. Trump, Allen has decided to let the existing Chicago Neo-Futurists’ license come to an end so that he can rebrand the show with a new diverse ensemble that embraces a specifically socially activist mission," the news release said.
For Tif Harrison, who has been performing in the ensemble for about five years, the news came as " a surprise."
"It caught a lot of us off guard, but ultimately, we can't really dwell because we have to keep going and keep creating," she said. "While we didn't get to choose the problem, I feel were poised to tackle it."
"Too Much Light" was the first show she saw with the Neo-Futurists and helped opened the door for her, Harrison said.
"It's a show I have been in love with and a huge part of my artistic identity," she said. "It's interesting because even though we're continuing to do a late-night show, [we're losing] a show we have all loved."
A few weeks after the initial announcement, the Neo-Futurists announced a three-city, three-company collaboration on a brand new late-night show scheduled to replace "Too Much Light," which will debut in January 2017.
Along with its sister companies in New York and San Francisco, the experimental Chicago theater troupe will unveil its brand new production next month.
Despite the angst surrounding the loss of their former anchor show, the cast has been dedicated to putting together a traditional New Year's show, which will recall the good and bad from the year.
"We knew this show was different, but we didn't focus on it. As a cast, we've done a good job of focusing on the task at hand and not letting the other stuff enter the room," Harrison said. "It feels good and I know the night of, it will probably hit me a little harder."
For those still looking for ways to help the company, the troupe has reopened its "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" campaign, a crowd-sourced fundraiser, which has raised more than $42,000. The campaign's goal is to raise $50,000.
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