Last year, Chicago Tap Theatre audiences saw The Hourglass stomp, riff, and tap down villains in the company’s The Hourglass in the Stop-Time Chronicles, a comic book tap opera. Now, the Chicago Tap Theatre has reintroduced their tap heroine in a new show, The Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen.

Outdoing the Original Hourglass

Led by artistic director Mark Yonally, the Chicago Tap Theatre (CTT) opened the new show on Friday, June 27 at the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. Kendra Jorstad, who played the role of The Hourglass last year, has suited up again for a production that promises success even greater than that of the original show.

While speaking with DanceHere right before the show’s opening, Yonally said that this year’s budget for Hourglass sets and costumes was more than twice what it was last year. And, they devoted twice the amount of time on developing the new story. “The good news,” Yonally said of the increases, “is you see all of that on the stage.”

The Hourglass set, alone, is stunning. Designed with comic book artist and “Hourglass” co-creator Andrew Pepoy, the set pulls audiences into the super-heroine’s world, where the good–in the form of a young woman wearing canary-yellow go-go boots–can subdue all wrongdoers. With the new set, costumes, story, and his company of acclaimed dancers, Yonally thinks that The Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen is CTT’s “best story show by far.” And with this show, Yonally feels that they’re moving toward their goal “of telling stories with tap that can truly engage people on an emotional level.”

Tap and the Challenges of Story Shows

“Story shows,” narrative-driven tap performances, are one of CTT’s specialties. These shows use the sounds and rhythms of tap, along with props, costume, and set, to tell a story. The biggest challenges in directing and performing narrative tap, Yonally said, are “balancing dance as a ‘decorative art,’ verses dance as a narrative art.”

CTT presented its first full-length story-driven show, “Silence,” in 2003. Along with The Hourglass productions, the company’s story shows now include a dance biography of jazz singer and trumpet player Chet Baker, The Tell-Tale Tap: Stories of Edgar Allan Poe, and Changes: A Science Fiction Tap Dance Opera.

As a fairly new and challenging approach to traditional tap, story shows are rather unique to CTT. Yonally explained that in producing a story show, a director must develop “not just a show, but a whole new method of telling a story.”

As artistic director, Yonally’s unique challenge is to help audiences follow the plot. Because he’s trying to tell a story entirely through tap, props, and gestures, Yonally has adopted a new style for directing these productions. “The dancers have become a more and more integral part of creating the story with me,” he said. “I’ve had to learn that the show benefits the most when everyone’s voice is heard.”

From Comic-Book Enthusiasts to Dance Lovers

Yonally and CTT seek, in every production, to promote an appreciation for tap. Story shows help them accomplish this goal by drawing in audiences that might not otherwise attend a tap show. “I definitely saw a big uptick in non-dance-goers in the audience,” Yonally said of last year’s The Hourglass in the Stop-Time Chronicles.

Next Up for CTT

Yonally couldn’t reveal what the next CTT story show will hold, explaining, “I hate to spoil any surprises, and we often change our mind.” But, he did say that CTT is planning a dark fairy tale, “maybe with Eastern European ‘Gypsy’ jazz.” Knowing CTT’s repertoire, anyone with a love of dance–or simply an imagination–will want to watch for the company’s next story show.

When Yonally and CTT wrap up The Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen, they’ll perform the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters (CNADM) Command Performance on July 26. And on August 10, CTT will hold auditions to fill apprenticeship positions for the 2008-2009 season.

Experience The Hourglass and The Poisoned Pen

The Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen is currently being presented at Chicago’s Athenaeum Theatre, Studio 3, located at 2936 N. Southport Ave. Tickets range from $18 for students and dancers to $30 for adults. A special group rate offers 20-percent off of adult admission for groups of ten or more. To buy tickets through Ticketmaster, follow this link.

Throughout the next three weeks, you can catch The Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen on:

• Saturday, July 5 at 8:00pm
• Sunday, July 6 at 3:00pm

• Friday, July 11 at 8pm
• Saturday, July 12 at 8pm
• Sunday, July 13 at 3pm

• Friday, July 18 at 8pm
• Saturday, July 19 at 8pm
• Sunday, July 20 at 3pm

For more information on the Chicago Tap Theatre, The Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen, and CTT’s other story shows, visit their website at http://chicagotaptheatre.com.

(Photo from <http://chicagotaptheatre.com/events/the-hourglass-and-poisoned-pen> 30 June 2008).