ROOTS SALON MASTER SPEAKER SERIES
PRESENTS CECILIE O’REILLY
“There’s something quintessentially human about the human voice, and understanding it enables us to peer more deeply into the unique, complex properties of our own species. So in some important sense, an investigation into the voice becomes an exploration of our humanness.” (The Human Voice, Anne Karpt)
Postponed due to a commitment on Broadway!
“On the Voice”
Cecilie O’Reilly, Master Speaker
(private address in Lincoln Square)
$25 donation
Ph: 773.203.7661; e: roots@jamieoreilly.com
We serve dessert. You BYOB. Limited seating. Street parking.
Jamie on Cecilie
My first experience of sister Cecilie was her reading children’s books to me. She had the voices of the characters down and continued to enthrall my daughters and their cousins during storytime at The Children’s Bookstore on Lincoln Ave in the late 80s. That, between pro-stints in Irish plays at the Body Politic and in other plays in area theaters, of course. In 1984, Cecilie went to work teaching at the theatre department at Columbia College Chicago, where she is now the head of the Vocal program.
In this very special Roots Salon evening, Cecilie shares secrets of her success as voice and dialect coach to prominent theater companies, (including the Broadway play and film version of August Osage County.) She performs original work from Current, a solo piece seen in the Rhinofest at Prop Thr this winter. (Read the Reader review of this recent work).
Reserve a seat via Paypal.
Use dropdown menu to $27 Speaker (inc handling)
Cecilie’s Bio (on Columbia College website)
Associate Professor Cecilie O’Reilly is the theatre department’s Voice Program Coordinator where she has taught voice, acting, Irish theatre and Women Playwrights since 1984. She has been vocal coach for over 200 Columbia College productions. Cecilie has served as an accent and dialect coach at many professional theatre companies including Steppenwolf, Goodman, Milwaukee Rep, Northlight, Remy Bumppo and Victory Gardens theatres since 1994. She was the dialect coach on Steppenwolf Theatre’s Pulitzer and Tony Award winning production August: Osage County that ran on Broadway, London and Australian stages and is now an Oscar nominated film. Cecilie is a member of Actors’ Equity and has worked as a professional actress and singer since her first stage role as Phoebe in Shakespeare’s As You Like It at The Court Theatre in 1968. She performed as Winnie in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days for the playwright’s 100th Anniversary. This spring Current, an original solo piece debuted at Rhinofest at Prop Thr.
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“CURRENT” READER REVIEW
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/curious-theatre-branch-rhinofest-could-be-more-outre/Content?oid=12205330
By far the most effective of the Rhino Fest offerings I saw were two solo shows, one by Cecilie O’Reilly and another by Mark Chrisler. O’Reilly performs 21 of her own poems, most of which have to do with nature or solid, ordinary objects like newel posts and oak tables. Her precise and often surprising observations occasionally lead to reflections on aging, change, and loss, but she’s also content to simply savor the beauty of a sun-kissed apple or a purple rag lying in a clump of dead leaves. As a performer, she conveys both tenderness and resilience, sort of like the flower-box geraniums she describes as withstanding a pelting rainstorm despite their softness.
(play photo August Osage County, Chicago cast)
