Manual Cinema is a performance collective, design studio, and film/video production company founded in Chicago, Illinois in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter. Manual Cinema combines handmade shadow puppetry, vintage overhead projectors, live feed cameras, cinematic techniques, sound effects and live music to create film and theatre works.
Leadership
Co-Artistic Directors and Staff:
- Drew Dir, Co-Artistic Director, writer, director, puppet designer
- Sarah Fornace, Co-Artistic Director, director, puppeteer, choreographer, narrative designer
- Ben Kauffman, Co-Artistic Director, composer, director, interactive media artist
- Julia Miller, Co-Artistic Director, director, puppeteer, designer
- Kyle Vegter, Co-Artistic Director, composer, producer, sound designer
Recognition
The company was awarded an Emmy in 2017 for The Forger, a video created for The New York Times and named Chicago Artists of the Year in 2018 by the Chicago Tribune. In 2020 they were included in 50 of Chicago theater "Rising Stars and Storefront Stalwarts" (Newcity).
Their shadow puppet animations were featured in the 2021 film remake of Candyman, directed by Nia DaCosta and produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions. In September 2014, the group traveled to Tehran, Iran to present their piece, Ada/Ava at a puppet festival.
In 2022 they premiered Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About A Terrible Monster, an adaptation of two books by celebrated children's author Mo Willems and a live adaptation of their 2020 streaming hit A Christmas Carol.
Works by genre
Theater
- Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About A Terrible Monster (2023)
- Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol (2022)
- The Magic City (2017)
- No Blue Memories (2017)
- Frankenstein
- Ada/Ava (2013)
- Moholy-Nagy: The Electric Stage (2016)
- Monday or Tuesday (2016)
- Mementos Mori (2015)
- Hänsel Und Gretel (2015)
- Head in the Cloud (2015)
- Lula Del Ray (2012)
- The End of TV (2017)
- Mariko's Magical Mix (with Hubbard Street2)
- Peter Pan Beijing
- Mr. and Mrs. Pennyworth (for Lookingglass Theatre Company)
Film
- Future Feeling (2023)
- Poetry Out Loud( 2022)
- Candyman
- Leonardo and Sam* The Film! (2021)
- Scout's Honor (2020)
- Multitudes (2019)
- Obits (2019)
- City on Fire: Chicago 1871
- All of them Witches
- We Real Cool (2017)
- Oedipus Rex
- Poem
- Three WWI Poems
- Floridaman
- Invisibilia
- Chicagoland (2015)
- Gabriel Kahane - Bradbury (304 Broadway)
- Move Many (Joints) (for jazz musician Esperanza Spalding)
- 8BB - Meanwhile
- La Celestina
Music
- The Forger (2016)
- My Soul's Shadow
- Just a Dog (2016)
- No Blue Memories
- Poetry Out Loud (2022)
- Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About A Terrible Monster
- Future Feeling (2023)
- Leonardo and Sam* The Film!
- Multitudes
- Scout's Honor
- The End of TV
- The Magic City
- Invisibilia
- Lula Del Ray
- Ada/Ava
- Poem
- Obits
- Three WWI Poems
Footnotes
- Borelli, Chris (May 4, 2014). "Let there be shadow: Chicago-based Manual Cinema leaps into the light with its innovative mix of cardboard puppets, film conventions and live music". Chicago Tribune.
- Parker, Kristen (October 4, 2013). "SHADOW PUPPETS TAKE ON RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE IN THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES". US Fed News Service.
- Ruiz, Jesus A. (February 2018). "TAPPING INTO TECH". Editor & Publisher, Vol. 151, Iss. 2.
- "Chicagoans of the Year 2018". TCA Regional News. December 27, 2018.
- Jones, Chris (July 24, 2020). "Enjoy an online retrospective: Catch up with Manual Cinema before 'Candyman' hype". Chicago Tribune 1.
- Dingfelder, Sadie (February 5, 2015). "Shadows cast on a screen tell the moving story of Manual Cinema's 'Lula del Ray': In September, the Chicago-based theater troupe Manual Cinema traveled to Tehran for a puppet festival, armed with seven overhead projectors". Washington Post, weblog.
- Fenley, Marissa (2019). "No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks". Chicago Review Vol. 62/63 Issue 4/1/2, p387-391.
- Freedlander, David (January 7, 2019). "How Chicago's Manual Cinema Made 'Frankenstein' Into a Magical Puppet Show: Watching Manual Cinema's 'Frankenstein,' it is hard to know whether you should direct your gaze to the puppets or the actors. Whatever, it is impossible to look away". The Daily Beast.
- Borcherts, Julia (June 5, 2013). "Arts a la carte". Chicago Tribune.
- Dingfelder, Sadie (February 5, 2015). "Shadows cast on a screen tell the moving story of Manual Cinema's 'Lula del Ray': In September, the Chicago-based theater troupe Manual Cinema traveled to Tehran for a puppet festival, armed with seven overhead projectors". Washington Post, weblog.
- Parker, Kristen (October 4, 2013). "SHADOW PUPPETS TAKE ON RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE IN THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES". US Fed News Service.
- Dingfelder, Sadie (February 5, 2015). "Shadows cast on a screen tell the moving story of Manual Cinema's 'Lula del Ray': In September, the Chicago-based theater troupe Manual Cinema traveled to Tehran for a puppet festival, armed with seven overhead projectors". Washington Post, weblog.
- Jones, Chris (August 3, 2018). "How do you describe Manual Cinema?: Movies handmade by live actors right before your eyes". Chicago Tribune, 9.
- Jones, Christopher (August 3, 2018). "How do you describe Manual Cinema?: Movies handmade by live actors right before your eyes". Chicago Tribune.
- Jones, Chris (December 20, 2016). "Story about stories needs its own tale". Chicago Tribune, 1.
- Fenley, Marissa (2019). "No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks". Chicago Review Vol. 62/63 Issue 4/1/2, p387-391.
- McClanathan, Emily (September 15, 2022). "Review: 'Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster' is a touching way into childhood anxieties". Chicago Tribune Online. Tribune Publishing Company, LLC.