About Uma

Uma Productions was founded in 2001 and performed their first show in a small church in Humboldt Park. Since then, their proudest moments include the New York International Fringe Festival hit why they invented dancing, which began in Chicago; The Pool of Bethesda, winner of numerous awards including an After Dark Award for Best Production; the original burlesque musical adventure Enter Alice; and the critically acclaimed 2005-06 season. Uma's hopeful, poetic productions are recognizable by their common trait of re-creating the entire space they are in, giving the audience a full theatrical experience.

Orange Lemon Egg Canary
By Rinne Groff
Directed by Mikhael Tara Garver
April 18-May 19, 2007
Chopin Theater

Uma's fabulous swan song was the Midwest premiere of Obie Award-winning playwright Rinne Groff's ORANGE LEMON EGG CANARY. This funny, quirky modern love story had plenty of disappearing coins, floating objects, and the infamously dangerous and thrilling "chick-on-a stick.". A magical exploration of the cheap tricks, smoke and mirrors and bonds of faith in modern romance, ORANGE LEMON EGG CANARY was an amazing night at the theatre, amidst one of Uma's fantastical "umavironments." With great press, our first full house buy out (Eastern European engineers!!) and live magic, we went out on a high note.

And the Uma Finale Party the day after will go down in history. Just ask any Uma.

Cast: Anne Adams and Stephanie Jacobs and artistic associate Elaine Robinson, with Laura Hooper, Brian Petsos, Vincent Teninty, and Dennis Watkins

Designers: artistic associate Brian Sidney Bembridge (sets), artistic associate Scotty Iseri (sound), Aly Greaves (costumes), Ben Wilhelm (lights), Jenniffer Thusing (props) and Dennis Watkins (magic)

Photo by Ryan Robinson

"A Hipster Romance! Provocative! Definitely entertains, thanks to the illusions and sleight-of-hand!" –Daily Herald "Plenty of visual pizzazz! High entertainment value!" –Windy City Times "Exuberant! Keeps the magic at the danger point! Seductive!" –Chicago Sun Times

Faith Healer
By Brian Friel
Directed by Mikhael Tara Garver
January 9-February 10, 2007
Chopin Theater

Fresh from its triumphant revival on Broadway the previous season, Uma presented Brian Friel's masterpiece FAITH HEALER. The play featured three powerful performances, following an Irish faith healer, his long-time lover and his devoted manager as they tour from town to town until their fateful return to Ireland. For this thrilling, Jeff-nominated production, Uma brought audiences into the Chopin studio through the alley and down the backstairs to enter the space, just as they did it in Ireland all those years ago.

Cast: Chris Hainsworth, artistic associate Danica Ivancevic and James Joseph

Designers: artistic associate Brian Sidney Bembridge (sets), artistic associate Scotty Iseri (sound), Jesse Klug (lights), artistic associate Alison Siple (costumes), Lara Musard (props)

Photo by Ryan Robinson

"HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! A breathtakingly good revival!" – Chicago Sun-Times "An unexpected surprise- one of the company's strongest productions!" – Chicago Tribune "Intimate, entertaining, hiliarious and heartfelt." – Chicago Reader

The Violet Hour
By Richard Greenberg
Directed by Mikhael Tara Garver
April 13-May 6, 2006
Chopin Theater

A critical and audience favorite, THE VIOLET HOUR attracted and was supported by more of Chicago's theatre community than Uma had ever seen before. Was it the amazing paper machines that created a huge paper storm every night? Was it the critically acclaimed acting from the cast that re-imagined these characters? Or was it our first feature story (in Time Out Chicago, natch) --an exciting preview of the show?

Whatever it was, we'll take it... and we'll say how proud we are to be a member of the Chicago theater community.

Cast: company member John Zinn (Gidger) with guest artists Cliff Chamberlain (Dennis), Dennis Grimes (John), Lily Mojekwu (Jessie) and Audrey Francis (Rosamund)

Designers: artistic associate Brian Sidney Bembridge (sets), Richard Peterson and Heather Graff (lights), Alyson Greaves (costumes), Scotty Iseri (sound) and Warren Stiles (props & special effects)

With a level of acting that's exceedingly rare for the non-Equity stage (or the Equity stage), Garver keeps her gripping cast crazy-glued to each moment, while Brian Sidney Bembridge's office set places us inches away from the bracingly honest acting" - TimeOut Chicago "Highly Recommended! Wry, witty... urgent and persuasive... even the comic moments seem darker and richer... " - Chicago Reader "Garver's intensely focused, high-concentrate production solidifies Uma’s place as a company that, like Violet Hour's characters, clearly has thrilling things written in its future" - TimeOut Chicago

Recent Tragic Events
By Craig Wright
Directed by Mikhael Tara Garver
September 22 - October 15, 2005
Chopin Theater

Uma’s Chicago premiere by Craig Wright (Orange Flower Water, HBO’s Six Feet Under) was a Jeff-nominated critical and audience hit, and gave Uma its highest profile to date. The Chopin downstairs became a Minneapolis apartment in a startlingly complete transformation. The Chicago Tribune did a feature on the sock puppet cast member who played Joyce Carol Oates, the design, acting & directing were complemented everywhere, and the word spread until Uma had to shoehorn an unimaginable amount of extra chairs into the space the final weekend, which we didn’t complain about one bit.

Cast: company members Elaine Robinson (Waverly) and Eric Evenskaas (Andrew) with guest artists Audrey Francis (Nancy), Paul Noble (Ron), and Candace Thompson (The Stage Manager)

Designers: Brian Sidney Bembridge (Sets), Richard Peterson and Heather Graff (Lights), Aly Greaves (Costumes), and Scotty Iseri (Sound)

"Funny, illuminating, and ultimately healing...Not to be missed." - Newcity "Funny and stirring....brilliant and ballsy. One of the Ten Best Shows of the Year." - TimeOut Chicago "A gimlet-eyed take on romance and the aftermath of 9/11....One of the Best Fringe Shows of the Year." - Chicago Tribune

Enter Alice
by Jim Hornor
Directed by Mikhael Tara Garver
WORLD PREMIERE
September - October, 2004
Chopin Theatre, Chicago

ENTER ALICE was an adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland as a rowdy comedy with live original music and burlesque performances. Windy City Times featured ENTER ALICE as their Theatre "Spotlight of the Week" and the infamously sexy production photos appeared in no less then 15 Chicago regional & national publications.

"Jim Hornor's adaptation is brimming with fine ideas... sumptuously produced" - Chicago Sun-Times "Uma's designers conceive Wonderland as a festival of visual delights... and for those that do want to keep the sex in burlesque, ENTER ALICE will not leave them disappointed" - Theatrescene

The Pool of Bethesda
By Allan Cubitt
Directed by Mikhael Tara Garver
MIDWEST PREMIERE
April - May, 2004
Live Bait Theater, Chicago

THE POOL OF BETHESDA was a poetic, witty and highly original take on hallucinations, brain surgery, and having faith in your demons. The show was met with great critical praise, winning a 2004 After Dark Award for Outstanding Production. The After Darks said POOL was "...a work bursting with ideas, ripe symbolism, pointed dialogue, warm humor and remarkable images." POOL also was included in the list of best set designs of the year by both New City and Windy City Times.

"…a topnotch ensemble of actors & designers….there's not a missed moment, a displaced emotion." - Gay Chicago Magazine "(the acting) is powerful and sensitive….merits award recognition" - Lerner News Winner of an After Dark Award for Outstanding Production

why they invented dancing
By Jim Hornor and Mikhael Tara Garver
from various texts by Charles Mee
Directed by Mikhael Tara Garver

WORLD PREMIERE
October - November, 2002
Chopin Theatre, Chicago
August, 2003
New York International Fringe Festival

This funny, romantic play about love, poetry, hoe-downs and sex in the bathtub was performed with live cover versions of classic love songs by on-stage band The Tubbs. DANCING had a successful Chicago run in 2002 and then went on to the 2003 New York International Fringe Festival where it was a critical and audience favorite and Charles Mee himself showed up to give his blessing.

"…it's a charming, witty, thoughtful, and highly original stab at defining the elusive term (love)…This is what last season's Broadway flop, The Look of Love, should have been." - www.curtainup.com "…what emerges is the eternal human need for someone to love, despite our mistrust for anything that might tie us down…Why did they invent dancing? So they could feel they could live. And for a brief time so do we." - Nytheatre.com

Moment: Three Days of Rain and The Author's Voice
by Richard Greenberg
Directed by Mikhael Tara Garver
November, 2001
ERP, Chicago

A melding of Richard Greenberg's two well-known, yet stylistically very different plays became the bold first production for Uma (then Umalleniay) Productions. Chicago audiences and critics managed to find their way to the small ERP space (formally a church) to witness this debut.

"Only a young company would do something as audacious as inserting a short play between the two acts of a work by the same writer…But in Umalleniay Productions' brilliant execution, it's also a great idea…the two approaches work well together.  And Garver directs both works with equal facility." - Jack Helbig, Chicago Reader "…Garver's juxtaposition of the two (plays) is an inspired one…(it) provides a sideways look at deeper themes in the play." - Jennifer Vanasco, Chicago Free Press