Theatre Building Chicago Debuts EL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

What happens on this wonderful day to remember our ancestors? Start with a little magic, add colorful latin-inspired songs with plenty of laughs then mix it up with a crazy adventure through the colorful pasts of our ancestors.

Tickets are just $5, and include a post-show reception with the cast & creators of El Dia de Los Muertos.

About the authors:

Christina Biggs (book) most recent children's musicals include The Adventures of Anansi the Spider (winner "kid's libretto" category, 2007 Moondance International Film Festival and semi-finalist, 2007 Summer Play Festival NYC), The Magic Paintbrush, Fu Manchu Tied Up My Mom, The Reluctant Dragon, Aztec Idol or How Music Came to Earth and Prince Huey and the Gooey Dragon. Her shows, both for children and adults, have been produced by Theatre Building Chicago, the Duncan YMCA/Chernin Center for the Arts, Columbia College Chicago, Prologue Children's Theater, Millikin University and the Academy for New Musical Theatre. In June 2007, Christina made her L.A. debut with The Perfect Feet at the Colony Theatre. She has worked as an editor for Stagebill Magazine and the Chicago Theater Guide, and currently freelances for publications such as PerformInk and the Chicago Tribune, as well as having made guest appearances on WGN's Dean Richards Sunday Morning. In addition, Christina has contributed several chapters to two editions of The Book: An Actor's Guide to Chicago. In 2007, she helped launch Theatre Building Chicago's Musical Theatre for Young Audiences, conducting research, planning sales and developing strategy. Christina studied marine biology at the University of California-Santa Cruz; English literature at DePaul University; and play/musical writing at Victory Gardens Theatre, the Chicago Dramatists, the Academy for New Musical Theatre and Theatre Building Chicago. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and Theatre for Young Audiences/USA.

Mike Descoteaux (music & lyrics) is the head of the Music Program at The Second City where he has music directed and/or created original material for a national touring company, Sex and the Second City, The Romeo and Juliet Musical at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and the NCL Jewel's The Best of The Second City. Mike has had the privilege of working with Tony Award-winning artists such as Jason Robert Brown, William Finn, Mark Hollmann and James LaPine. He has "composed" and "conducted" over 500 completely improvised musicals with Musical! The Musical, Baby Wants Candy (head music director), Diva (director) and (artistic director). With Jazz Hands Across AmericaJazz Hands, Mike composed and directed the scripted musical, Warfield, USA, which received its critically acclaimed New York premiere at the SoHo Playhouse. His other original musicals (The Fundamental Skip and This Time), music direction and playing have been heard at venues including: The Goodman, American Theatre Company, The Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, The Bailiwick, Theatre Building Chicago, Improv Olympic, The Strawdog Theatre, Davenport's Cabaret and Gentry's. He has been seen on NBC, A&E and WGN. Mike, a Northwestern grad, has received an After Dark Award, a Paynter Award and has been named one of the best young songwriters in the country by The Johnny Mercer Foundation and The American Music Theater Project.

Stage Director Ed Garza and Musical Director Mike Descoteaux helm the cast with Jennifer Stafford (Stage Manager). Ed Garza is delighted to be working on Theatre Building Chicago's El Dia de Los Muertos. He has also directed Relatively Functional and Bluetooth Decay for Midtown; ¡Salsation!'s (Chicago's Sketch Comedy with a Latin Flavor) VeraCruz Cirque de Salsation, My Big Fat Quinceanera, Crouching Wetback, Hidden Migra, A Whole Lotta Shakira Goin' On and Diane Herrera in The Job which premiered at New York's Manhattan Theatre Resource. He is a founding member of GayCo Productions, Chicago's LGBT sketch comedy troupe. Ed wrote and performed for the company's revues, Whitney Houston, We Have A Problem!, Everyone's Coming Out Rosie! (both revues received the After Dark Award for Best Ensemble Performance), Don't Ask, Don't Teletubby The Miseducation of Dr. Laura, When Bush Comes to Shove, 99 Bottles of Queer on the Wall, and Cinco de GayCo performing throughout the U.S. and in Europe. In addition to his commercial and film credits, Mr. Garza worked as a rep for Actors' Equity for three years. He is a graduate of Loyola University, as well as, The Second City Conservatory Program and has been a faculty member of The Second City Training Center for fifteen years. Ed also teaches theatre at Francis W. Parker School where he has directed over twenty children's productions.

Theatre Building Chicago has devoted 30 years to cultivating new American musical theatre by supporting writers, lyricists and composers, while staging over 100 new musicals in Chicago. Members of the musical theatre writers workshop meet regularly to collaborate under the guidance of Artistic Director, John Sparks.

Members develop individual projects with select new works presented in the Monday Night Musicals series, as well as Studio Presentations, One Acts, Mini-Musicals and Stages, TBC's annual festival of new musicals in progress – all performed at Theatre Building Chicago. Alumni workshop member Dave Hudson (award winning lyricist & author of Muskie Love (STAGES 2003); Bringers (STAGES 2005) Main-Travelled Roads (STAGES 2006) praised the workshop, saying "I have learned more in one year at this workshop than in all my other workshops combined and it has motivated me to write more now than I ever have in the past. There is nowhere in the world like TBC."

Theatre Building Chicago's musical program offers an array of works in multiple "stages" of development. TBC nurtures new works through its musical theatre writers workshop and through collaboration with theatre companies and artists across the country. Theatre Building Chicago welcomes media attention focusing on the developmental process of new musicals; however, El Dia de Los Muertos is considered a work in progress and not appropriate for critical review. -- www.theatrebuildingchicago.org