Storefront-a-Month: Kokandy Productions
Melody DeRogatis
If you’re looking for a place where you can see brand-new musicals, the moment they’re off-Broadway and an avant-grade, underground LaChiusa musical, you’re hard-pressed to find a better place to go than Kokandy Productions— a Chicago theatre company that focuses on listening to the needs of the Chicago theatre community, and overall quality of production.
Of course, Kokandy’s philosophy on creating quality theatre is reflected in their mission statement: “Kokandy Productions seeks to leverage the heightened reality of musical theater to tell complex and challenging stories with a focus on contributing to the development of Chicago-based musical theater artists and new musical theater works while raising the profile of Chicago’s storefront musical theater community.” But, upon asking Derek Van Barham, producing Artistic Director, he sums it up by simply saying: “we do good musicals!”
So, what constitutes a “good musical”? A walk down Kokandy’s diverse production history gives an interesting answer. Founded in 2011, Kokandy started out producing one show a year, then, from 2013-2017, Kokandy would produce between 2-3 fully staged musicals and readings a year. Now, in 2020, Kokandy is back to producing one fully-produced musical a year, which allows them to really pour a lot of time, effort, and energy into an outstanding production. “We look at our shows as an experience,” executive producer Scot Kokandy explains. “We’re not a resident company anywhere. We have the ability to say, you know what, different show, different experience, let’s try it!”, Van Barham adds, emphasizing that Kokandy thrives on the flexibility to produce shows on their own timeline, in their own setting, unique to the needs of each production.
And it is Kokandy’s flexibility in their art-making that makes them a game-changer for the Chicago theatre scene. As of 2019, to qualify for JEFF award nominations, a theatre had to have at least two shows in the calendar year that had at least eighteen performances.
“We said, 18+18 is 36, why does it have to be broken up between two shows when it could just be the longer run of one?” Van Barham explains to me his conversation with JEFF award officials, with a cheerful timbre to his voice. “And they were like, “you know what? You’re right!” So, moving forward, if a company only has the resources, or the want, to produce once a year, as long as they’re producing a long enough run, they are now eligible!”
Indeed, Kokandy is a theatre that works for Chicago. In the last five years, Kokandy has produced quite an eclectic group of shows, a few titles include: Head Over Heels (just six months after it closed on Broadway), Heathers (the Chicago premiere), Little Fish (a LaChiusa musical that doesn’t get produced very often), and Assassins (a Sondheim staple). But the variation in Kokandy’s production history is no accident— they cater tailor their stories to Chicago. Before picking a production, Kokandy poses the question: “What’s the show’s history with Chicago? And whether or not it has any, and whether there’s a need to do it,” Van Barham says. While Kokandy isn’t exclusively producing musicals that are Chicago-themed (like Miracle or Chicago), they want to ensure that the story they’re telling is one that nobody in Chicago has heard before— or at least one they haven’t heard told in Kokandy’s specific way… and with eight productions of Mamma Mia in the Chicagoland area in the summer of 2019, their careful choice of season selection is greatly appreciated.
“Generally, the first question we ask, is: Why? Why this show right now?” Van Barham explains. Kokandy makes it a priority to tell all their stories with purpose— right down to intricate details of the production. At Kokandy, making art isn’t about adhering to a subscriber base, or doing a show just because it’s the newest, coolest title out for licensing… it’s about creating art that people are passionate about making. “I don’t feel like we ever feel the need to pay lip service to a title because it would make money, or because it’s THE title, or anything like that… if there’s not at least one human attached, who’s not super passionate and excited about it— that’s the vision that’s going to drive it to opening night,” Van Barham says with conviction.
Kokandy Productions is unique in that it doesn’t have a resident company of creators, and as a result, their season selection process also comes a bit from the people who submit to work with them each season. Directors, choreographers, and music directors are frequently invited to submit shows to Kokandy that they have a passion to produce, especially artists who haven’t worked with Kokandy before.
In the midst of our conversation in the calm coffee shop, Scot Kokandy gave a sound piece of wisdom: “if the work you’re producing doesn’t reflect the world you’re in, it’s going to fail.” And Kokandy reflects the artistic world they live in on several different levels: by telling new stories (or re-vamps of older stories), collaborating with new artists, and listening to their community about the kind of art they want to see. Often, theatre is seen as a way to hold a mirror to society… but, reflections come in many different forms, and Kokandy understands that, and tries to represent Chicago as best they can, in all their different mediums.
“We’re here, and we’re flexible,” Van Barham says with an inviting tone, “we’re interested in hearing from directors, choreographers, music directors, composers, people with ideas, people interested in collaboration with musicals.”
And no doubt, their flexibility and open ears as a company continue to take Kokandy to new heights.
For submissions for new musicals, please email: litmanager@kokandyproductions.com
General collaboration interest: scot@kokandyproductions.com or (773) 904-0642
@Kokandyprods on Instagram, https://www.kokandyproductions.com