Tai is part of the theater and education company, Barrel of Monkeys and is their Graphic Designer. This theater ensemble works with some of the most under-served students in Chicago utilizing creative writing, self-esteem building, and adapting student-written stories for the stage. All of this is part of their mission presented in a ‘smart, funny theatre experience.’

I continue the exploration of art as expression and communication as part of the mBlog series in support of Chicago Artists Month with a two-part blog on Lessons in Creativity from The Neo-Futurists Theater in Chicago.

Joy Burke is the bona-fide Pixel Princess of Mightybytes. She is a 2007 graduate of the Visual Communications program at the Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago and her personal art is being featured in the Alumni Gallery Show along with some award-winning design work she did for Mightybytes. Be sure to stop by and check out her work and that of her fellow alumni!

Tricky Mickey improv group performs at The Playground in Chicago Oct. 14th at 8 p.m.

We profile actor, writer, director (and Mightybytes web developer) Steve Persch in our continued support of Chicago Artists Month by talking with our team and friends about their art and creative process. Steve is a member of the comedy improv group, Tricky Mickey, with Mike Abdelsayed and Steve Gensler. Performing next at The Playground in Chicago, Oct. 14th, Nov. 18th and Dec.10th. With three performers, Steve calls it “a more intimate show” with “a greater sense of excitement and possibility.” Rather than with a large group, he says there is “more fluidity moving through characters” because everyone is on stage most of the time.

WordPress 2.7 Complete by April Hodge Silver and Hasin Hayder is a great resource for bloggers and web designers to get a good handle on how the WordPress system works, where its strengths and weaknesses lie, and how to customize it to suit your needs.

The book covers both interface training and code development with equal facility. If you merely want to learn how to install the application, add themes and plug-ins, and get blogging, there is plenty of information here for you. If you want to dive into PHP to create your own themes, plug-ins, widgets, and so on, the book offers step-by-step instructions for this as well. It also covers how you can use WordPress as a complete CMS, which is helpful since WordPress has long had the reputation of being merely a blogging tool.