REVIEW: Haven Theatre's Brutal Brechtian Wake Up Call at The Den Theatre Through March 11th, 2018

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar: 

Haven Theatre Presents

FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH

By Bertolt Brecht

Translated by Eric Bentley

Directed by Artistic Director Josh Sobel

(left to right) Simon Hedger and Joe Bianco 

 All Photos by Emily Schwartz.

Running time: 2:45, including intermission.

Review:
A bit over a half century ago, German politics looked eerily like American politics circa 2018. A struggling working class thought Hitler would make their country great again and they went down a rabbit hole of rabid nationalism, racism, jackboot domestic terrorism, and war that shocked the world. Thankfully we have historians, poets and playwrights who documented the atrocities so there's hope that we can fight Fascism and won't be doomed to repeat history.

(front, l to r) Niko Kourtis, Elizabeth Dowling and Alexis Randolph in Haven Theatre’s production of FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH. 

I enjoyed Haven's austere, authoritarian staging of Bertolt Brecht's FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH, with a raised stage wending around sunken pits of audience members. Hard benches with thin pads line the walls in a modified theatre in the round configuration, for additional audience seating. Do note, the seating is as uncomfortable as the subject matter. After the nearly 3 hour run time, an older gentleman next to me, stood painfully and was heard to grumble, "Fear & Misery of my ass...". I spent intermission padding my seat with my coat and fleece. If a lack of cushy seating isn't a deal breaker, this production is well worth a look.

(left to right) Alys Dickerson and Alexis Randolph in Haven Theatre’s production of FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH. Photo by Emily Schwartz.

(front, l to r) Alexis Randolph, Jessica Dean Turner, Alys Dickerson and Kyla Norton with (back) Simon Hedger

(left to right) Jessica Dean Turner and Kyla Norton

In a series of Brechtian scenes featuring everyday Germans from the wealthy elite, to Jews on work crews and in concentration camps, this play is a jolting reminder of the damage fear and racism can wreak on a country. The complacent are complicit. And even the formerly superior can quickly tumble when the rules change, as a wealthy Jewish wife realizes, as she flees the country for her life. The locations and timeline on the far wall are as helpful as they are haunting, in hindsight. 

In light of our current problem with rising Fascist groups, immigrant ICE deportation forces and detention centers, race based violence, and economic struggles, this play is too timely and a welcome wakeup call. Ready to turn enlightenment into action? Pick up a flier at the show close, for concrete actions you can take and great resources to RESIST FASCISM. FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH is recommended and running through 3/11/18.

Regular run: Thursday, February 15 – Sunday, March 11, 2018
Curtain Times: Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm; Sundays at 3 pm

Tickets: $18 are currently available at haventheatrechicago.com.

Haven Theatre is pleased to continue its 2017-18 Season with Bertolt Brecht’s unsettling and unflinching drama FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH, translated by Eric Bentley and directed by Artistic Director Josh Sobel, playing February 8 – March 11, 2018 at The Den Theatre's Janet Bookspan Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently availale at haventheatrechicago.com. 

As Germany careens toward war, an entire society begins to crack, and the seeds of chaos and tragedy take root in the minds of its citizens. Josh Sobel (We're Gonna Die) helms an ensemble-driven production of Brecht's 1938 classic with a contemporary eye – a warning of how insidiously a culture can make space for atrocity, and a call to never allow it to happen again.

(front) Alexis Randolph with (back, l to r) Amanda De La Guardia, Kyla Norton and Elizabeth Dowling

FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH features Joe Bianco, Amanda De La Guardia, Alys Dickerson, Elizabeth Dowling, Simon Hedger, Niko Kourtis, Kyla Norton, Siddhartha Rajan, Alexis Randolph and Jessica Dean Turner.

BETRAYAL
Man - Kyla Norton
Woman - Alexis Randolph

CHALK CROSS
SA Man - Siddartha Rajan
Worker - Jessica Dean Turner
Parlor Maid - Alys Dickerson
Cook - Kyla Norton
Chauffer - Amanda De La Guardia

PRISONERS MIX CEMENT
Social Democrat - Elizabeth Dowling
Communist - Alexis Randolph
Non-Political Man - Niko Kourtis
Pastor - Jessica Dean Turner
SS Guard - Joe Bianco

WORKING MAN ON AIR
Announcer - Joe Bianco
Old Worker - Siddartha Rajan
Woman Worker - Elizabeth Dowling
Worker - Amanda De La Guardia
SA Man - Simon Hedger

THE BOX
Woman - Alys Dickerson
Worker - Jessica Dean Turner
Young Wife - Alexis Randolph
Child - Kyla Norton
SA Man - Simon Hedger

PHYSICISTS
X - Elizabeth Dowling
Y - Kyla Norton
Listeners - Alexis Randolph, Amanda De La Guardia, Niko Kourtis, Jessica Dean Turner

THE JEWISH WIFE
Wife - Alys Dickerson
Husband - Joe Bianco

IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE
Judge A - Amanda De La Guardia
Inspector - Simon Hedger
Prosecutor - Siddartha Rajan
Attendant - Alys Dickerson
Maid - Alexis Randolph
Judge B - Niko Kourtis

THE INFORMER
Wife - Alexis Randolph
Husband - Niko Kourtis
Boy - Joe Bianco
Maid - Elizabeth Dowling

THE MAN THEY RELEASED
Man - Kyla Norton
Wife - Jessica Dean Turner
Released Man - Siddartha Rajan

THE OLD NAZI
Dairy Woman - Elizabeth Dowling
First Woman - Alys Dickerson
Second Woman - Amanda De La Guardia
Tradesman - Simon Hedger
Young Fellow - Joe Bianco
Butcher's Wife - Alexis Randolph

TWO BAKERS 
1st Baker - Jessica Dean Turner
2nd Baker - Niko Kourtis

CHILDRENS SHOES
Mother - Alexis Randolph
Daughter - Alys Dickerson

A FARMER FEEDS HIS SOW
Farmer - Simon Hedger
Farmer's Wife - Elizabeth Dowling

WINTER RELIEF
Old Woman - Amanda De La Guardia
Young Woman - Kyla Norton
1st SA Man - Siddartha Rajan
2nd SA Man - Joe Bianco

SERMON ON THE MOUNT
Dying Man - Simon Hedger
Wife - Amanda De La Guardia
Son - Niko Kourtis
Pastor - Siddartha Rajan
Buriers - Kyla Norton, Joe Bianco, Jessica Dean Turner, Alexis Randolph, Elizabeth Dowling, Alys Dickerson

A MOTHER SINGS
Woman - Jessica Dean Turner
and Ensemble

PLEBISCITE
Woman - Kyla Norton
Younger Worker - Jessica Dean Turner
Older Worker - Elizabeth Dowling 

(front, l to r) Alys Dickerson and Siddhartha Rajan with (back) Amanda De La Guardia 

Comments Artistic Director Josh Sobel, "As the world finds itself in the midst of its next great cultural shift, Brecht's examination of the common citizen and how a society can be led to accept the inhumane feels strikingly immediate. Brecht wrote this play reflecting and pulling back the curtain on the news of the day as it was happening around him, providing an unnerving and – in our current moment – all too important call to confront injustice as it happens and to firmly and proudly say: No. With this production we seek to serve one of Haven's core values – the Future – through an intimate and personal look at our past and how such fatal mistakes were allowed to take place."

(front right) Simon Hedger with (back, l to r) Joe Bianco, Amanda De La Guardia and Alys Dickerson

The production team for FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH includes Yu Shibagaki (scenic design), Izumi Inaba (costume design), Claire Chrzan (lighting design), Sarah D. Espinoza (sound design), Jeffrey Levin (original music), Sasha Smith (movement design), Abhi Shrestha (dramaturg, associate movement director), Angela Salinas (production manager), Madisen Dempsey (assistant director), Anna Sung-En Medill (assistant director) and Corbin Paulino (stage manager).

Artist Biographies
Bertolt Brecht (Playwright) 1898-1956, playwright, poet and director, was born in Augsburg, Germany in February 1898. He established himself as a playwright during the 1920s and early 1930s with plays such as Baal, Man is Man, The Threepenny Opera and The Mother. In 1933, as Hitler came to power in Germany, Mr. Brecht fled to Scandinavia before eventually settling in the USA where he remained until 1947. During the war years, he wrote many of his best-known plays, including The Life of Galileo, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage and Her Children and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. He returned to Europe in 1947 and shortly after his arrival formed the Berliner Ensemble. He died in Berlin on August 14, 1956 but remains a hugely influential theatre practitioner.

Eric Bentley (Translator) was born in England in 1916, became an American citizen in 1948, in 1998 was inducted into the (American) Theatre Hall of Fame, and in 2011 won a gold medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Scholar, critic, teacher, performer, translator and, finally, playwright, he has had many books published and many plays and adaptations performed, the latter feature making him a star of the Samuel French catalogue. Several of his critical works have become classics, notably The Playwright as Thinker, Thinking about the Playwright and The Life of the Drama. Today, nine of his plays are published by Northwestern University Press in three volumes entitled Rallying Cries, Monstrous Martyrdoms and The Kleist Variations. Four more Bentley titles have recently been published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc: Round One, Round Two, A Time to Die and A Time to Live and The Sternheim Trilogy.

Josh Sobel (Director) is a Chicago-based director and Artistic Director of Haven Theatre Company. Recent credits include We're Gonna Die at Haven, Bobbie Clearly at Steep (Jeff Award winner, Best New Work), The Long Christmas Ride Home and Hunting of the Snark (also Edinburgh Fringe) at Strawdog, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead at Metropolis and The Importance of Being Earnest featuring Lisa Tejero at Iowa Summer Rep, University of Iowa. Additional credits include work at Chicago Dramatists, Red Orchid, Victory Gardens, Sketchbook, The Ruckus, Greenhouse Theater Center, Abbie-Fest and New Leaf. From 2010-2013 Josh served as Associate Director of the National Theater Institute summer "Theatermakers" program at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Recipient, Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC) Observership, Hamlet at Writers' Theatre. Associate member, SDC. 

About Haven Theatre:
NEXT GENERATION. NEW CANON. SOCIAL PROFIT.

We exist to be a Haven for The Future. We achieve this through championing the next generation of playwrights, directors and actors by producing and promoting plays and performances that are staking their claim as the immediate future of this art form, and by investing in those at the very beginning of their professional journeys. Through this inspiration, we seek to ignite in each audience member a hope for the Future - the Future of theatre and performance, the Future of each other, the Future of our community.

OPENING: Bertolt Brecht's FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH Via Haven Theatre at The Den 2/8-3/11/18

 Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Casting Announced!

Haven Theatre Presents

FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH

By Bertolt Brecht

Translated by Eric Bentley

Directed by Artistic Director Josh Sobel

February 8 – March 11, 2018 at The Den Theatre

Haven Theatre is pleased to continue its 2017-18 Season with Bertolt Brecht’s unsettling and unflinching drama FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH, translated by Eric Bentley and directed by Artistic Director Josh Sobel, playing February 8 – March 11, 2018 at The Den Theatre's Janet Bookspan Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently availale at haventheatrechicago.com. 

I'll be ChiIlin' at the press opening on February 13th, at Chi, IL's Den Theatre, so check back soon for my full review. 

All Production Photos by Joe Mazza/Brave Lux.

FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH features Joe Bianco, Amanda De La Guardia, Alys Dickerson, Elizabeth Dowling, Simon Hedger, Niko Kourtis, Kyla Norton, Siddhartha Rajan, Alexis Randolph and Jessica Dean Turner.

As Germany careens toward war, an entire society begins to crack, and the seeds of chaos and tragedy take root in the minds of its citizens. Josh Sobel (We're Gonna Die) helms an ensemble-driven production of Brecht's 1938 classic with a contemporary eye – a warning of how insidiously a culture can make space for atrocity, and a call to never allow it to happen again. 

Comments Artistic Director Josh Sobel, "As the world finds itself in the midst of its next great cultural shift, Brecht's examination of the common citizen and how a society can be led to accept the inhumane feels strikingly immediate. Brecht wrote this play reflecting and pulling back the curtain on the news of the day as it was happening around him, providing an unnerving and – in our current moment – all too important call to confront injustice as it happens and to firmly and proudly say: No. With this production we seek to serve one of Haven's core values – the Future – through an intimate and personal look at our past and how such fatal mistakes were allowed to take place."



The production team for FEAR AND MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH includes Yu Shibagaki (scenic design), Izumi Inaba (costume design), Claire Chrzan (lighting design), Sarah D. Espinoza (sound design), Jeffrey Levin (original music), Sasha Smith (movement design), Abhi Shrestha (dramaturg, associate movement director), Angela Salinas (production manager), Madisen Dempsey (assistant director), Anna Sung-En Medill (assistant director) and Corbin Paulino (stage manager).



Regular run: Thursday, February 15 – Sunday, March 11, 2018
Curtain Times: Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm; Sundays at 3 pm

Tickets: Previews: pay-what-you-can. Regular run $18. Tickets are currently available at haventheatrechicago.com.

Artist Biographies
Bertolt Brecht (Playwright) 1898-1956, playwright, poet and director, was born in Augsburg, Germany in February 1898. He established himself as a playwright during the 1920s and early 1930s with plays such as Baal, Man is Man, The Threepenny Opera and The Mother. In 1933, as Hitler came to power in Germany, Mr. Brecht fled to Scandinavia before eventually settling in the USA where he remained until 1947. During the war years, he wrote many of his best-known plays, including The Life of Galileo, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage and Her Children and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. He returned to Europe in 1947 and shortly after his arrival formed the Berliner Ensemble. He died in Berlin on August 14, 1956 but remains a hugely influential theatre practitioner.

Eric Bentley (Translator) was born in England in 1916, became an American citizen in 1948, in 1998 was inducted into the (American) Theatre Hall of Fame, and in 2011 won a gold medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Scholar, critic, teacher, performer, translator and, finally, playwright, he has had many books published and many plays and adaptations performed, the latter feature making him a star of the Samuel French catalogue. Several of his critical works have become classics, notably The Playwright as Thinker, Thinking about the Playwright and The Life of the Drama. Today, nine of his plays are published by Northwestern University Press in three volumes entitled Rallying Cries, Monstrous Martyrdoms and The Kleist Variations. Four more Bentley titles have recently been published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc: Round One, Round Two, A Time to Die and A Time to Live and The Sternheim Trilogy.

Josh Sobel (Director) is a Chicago-based director and Artistic Director of Haven Theatre Company. Recent credits include We're Gonna Die at Haven, Bobbie Clearly at Steep (Jeff Award winner, Best New Work), The Long Christmas Ride Home and Hunting of the Snark (also Edinburgh Fringe) at Strawdog, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead at Metropolis and The Importance of Being Earnest featuring Lisa Tejero at Iowa Summer Rep, University of Iowa. Additional credits include work at Chicago Dramatists, Red Orchid, Victory Gardens, Sketchbook, The Ruckus, Greenhouse Theater Center, Abbie-Fest and New Leaf. From 2010-2013 Josh served as Associate Director of the National Theater Institute summer "Theatermakers" program at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Recipient, Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC) Observership, Hamlet at Writers' Theatre. Associate member, SDC. 



About Haven Theatre:
NEXT GENERATION. NEW CANON. SOCIAL PROFIT.

We exist to be a Haven for The Future. We achieve this through championing the next generation of playwrights, directors and actors by producing and promoting plays and performances that are staking their claim as the immediate future of this art form, and by investing in those at the very beginning of their professional journeys. Through this inspiration, we seek to ignite in each audience member a hope for the Future - the Future of theatre and performance, the Future of each other, the Future of our community.

OPENING: COR Present's Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan at A Red Orchid Theatre

Chi IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

"BRECHT MEETS EMPIRE" 

COR ADDS SIZZLE TO CHICAGO SUMMER THEATER WITH

THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN, 

AUG. 11-SEPT. 11 AT A RED ORCHID THEATRE

**Note: For adult audiences only. Contains sexual content and partial nudity.**

"Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, 

a delight in changing reality." 

~Bertolt Brecht

Cor Theatre, the bold new Chicago storefront company hailed for "Most Promising Debut" last season by Time Out Chicago, continues its 2016 season with a scorching new production of Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan.

Cor company member Ernie Nolan directs Tony Kushner's translation of Brecht's popular parable of good and evil. Fellow Cor ensemble member Will Von Vogt plays the title role of the good hearted prostitute, Shen Te, just one example of non-traditional, color and gender-blind casting in what promises to be one of the most talked about Chicago theater offerings this summer.

In The Good Person of Szechwan, three gods are on a journey to find out if there are any good people left on earth. Only Shen Te, a kind and generous prostitute, offers them shelter. With the money they give her she opens a tobacco shop. At once everyone needs her help. Her livelihood is in danger. Worse, she is falling in love with Sun, a pilot, who is robbing her blind. Her hard hearted cousin, Shui Ta, arrives to protect her. Who is he and how can good people stay good in a world of poverty and cruelty?

Cor's epic production is set in a multicultural, urban environment on the brink of change, much like Chicago. Infused with hot hip hop beats, Cor's new "Brecht meets Empire" take on Good Person will remind audiences that Brecht was not only one of the greatest theatrical thinkers of the last century, but entertainers as well.

"Brecht's brilliant play, which grapples with themes of income and gender inequality, poverty and urban decay, seems just as relevant today, if not more so, than it did when he completed it in 1940," said director Ernie Nolan. "As the nation debates issues of sex and gender identity, as our presidential race is speeding up, and with our presidential candidates asking us to consider why they are 'good' for the job, Good Person examines Shen Te's struggle to be 'good' in a world where goodness isn't exactly in demand." 

The Good Person of Szechwan, Brecht's parable of good and evil, 

was first performed in 1943 and remains one of his 

most frequently produced plays worldwide. 

Performances of Cor Theatre's The Good Person of Szechwan are August 11-September 11, 2016 at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells Street in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood. Previews are Thursday through Saturday, August 11-13, at 7:30 pm. 

Gala opening is Monday, August 15 at 7:30 p.m. Gala opening tickets are $75 and include a pre-show reception with food and cocktails, the show and a champagne toast with the cast and crew after the performance.

Performances run through September 11: Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $25; $10 students and industry. Tickets go on sale July 1. For tickets and information, visit CorTheatre.org or call (866) 811-4111. 

Top: Cor Theatre company member Will Von Vogt portrays Shen Te in the company's new production of The Good Person of Szechwan. Middle, from left: Ernie Nolan will direct Cor Theatre's The Good Person of Szechwan starring Will Von Vogt in the title role. Reflecting the diversity of Chicago, the cast also features Jos N. Banks, Dawn Bless, Chris Brickhouse, Michael Buono, (bottom, from left) Ben Chang, Isabella Coelho, Aida Delaz, Niko Kourtis, Narciso Lobo, Jeri Marshall and Lea Pascal. 

In addition to Von Vogt as Shen Te, Cor's 12-person cast for Good Person reflects the diversity of Chicago: Dawn Bless as Wang the Watercarrier, Chris Brickhouse as Sun/Husband, Niko Kourtis as Shu Fu/Wife, Jeri Marshall as Mrs. Shin, Lea Pascal as Mrs. Mi Tzu, Narciso Lobo as Policeman/Mrs. Yang/Unemployed Man, Ben Chang as God 3/ Grandfather/Old Prostitute, Jos N. Banks as God 2/Sister in Law/Guard, Aida Delaz as God 1/Carpenter/ Guard, Michael Buono as Nephew/Male Vocal and Isabella Coelho as Niece.

Designers are Stefin Steberl (set and props), Alarie Hammock (costumes), Claire Chrzan (lights), Matt Reich (sound), Adam Gutkin (technical director), Tosha Fowler (movement), Elyse Cowles (production manager) and Meredith Matthews (production stage manager.) Tosha Fowler is Producing Artistic Director of Cor Theatre.

Ernie Nolan is an award winning director and playwright who received the Illinois Theatre Association's 2014 award for Excellence in Theatre for Young Audiences. He is a company member of Cor Theatre and last year he directed Love and Human Remains which New City named one of the "Top Five Dramas of 2015." For Chicago Playworks he has directed The BFG, The Giver, The Witches, A Wrinkle in Time, Number the Stars, and The Day John Henry Came to School. His work at The Broadway Playhouse includes A Charlie Brown Christmas, Fancy Nancy The Musical, Pinkalicious, The Cat in the Hat, Cinderella, Charlotte's Web and the world premiere of Hansel and Gretel: A Wickedly Delicious Musical Treat with Justin Roberts. Nolan's playwriting has been produced nationally and at such theatres as The Coterie, First Stage, Walnut Street, Orlando Rep and Children's Theatre of Charlotte. He has written commissions for Adventure Theatre in Glen Echo, MD, La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, CA, The Milwaukee Zoological Society, and his latest commission, My Broken Doll, for the Institute for Holocaust Education and The Circle Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska. Also a resident artist of The Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, MO, he has directed and choreographed world premieres by such Tony­-nominated artists as Willy and Rob Reale, Stephen Schwartz, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, and Bill Russell and Henry Krieger Nolan is an Assistant Professor of Theatre Studies at The Theatre School at DePaul University as well as the Vice President of Theatre for Young Audiences USA. He is a graduate of both the University of Michigan Musical Theatre Program (BFA Musical Theatre) and The Theatre School at DePaul University (MFA Directing).

Will Von Vogt (Shen Te) is an ensemble member at Cor, where he co-starred earlier this season in Christina, The Girl King, and in last season's A Map of Virtue. Other credits include The Other Theatre Company's revival of Bent, along with Romeo and Juliet, The Heidi Chronicles, Blur, The Altruists, Empire Falls (HBO), Google Me Love (produced by the Wachowskis) and serving on the producing team of Salonathon.                                                                           

Tony Kushner (translator) is the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, screenwriter, and author whose works have played everywhere from Broadway to HBO. His play Angels in America earned him the Pulitzer Prize, among many other awards. His other acclaimed plays include Slavs, Homebody/Kabul and Caroline, or Change. 

German playwright, poet and director Bertolt Brecht (playwright, 1898-1956) established himself as a playwright during the 1920s and early 1930s with plays such as Baal, Man is Man, The Threepenny Opera and The Mother. In 1933, as Hitler came to power in Germany, he fled to Scandinavia before settling in the U.S. During the war years, he wrote many of his best known plays including The Life of Galileo, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Mother Courage and Her Children and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. 

About Cor Theatre

Cor Theatre (cortheatre.org) debuted in September 2012 with a vision to create theatrical experiences that are rarely presented in Chicago by artists who seek to defy expectation. Cor's mission is to explore the inner truth of the human experience through storytelling that defies convention, and to engage audiences by telling stories that take courage to tell. 

Cor's first production, Skin Tight by Gary Henderson, produced by Tosha Fowler and Victoria Delorio in 2012 at A Red Orchid, was rewarded with enthusiastic audiences, critical acclaim and made just enough money to establish a not-for-profit corporation. The company subsequently named itself Cor Theatre, deriving its name from the Latin root of courage - meaning heart.

In 2015, Cor expanded to a two-show season launching with an acclaimed production of Erin Courtney's A Map of Virtue, named Most Promising Debut by Time Out Chicago, and nominated for several Time Out Chicago Theatre Awards including Best Supporting Actress (Scottie Caldwell) and Best Design (Tierra G. Novy, set; Stefin Steberl, costumes and props; Eric Vigo, lights; and Jeffrey Levin, sound.)

Cor's second 2015 production, Love and Human Remains, the first professional staging of Brad Fraser's controversial play in Chicago in 20 years, was directed by Ernie Nolan, played to numerous sold-out houses and was listed as one of the top plays to see by Windy City Times and New City.

To kick off its 2016 season this past spring, Cor staged a daring U.S. debut of Christina, The Girl King, Linda Gaboriau's translation of French playwright Michel Marc Bouchard's 2012 play Christine, la reine-garcon, based on the true life of the 17^th century's Queen Christina of Sweden. In response, New City reiterated its praise for Cor, calling the company "trailblazing," a "gifted and brave collection of artists," adding "It is one thing to be captivated or even moved by theater. Yet, to be excited or energized are experiences far more rare. These are reactions spurred from witnessing originality and fearlessness."

Today, Cor is proud to be one of Chicago's newest and most ambitious Chicago professional theatre companies with a growing board and strong experience behind it. Company members are Tony Bozzuto, Chris Brickhouse, Elyse Cowles, Tosha Fowler, Adam Gutkin, Alarie Hammock, Topher Kielbasa, Jeffrey Levin, Claire Meyers, Ernie Nolan, Stefin Steberl, Eric Vigo and Will Von Vogt. 

Get Social:

For more information, visit cortheatre.org, like Cor Theatre on Facebook, follow the company on Twitter, @CorTheatre, or call (866) 811-4111.