City Lit Theater's World Premiere Adaptation of R.U.R (ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS) Playing May 2 – June 15, 2025

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R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)

WORLD PREMIERE ADAPTATION

by Bo List

Freely adapted from the play by Karel Čapek

Directed by Executive Artistic Director Brian Pastor

Brian Pastor to direct new adaptation of the prescient 1920 play considering 

the wonders and dangers of artificial intelligence

City Lit Theater will follow up its three Jeff Award wins announced on March 31 - including the top award of “Production - Play” for last fall’s August Wilson’s SEVEN GUITARS - with its season-closing production of R.U.R. (ROSSUM'S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS), a world premiere adaptation of the 1920 science-fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek. R.U.R. (ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS) introduced the term “robot” and looked ahead to the wonders and dangers of artificial intelligence decades before Arthur C. Clarke imagined HAL 9000 in his 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY or George Lucas gave us STAR WARS’ C3PO and R2D2. 

“Rossum’s Universal Robots” (“R.U.R.” for short) is a mysterious island factory run by the eccentric scientist Harry Rossum that manufactures artificial human beings. When Helena Glory arrives to advocate for the rights of these machines, a series of events is set into motion that sees Harry and Helena married against the backdrop of a global robot uprising. This “freely adapted” version of  R.U.R. by the playwright and director Bo List, adds some perspective from the present, in which AI is now a reality. R.U.R. (ROSSUM'S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS) will open to the press on Sunday, May 11, 2025, following previews from May 2 and play through June 15, 2025.

Cast and production team announced for R.U.R (ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS)

Executive Artistic Director Brian Pastor, who will direct, announced their cast today. Harry Rossum will be played by Bryan Breau, who has been seen at City Lit as Stan Lee in THE HOUSE OF IDEAS and as the menacing Preacher in THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. Brian Parry, veteran of such iconic roles as King Lear, Richard Nixon, and Willy Loman, has been cast as Rossum’s trusted accountant and financial manager Alquist. Madelyn Loehr, of Redtwist Theatre’s recent TITUS ANDRONICUS and City Lit’s PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD, will be Helena Glory. Shawna Tucker, who for City Lit has appeared in Brian Pastor’s adaptation of THIRTEEN DAYS and her own adaptation of THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, is playing Helena’s chaperone Nana.

Cast in the role of Sulla, the robot who sparks an uprising of Rossum’s robots, is Alex George. George’s recent credits include A SHADOW BRIGHT AND BURNING for Black Button Eyes and AYN RAND’S IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE…. for The Conspirators. Mary Ross has been cast as the chief engineer Dr. Gall. Playing robots, who will have a human appearance more like Disney World animatronics than like C3PO, are Brendan Hutt (Marius), Claudia Sevilla (Tibia), and Sean Kelly (Radius)

Top Row L-R: Bryan Breau, Alex George, Brendan Hutt, Sean Kelly, Madelyn Loehr.

Lower Row L-R: Brian Parry, Mary Ross, Claudia Sevilla, Shawna Tucker.

The production team includes Jeremiah Barr (Scenic Designer), Beth Laske-Miller (Costume Designer), Liz Cooper (Lighting Designer), Meghan X McGrath (Properties Designer), Maureen Yasko (Violence/Intimacy Designer), Jonathan Guillen (Sound Designer/Composer), CJ Day (Assistant Director/Dramaturg) and Hazel Flowers-McCabe (Stage Manager).

 Single tickets are priced at $30 for previews and $35 for regular performances and are on sale now at www.citylit.org. Senior prices are $25 for previews and $30 for regular performances. Students and military are $12.00 for all performances.

May 2 – June 15, 2025

Previews May 2 – 10, 2025

Press opening Sunday, May 11 at 3 pm

Regular run May 16 – June 15, 2025

Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm

Mondays, June 2 and 9, 2025 at 7:30 pm

Tickets $30 for previews and $35 for regular performances. Senior prices are $25 previews and $30 regular performances. Students and military are $12.00 for all performances.

Tickets available online at www.citylit.org or by phone at 773-293-3682.

All performances at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, on the second floor (accessible via elevator) of the Edgewater Presbyterian Church.

In 1920, Karel Čapek’s early science fiction classic R.U.R. coined the term “robot” and looked ahead to the wonders and dangers of artificial intelligence decades before it was cool to worry about such things. “Rossum’s Universal Robots” (“R.U.R.” for short) is a mysterious island factory that manufactures artificial human beings, run by the eccentric scientist Harry Rossum. When Helena Glory arrives to advocate for the rights of these machines, a series of events is set into motion that sees Harry and Helena married against the backdrop of a global robot uprising.

BIOS

Bo List (Adapter) is thrilled to return to City Lit, 13 years after their "electrifying" production of his FRANKENSTEIN, adapted from Mary Shelley’s novel. Other plays include the WWII-era comedy LADIES OF LIBERTY, his other spooky adaptation - THE LAST DRACULA, his one-acts CANARY YELLOW (winner of the Father Jeff Hamblin Playwriting Award at Abingdon Theatre in NYC) and I LEFT MY HEART IN KISSIMMEE, and his historical dramas for the Kentucky Humanities Council based on the lives of Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay, Daniel Boone, and Nancy Green. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Brian Pastor (they/them, Director) is a trans/non-binary director, actor, playwright, and Jeff Award-winning producer (Production – Play, August Wilson’s SEVEN GUITARS) in Chicago and the Executive Artistic Director of City Lit Theater. Brian previously spent ten and a half years on staff at City Lit, including nine as Managing Director. From 2019 to 2024, Brian served as City Lit’s Resident Director, where they directed GLASSHEART, THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD, George Bernard Shaw’s ARMS AND THE MAN, Archibald MacLeish’s J.B., and their own acclaimed adaptation of Robert Kennedy’s THIRTEEN DAYS. Brian is a founder and Emeritus Artistic Director of Chicago’s Promethean Theatre Ensemble, where they directed THE LION IN WINTER, THE WINTER’S TALE, and GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE (all Broadway World Award Nominated- Best Director), as well as HENRY V and THE DARK SIDE OF THE BARD. Brian also directed the world premiere of THE BLACK KNIGHT by Angeli Primlani, the inaugural show for Lifeboat Productions. As an actor, Brian has worked with Strawdog, Raven, WildClaw, Promethean, Accomplice, and City Lit, among others. Brian is the former Executive Director of Sideshow Theatre and the former Executive Director of Raven Theatre. They also served as a board and company member of The Mime Company and as a founding company member of Chicago dell’Arte. A Pittsburgh native, Brian has called Chicago home since their graduation from Northwestern University in 2003.

 

ABOUT CITY LIT THEATER COMPANY

City Lit is the eighth oldest continuously operating theatre company in Chicago, behind only Goodman, Court, Northlight, Oak Park Festival, Black Ensemble Theatre, Steppenwolf, and Pegasus theatres.  It was founded in 1979 with $210 pooled by Arnold Aprill, David Dillon, and Lorell Wyatt.  For its current season, its 44th , it operates with a budget slightly over $200,000.  It was the first theatre in the nation devoted to stage adaptations of literary material.  There were so few theatres in Chicago at the time of its founding that at City Lit’s launch event, the founders were able to read a congratulatory letter they had received from Tennessee Williams.

For four decades and counting, City Lit has explored fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoirs, songs, essays and drama in performance. A theatre that specializes in literary work communicates a commitment to certain civilizing influences—tradition imaginatively explored, a life of the mind, trust in an audience’s intelligence—that not every cultural outlet shares.

City Lit is located in the historic Edgewater Presbyterian Church building at 1020 West Bryn Mawr Avenue. Its work is supported in part by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency,  and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events CityArts program.  An Illinois not-for-profit corporation and a 501(c)(3) federal tax-exempt organization, City Lit keeps ticket prices below the actual cost of producing plays and depends on the support of those who share its belief in the beauty and power of the spoken written word.

Chicago Premiere of Reina Hardy’s GLASSHEART Via City Lit Theatre January 10 – February 23

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Cast and production team announced for Chicago Premiere of 

Reina Hardy’s 

GLASSHEART

January 10 – February 23

Modern-day reimagining of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is both hilarious and poignant. City Lit Executive Artistic Director Brian Pastor to direct.

City Lit Theater has announced its cast and creative team for the Chicago Premiere of GLASSHEART, by Chicago-based playwright Reina Hardy. City Lit Executive Artistic Director Brian Pastor will direct this new take on the Beauty and the Beast story, in which the Beast has had to live centuries enduring his existence in a hideous body. He has moved to present-day Chicago with his only friend, a lamp named Only, who thinks he should get out more and meet a woman who might fall in love with him and break the spell. The landlady of their new home – a low rent apartment in an unnamed Chicago neighborhood – happens to be a Witch, perhaps the one who turned him into a beast in the first place. But there is hope when Only and the Beast meet their new neighbor Aiofe, a recent transplant from Michigan who is looking forward to her new life as a barista in the Windy City. Though the Beast is very much an 18th Century European gentleman and Aiofe a 21st Century independent woman, they find they have much in common and together learn things about their true selves and what it means to be human. GLASSHEART will open to the press on Sunday, January 19 at 3 pm, following previews from January 10, and play through February 23, 2025.

Pastor’s cast for the four-person play will include three veterans of City Lit and the Chicago theater scene, along with one newcomer. Actor and playwright Mark Pracht, a Jeff Award winner for his leading role in REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT with The Artistic Home, a nominee for his John Proctor in Invictus Theatre’s THE CRUCIBLE, and known most recently to City Lit audiences for the title role in PROMETHEUS BOUND, will play The Beast. Additionally, Pracht’s “Four Color Trilogy” of plays about the comic book industry was produced at City Lit over the past three seasons, concluding with THE HOUSE OF IDEAS this past fall. Kat Evans, whose many roles at City Lit include Bridget in THE SAFE HOUSE and Io to Pracht’s Prometheus, will play the lamp called Only.

Appearing as The Witch will be Elaine Carlson, whose most recent of many City Lit roles was as Meg in THE BIRTHDAY PARTY. She has earned Jeff Award nominations for her title role in MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION and her Eleanor of Aquitane in A LION IN WINTER, both with Promethean Theatre Ensemble; and won an Actress in a Principal Role Jeff Award for SALT OF THE EARTH with Famous Door Theatre. Completing the cast as the independent, politically minded Aiofe will be Cailyn Murray, a new-to-Chicago actress who moved from Washington DC to Chicago in 2023. Since arriving in Chicago, she has appeared in Corn Productions’ DRINK:PRIDE and has been a Dungeon Master for Otherworld Theatre’s Interactive D20 Dungeons & Dragons events. Cailyn holds a BA in Theatre from Muhlenberg College. 

L-R: Mark Pracht, Cailyn Murray, Elaine Carlson, Kat Evans. 

The production team will include Jeremiah Barr (Scenic Design), Liz Cooper (Lighting Design), Petter Wahlbäck (Sound Design and Original Music), kClare McKellaston (Costume Design), Paul Chakrin (Violence Design), Courtney Abbott (Intimacy Coordinator), Meghan Norine McGrath (Props Design), and Hazel Marie Flowers-McCabe (Stage Manager).

A Chicago-based self-described “playwright and fabulist,” Reina Hardy’s work has been produced across the United States, and in the UK, Australia and Greece. GLASSHEART was praised by the WASHINGTON POST for its “off-key insights” and its “funky, poetic” nature. THE WASHINGTONIAN called it “enchanting, funny, and thought-provoking.”

Tickets may be ordered online at www.citylit.org or purchased over the phone by calling 773-293-3682. Ticket prices are $30 for previews and $35 for regular performances. Senior prices are $25 for previews and $30 for regular performances. Students and military are $12.00 for all performances. City Lit Theater is located at 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, on the second floor (accessible via elevator) of the Edgewater Presbyterian Church.

Production Details 

January 10 – February 23, 2025

Previews January 10 – 18, 2025

Press opening Sunday, January 19 at 3 pm

Regular run January, January 24 – February 23, 2025

Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm

Mondays, February 10 and 17, 2025 at 7:30 pm

Tickets $30 for previews and $35 for regular performances. Senior prices are $25 previews and $30 regular performances. Students and military are $12.00 for all performances.

Tickets available online at www.citylit.org  or by phone at 773-293-3682.

All performances at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, on the second floor (accessible via elevator) of the Edgewater Presbyterian Church.

Chicago premiere of a new play by Chicago-based playwright Reina Hardy. A modern-day reimagining of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. The Beast has moved into a low-rent district in Chicago with his last loyal friend, a lamp named Only. They meet a neighborly witch and a young woman who might, somehow, still break the curse.

BIOS

Reina Hardy (Playwright). Reina Hardy's plays, which usually contain magic and sometimes contain science, have been produced across the US, the UK, Australia and Greece. Her prose has appeared in Electric Literature, Fantasy Magazine, Startrek.com, and more, and her first movie as a screenwriter, PAGING MR. DARCY, aired on the Hallmark Channel in February 2024. She is currently under contract with Simon and Schuster for a nonfiction book entitled SH*TTY BOYFRIENDS OF WESTERN LITERATURE. Hardy’s honors include a Michener Fellowship, Kilroy’s List, National New Play Network New Play Showcase, Source Festival, Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights Workshop, Interact 20/20 Commission, Kennedy Center ACTF TYA PRIZE. Her plays are currently licensed through Broadway Play Publishing and TRW Plays.

She received her Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting and Screenwriting from the University of Texas at Austin. Hardy is represented  by the Gurman Agency for theatre, Aevitas for nonfiction, and Arlook Management and Verve for television and film.

Brian Pastor (they/them, Director, Executive Artistic Director) is a trans/non-binary producer, director, actor, and playwright in Chicago and the Executive Artistic Director of City Lit Theater. Brian previously spent ten and a half years on staff at City Lit, including nine as Managing Director. Brian has served as City Lit’s Resident Director, from 2019 until assuming their current position on July 1. For City Lit, they directed THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD, George Bernard Shaw’s ARMS AND THE MAN, Archibald MacLeish’s J.B., and their own acclaimed adaptation of Robert Kennedy’s THIRTEEN DAYS. Brian is a founder and Emeritus Artistic Director of Chicago’s Promethean Theatre Ensemble, where they directed THE LION IN WINTER, THE WINTER’S TALE, and GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE (all Broadway World Award Nominated - Best Director), as well as HENRY V and THE DARK SIDE OF THE BARD. Brian also directed the world premiere of THE BLACK KNIGHT by Angeli Primlani, the inaugural show for Lifeboat Productions. As an actor, Brian has worked with Strawdog, Raven, WildClaw, Promethean, Accomplice, and City Lit, among others. Brian is the former Executive Director of Sideshow Theatre and the former Executive Director of Raven Theatre. They also served as a board and company member of The Mime Company and as a founding company member of Chicago dell’Arte. A Pittsburgh native, Brian has called Chicago home since their graduation from Northwestern University in 2003.

 

ABOUT CITY LIT THEATER COMPANY:

City Lit is the eighth oldest theatre company in Chicago, behind only Goodman, Court, Northlight, Oak Park Festival, Black Ensemble Theatre, Steppenwolf, and Pegasus theatres.  It was founded in 1979 with $210 pooled by Arnold Aprill, David Dillon, and Lorell Wyatt.  For its current season, its 44th , it operates with a budget slightly over $200,000.  It was the first theatre in the nation devoted to stage adaptations of literary material.  There were so few theatres in Chicago at the time of its founding that at City Lit’s launch event, the founders were able to read a congratulatory letter they had received from Tennessee Williams.

For four decades and counting, City Lit has explored fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoirs, songs, essays and drama in performance. A theatre that specializes in literary work communicates a commitment to certain civilizing influences—tradition imaginatively explored, a life of the mind, trust in an audience’s intelligence—that not every cultural outlet shares.

City Lit is located in the historic Edgewater Presbyterian Church building at 1020 West Bryn Mawr Avenue. Its work is supported in part by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency,  and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events CityArts program.  An Illinois not-for-profit corporation and a 501(c)(3) federal tax-exempt organization, City Lit keeps ticket prices below the actual cost of producing plays and depends on the support of those who share its belief in the beauty and power of the spoken written word.