OPENING: Chicago Premiere of HOW TO LIVE ON EARTH Via Chimera Ensemble March 8-24, 2019

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

HOW TO LIVE ON EARTH

BY 

MJ Kaufman

Directed by Gwendolyn Wiegold

“[A] beguiling subject, a piece of science fiction that isn’t so fictional after all.” –The New York Times

Chimera Ensemble is proud to present the Chicago Premiere of How to Live on Earth, written by award-winning playwright MJ Kaufman, and directed by Gwendolyn Wiegold.

How to Live on Earth tells the stories of Omar, Eleanor, Aggie, and Bill, applicants to become the first colonists of the planet Mars. The mission, should they be chosen to embark on it, would be one-way, with no possible return to Earth. As the applicants compete for the few spots available, they are forced to reckon with the cost of their dream, especially for the lovers and family they would be leaving behind. 

At a time when environmental and political catastrophe looms large, and our technological capabilities grow stronger and stronger, How to Live on Earth asks us what it really means to go and what it means to stay.

The production will go up March 8-24 in The Pentagon Theater at Collaboraction Studios in The Flat Iron Arts Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago IL 60622. There will be one preview performance on Friday, March 8 at 7:30 pm. Opening night, followed by a reception, will be Saturday, March 9 at 7:30 pm.

How to Live on Earth Cast

Top row: Katlynn Yost, Graham Carlson, Brian Sheridan.

Middle row should be l-r: Siddartha Rajan, Jermaine Robinson, Hannah Larson

Bottom row should be l-r: Bob Webb, Stacey Lind, Arif Yampolsky

BIOS

MJ Kaufman (Playwright) MJ Kaufman is a playwright and devised theater artist. Their work has been produced and developed by The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, the New Museum, WP Theater, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Page73, Colt Coeur, Yale School of Drama, Lark Play Development Center, InterAct Theater, Huntington Theater, and performed in Russian in Moscow. MJ’s awards include the 2013 ASCAP Cole Porter Prize in Playwriting, the 2013 Global Age Project Prize, and the 2010 Jane Chambers Prize in Feminist Theatre. MJ is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and currently a staff writer on Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Originally from Portland, Oregon, MJ attended Wesleyan University and received their MFA in playwriting from Yale School of Drama. MJ also recently founded a fellowship for trans theater artists.

Gwendolyn Wiegold (Director) is a Chicago-based director and producer. She has had the pleasure of working with Chicago companies including Court Theatre, Chicago Children’s Theatre, and Chimera Ensemble, where she also serves as Managing Director, and has assistant directed productions with directors including Seret Scott, Sean Graney, Scott Westerman, and Charlie Newell. She originally hails from New York City and has her BA in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Chicago, where her directing credits include As You Like It, Cowboy Mouth, and The Seagull. Most recently, Gwendolyn’s directing was seen in The 9th Annual Chicago One-Minute Play Festival. She is a recipient of the Francis X. Kinahan Memorial Prize.

LISTING INFORMATION 
How to Live on Earth by MJ Kaufman
Directed by Gwendolyn Wiegold

March 8-24 at The Pentagon Theater at Collaboraction Studios, 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago IL 60622. Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 3pm.

Pay-What-You-Can Preview: Friday, March 8 at 7:30 pm
Press Opening: Saturday, March 9 at 7:30 pm. Reception to follow.
Ticket Pricing: $23 general admission, $15 senior, $15 student/industry with valid ID (discounts subject to availability)

For additional information and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.chimeraensemble.com/



CHIMERA ENSEMBLE’S MISSION:
To create a quality innovative theatrical platform. To give back to Chicago organizations that advocate for the betterment of our community. To provide accessibility for all people. Above all, we seek out the good; we question our fears and judgments so that others may question theirs.

ACCESSIBILITY: 
Access is an important part of our mission at Chimera Ensemble. Through discussions within the Ensemble and with Chimera’s amazing collaborators in the Chicago community, we attempt to create an environment in which performers, directors, designers, playwrights, and audience members feel welcome to work with us and experience our productions. Season Two marks a new chapter in our mission of access, as every performance will feature Open Captioning, rather than the norm of this programming only being offered for one performance during a production's run. By providing Open Captioning for every performance, Chimera hopes to create not only a more cohesive and inclusive theatrical process that better reflects the varied ways in which individuals experience the world, but also a model for other theater companies to follow. How to Live on Earth will also feature one Audio Described performance proceeded by a Touch Tour, date TBD. 


CHIMERA’S COMMUNITY FUND:
Part of Chimera Ensemble’s mission as a theatrical platform is to give back to the community, so for each show we produce we partner with a local organization whose work matches the themes of the production. We collect money and raise awareness for our partner organization. For How to Live on Earth, Chimera is partnering with Chicago-based Project Exploration. Project Exploration creates transformational learning opportunities for youth underrepresented in the sciences—particularly students of color and girls—by equipping them with the skills, practices, and mindset needed for a lifelong pursuit of learning.

Visit https://projectexploration.org/ for more information. 

OPENING: Chicago Premiere of The Father Via Remy Bumppo Theatre Company at Theater WIT January 31 – March 3, 2019

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

The Father

Chicago Premiere! 

by Florian Zeller

directed by Kay Martinovich

January 31 – March 3, 2019

Florian Zeller’s internationally acclaimed and award-winning hit, is both a puzzle box mystery and a deeply poignant look at family, aging, and the limits of love.

2016 Tony Nominee for Best Play

Running Time: 1 hour 35 minutes with no intermission

There is no late seating available for this production.

I'll be out for the press opening February 5th, so check back soon for my full review.  

A multi-award-winning hit in Paris, London, and New York, Florian Zeller’s The Father is both a tragi-comic mystery and a deeply poignant, unsentimental look at the cruelties of love, the limits of patience, and the unsettling process of mental decay. January 31 - March 3, 2019.

PHOTO CREDIT: The cast of Remy Bumppo Theatre Company’s production of THE FATHER (Top row, L to R) David Darlow, Alys Dickerson, Linda Gillum, (2nd row, L to R) Anish Jethmalani, Laura Resinger, Bobby Wilhelmson.

CAST
David Darlow – André
Alys Dickerson – Laura
Linda Gillum – Anne
Anish Jethmalani – Pierre
Laura Resinger – Woman
Bobby Wilhelmson – Man

PRODUCTION
Director – Kay Martinovich
Assistant Director – Eileen Vorbach
Stage Manager – Tina M. Jach
Assistant Stage Manager – Kaitlyn Broyles
Dramaturg – Robert Schneider
Production Manager – Ellen Willett
Technical Director – Joe Schermoly
Scenic Designer – Yu Shibagaki
Costume Designer – Jeremy Floyd
Assistant Costume Designer – Elizabeth Galba
Lighting Designer – Brandon Wardell
Original Music and Sound Design – Christopher Kriz
Properties Designer – Jamie Karas

Remy Bumppo Theatre Company is pleased to announce casting for the second show of its 2018 – 2019 season, THE FATHER, playing January 31 – March 3, 2019 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Avenue in Chicago. Florian Zeller’s internationally acclaimed and award-winning hit makes its way to Chicago for the first time and will be directed by Kay Martinovich. 

THE FATHER, both a puzzle box mystery and a look at family, aging, and the limits of love, will feature Remy Bumppo Core Ensemble Members David Darlow and Linda Gillum along with Alys Dickerson, Anish Jethmalani, Laura Resinger, and Bobby Wilhelmson. Remy Bumppo Theatre Company’s production of THE FATHER will be performed January 31 – March 3, 2019 at Theater Wit. 

Stage Manager: Tina M. Jach Assistant Director: Eileen Vorbach Dramaturg: Robert Schneider Scenic Designer: Yu Shibagaki Costume Designer: Jeremy Floyd Lighting Designer: Brandon Wardell Original Music and Sound Design: Christopher Kriz Properties Designer: Jamie Karas 

Cast (in alphabetical order): David Darlow (André), Alys Dickerson (Laura), Linda Gillum (Anne), Anish Jethmalani (Pierre), Laura Resinger (Woman), and Bobby Wilhelmson (Man). 

Location: Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, IL 60657 Dates: 

Previews: Thursday, January 31 at 7:30pm, Friday, February 1 at 7:30pm, Saturday, February 2 at 7:30pm, and Sunday, February 3 at 2:30pm 
Press Opening: Tuesday, February 5 at 7:00pm 
Regular Run: Thursday, February 7 – Sunday, March 3, 2019 Curtain Times: Wednesdays – Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sunday at 2:30pm Matinee Performances (other than Sundays): Saturday, February 23 at 2:30pm and Thursday, February 28 at 2:30pm 

Audio Description/Touch Tour Performance: Saturday, February 23 (Touch Tour starts at 1:00pm, and the performance starts at 2:30pm) Open Captioned Performances: Wednesday, February 13 at 7:30pm and Thursday, February 28 at 2:30pm Tickets: Previews: $37.75 Regular Run: $37.75 - $62.75 Industry Tickets: $20.00, available Wednesdays – Fridays Student Tickets: $15.00, available day of only Group Discounts: Available for parties of 10 or more, call 773.975.8150

Remy Bumppo Theatre Company is an ensemble based theatre company that believes in the power and beauty of language, the emotional effects of timeless ideas, and conversation as an agent of change. As our motto think theatre suggests, the plays we produce will make you think - actively - about the complex issues we face as people, as a community, and as humankind. Since its inception in 1996, the Company has produced a blend of modern classics, new adaptations, and complex contemporary works, all presented in an intimate setting with clarity, wit and passion. We invite audiences to engage directly with the art through conversation with the artists.

Click here for more information and to purchase tickets.

OPENING: CHICAGO PREMIERE OF FULFILLMENT CENTER AT A RED ORCHID THEATRE January 31 – March 24, 2019

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

A RED ORCHID THEATRE PRESENTS THE CHICAGO PREMIERE OF

FULFILLMENT CENTER

By ABE KOOGLER

directed by JESS MCLEOD

FEATURING ENSEMBLE MEMBER NATALIE WEST, Artistic Associate Steve Schine, Jose Nateras, & Toya Turner

January 31 – March 24, 2019

I'll be out for the press opening February 9th, so check back soon for my full review. A Red Orchid Theatre is one of our favorite Chicago storefronts, with world class productions and edgy choices. 

A Red Orchid Theatre presents the Chicago Premiere of Fulfillment Center by Abe Koogler, directed by Jess McLeod, and featuring Ensemble Member Natalie West, Artistic Associate Steve Schine, Jose Nateras, and Toya Turner. Fulfillment Center runs January 31 – March 24, 2019 at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N Wells in Chicago. 

In the New Mexico desert, a down-on-her-luck folk singer takes a job at a giant retailer’s shipping center. Her young manager struggles to connect with his newly relocated girlfriend. A drifter living at a local campground dangerously links them all. Four lonely lives come together in the search for fulfillment in this raw, surprising and funny Chicago premiere.

The creative team includes Sarah JHP Watkins (scenic design), Stephanie Cluggish (costume design), Ensemble Member Mike Durst (lighting design), Brando Triantafillou (sound design), and Jeremy Hollis (properties design). Christa Van Baale is the stage manager. 

About the Artists
ABE KOOGLER (Playwright) earned an MFA in playwriting from UT-Austin's Michener Center for Writers and is a 2016 graduate of Juilliard's Playwrights Program. His plays have been developed at Kitchen Dog Theatre, the Playwrights' Center, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Black Swan Lab. He is a Theatre Masters Visionary Playwright. Abe won the Kennedy Center's Paula Vogel Award and the Williamstown Theatre Festival’s L. Arnold Weissberger Award for KILL FLOOR, which premiered at Lincoln Center/LCT3 in the fall of 2015. Abe is under commission from Manhattan Theatre Club. He is a native of Washington State.

JESS MCLEOD (Director) is the Resident Director of Hamilton Chicago and the 2018 Next Generation Samuel G. Roberson Artistic Fellow at Victory Gardens Theater.  Chicago credits include developing and directing five short operas with local community groups with Lyric Unlimited (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Stacy Osei-Kuffour’s Hang Man (The Gift); Idris Goodwin’s How We Got On (Haven); Short Shakes! A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chicago Shakes); Marry Me A Little and Babes in Arms (Porchlight Music Theatre); Shawn Pfautsch’s Season on the Line (The House); Kevin Coval’s L-vis Live! (Victory Gardens); Venus (Steppenwolf Next Up!); Lauren Yee’s in a word (Strawdog), Kin (Griffin); and Fugitive Songs and The Pajama Game (The Music Theatre Company). New York credits include work by Joyce Carol Oates, Rachel Axler, Harrison David Rivers, and The Unauthorized Musicology of Ben Folds at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, where she served as Director of Programming from 2005-08. A teaching artist and believer in youth and community engagement, McLeod coordinated the Louder Than A Bomb Youth Poetry Festival for Young Chicago Authors from 2016-17 and has worked as a teaching artist with Storycatchers Theatre.  2017 Michael Maggio Directing Fellow (Goodman Theatre). M.F.A., Northwestern University.

JOSE NATERAS (Alex) is a Chicago based actor, writer and director. Recent acting credits include: Frankenstein (Remy Bumppo); Neverwhere (Lifeline Theatre); Two Mile Hollow (First Floor Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Q Brothers Collective’s I <3 a="" amlet="" amp="" and="" anual="" appeared="" art="" as="" by="" cafe="" chicago="" cinema="" company="" cymbeline="" dame="" dventure="" elsewhere.="" festival="" fire="" font="" for="" fox="" from="" gift="" gogh="" graduate="" grapes="" gray="" group.="" he="" hicago="" his="" i="" ilament="" illinois="" in="" innocent="" institute="" is="" juliet="" labs="" loyola="" merican="" mfa="" montana="" my="" nbc="" night="" of="" on="" onion="" otre="" parks="" picnic="" proven="" radar="" received="" recently="" represented="" reprise="" romeo="" s="" school="" shadow="" shakespeare="" since="" soul="" spots="" stage="" studios="" suppose="" talent="" teatro="" the="" theatre="" toured="" trawdog="" twelfth="" university="" van="" vista="" well="" with="" wrath="" writing="">

STEVE SCHINE (John) returns to A Red Orchid with Fulfillment Center. An Artistic Associate, Steve has appeared at AROT previously in The Nether, Solstice, Louis Slotin Sonata, Hunger & Thirst, The Earl, and Gagarin Way. He has also performed in notable Chicago productions at The Goodman, Court, First Folio, Steep, Stage Left, Raven, Veterans Art Project, Strawdog, American Theatre Company, Lifeline, Piven, and the late, great Famous Door Theatre, among others. Regional credits include several productions with Lakeside Shakespeare, the Clarence Brown Theatre in Tennessee, as well as new work development at Abington Theatre in NYC. TV: Jack Gatins on Chicago Fire and Curtis on Chicago PD. Video Games: Ubisoft’s Watch_Dogs. Additionally, as a voice over artist, he can be heard in many TV, radio, and internet commercials. Steve is a member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA.

TOYA TURNER (Madeleine) makes her Red Orchid Theatre debut! She attended the British American Drama Academy (BADA) at Oxford University. Stage credits include: Blues For An Alabama Sky (Court Theatre), A Raisin in the Sun (A Noise Within-CA), Intimate Apparel (Theatre Squared-AR). TV/Film credits include: Incredibles 2 (Disney-Pixar), The Mick & Empire (FOX), Easy (Netflix), Chicago Fire & Chicago Med (NBC). She is represented by Stride Management.

NATALIE WEST (Suzan) is an ensemble member at A Red Orchid Theatre where she last appeared in Traitor. Other A Red Orchid productions include Evening at the Talk House, The Mutilated, Strandline, Mud Blue Sky, The Butcher of Baraboo and Abigail's Party. Most recently she was seen in Nell Gwynn at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Other credits include shows at The Goodman, Steppenwolf, Northlight among others. She is a former ensemble member of Remains Theatre. Natalie was a regular on the television show Roseanne as Crystal and has recently reprised her role on The Conners. Natalie is the recipient of three Jeff Awards for supporting actress for The Butcher of Baraboo, Abigail's Party (A Red Orchid) and Life and Limb (Wisdom Bridge). She holds a MSW from Loyola University Chicago, a BA in Theatre at Indiana University and she attended Webber Douglas Academy in London.

Designers: Sarah JHP Watkins (scenic design), Stephanie Cluggish (costume design), Ensemble Member Mike Durst (lighting design), Brando Triantafillou (sound design), and Jeremy Hollis (properties design). Christa Van Baale is the stage manager.

Dates: Previews: January 31-February 9, 2019 
Press Performances: Saturday, February 9 at 3:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. 
Opening: Sunday, February 10, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. 
Red Night: Friday, February 15, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. 

Schedule:
Thursdays: 7:30 p.m.
Fridays: 7:30 p.m. 
Saturdays: 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.  
Sundays: 3:00 p.m.  

Location:
A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells Ave.
Tickets: $15-$25 previews, $30-$40 regular run.  ($30 Thurs, $35 Fri & Sat Matinee, $40 Sat evening &Sun matinee) 
Box Office: Located at 1531 N. Wells Ave, Chicago, (312) 943-8722; or online www.aredorchidtheatre.org 



Ticket Information
A Red Orchid continues the FLASHPASS. As always, FLASHPASS holders get reserved seats, ticket and date flexibility, no-fee ticket exchanges, discounts for friends & family tickets, and early access to events such as readings, panel discussions, and more. The Three-show FLASHPASS is $90 and includes one ticket to each of the 3 shows in our 26th Season, excluding Opening and Red Nights. The Three-show Red Night FLASHPASS is $150 and includes a ticket to each of the 3 show's Red Night Opening and post-show receptions with the cast and creative team.  The Preview FLASHPASS is $60 and includes one ticket to a preview performance of each of the 3 shows in our 26th season.

FLASHPASSes may be purchased from the Box Office at 1531 N. Wells Street, Monday through Friday from 12pm to 5pm, by telephone during office hours by dialing (312) 943-8722, or online at www.aredorchidtheatre.org. Individual tickets will go on sale at a later date.

With our 26th season of ambitious and powerful storytelling, we continue to champion A Red Orchid Theatre’s Red League, which is a gift $1k or more, and the Founders Circle, which is a gift of $5k or more annually for a three-year pledge. These donors represent a community of our most committed and impactful cultural investors. Every profound and shocking moment on our stage is made possible through their critical annual contributions. Their philanthropic leadership fosters the development of raw and relevant work, creates a platform for our talented ensemble to reach new audiences, and ensures that A Red Orchid Theatre remains a source for honest, compassionate, and aesthetically rigorous theatre.

About A Red Orchid  
A Red Orchid Theatre has served as an artistic focal point in the heart of the Old Town community of Chicago since 1993 and was honored last year with a 2016 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. Over the past 25 years, its Resident Ensemble has welcomed into its fold an impressive array of award-winning actors, playwrights and theatre artists with the firm belief that live theatre is the greatest sustenance for the human spirit. A Red Orchid is well known and highly acclaimed for its fearless approach to performance and design in the service of unflinchingly intimate stories. 

A Red Orchid Theatre is: Lance Baker, Kamal Angelo Bolden, Dado, Mike Durst, Jennifer Engstrom, Kirsten Fitzgerald, Joseph Fosco, Steve Haggard, Mierka Girten, Larry Grimm, Karen Kawa, Karen Kessler, Danny McCarthy, Shade Murray, Brett Neveu, Michael Shannon, Guy Van Swearingen, Doug Vickers and Natalie West. 

OPENING: Chicago Premiere of I CALL MY BROTHERS Via Interrobang Theatre Project January 5 – February 2, 2019 at Rivendell Theatre

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

Chicago Premiere!

Interrobang Theatre Project Presents

I CALL MY BROTHERS

By Jonas Hassen Khemiri

Translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles

Directed by Abhi Shrestha 

January 5 – February 2, 2019 at Rivendell Theatre

Interrobang Theatre Project is pleased to continue its ninth season, exploring “identity/crisis” with the Chicago premiere of Jonas Hassen Khemiri's drama I CALL MY BROTHERS, a day in the life of an Arab-Swedish man who must dodge suspicion after a car bomb rattles Stockholm. Translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles and directed by guest director Abhi Shrestha, I CALL MY BROTHERS will play January 5 – February 2, 2019 at ITP’s new resident home, Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N. Ridge Ave. in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. Tickets are currently available at www.interrobangtheatre.org or by calling (312) 219-4140. 

I'll be out for the press opening January 7th, so check back soon for my full review. 

I CALL MY BROTHERS will feature ITP Ensemble Member Salar Ardebili* with Tina El Gamal, Chris Khoshaba and Gloria Imseih Petrelli.

Stockholm, Sweden. A car bomb rocks the peaceful city and leaves the Arab-Swedish Amor on guard and on edge. But he doesn’t have time to let his fear get the best of him; he’s gotplaces to be. As Amor attempts to run his errand and grapple with his own anxieties, we follow him through a fraught 24 hours, cautiously navigating the city he calls home. Balancingparanoia and humor, Jonas Khemiri's nuanced account dares us to question our own perceptions and prejudices, while offering a singular and harrowing take on the labyrinth of global identity politics.

Comments Director Abhi Shrestha, “At the heart of I Call My Brothers, is a beautiful and tragic interrogation of how a community navigates fear. At a point in time where my community feels explicitly under attack – doing this play is scary... but it is a ritual, it is a love letter to my MENASA community saying ‘I hear you, I see you, you are not alone’ – and a challenge to folx outside the community to examine their own complicity and ask themselves ‘What do you do when the wind howls?’” 

The production team for I CALL MY BROTHERS includes Eleanor Kahn (scenic design, props design), Michelle Benda (lighting design), Jeffrey Levin (sound designer), Alec Silver(movement dramaturg), Nadya Nauman (dramaturg) and Shawn Galligan* (stage manager).

*Denotes Interrobang Theatre Project Ensemble Member or Artistic Associate.

Cast (in alphabetical order): Salar Ardebili*, Tina El Gamal, Chris Khoshaba and Gloria Imseih Petrelli.

Location: Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N. Ridge Ave., Chicago
Dates: Previews: Saturday, January 5 at 8 pm and Sunday, January 6 at 8 pm
Press opening: Monday, January 7, 2019 at 8 pm
Subscriber/Board opening: Thursday, January 10 at 8 pm
Regular run: Friday, January 11 – Saturday, February 2, 2019
Curtain Times: Thursdays, and Fridays at 8 pm; Saturdays at 3 pm & 8 pm: Mondays at 8 pm.

Tickets: 
Previews: $16. 
Regular run: $32. Students $16 with ID. Group discounts available. Tickets are currently available at www.interrobangtheatre.org or by calling (312) 219-4140.

About the Artists:
Jonas Hassen Khemiri (Playwright) is a celebrated author and playwright based in Stockholm. His novels have been translated into over 20 languages and his plays have been performed by over a hundred international companies on stages from Stockholm to Berlin to New York to London. Khemiri was awarded a Village Voice Obie Award for his first playInvasion!, which premiered in New York in 2011. His second play God Times Five toured Sweden and his third play The Hundred We Are received the Hedda Award for best play in Norway. Khemiri’s play ≈ [Almost Equal To] premiered at Dramaten in Stockholm in October 2014 to rave reviews and has been performed in Germany, Norway, Iceland and the U.S. His play I Call My Brothers began as an essay published in Dagens Nyheter in December 2010, one week after a suicide bombing in central Stockholm that shook the nation. The book was published to great acclaim and later became a lauded play that toured Sweden with Riksteatern in 2013 (directed by Farnaz Arbabi) and premiered in New York in January 2014. It has also been performed in Norway, Denmark, Germany (multiple theatres), Australia, San Francisco, France, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland and at the Gate Theatre in London, UK.

Rachel Willson-Broyles (Translator) is a freelance translator based in St. Paul, Minnesota. She received her BA from Gustavus Adolphus College and her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her other translations include Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s novels Montecore and Everything I Don’t Remember and plays INVASION! and I Call My Brothers, Malin Persson Giolito’s novel Quicksand and Jonas Jonasson’s novels The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden and The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old-Man.

Abhi Shrestha (Director) is a Chicago based director, movement dramaturge, and educator originally from Kathmandu, Nepal. Working at the intersections of decolonization and queer brown narratives, they are the Literary Manager and Director of Public Programming for Haven Theatre, the Education Associate at Steppenwolf Theatre, the Resident Dramaturge and Community Organizer for the Chicago Inclusion Project, and a Content Curator for RESCRIPTED. They are currently working on exploring a personal history of the world as told by brown grandmas, in a performance installation called The Brown Grandma Project (working title).  



About Interrobang Theatre Project
Now in its ninth season, Interrobang Theatre Project, under the artistic leadership of Georgette Verdin, has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a “company to watch” and by Time Out Chicago as “one of Chicago’s most promising young theatre companies.” Chris Jones called Foxfinder, which kicked off Interrobang’s 2017-18 season, “...a ripping good yarn,” earning it 3.5 stars from the Chicago Tribune. Foxfinder also garnered seven non-Equity Jeff Awards nominations including Best Director and Production of a Play, and took home two awards for Best Original Music and Set Design. The company also earned seven non-Equity Jeff Nominations for their seventh season, including Best Director, Production of a Play, Solo Performance and acting nominations for Lead Actor, Actress (win) and Actor in a Supporting Role (win). Productions have included the world premiere of Calamity West’s Ibsen is Dead (Jeff Recommended), the Jeff Recommended The Pitchfork Disney, Orange Flower Water, Recent Tragic Events, The North Pool, The Amish Project, Falling and Grace. Director James Yost’s critically-acclaimed Really Really was one of six shows chosen for Chicago Tribune’s “Best of 2015 in Chicago Fringe Theater.”

What’s an interrobang?
An interrobang is the combination of a question mark and an exclamation point, joining the Latin for “question” (interro) with a proofreading term for “exclamation” (bang). Through the plays we produce, Interrobang Theatre Project aims to pose worthwhile and exciting questions which challenge our understanding and assumptions of who we are and the world in which we live.

For more information, please visit www.interrobangtheatreproject.org.

REVIEW: “Iolanta” at Chicago Opera Theater

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar:

CHICAGO OPERA THEATER PRESENTS 

TCHAIKOVSKY’S “IOLANTA” 

IN SEASON-OPENING PERFORMANCES 

AT HISTORIC STUDEBAKER THEATER

Review of Opera “Iolanta” at Chicago Opera Theater
By Catherine Hellmann, guest critic

Chicago is blessed with two professional opera companies. Who knew? We are all familiar with the heralded Lyric Opera, and those accolades are very well deserved. But there is also a scrappy little opera company that has been around since 1973, Chicago Opera Theater. The singing of their principal players is just as exquisite, and their company is less pretentious and, therefore, more accessible.  

With a short season of three shows, there are still two more lesser-known shows to be produced by COT in the spring: The Scarlet Ibis on February 16, 21, and 24, 2019, and Moby-Dick on April 25 and 28, 2019. Chicago Opera Theater prides itself on featuring operas that are outside the traditional canon; they are to be commended for that. All three shows in their repertoire this season are Chicago premieres. The company brings in “new contemporary operas for a 21st century audience,” according to their website. The opening show of Iolanta was impressive.

It was a performance of “firsts,” as described by General Director Doug Clayton in his welcoming remarks. Iolanta marked the podium debut of Maestro Lidiya Yankovskaya, the only woman with the title Music Director at a top 50 opera company in the United States. (Wow. That is actually really impressive for COT, but sad throughout the music world.) Maestro Yankovskaya gave the pre-show talk, and her passion for this piece was evident. The performance marked the company debut of international stage director Paul Curran. And finally, Iolanta was the last operatic work by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, with a libretto by his brother Modest, and was being brought to life in our beloved Windy City 126 years after its debut.

With a mostly Chicago-based cast,  Iolanta is sung in the original Russian and stars Katherine Weber in the title role as a blind princess who isn’t aware that she’s blind. (Hey, it’s opera, which historically is goofy as hell in terms of plot.) Weber’s voice is stunning, as is Mikhail Svetlov as her father, King Rene, who has kept her blindness as a big secret. Chicago tenor John Irvin is wonderful as Duke Vaudemont who falls in love with Iolanta. She is betrothed to someone else, but fortunately, that dog Duke Robert, sung by Christopher Magiera, conveniently falls in love with another girl. Also of particular note is bass-baritone Bill McMurray as the physician Ibn-Hakia who advises the skeptical king that the only way to cure his daughter’s blindness is revealing to her that she is unable to see.

Chicago Opera Theater currently performs at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance at Michigan and Randolph. Iolanta was performed at the Studebaker Theater at Michigan and Congress in the old Fine Arts Building, built in 1898 to host vaudeville shows! (My pal Mary and I were amazed to discover this charming venue, recently restored, in such a historic facility.) Originally built in 1885 by architect Solon S. Beman (who designed Pullmantown for George Pullman) to house the Studebaker Corporation’s Midwest buggy sales and repair facility, the Fine Arts Building is worth the trip for exploring. And you can catch a great, under-appreciated opera in a fabulous setting as well.

This was my first Chicago Opera Theater performance. I was entranced. It won’t be my last.

Catherine Hellmann is a teacher, writer, and theater junkie. She has tried to inspire urban and rural middle schoolers for over twenty years. A mother of three, she is thrilled to once again claim Chicago as home.  

Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya Leads Chicago Premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Final Opera

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) will kick off the 2018/2019 season with “Iolanta,” a Chicago premiere of legendary composer P.I. Tchaikovsky’s final opera. Internationally renowned and award-winning conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya will make her conducting debut as Chicago Opera Theater’s Staley Music Director and set the tone for the season to come. Acclaimed stage director Paul Curran, known for his work at Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera Chicago and more, will shape the retelling of this joyous love-story, featuring an almost entirely Chicago-based cast including soprano Katherine Weber as Iolanta, and renowned Russian bass Mikhail Svetlov as Rene. The opening night and press performance takes place on Saturday, November 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the historic Studebaker Theater (410 S. Michigan Ave.) Additional performances will take place Thursday, November 15 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 18 at 3 p.m.  

“After 18 months of planning and preparation behind the scenes, I’m thrilled to finally be jumping into the COT orchestra pit,” said COT’s Staley Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya. “I’m particularly gratified to have the opportunity to bring the sounds of my homeland to my new home, as this opera – Tchaikovsky’s last – has never before been staged in Chicago. ‘Iolanta’ is a very personal work, written by Tchaikovsky at the height of his compositional powers, alongside the person closest to him – his brother Modest. Perhaps because it examines the transformed worldviews of characters in dramatically different life stages, I find that the work resonates in a new way each time I conduct it.”

“Iolanta” tells the story of a princess, with Weber starring in the titular role, who has been blind since birth. She is unaware of her condition and her privileged social status thanks to the actions of her overprotective father, King Rene. When the well-meaning Duke Vaudemont falls in love with her, she learns of her blindness and true love offers her a chance at a cure. Iolanta must choose between the life built for her and one she’s never seen.

The opera is based on the Danish play “Kong René Datter” by Henrik Hertz, a romanticized take on the life of Yolande de Bar. The opera premiered on December 18, 1892 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, sharing a double bill with Tchaikovsky’s last ballet, “The Nutcracker.”

In addition to Weber and Svetlov, the cast includes John Irvin as Vaudemont, Christopher Magiera as Robert, Bill McMurray as Ibn-Hakia, Emma Ritter as Marta, Katherine Peterson as Brigitta, Annie Rosen as Laura, David Govertsen as Bertrand, and Kyle Knapp as Almeric.

Creative Team for Iolanta
Composer: P.I. Tchaikovsky
Librettist: Modest Tchaikovsky
Conductor: Lidiya Yankovskaya
Stage Director: Paul Curran
Lighting & Projection Designer: Driscoll Otto
Scenic Design: Alan Muraoka
Costume Design: Jenny Mannis

Performance Schedule
Saturday, November 10, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, November 15, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 18, 3 p.m.

Subscriptions to the 2018/2019 season of Chicago Opera Theater are on sale now for $95 - $435. Single show tickets for “Iolanta” are on sale now at chicagooperatheater.org for $45 - $145.

About Lidiya Yankovskaya
Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya is a champion of Russian masterpieces, operatic rarities and contemporary works on the leading edge of classical music. This season, Yankovskaya conducts Heggie’s “Moby-Dick” at COT, Kamala Sankaram’s “Taking Up Serpents” at Washington National Opera, and Ricky Ian Gordon’s “Ellen West” at Opera Saratoga. She debuts with Mobile Symphony in “Carmina Burana,” leads Laura Schwendinger’s “Artemisia” at Trinity Wall Street, and returns to New York’s National Sawdust for its Hildegard Competition Concert.

As Music Director of Harvard’s Lowell House Opera, she conducted sold-out performances of repertoire rarely heard in Boston, including Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades,” Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and the U.S. Russian-language premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Snow Maiden.” Her commitment to exploring the breadth of symphonic and operatic repertoire has also been demonstrated in performances of Rachmaninoff’s “Aleko” and the American premieres of Donizetti’s “Pia de’ Tolomei,” Rubinshteyn’s “The Demon,” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Kashchej The Immortal” and Symphony No. 1. Yankovskaya is founder of the Refugee Orchestra Project, which performs this season at the United Nations. She has served as Artistic Director of the Boston New Music Festival and Juventas New Music Ensemble, where she led operatic experiments with puppetry, circus acts, and robotic instruments, as well as premieres by more than two dozen composers. A recipient of a 2018 Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award, Yankovskaya is also an alumna of the Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors and Marin Alsop’s Taki Concordia Fellowship. She has been featured in the League of American Orchestras Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview and Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music, and will assist Vladimir Jurowski via a London Philharmonic fellowship this spring. Other future engagements include performances in Arizona, Chicago, New York, and Minneapolis.

About Paul Curran
Award winning Scottish director, Paul Curran, was born in Glasgow, Scotland and studied dance in London and Helsinki. After a serious injury stopped his career, he retrained as a director at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, graduating in 1992. His first job in opera was as assistant director to Baz Luhrmann, after which his own international career took off with productions at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Dell’Opera Rome and the Covent Garden Festival, then directing Borodin’s “Prince Igor” with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Curran has directed productions in many of the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls including ROH Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, La Scala Milan, Teatro La Fenice, Kennedy Centre Washington DC and Berlin Philharmonic. In addition to opera, Curran has also directed several musicals including “My Fair Lady,” “Man of La Mancha,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “A Little Night Music.” A keen linguist, Curran speaks 9 languages and has also translated several plays by Moliere, Chekhov and Ostrovsky.

About Katherine Weber
Described as “a confident singing actress with a magnetic stage presence” by Opera News, Katherine Weber is a rising star in the Chicago opera scene. She debuted for both the DuPage Opera and Boulder Symphony during the 2017/2018 season as Violetta in “La Traviata” and is set to return to DuPage Opera this season as Rosalinda in “Die Fledermaus.” She was a featured soloist with the Winona Oratorio Chorus and Orchestra in performances of Beethoven’s “Mass in C,” Vivaldi’s “Gloria” and Mozart’s “Requiem.” She also covered Nedda in Virginia Opera’s performance of “Pagliacci.” She has been a regional finalist at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2015 and 2017.



About Chicago Opera Theater

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) is a nationally recognized opera company based in Chicago, now in its 45th season. COT expands the tradition of opera as a living art form, with an emphasis on Chicago premieres, including new contemporary operas for a 21st century audience.

In addition to its programmed mainstage season, COT is devoted to the development and production of new opera in the United States through the Vanguard Initiative, launched in the Spring of 2018. The Vanguard Initiative mentors emerging opera composers, invests time and talent in new opera at various stages of the creative process and presents the Living Opera Series to showcase new and developing work.

Since its founding in 1973 by Alan Stone, COT has staged more than 125 operas, including 66 Chicago premieres and 36 operas by American composers.

COT is led by Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson General Director Douglas R. Clayton and Orli and Bill Staley Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya. As of fall 2017, Maestro Yankovskaya is the only woman with the title Music Director at any of the top 50 opera companies in the United States. COT currently performs at the Studebaker Theater (Michigan & Congress) and the Harris Theater for Music & Dance (Michigan & Randolph).

For more information on the Chicago Opera Theater and its programs please visit chicagooperatheater.org.

Chicago Opera Theater's Season-Opening Production of Iolanta November 10, 15 AND 18, 2018

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar:

CHICAGO OPERA THEATER PRESENTS 

TCHAIKOVSKY’S “IOLANTA” 

IN SEASON-OPENING PERFORMANCES ON NOVEMBER 10, 15 AND 18

AT HISTORIC STUDEBAKER THEATER

Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya Leads Chicago Premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Final Opera

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) will kick off the 2018/2019 season with “Iolanta,” a Chicago premiere of legendary composer P.I. Tchaikovsky’s final opera. Internationally renowned and award-winning conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya will make her conducting debut as Chicago Opera Theater’s Staley Music Director and set the tone for the season to come. Acclaimed stage director Paul Curran, known for his work at Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera Chicago and more, will shape the retelling of this joyous love-story, featuring an almost entirely Chicago-based cast including soprano Katherine Weber as Iolanta, and renowned Russian bass Mikhail Svetlov as Rene. The opening night and press performance takes place on Saturday, November 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the historic Studebaker Theater (410 S. Michigan Ave.) Additional performances will take place Thursday, November 15 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 18 at 3 p.m.  

“After 18 months of planning and preparation behind the scenes, I’m thrilled to finally be jumping into the COT orchestra pit,” said COT’s Staley Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya. “I’m particularly gratified to have the opportunity to bring the sounds of my homeland to my new home, as this opera – Tchaikovsky’s last – has never before been staged in Chicago. ‘Iolanta’ is a very personal work, written by Tchaikovsky at the height of his compositional powers, alongside the person closest to him – his brother Modest. Perhaps because it examines the transformed worldviews of characters in dramatically different life stages, I find that the work resonates in a new way each time I conduct it.”

“Iolanta” tells the story of a princess, with Weber starring in the titular role, who has been blind since birth. She is unaware of her condition and her privileged social status thanks to the actions of her overprotective father, King Rene. When the well-meaning Duke Vaudemont falls in love with her, she learns of her blindness and true love offers her a chance at a cure. Iolanta must choose between the life built for her and one she’s never seen.

The opera is based on the Danish play “Kong René Datter” by Henrik Hertz, a romanticized take on the life of Yolande de Bar. The opera premiered on December 18, 1892 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, sharing a double bill with Tchaikovsky’s last ballet, “The Nutcracker.”



In addition to Weber and Svetlov, the cast includes John Irvin as Vaudemont, Christopher Magiera as Robert, Bill McMurray as Ibn-Hakia, Emma Ritter as Marta, Katherine Peterson as Brigitta, Annie Rosen as Laura, David Govertsen as Bertrand, and Kyle Knapp as Almeric.

Creative Team for Iolanta
Composer: P.I. Tchaikovsky
Librettist: Modest Tchaikovsky
Conductor: Lidiya Yankovskaya
Stage Director: Paul Curran
Lighting & Projection Designer: Driscoll Otto
Scenic Design: Alan Muraoka
Costume Design: Jenny Mannis

Performance Schedule
Saturday, November 10, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, November 15, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 18, 3 p.m.

Subscriptions to the 2018/2019 season of Chicago Opera Theater are on sale now for $95 - $435. Single show tickets for “Iolanta” are on sale now at chicagooperatheater.org for $45 - $145.

About Lidiya Yankovskaya
Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya is a champion of Russian masterpieces, operatic rarities and contemporary works on the leading edge of classical music. This season, Yankovskaya conducts Heggie’s “Moby-Dick” at COT, Kamala Sankaram’s “Taking Up Serpents” at Washington National Opera, and Ricky Ian Gordon’s “Ellen West” at Opera Saratoga. She debuts with Mobile Symphony in “Carmina Burana,” leads Laura Schwendinger’s “Artemisia” at Trinity Wall Street, and returns to New York’s National Sawdust for its Hildegard Competition Concert.

As Music Director of Harvard’s Lowell House Opera, she conducted sold-out performances of repertoire rarely heard in Boston, including Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades,” Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and the U.S. Russian-language premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Snow Maiden.” Her commitment to exploring the breadth of symphonic and operatic repertoire has also been demonstrated in performances of Rachmaninoff’s “Aleko” and the American premieres of Donizetti’s “Pia de’ Tolomei,” Rubinshteyn’s “The Demon,” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Kashchej The Immortal” and Symphony No. 1. Yankovskaya is founder of the Refugee Orchestra Project, which performs this season at the United Nations. She has served as Artistic Director of the Boston New Music Festival and Juventas New Music Ensemble, where she led operatic experiments with puppetry, circus acts, and robotic instruments, as well as premieres by more than two dozen composers. A recipient of a 2018 Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award, Yankovskaya is also an alumna of the Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors and Marin Alsop’s Taki Concordia Fellowship. She has been featured in the League of American Orchestras Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview and Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music, and will assist Vladimir Jurowski via a London Philharmonic fellowship this spring. Other future engagements include performances in Arizona, Chicago, New York, and Minneapolis.

About Paul Curran
Award winning Scottish director, Paul Curran, was born in Glasgow, Scotland and studied dance in London and Helsinki. After a serious injury stopped his career, he retrained as a director at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, graduating in 1992. His first job in opera was as assistant director to Baz Luhrmann, after which his own international career took off with productions at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Dell’Opera Rome and the Covent Garden Festival, then directing Borodin’s “Prince Igor” with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Curran has directed productions in many of the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls including ROH Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, La Scala Milan, Teatro La Fenice, Kennedy Centre Washington DC and Berlin Philharmonic. In addition to opera, Curran has also directed several musicals including “My Fair Lady,” “Man of La Mancha,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “A Little Night Music.” A keen linguist, Curran speaks 9 languages and has also translated several plays by Moliere, Chekhov and Ostrovsky.

About Katherine Weber
Described as “a confident singing actress with a magnetic stage presence” by Opera News, Katherine Weber is a rising star in the Chicago opera scene. She debuted for both the DuPage Opera and Boulder Symphony during the 2017/2018 season as Violetta in “La Traviata” and is set to return to DuPage Opera this season as Rosalinda in “Die Fledermaus.” She was a featured soloist with the Winona Oratorio Chorus and Orchestra in performances of Beethoven’s “Mass in C,” Vivaldi’s “Gloria” and Mozart’s “Requiem.” She also covered Nedda in Virginia Opera’s performance of “Pagliacci.” She has been a regional finalist at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2015 and 2017.



About Chicago Opera Theater

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) is a nationally recognized opera company based in Chicago, now in its 45th season. COT expands the tradition of opera as a living art form, with an emphasis on Chicago premieres, including new contemporary operas for a 21st century audience.

In addition to its programmed mainstage season, COT is devoted to the development and production of new opera in the United States through the Vanguard Initiative, launched in the Spring of 2018. The Vanguard Initiative mentors emerging opera composers, invests time and talent in new opera at various stages of the creative process and presents the Living Opera Series to showcase new and developing work.

Since its founding in 1973 by Alan Stone, COT has staged more than 125 operas, including 66 Chicago premieres and 36 operas by American composers.

COT is led by Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson General Director Douglas R. Clayton and Orli and Bill Staley Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya. As of fall 2017, Maestro Yankovskaya is the only woman with the title Music Director at any of the top 50 opera companies in the United States. COT currently performs at the Studebaker Theater (Michigan & Congress) and the Harris Theater for Music & Dance (Michigan & Randolph).

For more information on the Chicago Opera Theater and its programs please visit chicagooperatheater.org.

OPENING: Chicago Premiere of THIS BITTER EARTH Via About Face Theatre November 1 – December 8, 2018

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar:

Chicago Premiere!

About Face Theatre Presents 

THIS BITTER EARTH

By Harrison David Rivers

Directed by Mikael Burke

November 1 – December 8, 2018 at Theater Wit

(left to right) Daniel Desmarais and Sheldon Brown in a publicity image for About Face Theatre’s Chicago premiere of THIS BITTER EARTH. Photo by Anna Gelman.

About Face Theatre is pleased to launch its 2018-19 season with the Chicago premiere of the poetic and political romance THIS BITTER EARTH by award winning playwright and McKnight Fellow Harrison David Rivers, directed by Mikael Burke, recipient of the 2017 Princess Grace Award in Theatre. THIS BITTER EARTH will play November 1 – December 8, 2018 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at aboutfacetheatre.com by calling (773) 975-8150 or in person at the Theater Wit Box Office. 

THIS BITTER EARTH features Sheldon Brown and Daniel Desmarais.

This Bitter Earth reveals a deep love challenged by divisive political realities. Jesse, an introspective black playwright, finds his choices called into question when his boyfriend, Neil, a white Black Lives Matter activist, calls him out for his political apathy. As passions and priorities collide, this couple is forced to reckon with issues of race, class and the bravery it takes to love out loud.

Comments Artistic Director Megan Carney, “Harrison’s brilliant play resonates so powerfully at this moment. This story reveals one distinct couple in a relationship shaped and propelled by both massive love and devastating violence. They are grappling with this mad world and fighting for their very lives. Harrison captures the intricacies of identities and impact with humor and passion. I can’t imagine a better pairing that Harrison and Mikael to bring this work to life in Chicago.”

Adds Director Mikael Burke, “This Bitter Earth is a beautiful and unflinching play about race and relationship in contemporary America – about the need for connection and the apparent differences that hold us back. Jesse is black, Neil is white, and against a backdrop of police shootings and Black Lives Matter rallies, this tale of interracial love and heartache asks us: How do we save one another in this tumultuous world? How do we save ourselves? How do we navigate love in a world with so much hate? What do we carry in order to survive that we must learn to let go of in order to live?”

The production team for THIS BITTER EARTH includes: Joe Schermoly (scenic design), Bob Kuhn* (costume design), John Kelly (lighting design), Eric Backus (sound design), Emma Cullimore (props design), Sasha Smith (intimacy design), Catherine Allen (production manager), Helen Lattyak (stage manager) and Andrea Enger (assistant stage manager),

*Denotes AFT Artistic Associate


Location: Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago
Dates: Previews: Thursday, November 1 at 7:30 pm, Friday November 2 at 7:30 pm, Saturday, November 3 at 7:30 pm, Sunday November 4 at 3 pm and Wednesday November 7 at 7:30 pm.

Regular run: Friday, November 9 – Saturday, December 8, 2018
Curtain Times: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 3 pm. Please note: there will not be a performance on Thursday, November 22 at 7:30 pm (Thanksgiving); there will be added performances Saturday, November 24 at 3 pm and Saturday, December 8 at 3 pm.

Tickets: Previews: $15. Regular run: $20-$38. Discounts available for groups of 10 or more. Tickets are currently available at aboutfacetheatre.com, by calling (773) 975-8150 or in person at Theater Wit Box Office.

Artist Biographies
Harrison David Rivers (Playwright, he/him/his) resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he was recently named one of City Pages’ Artists of the Year. His plays include: When Last We Flew (GLAAD Media Award, NYFringe Excellence in Playwriting Award, NYFringe), Sweet (AUDELCO nomination for Best Play, NBT), And She Would Stand Like This (20% Theatre Company, The Movement Theatre Company), Where Storms Are Born (Berkshire Theatre Award nomination for Best New Play, Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, Williamstown), A Crack in the Sky (History Theatre), Five Points (Theatre Latte Da) and This Bitter Earth (New Conservatory Theatre Center, Penumbra). Harrison has received McKnight and Many Voices Jerome Fellowships, a Van Lier Fellowship, an Emerging Artist of Color Fellowship and New York Stage & Film’s Founders’ Award. He was the 2016 Playwright-in-Residence at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Harrison is an alumni of the Public Theater's Emerging Writers' Group, Interstate 73, NAMT and The Lincoln Center Directors' Lab. He is a NYTW Usual Suspect and a Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center where he is also a member of the Board of Directors. Harrison received his BA from Kenyon College and MFA from Columbia School of the Arts. www.harrisondavidrivers.com

Mikael Burke (Director, he/him/his) is a Chicago-based director, deviser and educator. He serves as Creative Director of the Indianapolis-based Young Actors Theatre, and previously served as Associate Artistic Director of Indianapolis’ NoExit Performance. Michael is a 2017 Princess Grace Award Winner in Theatre and a recipient of the 2012 Robert D. Beckmann Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis. He has most recently worked with American Theatre Company, Strawdog Theatre Company and About Face Theatre in Chicago, and elsewhere with Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, GEVA Theatre Center in Rochester, New York and the Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis, to name a few. Michael received his MFA in Directing from The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago. Recent directing credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, Native Son by Richard Wright, adapted by Nambi E. Kelley, Stupid F##king Bird by Aaron Posner, Still by Jen Siverman, Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen and Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl.

About Face Theatre creates exceptional, innovative, and adventurous theatre and educational programming that advances the national dialogue on sexual and gender identity, and challenges and entertains audiences in Chicago and beyond.

 

(left to right) Sheldon Brown and Daniel Desmarais in a publicity image for About Face Theatre’s Chicago premiere of THIS BITTER EARTH. Photo by Anna Gelman.

OPENING: Chicago Debut of Manual Cinema's The End of TV at Chopin Theatre

Chi IL Live Shows On Our Radar:

Manual Cinema is self-presenting the Chicago debut of The End of TV for a three-week summer run July 19-August 5 at Chopin Theatre in Wicker Park.

 “The End of TV’s artistry is awesome. Its impact is profound, unique, indescribable.”

- Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant 

”a fascinating theatergoing experience blending live music, old TV video clips and shadow puppetry”

- E. Kyle Minor, New Haven Register 

“the audience gets to experience…a moment of live artistic creation, playing out on the stage in front of them, with little to hide and lots to show” 

- Thomas Breen, New Haven Independent 

Photo Credit for all: Judy Sirota Rosenthal

I'll be ChiILin' at Chi, IL's Chopin Theatre this Friday for the press opening of Manual Cinema's Chicago debut of The End of TV. We've reviewed many of Manual Cinema's productions over the years and love their quirky multimedia story telling style that combines live action and projection. We're eager to catch their latest. Check back soon for my full review.



The End of TV - an art pop song cycle with live visuals set in post-industrial Rust Belt America - melds vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design and a live music ensemble. 

Through its tale of two women who become unlikely friends as one approaches the end of her life, while the other is reinventing a new one, The End of TV becomes an unforgettable, multimedia, theatrical meditation on late 20th century advertising, TV culture and the pre-internet American imagination. 

Manual Cinema has announced a three-week summer run of The End of TV, July 19- August 5 at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood.

A critical and box office hit when it debuted last summer at The International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, CT, Manual Cinema’s summer run at Chopin marks the Chicago premiere of The End of TV.

The End of TV has one preview, Thursday, July 19 at 7 p.m. Performances continue through August 5: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 3 p.m. Run time is 70 minutes. Tickets are $30; $20 for students and seniors. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at manualcinema.com/cal.





Manual Cinema was founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter, all close collaborators on The End of TV. Manual Cinema has turned heads in Chicago ever since, combining handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive visual stories for stage and screen. Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble, Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality.


Manual Cinema-The End of TV (Official Trailer) from Manual Cinema on Vimeo.

The End of TV premiered in June, 2017 at the The International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, CT, and was met with substantial critical acclaim: 

Set in a post-industrial Rust Belt city in the 1990s and told through a collection of original 70’s R&B-inspired art pop songs, The End of TV explores the quest to find meaning amongst the increasingly constant barrage of commercial images and advertising white-noise. Two sides of the American Dream — its technicolor promise as delivered through TV ads, and its failure, witnessed in the dark reality of industrial decline — are staged in cinematic shadow puppetry and lo-fi live video feeds with flat paper renderings of commercial products. The show is driven by a sweeping chamber art pop song cycle performed live by a seven-piece band.

The End of TV depicts the rise and fall of the American rust belt through the stories of Flo and Louise, both residents of a fictional Midwestern city. Flo is an elderly white woman, once a supervisor at the thriving local auto plant. Now succumbing to dementia, the memories of her life are tangled with television commercials and the “call now” demands of the QVC home shopping network. Louise, a young black woman laid off from her job when the same local auto plant closes, meets Flo when she takes a job as a Meals-on-Wheels driver. An unlikely relationship grows as Flo approaches the end of her life and Louise prepares for the invention of a new one. Their story is intercut with commercials and TV programs, the constant background of their environment.

The End of TV is a Manual Cinema production. Credits are: screenplay by Kyle Vegter and Ben Kauffman; direction and storyboards by Julia Miller; adapted for the screen by Lizi Breit, Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Julia Miller, Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter; music by Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter; sound design by Kyle Vegter; puppet design by Lizi Breit; associate puppet designer and storyboard artist Drew Dir; assistant director Sarah Fornace; costumes by Mieka van der Ploeg; lighting design by Claire Chrzan; lighting associate Shelbi Arndt; masks by Julia Miller; stage manager Shelby Glasgow; production manager Mike Usrey; puppet build interns Zofia Lu Ya Zhang and Kathryn Ann Shivak.

The cast is Kara Davidson (Flo/puppeteer), Aneisa Hicks (Louise/puppeteer), Jeffrey Paschal (ensemble/ puppeteer), Vanessa Valliere (ensemble/puppeteer), Shalynn Brown aka RED (drums), Maren Celest (vocals, live sound FX, live video mixing), Deidre Huckabay (flutes, vocals), Ben Kauffman (vocals, guitar, keyboard), Lia Kohl (cello, vocals), Marques Toliver (vocals, violin) and Kyle Vegter (bass).

The End of TV was co-commissioned by The International Festival of Arts & Ideas, New Haven, CT, and made possible in part with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.


More about Manual Cinema

“this Chicago troupe is conjuring phantasms to die for…”
-Ben Brantley, The New York Times

Manual Cinema was founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter. To date the company has created seven original feature length live cinematic shadow puppet shows (Lula Del Ray, ADA/ AVA, Mementos Mori, My Soul’s Shadow, The Magic City, No Blue Memories and The End of TV); a live cinematic contemporary dance show created for family audiences in collaboration with Hubbard Street Dance and the choreographer Robyn Mineko Williams (Mariko’s Magical Mix); an original site-specific installations (La Celestina); an original adaptation of Hansel & Gretel created for the Belgian Royal Opera; music videos for Sony Masterworks, Gabriel Kahane, three time GRAMMY Award-winning eighth blackbird, and New York Times Best Selling author Reif Larson; a live non-fiction piece for Pop-Up Magazine; a self-produced short film (CHICAGOLAND); a museum exhibit created in collaboration with the Chicago History Museum (The Secret Lives of Objects); a collection of cinematic shorts in collaboration with poet Zachary Schomburg and string quartet Chicago Q Ensemble (FJORDS); and live cinematic puppet adaptations of StoryCorps stories (Show & Tell).

Manual Cinema has been presented by, worked in collaboration with, or brought its work to The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), Under the Radar Festival (NYC), The Tehran International Puppet Festival (Iran), La Monnaie-De Munt (Brussels), BAM (NYC), Underbelly (UK), Adelaide Festival (AU), The Kennedy Center (DC), The Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Noorderzon Festival (Netherlands), The O, Miami Poetry Festival, Davies Symphony Hall (SF), The Ace Hotel Theater (LA), Handmade Worlds Puppet Festival (Minneapolis), The Screenwriters’ Colony in Nantucket, The Detroit Institute of Art, The Future of Storytelling Conference (NYC), the NYC Fringe Festival, The Poetry Foundation (Chicago), the Chicago International Music and Movies Festival, the Puppeteers of America: Puppet Festival (R)evolution, and elsewhere around the world.

Manual Cinema was ensemble-in-residence at the University of Chicago in the Theater and Performance Studies program in the fall of 2012, where they taught as adjunct faculty. In 2013 Manual Cinema held residencies and taught workshops at the School of the Art Institute (Chicago), The Future of Storytelling Conference (NYC), RCAH at Michigan State University, and Puppeteers of America: Puppet Festival (R)evolution (Swarthmore, PA), Southern Illinois University, and the Chicago Parks District. In Spring 2016 Manual Cinema held workshops at Yale University as visiting lecturers in the theater department.

In Fall 2016, they contributed visuals, music, and sound design for an immersive adaptation of Peter Pan with producer Randy Weiner (Sleep No More, The Donkey Show, Queen of the Night) which premiered in Beijing in December 2016. In February 2017, Manual Cinema premiered The Magic City, a new show for children and their families, adapted from a novel by Edith Nesbit, and the inaugural production at the new Chicago Children’s Theatre, The Station. That was followed in September, 2017 by No Blue Memories, about the life and work of poet Gwendolyn Brooks, commissioned by the Poetry Foundation and based on a screenplay by Eve Ewing and Nathaniel Marshall, presented at the Harold Washington Library, and remounted last March in partnership with the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and the Poetry Foundation. The company also debuted in Australia, France and Germany in 2017 and returned to the Edinburgh Fringe with Lula del Ray. 

Currently, Manual Cinema is touring its production ADA/AVA in Holland. Following its summer run of The End of TV, Manual Cinema will present its world premiere production of Frankenstein at Court Theatre in Hyde Park, November 1-December 2, 2018, as part of Court Theatre’s 2018-19 season. 

For more, visit manualcinema.com, follow the company on Facebook at facebook.com/manualcinema, on Instagram at instagram.com/manual_cinemaand on Twitter @ManualCinema.