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Showing posts with label Cor Theatre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cor Theatre. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

REVIEW: Cor Theatre's Stellar Late Company Explores Suicide Fallout at Pride Arts Center

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Ghosts loom large in Late Company, at what might be one of the awkwardest, angriest dinner parties ever on stage. A year after his suicide, this dead 16 year old is larger than life in his absence, from the all consuming grief enveloping his parents, who are haunted by a mysterious thumping upstairs, to a bully's nightmares, and his parents' chagrin.


**Late Company is for mature audiences.**   


Photo credits: Matthew Gregory Hollis

Yesterday, my 14 year old daughter and I stood in the grocery checkout line where headlines blared "Woman goes on trial for allegedly urging boyfriend to kill himself". The current trial involves a then 17 year old girl who is being tried for involuntary manslaughter now, 3 years after her boyfriend killed himself. There is no precedent for rulings on encouraging suicide.

I asked my daughter if the girl deserved jail time. This prompted a lively discussion where she argued that bullying and joking around are incredibly common in high school and if everyone who said something stupid and insensitive to someone was arrested, our jails would be overflowing with non violent teens. And who's to say the kid wouldn't have killed himself anyway. She pointed out the vast numbers of bullied kids who don't kill themselves and the kids who aren't bullied who do. As a mother of two high schoolers, I wholeheartedly disagreed. I was ready to throw the book at any kid evil or insensitive enough to influence a peer to kill himself, so people would think twice before being so cruel and pushing an already troubled kid over the edge. 

That night I saw Cor Theatre's Late Company and began to realize the complexity of the issues and all the intertwined lives surrounding each childhood suicide death, especially Late Company's show with the added LGBTQ element. Similar issues were at the forefront. How much culpability do bullies have after a suicide? Can grief be shared? Can blame? Can forgiveness? In Late Company, a suicidal gay boy, grappling with his sexuality, closeted to his parents, being treated for depression, kills himself after being harassed at school. Late Company also features a surprisingly sympathetic bully and his defensive parents as media victims. Cor Theatre does a stellar job of broaching this topic with energy and empathy. We recommend Late Company. It's a tough but timely topic and a great springboard for discussion. 



We also love the communal art project in the lobby that will be raffled off. The audience is invited to add a simple brush stroke to a blank canvas as a pledge of support for the LGBTQ Community.







As Late Company opens, the table is set for an elegant dinner party. Enter, two devastated, grieving parents. Enter belatedly, a teen wracked with guilt and vilified by the media for his potential contribution to his classmate's demise, and his loving parents who are late because they were fighting over whether the dinner is a good idea. 

Everything's on the table, quite literally, in this thought provoking and too timely production. Both families' parenting styles are up for critique, mental health, grieving styles, the blame game, LGBTQ coming of age, and more. What starts as an effort to bring closure to a tragedy ends in vicious verbal attacks, raw emotion, and pain. Yet, through it all the audience has a stellar chance to leave with more empathy for the all too frequently lethal struggles of LGBTQ teens, the devastated parents who have lost children to suicide, and the stunned classmates whose hazing was meant to be funny not fatal. 

Ultimately there are some tender moments of healing and glimmers of future forgiveness down the road.






Cor Theater's Chicago debut of Late Company runs through July 16, 2017 at the Pride Arts Center, in the Buena Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway St. in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. Tickets, $18-$30, are on sale now at cortheatre.org, or by calling (866) 811-4111.

Performances continue through July 16: Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at  3 p.m. Exceptions: No Wednesday shows June 21 or July 5. The performance on Thursday, June 22 is sold out. No shows Saturday and Sunday, June 24 and 25 due to Pride Weekend. 


About Late Company

Get set for a scorching start to Chicago's summer theater season when  Cor Theatre presents the Midwest premiere of Late Company, a shockingly funny, scathingly painful family drama set on Chicago's North Shore about LGBTQ youth and the scourge of teen suicide. Acclaimed director Jessica Fisch stages the first Chicago production of this vitally important new work by Canadian gay playwright, director and filmmaker Jordan Tannahill, called the future of Canadian theatre (NOW Magazine) and the hottest name in Canadian theatre (Montreal Gazette). 

The raves continued for recent European premiere of Late Company at London's Finborough Theatre. Time Out London called Late Company a powerful new drama about the devastating aftershocks of cyber bullying. Superb. The Times hailed this dinner party from hell serves up the full gamut of emotions. A terrific play. Go! This one deserves a West End transfer. Like the controversial Netflix hit series 13 Reasons Why, Late Company takes no prisoners with its vivid portrayal of the aftershocks of teen suicide, but more from the parents' point of view. 



One year after a gay teen's suicide, two North Shore families sit down to dinner. Pleasant mealtime chatter quickly turns into fierce interrogation as each person at the table confesses their real or imagined part in the tragedy. As blame shifts, layers of parental, sexual, and political hypocrisy are revealed. Scathingly funny and heartbreakingly real, award winning Jordan Tannahill's Late Company asks, How well can a parent ever really know their child? 

According to Cor Artistic Director and cast member Tosha Fowler, Late Company is about wrestling with forgiveness. Two sets of parents are fighting desperately for closure from a suicide brought on by missed opportunities and misunderstandings on both sides. Nobody in the room is blameless –everyone is sparring like hell to find peace within themselves and each other. Jordan's writing is funny and searing. It has the kind of visceral energy that makes live theater unique, said director Jessica Fisch, adding, In light of our current political climate, a play about people coming to the table to talk over their grievances feels both novel and inspirational. I want to believe it's possible for people with drastically different points of view to find common ground and healing. Late Company challenges that belief and offers hope that it is possible.

Cor's Chicago debut of Late Company features Tony Bozzuto (so memorable in Cor's Skin Tight and Christina, The Girl King), Matthew Elam (a Chicago newcomer and third year acting major at DePaul), Paul Fagen (recently seen in About Face's The Tempermentals) and Tosha Fowler (co-founder and artistic director of Cor, credits include What of The Night? and Love and Human Remains). New to the cast is Asia Jackson, most recently seen in Among All of This You Stand Like A Fine Brownstone at ETA Creative Arts Theatre.The production team is Cole von Glahn (assistant director), Adam Gutkin (set and props), Alarie Hammock (costumes), Jeffrey Levin (sound), Eric Vigo (lights), Topher Kielbasa (dramaturg), Stefin Steberl (production manager) and Michael Starcher (stage manager). 



Jordan Tannahill is a playwright, director, filmmaker and a leading figure in Canada's gay arts community. The TorontoGlobe and Mail recently hailed him as ...the poster child of a new generation of (theatre? film? dance?) artists for whom interdisciplinary is not a buzzword, but a way of life. His plays have been presented across Canada, his films have been widely exhibited at venues such as the  Toronto International Film Festival, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the British Film Institute, and he received the 2014 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama for his book Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays. In collaboration with William Ellis, Tannahill runs the alternative art-space Videofag in Toronto. Currently he is partnering with the National Theatre of London and the National Film Board Canada to create Draw Me Close, an immersive technology memoir in which audiences experience a live, illustrated world as five-year-old Jordan during his mother's battle with cancer. The first chapter premiered April 21-29, 2017 at the Tribeca Film Festival. jordantannahill.com.

Jessica Fisch is a Chicago-based freelance director and professor. Chicago projects this season include directing the world premiere of Firebirds Take the Field for Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and associate directing Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee at Steppenwolf. Other credits include Trudy, Carolyn, Martha and Regina Travel to Outer Space (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival), Fefu and Her  Friends (Goodman Theatre/Rivendell Latina/o Celebration), Opulent Complex and That Thing That Time (Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Tens), Far Away (SITE Festival, Northwestern), 42 Stories (Raven Theatre, [Working Title] series) and Machinal and Spike Heels (Northwestern University).


Selected New York credits are The Realm (The Wild Project), strive/seek/find (Abingdon Theatre), the 2009 PlaywrightsHorizons Stories on 5 Stories Benefit, Personal History (Ensemble Studio Theatre), The Redheaded Man (Barrow Street Theatre/Down Payment Productions/FringeNYC/ FringeEncores), and Dressed In Your Dreams (Public Theater/Emerging Writers Group), an adaptation of the cult 1960ૻs gothic vampire soap opera Dark Shadows (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Prior to moving to Chicago, Fisch lived in New York City where she was the Co-founder and Artistic Director of Down Payment Productions (DPP). She was also a resident director at Ensemble Studio Theater, the 2008-2009 Playwrights Horizons Directing Resident and a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. She earned her MFA at Northwestern University. 

About Cor Theatre 
Cor Theatre (cortheater.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. Today, Cor is one of Chicago's youngest and most ambitious professional theater companies with a growing board and strong experience behind it.  Cor's inaugural production, Skin Tight by Gary Henderson, was met with enthusiastic audiences, critical acclaim and made just enough money to establish a not-for-profit corporation. 

The company named itself Cor Theatre, deriving its name from the Latin root of courage – meaning heart. Cor returned in 2015 with Erin Courtney's A Map of Virtue, named a top show to see in the Chicago Tribune and Most Promising Debut by Time Out Chicago. Cor triumphed again in 2015 with the first Chicago staging in 20 years of Brad Frasier's Love and Human Remains, which played to numerous sold-out houses and was named one of the top plays to see by Windy City Times and New City. In March 2016, Cor presented the U.S. premiere of Christina, The Girl King by Michel Marc Bouchard, translated by Linda Gaboriau, telling the true story of the enigmatic, gender bending 17th century Queen of Sweden. Cor concluded its 2016 season in October with an epic production of Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan, translated by Tony Kushner, directed by ensemble member Ernie Nolan. 

Most recently, in January 2017, Cor gobsmacked Chicago audiences and critics alike with Carlos Murillo's daring staging of What of the Night? by María Irene Fornés.  Current Cor 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 and Eric Vigo. 

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

Saturday, April 8, 2017

SAVE THE DATES: Midwest Premiere of LGBTQ Family Drama Late Company at COR 6/16 - 7/16

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

COR SETS THE TABLE FOR A SUMMER THEATER SCORCHER 
WITH LGBTQ FAMILY DRAMA  
LATE COMPANY, 
JUNE 16-JULY 16 AT THE BUENA, PRIDE ARTS CENTER 

  **Late Company is for mature audiences only**



Tony Bozzuto and Tosha Fowler are cast as North Shore parents  
in Cor Theatre's Midwest premiere of Late Company. 

Get set for a scorching start to Chicago's summer theater season when Cor Theatre presents the Midwest premiere of Late Company, a shockingly funny, scathingly painful drama set on Chicago's North Shore about LGBTQ youth and the scourge of teen suicide.

Acclaimed director Jessica Fisch will stage the first Chicago production of this vitally important new work by Canadian playwright, director and filmmaker Jordan Tannahill - "the future of Canadian theatre" (NOW Magazine) and "the hottest name in Canadian theatre" (Montreal Gazette) - currently enjoying a meteoric ride to the top of Canada's gay arts community.

Cor Theater presents Late Company June 16 to July 16, 2017 at The Buena (Pride Arts Center), 4147 N. Broadway St. in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. 

Previews are Friday and Saturday, June 16 and 17 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, June 18 at 3 p.m. 

Performances run through July 16: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m., plus two Industry Night shows Wednesday, June 28 and July 12 at 8 p.m. Tickets, $18-$30, go on sale May 1 at cortheatre.org, or by calling 
(866) 811-4111. 



More about Late Company
One year after a gay teen's suicide, two North Shore families sit down to dinner. Pleasant mealtime chatter quickly turns into fierce interrogation as each person at the table confesses their real or imagined part in the tragedy. As blame shifts, layers of parental, sexual, and political hypocrisy are revealed. Scathingly funny and heartbreakingly real, award winning Jordan Tannahill's Late Company asks, "How well can a parent ever really know their child?"
                                                                            
The Vancouver Courier called the 2014 Canadian premiere of Late Company "...excruciatingly good theatre: it feels like open heart surgery." MooneyOnTheatre raved "Tannahill's script makes his characters abandon their pretenses, pick them up again, and then set them on fire."

According to Cor Artistic Director and cast member Tosha Fowler, "Late Company is about wrestling with forgiveness. Two sets of parents are fighting desperately for closure from a suicide brought on by missed opportunities and misunderstandings on both sides. Nobody in the room is blameless - everyone is sparring like hell to find peace within themselves and each other."

"Jordan's writing is funny and searing. It has the kind of visceral energy that makes live theater unique," said director Jessica Fisch, adding, "In light of our current political climate, a play about people coming to the table to talk over their grievances feels both novel and inspirational. I want to believe it's possible for people with drastically different points of view to find common ground and healing. Late Company challenges that belief and offers hope that it is possible."

The Late Company cast is Tony Bozzuto (so memorable in Cor's Skin Tight and Christina, The Girl King), Matthew Elam (a Chicago newcomer and third year acting major at DePaul), Paul Fagen (recently seen in About Face'sThe Tempermentals) and Tosha Fowler (co-founder and artistic director of Cor, stage credits include What of The Night? and Love and Human Remains, director of last season's A Map of Virtue, and one of New City's 2016 Players: The 50 People who Really Perform for Chicago.) A fifth role is still to be cast. 

The production team is Cole von Glahn (assistant director), Adam Gutkin (set and props), Alarie Hammock (costumes), Jeffrey Levin (sound), Eric Vigo (lights), Topher Kielbasa (dramaturg), Stefin Steberl (production manager) and Michael Starcher (stage manager).

 

Jordan Tannahill is a playwright, director, filmmaker and a leading figure in Canada's gay arts community. The Toronto Globe and Mail recently hailed him as "...the poster child of a new generation of (theatre? film? dance?) artists for whom 'interdisciplinary' is not a buzzword, but a way of life." His plays have been presented across Canada, his films have been widely exhibited at venues such as the Toronto International Film Festival, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the British Film Institute, and he received the 2014 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama for his book Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays. In collaboration with William Ellis, Tannahill runs the alternative art-space Videofag in Toronto. Currently he is partnering with the National Theatre of London and the National Film Board Canada to create Draw Me Close, an immersive technology memoir in which audiences experience a live, illustrated world as five-year-old Jordan during his mother's battle with cancer. The first chapter of Draw Me Close premieres April 21-29, 2017 at the Tribeca Film Festival. jordantannahill.com.


 

Jessica Fisch is a Chicago-based freelance director and professor. Chicago projects this season include directing the world premiere of Firebirds Take the Field for Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and associate directing Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee at Steppenwolf. Other credits include Trudy, Carolyn, Martha and Regina Travel to Outer Space (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival), Fefu and Her Friends (Goodman Theatre/Rivendell Latina/o Celebration), Opulent Complex and That Thing That Time (Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Tens), Far Away (SITE Festival, Northwestern), 42 Stories (Raven Theatre, [Working Title] series) and Machinal and Spike Heels (Northwestern University). 

Selected New York credits are
The Realm (The Wild Project), strive/seek/find (Abingdon Theatre), the 2009 Playwrights Horizons Stories on 5 Stories Benefit, Personal History (Ensemble Studio Theatre), The Redheaded Man (Barrow Street Theatre/Down Payment Productions/FringeNYC/ FringeEncores), and Dressed In Your Dreams (Public Theater/Emerging Writers Group), an adaptation of the cult 1960's gothic vampire soap opera Dark Shadows (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Prior to moving to Chicago, Fisch lived in New York City where she was the Co-founder and Artistic Director of Down Payment Productions (DPP). She was also a resident director at Ensemble Studio Theater, the 2008-2009 Playwrights Horizons Directing Resident and a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. She earned her MFA at Northwestern University. 

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. Today, Cor is one of Chicago's youngest and most ambitious professional theater companies with a growing board and strong experience behind it. 

Cor's inaugural production, Skin Tight by Gary Henderson, was met with enthusiastic audiences, critical acclaim and made just enough money to establish a not-for-profit corporation. The company named itself Cor Theatre, deriving its name from the Latin root of courage - meaning heart.

Cor returned in 2015 with Erin Courtney's A Map of Virtue, named a top show to see in the Chicago Tribune and Most Promising Debut by Time Out Chicago. Cor triumphed again in 2015 with the first Chicago staging in 20 years of Brad Frasier's Love and Human Remains, which played to numerous sold-out houses and was named one of the top plays to see by Windy City Times and New City.

In March 2016, Cor presented the U.S. premiere of Christina, The Girl King by Michel Marc Bouchard, translated by Linda Gaboriau, telling the true story of the enigmatic, gender bending 17th century Queen of Sweden. Cor concluded its 2016 season in October with an epic production of Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan, translated by Tony Kushner, directed by ensemble member Ernie Nolan.

Most recently, in January 2017, Cor gobsmacked Chicago audiences and critics alike with Carlos Murillo's daring staging of What of the Night? by María Irene Fornés. 

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 and Eric Vigo.

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

Thursday, January 12, 2017

OPENING: Cor Theater and Stage Left Theatre Present What of the Night? at Theater Wit

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Sex, power, institutional failure, human frailty, betrayal, dreams and madness are at the core of celebrated Cuban-American writer María Irene Fornés's Pulitzer-Prize nominated play What of the Night?


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

Tonight we'll be out to review What of the Night?. Here at ChiIL Live Shows, we're elated when some of our favorite companies collaborate and we're looking forward to this one. We've been impressed with the edgy, past productions chosen by both Cor Theater and Stage Left Theatre and we're eager to see their take on this Pulitzer-Prize nominated gem. Check back soon for our full review.

Chicago's Cor Theater and Stage Left Theatre are teaming after the New Year to co-present a fearless revival of What of the Night?, directed by internationally acclaimed Chicago director and playwright Carlos Murillo. Performances are  January 8-February 12, 2017 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood. 

Murillo's new production of Fornés's epic, deeply intimate and never-more-timely mediation about poverty in America stars Dionne Addai (Birdie), Kathryn Acosta (Rainbow), Kate Black-Spence (Helena/Leah), Tosha Fowler (Nadine/Reba), Stephen Loch (Joseph), Casey Morris (Charlie), Miguel Nunez (Pete), Nelson Rodriguez (Ray) and Allyce Torres (Greta). Designers include Eleanor Kahn (set and props), Brenda Winstead (costumes), Eric Vigo (lights), Jeffrey Levin (sound) and Nick Sandys (violence). Zoe Benditt is stage manager.

Performances run through February 12: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets, $18-$30, are on sale now at cortheatre.org, stagelefttheatre.com, or by calling (773) 975-8150.


Behind the scenes of  
What of the Night?

A finalist for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize, What of the Night? interweaves four one-acts that follow an extended family whose lives are intricately intertwined even as they try to escape the ties that bind them. When Birdie, a just-married 14-year-old leaves her impoverished home to seek a better life, she unwittingly sets in motion a sprawling epic spanning time and geography. Her daughter Rainbow finds love. Her son Charlie finds solace in loyalty. Her son Ray finds the trappings of success. For each, survival and the preservation of loved ones is the name of the game. Though their yearnings are briefly rewarded, Fornés's lyrical play lays bare the difference between the hunger of the soul and the hunger of the ego.

Fornés is a Cuban-American avant-garde playwright and director who was a leading figure of the Off-Off-Broadway movement in the 1960s. Fornés's themes frequently focused on poverty and feminism. Moreover, on personal and artistic levels, her lesbian identity has been central to her art. Fornés's family moved to the United States in 1945. She became a painter before beginning to write plays in the early 1960s. The Widow, her first professionally produced play, was staged in 1961. Fornés acted as the director for many of her subsequent works, including There! You Died (1963; later retitled Tango Palace, 1964), The Successful Life Of 3: Skit In Vaudeville (1965), and Molly's Dream (1968), among others. In 1973 she founded the New York Theatre Strategy, which was devoted to the production of stylistically innovative theatrical works. She has received eight Obie awards - in such categories as distinguished playwriting and direction and best new play - for Promenade (1965), The Successful Life Of 3, Fefu And Her Friends, The Danube (1982), Mud, Sarita (1984), The Conduct Of Life and Abingdon Square (1987). Fornés has also received numerous other awards and grants, including Rockefeller Foundation Grants in 1971 and 1984, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1972, National Endowments for the Arts grants in 1974, 1984, and 1985, an American Academy and Institute of Letters and Arts Award in Literature in 1986 and a Playwrights U.S.A. Award in 1986.

"What of the Night? is among the most important plays in María Irene Fornés's oeuvre, and I am thrilled by the prospect of giving it the theatrical life it deserves,"said Murillo. "I first met Irene in the early 1990s when we were both in residence at New York Theatre Workshop's summer retreat at the Hotchkiss School. Her warmth and encouragement, especially important to me at the time as I was a baby playwright, went a long way to build my confidence. I later studied with her at Theatre for the New City, where her life-changing workshops helped shape both my writing and teaching of playwriting to this very day. I count her as one of my greatest influences and mentors." 

Murillo (director) directed the Chicago premiere of Julia Cho's Durango at Silk Road, as well as productions and workshops of his own work in New York, Chicago and Minneapolis. He has also staged plays at The Walker Arts Center/Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, The Public Theatre New Work Now! Festival, the Mazer Theatre and Makor in NY. For DePaul University, he directed the world premiere of Ike Holter's Good Worker for the New Playwrights Series, for which he has staged two previous productions (Andie Arthur's In Common Hours and Alex Perry's eikon). As a playwright, Murillo's body of work has been widely produced throughout the United States and Europe. His best known play Dark Play or Stories for Boys premiered at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, and has been performed throughout the US, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Lithuania. His plays have been commissioned by The Goodman, the Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, Steppenwolf, and Adventure Stage and developed by The Sundance Theatre Lab, The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, New Dramatists and others. He is the recipient of a 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award and a Mellon Foundation National Resident Playwright Program grant funding a three-year residency at Adventure Stage. From 1993 to 1995, Murillo served as the Associate Literary Manager at The Public Theater in New York. He heads the BFA Playwriting Program at The Theatre School of DePaul University, and is a proud alumnus of New Dramatists. Murillo is of Colombian and Puerto Rican descent. He lives in the south side of Chicago with his wife, the director, Lisa Portes, and their two children Eva and Carlitos.

About Cor Theatre
"By combining Carlos's passionate vision, Fornés' poetically primal voice, Cor's fearless aesthetic and Stage Left's strong commitment to artists, What of the Night? promises to be our biggest leap yet," added Cor Theatre Artistic Director and cast member Tosha Fowler.

Cor Theatre (cortheater.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 is one of Chicago's youngest and most ambitious Chicago professional theatre companies with a growing board and strong experience behind it. 

Cor's inaugural production, Skin Tight by Gary Henderson, was met with enthusiastic audiences, critical acclaim and made just enough money to establish a not-for-profit corporation. The company named itself Cor Theatre, deriving its name from the Latin root of courage - meaning heart.

Cor returned in 2015 with Erin Courtney's A Map of Virtue, named a top show to see in the Chicago Tribune and Most Promising Debut by Time Out Chicago, and nominated for several Time Out Chicago Theatre Awards. Cor triumphed again in 2015 with the first professional Chicago staging of Brad Frasier's controversial play Love and Human Remains in 20 years. Cor's production played to numerous sold-out houses and was named one of the top plays to see by Windy City Times and New City.

In March 2016, Cor presented the U.S. premiere of Christina, The Girl King by Michel Marc Bouchard, translated by Linda Gaboriau, telling the true story of the enigmatic, gender bending 17th century Queen of Sweden. Cor concluded its 2016 season in October with an epic production of Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan, translated by Tony Kushner, directed by ensemble member Ernie Nolan.

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 and Eric Vigo.

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


About Stage Left Theatre 
"We are so excited to partner with Cor Theatre and with Carlos Murillo for this multigenerational epic," said Stage Left Theater Co-Artistic Directors Jason A. Fleece and Amy Szerlong. "The story of a family fighting the cycle of poverty fits neatly into our mission of inciting debate about political and social issues, and continues to resonate almost 30 years after its premiere. We believe Stage Left's issue-driven work combined with Cor's daring will make this an outstanding, impactful production."

Founded in 1982, Stage Left Theatre is committed to developing and producing plays that raise debate and challenge perspectives on political and social issues. Through a full subscription season and our new play development program Downstage Left, Stage Left strives to ask provocative social and political questions by producing a mix of new works, regional premieres and timeless classics.

A charitable corporation founded in 1982 to provide a venue for Chicago theatre artists and to develop and produce new work, Stage Left redefined its mission in 1988 to produce and develop plays that raise debate on political and social issues. For its first 11 years, Stage Left produced continuously at 3244 North Clark Street. In February of 1995, Stage Left moved to a 49-seat theatre at 3408 North Sheffield Avenue. That location provided an intimate, well-equipped performance space for the artists of Stage Left, as well as other arts organizations.

In the fall of 2010, Stage Left became one of the resident companies at Theater Wit - a multi-theatre complex that provides expanded seating capacity and audience amenities, greater design opportunities, and a chance to establish relationships with the other resident companies: Theater Wit and Boho Ensemble.


Over the past thirty years, Stage Left has produced over 120 mainstage, late-night, off-night, children's and touring productions that have garnered critical accolades, as well as 46 nominations and 17 awards for excellence from the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee.

Monday, August 22, 2016

NOW PLAYING: COR THEATRE'S THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN THROUGH SEPT. 11 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, 
THROUGH SEPT. 11 AT A RED ORCHID THEATRE

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

All photos by Matthew Gregory Hollis

(from left) Isabella Karina Coelho, Michael Buono and Dawn Bless in Cor Theatre's The Good Person of Szechwan

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. We've been booked so solid this summer here at ChiIL Live Shows

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.

Performances of Cor Theatre's The Good Person of Szechwan are now through September 11, 2016 at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells Street in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood. 

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


"Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, 
a delight in changing reality." 
~Bertolt Brecht


Chris Brickhouse is Sun/Husband and Will Von Vogt plays the good hearted prostitute, Shen Te, in Cor Theatre's The Good Person of Szechwan.

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." 


(from left) Jos N. Banks, Aida Delaz and Ben Chang in Cor Theatre's The Good Person of Szechwan

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

The Good Person of Szechwan, Brecht's parable of good and evil, was first performed in 1943 and remains one of his frequently produced plays worldwide. 


Cor Theatre ensemble member Will Von Vogt (center) plays the title role of the good hearted prostitute, Shen Te, in Cor Theatre's The Good Person of Szechwan.

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 17th 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

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



Wednesday, June 15, 2016

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 17th 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.

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