REVIEW: Nobody's Home, Part of the Physical Festival Chicago at Stage 773

Chi IL Live Shows On Our Radar:

Nobody's Home, 

part of the 

Physical Festival Chicago at Stage 773, 

showing at 1225 W. Belmont 

(773)327-5252

Review
By Catherine Hellmann, Guest Critic 

Wow.

I have never seen a play before where all the action revolves around a bathtub. “Set in a bathroom, Nobody’s Home follows a soldier’s journey through his own mind, as he struggles with the monsters of his past to finally come home,” as described by Theatre Temoin and Grafted Cede theatre. While sometimes hard to witness, Nobody’s Home is an important story to tell about PTSD---the hell it creates for the central figure as well as his frustrated and exasperated wife. During the pre-show introduction, the audience is reassured that if anyone needs to step out because of the intensity of the show, the actors will not be offended; they are used to it from their many performances on military bases.

Returned soldier Grant and wife Penny are struggling to return to normalcy after his third tour of duty, which has pushed him over the edge. Penny wants Grant to finally fix the bathtub drain, but Grant’s demons prevent him from accomplishing anything other than basic survival. While her traumatized husband plays Zombie Hunter for endless hours in the bathroom, his also-suffering wife reminisces to their unborn child about the man she married. “He’s been home eight months, and I still feel like I’m waiting.” She reassures herself by reading the love letters he had sent home from the front. The husband she knew is damaged beyond recognition. “Either he’s playing video games in the bathroom, or he is lying next to me, and I’m afraid for my life.”

Will Pinchin does a great job playing the emotionally tormented Grant. But his real-life wife Dorie Kinnear as Penny is amazing in her many roles, playing a psychiatrist, a dead comrade who torments Grant’s thoughts, (“Where were you when I was getting my face blown off?”) and a woman Grant encountered overseas who still haunts him. Penny deserves a medal for what she is tolerating, and I wondered how spouses in these tough circumstances are able to cope. (They are heroes as well.) Just as she is ready to leave Grant, he begs her to stay. In a cool bit of choreography, Pinchin and Kinnear alternate between reality and scary flashbacks in a move they call “the spin.” The lights dim when Grant envisions the native woman from the war and brighten as he embraces Penny, trying to not let her slip away.

Nobody's Home has been perfected over the ten years since its inception. We were lucky to chat with the actors after the show, delighted to discover they are a married couple with a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Americans from the two coasts, they met doing theater and currently reside in England. They said the play has a prominent, kind of weird place in their relationship. It is a story that needs to be told. 

Pinchin and Kinnear were impressed with our city and commented on how “nice everyone has been in Chicago.” Awwww. They planned to explore a bit the next day, so we made suggestions on where to eat and what to see. We are lucky they shared their unique play with the Windy City and hope they return soon.

Click here for full details on all Physical Festival shows and workshops

LET’S GET PHYSICAL!

FINAL WEEK PHYSICAL FESTIVAL CHICAGO HIGHLIGHTS:

AN INGENIOUS DON QUIXOTE VIA SPAIN/UK

A KICK-ASS, ONE-WOMAN LITTLE GIRL WAR

REFUGEE TALE VIA BRAZIL/FRANCE

THIS JUST IN!

A NEW AUDITION WORKSHOP

WITH A LEADING CIRQUE DU SOLEIL TALENT SCOUT

New workshop just added!

From the Inside Out- Dance/Physical Theater Guided Improv – Friday, June 8, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Learn directly from top Cirque du Soleil talent scout Leon Kupferschmid. Find out what he looks for in potential performers prior to Cirque du Soleil’s Chicago auditions for dancers, clowns and physical actors, June 9 and 10.

Bouffon Workshop with Eric Davis (aka Red Bastard), Sunday, June 3, 10 a.m.- 1 p.m. has sold out.

Limited space is still available for the remaining workshops:

Sculpting Space with Dorie Kinnear and Will Pinchin (UK/USA), Monday, June 4,
10 a.m.- 1 p.m.

Dreams, Wishes, Lies with Michael Montenegro, Wednesday, June 6, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Create Your Own Solo with Gaël Le Cornec and Ben Samuels, Thursday, June 7,
10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Comedy & Clowning with Little Solder Productions, Saturday, June 9 at 10 a.m.-1 p.m.


Visit physicalfestival.com/workshops for full workshop descriptions and to register. Workshops are $50 each, or look for information on a discounted workshop pass.



Tickets and for full details on all Physical Festival shows and workshops HERE

REVIEW: "The Revolutionists" by Organic Theater at Greenhouse Theater Center, running May 29-July 8, 2018

Chi IL Live Shows On Our Radar:

THE REVOLUTIONISTS & 

TIRESIAS WAS A WEATHERMAN 

Via Organic Theater Company of Chicago at the Greenhouse Theater Center

Sara Copeland (Charlotte Corday) in Organic Theater’s production of The Revolutionists, directed by Bryan Wakefield, assistant director Julia Rufo, May 29 – July 8, 2018. All Production Photos by Anna Gelman.

Review By Catherine Hellmann, guest critic

A play about a woman playwright, a woman Haitian rebel spy, dethroned Queen Marie Antoinette, and a tough-girl would-be rebel assassin? In the same play set in 18th Century France with female characters dropping f-bombs? Sign me up!

Playwright Lauren Gunderson uses modern language in her clever, thought-provoking play that is tough to classify. It begins in a somber mood, images of serious discord, pending beheadings...until the delightful Stephanie Sullivan as playwright Olympe de Gouges breaks the tension by asking how could a light-hearted comedy begin with a scene at a guillotine? (Or something like that...I forgot a pen and was mad at myself for not capturing more lines of dialogue verbatim. There are so many wonderful lines in this script.)

Stephanie Sullivan (Olympe de Gouges) and Laura Sturm (Marie Antoinette)

The Revolutionists explores feminism, friendships, rebelliousness, the French Revolution, and makes us feel sympathy for ousted Queen Marie Antoinette---all while making us laugh!

One of the best lines in the witty script is when the characters are debating topics for Olympe de Gouges’ next play, and musicals are discussed. “Who would want to see a musical about the French Revolution?” There is an inside-joke line about a barricade, which elicited laughs from the appreciative audience, and such banter makes The Revolutionists extra fun for theater fans. Gunderson takes advantage of having a playwright character as the others in the story discuss the impact of theater and how a play can affect society or cause change.

All four actresses are so perfect; if I had to pick a favorite, it would be the Narcissistic Queen Marie Antoinette played by Laura Sturm. She was so funny in her “It’s all about ME” mode, like how she knows it is her cue to stand up when she hears the blare of trumpets to announce her entrance! But there is a vulnerable side to her as well, when she describes her life, and how she was married off to a stranger she met on her wedding day.

Taylor Raye (Marianne Angelle) in Organic Theater’s production of The Revolutionists, directed by Bryan Wakefield, assistant director Julia Rufo, May 29 – July 8, 2018. Photo by Anna Gelman.

My companion said his favorite was Taylor Raye as rebel spy Marianne Angelle. Her character is undercover in France fighting for freedom in Haiti, where she has left her husband and two young children behind. I loved her description of her family as she recalls what she is risking for them.

Stephanie Sullivan (Olympe de Gouges)

                                                      Sara Copeland (Charlotte Corday)

Energetic and intense Sara Copeland as assassin Charlotte Corday is also excellent. I had to look up the backstory on her tale, which is fascinating. Indeed, twenty-four-year old Corday did fatally stab a very sickly Jean-Paul Marat in his own bathtub. She was persistent--it took three tries to receive admittance to his home. For her efforts, she was beheaded a mere four days after her crime. In contrast, Marat was hailed as a martyr to his cause, which is mentioned in Gunderson’s play.

As Corday is killed, Copeland ties a red ribbon around her neck to signify the beheading. She later, as an interrogator, gets to wear the coolest stage mask ever. It is unusual to see an all-female cast get to debate art, politics, andtheir destinies in a funny, entertaining way. The Revolutionists are some thought-provoking, kick-ass women. Go support them.

The Revolutionists runs from now until July 8 and is being performed in rotating repertory with Tiresias Was a Weatherman by Jaime Mire, which also sounds intriguing. Greenhouse Theater Center is located at 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue near Oz Park.

ORGANIC THEATER COMPANY – 2018 SUMMER REPERTORY SEASON:

AWE-INSPIRING WOMEN STAND UP AND FIGHT BACK; OR, 

 WHICH IS WORSE, THE REIGN OF TERROR OR THE REIGN OF BIG PHARMA?

Check out full show details here.

REVIEW: “An Existential Cabaret” Via Brown Paper Box Co. at Mary’s Attic

Chi, IL Live Shows On Our Radar:


Brown Paper Box Co.’s 2018/2019 season poster designs by Artistic Associate Charlie Sheets.

“Inspired by life’s great mysteries presented in the regional premiere of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Pulitzer Prize finalist EVERYBODY, “An Existential Cabaret” continues Brown Paper Box Co.’s relationship with original cabaret series at Mary’s Attic in Andersonville. As we begin to explore life, love, and death through Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ modern morality play, guests at Mary’s Attic can expect to hear musical stylings inspired by EVERYBODY’s characters & themes including Love, Death, Stuff, Friendship, Family, Understanding, and even ‘God.’ Join the existential journey with the Brown Paper Box Co. family - and a few special guests.”

Review of "Existential Cabaret" Via Brown Paper Box Co. 
by Catherine Hellmann, Guest Critic

Although I didn’t understand the purpose of the “roles” in the shows, I learned a couple interesting facts from the “Existential Cabaret” by Brown Paper Box Co. on Saturday May 5. Comedian Rachel Reiman informed the audience that she “lost custody of her strap-on” after a breakup with her partner, and “that’s $130 I will never get back.” So I learned what a strap-on would set me back. Thanks, Rachel. Saves me a trip to the Pleasure Chest.

Rachel also had a great bit about how country music should have songs about two lesbians who move in together after two weeks and then have a “long, tumultuous six month breakup.” (Like the old joke a gay friend told me,”What does a lesbian bring on her second date? A moving van.”) 

Another cool fact I learned was how much I need to see some of the new musicals emerging from Broadway. I bought my tickets for the touring production of Waitress, but wish I could have heard the song “When He Sees Me,”  more clearly the other night. I also thought the duet from

SpongeBob Squarepants, The New Musical, “I Guess I’ll Miss You,” was very sweet. Informed they are Friends in Real Life, Emilie Modaff and Ben Kaye (in his bright yellow-SpongeBob-like suit) were adorable in their rendition. They had a cute rapport onstage together.

The talented Emilie Modaff stated before the Requiem song, from Dear Evan Hansen, “We’re going to sing it, and you should cry.” Hostess Kristi Szczepanek and Anna Schutz did a lovely job harmonizing on “I Will Never Leave You” from Side Show.

Two standouts in the lineup were original songs. Hannah Starr sang “Freeze” from her show BOOMBOX. The song explains how the character is bored during an improv game of “Freeze,” while her cast mates prattle on, and she debates when to join in. (Having witnessed a lot of Second City sketches recently with my daughters doing “Afterschool Matters,” I could really relate to this dilemma.)

The other truly memorable, talented performer was Nire Nah, armed with a blue-green guitar and a poignant, raw, honest song called “Open Your Mouth” about overcoming addiction and depression. Her lyrics were simple but powerful: “I’m not a writer, not a fighter. Wish I was brighter.” She is a writer and a lovely songstress to watch. 

The overall show was a bit uneven. As my companion remarked,”Did you get the impression there were a lot of inside jokes we didn’t get?” Yes. This was especially evident during the second comedian’s segment. The audience was howling, but we were lost.

The cabaret ended on an awesome note, literally. Alex Madda sang “The Wizard and I” from Wicked. She brought the house down. 

“An Existential Cabaret” was a short, two day run, May 4 & 5. Save the dates for the Regional Premiere of EVERYBODY July 13th through August 12th.

Brown Paper Box Co. 2018/2019 Season

Following their Jeff Recommended run of They’re Playing Our Song and the Chicago Reader Recommended Speech & Debate, Brown Paper Box Co. is proud to announce its 2018/2019 season. With an exciting regional premiere fresh out of New York - cast by lottery each night live on stage, a Chicago storefront chamber musical premiere, a new cabaret at Mary’s Attic in Andersonville, and a Spring 2019 Special Event to be announced soon, BPBCo.’s upcoming season has a little bit of something for everyone & everybody.

"Our staff got about 6 pages into reading Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ EVERYBODY and immediately knew it was the perfect play for our new season,” says Artistic Director Kristi Szczepanek. “And when William & Stephanie brought us their bare-bones concept for Little Women the Musical, it seemed like a great compliment. Thematically, the shows are very different, but we hope to tie them together aesthetically, as we focus this year on our ‘theatre, plain and simple’ roots."

Additional information regarding tickets, casting, outreach, becoming a season donor, and auditions for Brown Paper Box Co.’s 2018/2019 season can be found by visiting www.BrownPaperBox.org.

Brown Paper Box Co. presents An Existential Cabaret
Host: Kristi Szczepanek, Accompanist: Emilie Modaff
May 4 and 5, 2018 
Mary’s Attic above Hamburger Mary’s

Inspired by life’s great mysteries presented in our first play in our 2018/2019 season, EVERYBODY, An Existential Cabaret will be a little different from our previous cabarets! As we begin to explore life, love, and morality through Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ modern morality play, guests at Mary’s Attic can expect to hear the musical stylings of Love, Death, Stuff, Friendship, Understanding, and even God — just to name a few. Join us on May 4th and 5th at Mary’s Attic to celebrate our season with the Brown Paper Box Co. family - and a few special guests!

EVERYBODY 
Regional Premiere
Playwright: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Director: Erin Shea Brady
July 13 - August 12, 2018
Pride Films & Plays’ The Buena 

This modern riff on the 15th-century morality play Everyman follows Everybody (chosen from the cast by lottery at each performance) as they travel down a road toward life’s greatest mystery. Making its regional premiere in Chicago following its 2017 world premiere off-Broadway, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Gloria, An Octoroon) bases his new play on a medieval morality play that instructs sinners on how to repent and seek redemption.

“EVERYBODY harnesses theatricality to drop these conversations into our laps in a way that is hopeful, engaging, and unique,” says director Erin Shea Brady. “The actors literally get to try on different roles. They literally get to step into different points of view, giving us a new opportunity to explore bias and conditioning. There will be some permutations of this piece that have never happened before, that an audience is seeing for the very first time. It’s a huge, exciting experiment and it is electric. EVERYBODY is in on the rarity, taking ‘different every night’ to a whole new level.”

Erin Shea Brady (Director) joined the BPBCo. team this year as Production Director. She is the founder of No Stakes Theater Project, an organization dedicated to supporting the creative risks of emerging artists, where she has produced several productions, staged readings, and initiatives since 2014. Directing credits include: Kander & Ebb's Cabaret, Sharr White’s Annapurna (staged reading) and Jim Cartwright’s The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (No Stakes Theater Project); Stands (Spartan Theater, staged reading) and Anna Schutz's Prodigy: A Modern Family Portrait (staged reading). In assistant direction and dramaturgy roles, Erin has worked on productions at the Goodman, TimeLine, A Red Orchid, Jackalope, Northlight, and Remy Bumppo. A graduate from the directing program at Columbia College Chicago, her training also includes internships at Steppenwolf (Casting Department), American Blues (Performance Intern, Waiting for Lefty), Northlight and A Red Orchid.  Erin is also a contributing critic at Newcity Stage and Perform.Ink and is hard at work on her new play, Revival.

LITTLE WOMEN The Musical
Music: Jason Howland, Lyrics: Mindi Dickstein Book: Allan Knee
Musical Direction: T.J. Anderson
Co-Directors: M. William Panek and Stephanie Rohr
Opening January 2019

This timeless, captivating story is brought to life in this Broadway chamber musical filled with personal discovery, heartache, hope and everlasting love. Based on Louisa May Alcott’s life, Little Women follows the adventures of sisters Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March. Jo is trying to sell her stories for publication, but the publishers are not interested. Her friend, Professor Bhaer, tells her that she has to do better and write more from herself. Begrudgingly taking this advice, Jo weaves the story of herself and her sisters and their experience growing up in Civil War America.

Under the co-direction of company members M. William Panek and Stephanie Rohr and musical direction of artistic associate T.J. Anderson, Brown Paper Box Co.’s production will focus on the season's mantra of "theatre, plain and simple." The "back to the basics" approach will re-orchestrate the Broadway score for single piano to transport Jo's memories and the events of the musical into her childhood attic. The bare-bones reimagining will elevate the March sisters’ relationships as important focal points rather than simple plot points. 

M. William Panek (Co-Director) is a proud graduate of the University of Illinois' Theatre Department. Most recent he collaborated with Zach Zimmerman on Luke Babylon: Christian Magician and Spell: An Interactive Solo Performance at iO Chicago, iO New York, The Duplex New York, and the Annoyance Theatre. Previously directing: Now. Here. This., [title of show] (Jeff Award Nominated), A New Brain, Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls, Godspell, To Tree (world premiere), Reefer Madness! The Musical in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Casting Associate: EVERYBODY, The Baltimore Waltz, Julius Caesar, Spike Heels. Cabaret: "Positively Present," "Mary'z With a Z," "Proud at Mary's" at Mary's Attic, "Spring Forward Fail Back" at Uncommon Ground, and "BPB Yearbook" "Character Breakdown" at Davenport's. William served as an artistic associate with The Orchard Project in Hunter, NY, production assistant for the 24-Hour Musicals at Joe's Pub, and the business management assistant at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Stephanie Rohr (Co-Director) has worked with BPBCo. as director of Spike Heels, assistant director of A New Brain, and coordinator for Spring Forward Fail Back cabaret. She has performed with BPBCo. in Godspell, Aloha Say the Pretty Girls, and [title of show]. Stephanie holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Drake University and an MA in Classical Acting from Drama Centre London. She made her West End debut in Opera Up Close's Olivier Award winning production of La Boheme, and also performed at the Roundhouse Theatre and the Barbican Centre in London. Chicago credits include: High Fidelity (Refuge Theatre), Macbeth, Reservoir Dogs, and Predator: The Musical (Roundhouse Productions), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Spectralia Theatre), Jesus Camp (Cornservatory), Perfect Wedding and Secrets of a Soccer Mom (Towle Theater), and No Sex Please, We're British (JPAC). Stephanie also works as a private vocal coach, sings with The Moxie Sisters and The Bangers, and is a fiber artist and cross-stitch designer. (StephXstitch.com)

EXTENDED: Piven Theatre Workshop's Melancholy Play: a chamber musical through 6/21 #Review #GuestPost

Piven Theatre Workshop extends Melancholy Play: a chamber musical through June 21, 2015

Playwright Sarah Ruhl to conduct post-show talk-backs June 18 and 21; Ruhl and composer Todd Almond return for Poetry Foundation conversation, June 24   

In this lighthearted farce, bank teller Tilly’s (Stephanie Stockstill) melancholy is of an exquisite quality. She turns her melancholy into a sexy thing, and every stranger she meets falls in love with her. One day, inexplicably, Tilly becomes happy, and wreaks havoc on the lives of her paramours, while Frances, Tilly’s hairdresser, becomes so melancholy that she turns into an almond. It is up to Tilly to get her back. Other members of the Equity production include Chris Ballou (Frank, a tailor who deeply loves Tilly’s melancholia); Lauren Paris (Frances, her hairdresser); Emily Grayson (Joan, the helpless nurse who watches her girlfriend Frances devolve into a nut), and Ryan Lanning (Lorenzo, Tilly’s eccentric therapist from an undetermined European country).  

Review

Guest Post by Flo Mano- Exclusive to ChiIL Live Shows

"Melancholy  play" is an opera worthy musical. Four strings and a piano, come alive as Tilly, is "melancholy" and sees her European "happy" therapist, who has a "transference" on her.

And that starts the "Amelie" like happenstance of happy go lucky with a twist of "almonds". When her path crosses the tailor, who makes daily visits to the bank where she works, they fall in love. Then a hairstylist falls for Tilly, as does her lesbian nurse lover. To the dismay of the psychotherapist, she informs him that she no longer needs his services, because she's happy and leaves him a few hair strands he'd asked her for. So, this strange, outlandish farce takes us through a journey of Tilly becoming "not melancholy", but the now happy Tilly brings despair on those who love her, want her, and fight over her. 

In this utterly unique show, Tilly’s hairdresser gets so distraught, taking a downward emotional plunge, she literally turns into an "almond", A REAL ALMOND! Now her morphing brings sadness to her friends, for her altered state, and the "tears" that brought on the transformation. Yet her friends are not hopelessness or helpless as they band together in their quest to retrieve and reverse, discovering hidden secrets of the past that bond them even more.

So this surrealistic story swerves and spirals, twists and turns, and audiences following the course are anything but melancholy. Recommended.

Piven Theatre Workshop will extend performances of the critically-acclaimed Melancholy Play: a chamber musical by Tony™-nominated playwright Sarah Ruhl, with music by prolific New York composer Todd Almond and direction by Polly Noonan. The production will continue through Sunday, June 21, at Piven Theatre Workshop, 927 Noyes Street in Evanston.  The new musical was originally scheduled to close June 7.

The Piven Theatre Workshop is also pleased to announce that Melancholy Play playwright (and Piven alumna and longtime supporter) Sarah Ruhl returns to the Piven stage for post-show “talk- backs” on both Thursday evening, June 18, and Sunday afternoon, June 21.  She will be joined by the cast, plus members of the creative team on the 18th, and Piven Theatre Workshop Founder Joyce Piven on the 21st. 

Also of note, immediately following the run of Melancholy Play, Ruhl and Almond will discuss their collaboration and the transformation of Ruhl's original text with Almond’s music at the Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street, Chicago, Wednesday evening, June 24, at 7 p.m.  This program is free and open to the public. For more information about this free public program at the Poetry Foundation, please visit: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/programs/event/4453

Sarah Ruhl’s Melancholy Play had its world premiere in 2002 at Piven Theatre Workshop and starred Noonan in the lead role as Tilly.  A decade later, Ruhl teamed up with Almond and developed Melancholy Play as a new chamber musical.  It was workshopped in 2012 via 13p in Brooklyn, and returned to Piven Theatre Workshop for its Midwest Premiere. It will have its official World Premiere at Trinity Rep Theater in Providence, RI, on May 28, 2015.

Noonan, director of the highly acclaimed production of The Language Archive last year at Piven, returns to helm the show she once starred in over a decade ago. 

The designers of Melancholy Play: a chamber musical are Jacob Watson (set), Rachel Levy (lighting), Alex Palma (sound), Stephanie Cluggish (costumes), and Austin Kopsa (properties). Musical Direction is by Aaron Benham.

About the Playwright:

Sarah Ruhl’s plays include In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony Award nominee for best new play), The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 2005; The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play, a cycle (Pen American award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes award); Melancholy Play; Eurydice; Orlando, Demeter in the City (NAACP nomination), Late: a cowboy song, Three Sisters, and most recently, Stage Kiss, The Oldest Boy, and Dear Elizabeth.  Melancholy Play, Eurydice, Orlando, Three Sisters, and Late: a cowboy song have all been produced at Piven Theatre Workshop.

About the Composer:

Writer/performer Todd Almond’s work includes the World Premiere of IOWA, an original musical play with playwright Jenny Schwartz and director Ken Rus Schmoll, officially opening at Playwrights Horizons, April 13, 2015.  Other theatrical credits include original music for Ruhl’s Stage Kiss, also at Playwrights Horizons; original music and lyrics for the Public Theater/Public Works’ The Tempest at the Delacorte, in which Almond also starred as Ariel; original book for Girlfriend (music and lyrics by Matthew Sweet) at Actors Theater and Berkeley Rep; original music and lyrics for On the Levee at LCT3; original music and lyrics for Yale Rep’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle; original music and lyrics for The Odyssey at the Old Globe in San Diego; and original music and lyrics for Kansas City Choir Boy, performed by Almond with rock icon Courtney Love as part of the Prototype Festival.

About Piven Theatre Workshop:

With Melancholy Play: a chamber musical, Piven Theatre Workshop continues its ongoing mission of premiering original works, and its history of celebrating the emerging voices of women. Piven Theatre Workshop has excelled as a leader in the arts community for 44 years, maintaining a distinguished legacy in the training of children and adults in the theatre arts. Annually, between onsite and off-site programming, the theatre trains over 1,000 students, provides approximately $30,000 in need-based scholarships, and maintains a professional theatre and numerous outreach programs throughout the Chicago area.

Performance schedule & tickets:

Melancholy Play: a chamber musical will be performed at the Piven Theatre Workshop, 927 Noyes Street, Evanston, through June 21, 2015. The performance schedule is: Thursday, Friday & Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m.  Tickets are priced from $20-$35, and are available at the box office, by calling 847-866-8049, or online at www.piventheatre.org.