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"ROSE" Brings Post Chappaquiddick ROSE FITZGERALD KENNEDY to Greenhouse Theater Center
“ROSE,”
By Laurence Leamer
Directed by Steve Scott
Starring Linda Reiter
January 12 – March 11, 2018
Running Time: 1hr, 30mins
Review:
In this brilliant remount, acclaimed Chicago actress, Linda Reiter effortlessly channels Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, from her iconic pearls and fabulous fashion sense, to her unsettling family revelations. She is truly a treat to listen to, and keeps the audience's rapt attention for the duration. The Kennedy saga is fascinating in and of itself, but also as a microcosm of America's story. Theirs is an all American rags to riches, tale of immigrants made good. They lost sons in war, and political assassinations. They lost daughters prioritizing religion, propriety, and appearances over familial love.
Rose was intelligent, ambitious, and upwardly mobile, grooming her sons for greatness from birth, yet very much an American woman constrained by her era. While I chaffed at her ingrained sexism and the infidelity she endured and ignored in her husbands and later in her sons, she has a lovely outburst where she rails again her choices that's nothing short of cathartic and redeeming.
In this brilliant remount, acclaimed Chicago actress, Linda Reiter effortlessly channels Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, from her iconic pearls and fabulous fashion sense, to her unsettling family revelations. She is truly a treat to listen to, and keeps the audience's rapt attention for the duration. The Kennedy saga is fascinating in and of itself, but also as a microcosm of America's story. Theirs is an all American rags to riches, tale of immigrants made good. They lost sons in war, and political assassinations. They lost daughters prioritizing religion, propriety, and appearances over familial love.
Rose was intelligent, ambitious, and upwardly mobile, grooming her sons for greatness from birth, yet very much an American woman constrained by her era. While I chaffed at her ingrained sexism and the infidelity she endured and ignored in her husbands and later in her sons, she has a lovely outburst where she rails again her choices that's nothing short of cathartic and redeeming.
I particularly enjoyed the use of photo albums, projected on the stage curtain, as a storytelling device. Reiter does a lovely job creating a sympathetic character, showcasing Rose's parenting style, and embracing the travails of life in the public eye. History comes to life in this engaging solo show, with Kennedy matriarch as hostess and consumate story teller. Prior to this show, I was familiar with the JFK assassination, Chappaquiddick, and a smattering of Kennedy lore, but in this historical piece directed by Steve Scott so much more was revealed about the lives, loves, and deaths of the many Kennedy siblings, and this period of American history. Rose is well worth seeing, and now playing at Chicago's Greenhouse Theater Center through March 11th.
The Greenhouse Theater Center Presents
ROSE
Jeff Award Winner – Best Solo Performance!
Following its hit production of MACHINAL, Greenhouse Theater Center is pleased to continue its 2017-18 season with the return of Laurence Leamer's critically acclaimed drama ROSE. Recently honored with a 2017 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Solo Performance, celebrated Chicago actress Linda Reiter reprises her role as matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy in this intimate piece directed by Steve Scott. ROSE will play January 12 – March 11, 2018 at the Greenhouse Theater Center (Downstairs Main Stage), 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at greenhousetheater.org, in person at the box office or by calling (773) 404-7336. Season Flex passes are also available.
An intimate portrait of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Camelot’s “queen mother,” as she retraces the rise and fall of her great family. A break-out hit during the 2016 Solo Celebration! Series following its successful Off-Broadway run, ROSE is based on never-before-heard interviews compiled by distinguished Kennedy biographer Laurence Leamer.
“A lot has transpired in our nation’s political landscape since the first time that we mounted Rose, as part of last year’s Solo Celebration! Series,” comments Artistic Director Jacob Harvey. “The story of Rose Kennedy and her remarkable family has taken on a new resonance, assuring audiences that although our nation can face moments of turmoil and uncertainty, we have the ability to build a brighter future by exploring and understanding our collective past.”
The production team for ROSE includes: Kevin Hagan (scenic design), Rachel Lambert (costume design), Cat Wilson (lighting design) and Christopher Kriz (sound design) and Kasey Trouba (stage manager).
Location The Greenhouse Theater Center (Downstairs Main Stage), 2257 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago
Dates: Previews: Friday, January 12 at 7:30 pm, Saturday, January 13 at 2:30 pm and Sunday, January 14 at 7:30 pm
Regular run: Thursday, January 18 – March 11, 2018
Curtain times: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 2:30 pm. Please note: there will be added matinee performances at 2:30 pm on Saturday, January 27, Wednesday, January 31, Saturday, February 10, Wednesday, February 14, Saturday, February 24, Wednesday, February 28 and Saturday, March 10.
Tickets: Regular run: $35 - $45. Students and industry: $15. Tickets on sale at greenhousetheater.org, in person at the box office or by calling (773) 404-7336. Season Flex Passes are also available.
About The Artists
Laurence Leamer (Playwright) Rose is Laurence Leamer’s first play. Leamer is an award-winning journalist and historian who has written 14 books, many of them bestsellers. He has experienced many different lives. As a college student, he worked in a French factory. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal stationed two days from a road. As a young journalist, Leamer worked in a coal mine in West Virginia and covered the war in Bangladesh for Harper’s. His one novel, Assignment, is about drug trafficking in Peru, where Leamer lived for two years. Most of his career Leamer has written nonfiction. His trilogy on the Kennedys – The Kennedy Women, The Kennedy Men and Sons of Camelot – were all New York Times best sellers. John Grisham called Leamer’s most recent book, The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption, “superb…This is a book I wish I had written.” The journalist’s new book, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle that Brought Down the Klan, was published in June.
Steve Scott (Director) is the Producer of Goodman Theatre, where he has overseen more than 200 productions; he is also a member of Goodman’s Artistic Collective. His Goodman directing credits include Ah, Wilderness!; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; Horton Foote’s Blind Date; Rabbit Hole; Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock and No One Will Be Immune for the David Mamet Festival; Dinner With Friends; Wit; the world premiere of Tom Mula’s Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (co-directed with Michael Maggio); and the 2011 and 2012 editions of A Christmas Carol. Other recent directing credits include Rose for the Greenhouse Theatre; Chewing on Beckett for Artemisia Theatre; Yellow Face, The DNA Trail and Yohen at Silk Road Rising; American Myth at American Blues Theatre; The Mandrake at A Red Orchid Theatre; Death of a Salesman, The Seedbed, Clybourne Park, Elemeno Pea, Elling, A Delicate Balance, Lettice and Lovage and Shadowlands for Redtwist Theatre; Mothers and Sons, Souvenir and Black Pearl Sings at Northlight Theatre; The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Buried Child and Dealer’s Choice for Shattered Globe Theatre; Frozen for The Next Theatre Company; A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing for the St. Lawrence (Ontario) Shakespeare Festival; The Teapot Scandals of 1923 and Falsettos for Porchlight Theatre; Angels in America, You Can’t Take It with You, The Grapes of Wrath, A Streetcar Named Desire, Execution of Justice, Ah, Wilderness!, God’s Country and Judgment at Nuremberg for the Theatre Conservatory at Roosevelt University’s College of Performing Arts (where he is a faculty member); and a number of productions for the Eclipse Theatre (where he is an ensemble member), including Stephen Adly Guirgis’s The Little Flower of East Orange, Terrence McNally’s The Lisbon Traviata, Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel, Alan Ayckbourn’s Woman in Mind, Arthur Miller’s After the Fall, John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation, Rebecca Gilman’s Boy Gets Girl, Keith Reddin’s Big Time, Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite and Lanford Wilson’s The Moonshot Tapes. He has directed for a variety of other companies, including Theatre Wit, the Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, National Jewish Theatre, Theater at the Center, Lifeline Theatre, Organic Touchstone Theatre, the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists and the Creede (Colorado) Repertory Theatre, where he was artistic director from 1976 through 1978. Mr. Scott was one of six resident directors for WBEZ’s series Stories on Stage, and has contributed articles to a variety of publications, including the Encyclopedia of Chicago. He is the recipient of six Jefferson Award nominations, an After Dark Award, the Illinois Theatre Association’s Award of Honor and Eclipse Theatre Company’s Corona Award; he received a special Jeff Award honoring his 37-year career as a producer, director and teacher.
Linda Reiter (Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy) is pleased to be reviving her performance of Rose, for which she received a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Solo Performance. Linda is an ensemble member of Shattered Globe Theatre where she was seen most recently as Mary Todd Lincoln in The Heavens are Hung in Black. Last spring, she portrayed Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Linda’s first solo performance was in The Testament of Mary at Victory Gardens Theater, for which she also received a Joseph Jefferson nomination for Best Solo Performance. Linda has garnered Joseph Jefferson Awards in the non-Equity category for the roles of Eleanor Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate, Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Kate in All My Sons, Mme. De Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Dee Dee in Invitation to a March and Sarah in Bondagers. She received nominations in the Equity category for Bessie in Marvin’s Room, Lola in Come Back, Little Sheba, Esther in The Price and Elsa in The Road to Mecca, all SGT productions. Some of her favorites outside SGT include Lottie in Lettice & Lovage at Court Theatre, Hannah in Arcadia at Remy Bumppo Theatre, Gillian in Marriage Play at the Goodman Theatre “Albeefest”, Flyovers and Immoral Imperatives at Victory Gardens Theater and Lea de Lonval in Cheri at Live Bait Theatre. Linda’s TV credits include Chicago Med, Chicago P.D. and The Beast. Her voiceover credits include over 30 episodes of The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas, hosted by Stacy Keach, and she played opposite Kelsey Grammer in The Manchurian Candidate radio drama produced by Chicago Theatres On-the-Air. Linda is represented by Paonessa Talent Agency.
About the Greenhouse Theater Center
The Greenhouse Theater Center is a producing theater company, performance venue and theatre bookstore located at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Our mission is first and foremost to grow local theatre.
The Greenhouse Theater began its producing life in 2014 with the smash hit Churchill, after which came 2016’s much-lauded Solo Celebration!, an eight month, 16 event series highlighting the breadth and depth of the solo play form. This year, the Greenhouse announced a full subscription season, with a mix of multi-character and solo plays. With a focus on our community, the Greenhouse has also launched the Trellis Residency Initiative, an initiative designed to cultivate the next generation of Chicago theatre creators, as well as the MC-10, an ensemble of mid-career playwrights whose works will be included in future Greenhouse programming.
As a performance venue, our complex offers two newly remodeled 190-seat main stage spaces, two 60-seat studio theaters, two high-capacity lobbies and an in-house rehearsal room. We strive to cultivate a fertile environment for local artists, from individual renters to our bevy of resident companies, and to develop and produce their work. In 2016, the Greenhouse announced a new residency program, which offers a reduced rate to local storefront companies while giving the Greenhouse a stake in the resident’s success. We house Chicago’s only dedicated used theatre bookstore, located on the second floor of our complex.
With new ideas always incubating, the Greenhouse is flourishing. Come grow with us!
