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

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

SAVE THE DATES: Upcoming “Theatre Thursday” Specials

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

“Theatre Thursday” Event Series via League of Chicago Theatres for 2017-2018 Season


Chicago is synonymous with a world class theatre scene including a breathtaking number of world premieres. Here at ChiILLiveShows.com (adult) & ChiILMama.com (family friendly) we bring you Chicago theatre news, interviews, original reviews, ticket giveaways, photo recaps, and more. We also adore The League of Chicago Theatres and their Theatre Thursday events. They're a stellar resource for theatre lovin' locals and visitors alike. Note these dates and come to Theatre Thursdays like we vote in Chi, IL... early and often. 

Alias Grace - Rivendell Theatre Ensemble,
The Making of a Modern Folk Hero - The Other Theatre Company,
Welcome to Jesus - American Theater Company,
Puff: Believe It or Not - Remy Bumppo Theatre Company,
Franklinland - Jackalope Theatre,
Breach: A Manifesto on Race in America Through the Eyes of a
Black Girl Recovering from Self-Hate - Victory Gardens Theater,
Anna Karenina - Lifeline Theatre,
Ellen Bond, Union Spy - The House Theatre of Chicago,
To Catch a Fish - TimeLine Theatre Company,
Damascus - Strawdog Theatre Company,
Tilikum - Sideshow Theatre Company, and
Bliss (or Emily Post is Dead!) - Promethean Theatre Ensemble


The League of Chicago Theatres announces the Theatre Thursday event line-up for the 2017-2018 Chicago theatre season, featuring one World Premiere per month. The Theatre Thursday events include works created and performed by a diverse range of playwrights and artists at theatres located in nine Chicago neighborhoods. Additional information for each event is below and ticketing details will be available online at http://bit.ly/theatrethursdays.



The Theatre Thursday initiative, first launched in 2005, strengthens and diversifies the Chicago theatre community by encouraging Chicagoans to explore new venues and companies. In 2015, the League of Chicago Theatres revamped the program to focus on new work with Theatre Thursday events happening once a month. Each monthly event provides audiences with a world premiere production and an inside look at the creative process behind new works, including exclusive access to artists.

“For the past twelve years, Theatre Thursday events have offered theatregoers an affordable theatre experience in various neighborhoods in Chicago. Each evening offers a close look at the production and encourages people to try something new. Each production is a world premiere and the selections this season are exemplary of the diverse, quality work on stages throughout the city and suburbs,” comments League of Chicago Theatres Executive Director Deb Clapp.”

The 2017-2018 Series Includes:

September 7, 2017
ALIAS GRACE
Based on the novel by Margaret Atwood and adapted by Jennifer Blackmer
Rivendell Theatre Ensemble
5779 N. Ridge in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood
Tickets: $15
For reservations, visit https://rivendelltheatre.secure.force.com/ticket and use the discount code “THTH”.

Enjoy appetizers, cocktails and conversation pre-show with playwright Jennifer Blackmer and director Karen Kessler courtesy of Cellars Bar & Grill at 6:30pm in Rivendell’s rehearsal studio then sojourn next door to the theatre for an 8:00pm preview performance of Alias Grace.

About Alias Grace: A world premiere adaptation of Atwood's acclaimed novel, Alias Grace takes a look at one of Canada's most notorious murderers. In 1843, 16-year-old Grace Marks was accused of brutally murdering her employer and his housekeeper. Imprisoned for years, Grace still swears she has no memory of the killings. A doctor in the emerging field of mental health arrives to try to find out the truth of the matter. Alias Grace is a fascinating study of memory, culpability, and the shadowy spaces within the human mind.

October 12, 2017
THE MAKING OF A MODERN FOLK HERO
Written by Martin Zimmerman
The Other Theatre Company at Chicago Dramatists
1105 W. Chicago Ave. in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood
Event and reservation details will be announced closer to the date.

About The Making of a Modern Folk Hero: A congressman entices an old friend (and washed-up actor) to portray a superhero in a publicity stunt designed to stop the unjust bulldozing of a public housing complex. That first stunt proves successful and leaves the crowd enthralled, but what happens when the character the politician created goes rogue? This graphic novel for the stage employs a seamless blend of live actors and shadow puppets to investigate the passions, hopes, and fears that call people to yearn for and believe in the possibility of superheroes.

November 9, 2017
WELCOME TO JESUS
Written by Janine Nabers
American Theater Company
1909 W. Byron Ave. in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood
Event and reservation details will be announced closer to the date.

About Welcome to Jesus: In fictional Hallelujah, TX, football reigns, and the quarterback is king. Janine Nabers’ darkly funny and powerful new play unearths the tyranny of small town life and the power of prejudice to define our fate. Staged in a field of wood chips, about a town in search of some good news, Welcome to Jesus fuses fable and horror in a twenty-first century take on the Southern Gothic tradition. Will Davis kicks off Season 33 in ambitious style.

December 14, 2017
PUFF: BELIEVE IT OR NOT
Written by Eugène Scribe and translated by Ranjit Bolt
Remy Bumppo Theatre Company at the Greenhouse Theater Center
2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood
Event and reservation details will be announced closer to the date.

About Puff: Believe It Or Not: Puff is set in the salon society of 1840s Paris and is packed full of elegant plotting, quirky characters, fanciful fakery, and just downright lying, as it delightfully skewers the worlds of letters, politics and finance.

January 25, 2018
FRANKLINLAND
Written by Lloyd Suh
Jackalope Theatre at the Broadway Armory
5917 N. Broadway in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood
Event and reservation details will be announced closer to the date.

About Franklinland: Philadelphia, 1752. Growing up as the only son of Benjamin Franklin – the greatest scientific mind in the world; inventor of the lightning rod, the odometer, the glass harmonica, bifocal glasses, and, in his spare time, The United States of America – is not all it’s cracked up to be. In the world premiere of this moving new play, Franklinland asks what it’s like to make your way in life knowing your father’s greatest invention wasn’t you.

February 15, 2018
BREACH: A MANIFESTO ON RACE IN AMERICA THROUGH THE EYES OF A BLACK GIRL RECOVERING FROM SELF-HATE
Written by Antoinette Nwandu
Victory Gardens Theater
2433 N. Lincoln Ave in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood
Event and reservation details will be announced closer to the date.

About Breach: What happens when a woman trapped in a dead-end job and a fizzling relationship accidentally gets pregnant by a man that she’s not dating? A coming-of- age story about race, class and motherhood, Breach by Antoinette Nwandu and directed by Lisa Portes, examines how hard it is to love others when it’s you that you loathe most of all.

March 1, 2018
ANNA KARENINA
Based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy and adapted by Jessica Wright Buha
Lifeline Theatre
6912 N. Glenwood Ave. in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood
Event and reservation details will be announced closer to the date.

About Anna Karenina: As a wave of profound upheaval sweeps through Russian society, it is a time of impossible choices. Anna is torn between raising her cherished son and languishing in a lifeless marriage, or sacrificing everything to follow her lover Alexei into disgrace. Konstantin struggles to reconcile his existential torment with his enduring passion for Kitty. Innocents will suffer, hearts will be broken, and families will be torn apart as two couples learn that living truthfully is no simple thing. Travel to the palaces and farms of imperial Russia in a world premiere meditation on the complexities of love based on the 1877 novel by Leo Tolstoy.

April 12, 2018
ELLEN BOND, UNION SPY
Written by Jenni Lamb
The House Theatre of Chicago at the Chopin Theatre
1543 W. Division St. in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood
Event and reservation details will be announced closer to the date.

About Ellen Bond, Union Spy: The year is 1864.  The Civil War has ripped America in half, and while Union forces greatly outnumber the Confederates, Jefferson Davis and his generals doggedly persevere.  Who can help end the war once and for all?  Enter Ellen Bond, Union Spy!  Mary Bowser is the (real!) freedwoman who risked it all to go undercover as "Ellen Bond, dim-witted but able" house slave to Jefferson and Varina Davis. "Ellen" cooks, cleans, and uses her photographic memory to collect military intel from the papers on Davis's desk.  This action-packed new seriocomedy also features contemporary music and dance, illuminating Mary’s exhilarating visions for the end of the Confederacy and the future of America.

May 10, 2018
TO CATCH A FISH
Written by Brett Neveu
TimeLine Theatre Company
615 W. Wellington Ave. in Chicago’s East Lakeview neighborhood
Event and reservation details will be announced closer to the date.

About To Catch a Fish: Inspired by true events, this compelling new play examines how the pursuit of justice—however well intentioned—can devastate a family and a community. In a low-income, residential neighborhood of Milwaukee, Terry Kilbourn has just begun a new job passing out flyers for a discount warehouse. When his bosses start asking more of him, his loved ones begin to question what is really going on. As higher stakes are revealed and relationships tested, the clarity of who to trust and what to believe grows increasingly murky. Both hilarious and heart wrenching, To Catch a Fish walks the line between good intentions and deceit, testing the bonds we have to family and community.

June 7, 2018
DAMASCUS
Written by Bennett Fisher
Strawdog Theatre Company
1802 W. Berenice in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood
Event and reservation details will be announced closer to the date.

About Damascus: Hassan is a Somali-American Super Shuttle driver in Minneapolis, struggling to make ends meet as more and more of his customers switch to Uber and Lyft. So when a stranded teenager at the airport pays Hassan to take him to Chicago, it seems like it’s worth the risk. Until it isn't. A claustrophobic thriller about privilege, paranoia, and the assumptions we make about one another.

July 5, 2018
TILIKUM
Written by Kristiana Rae Colón
Sideshow Theatre Company at Victory Gardens Theater
2433 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood
Event and reservation details will be announced closer to the date.

About Tilikum: Tilikum was a king, and the oceans of the world were his. Now, he is a captive in a marine amusement park, doomed to live merely as an opportunity for profit. Alone behind bars he forgets the feel of freedom, but when fellow prisoners ignite the fires of his memory, he starts down a path that threatens to consume everything. Ripped from the headlines, Kristiana Rae Colón’s Tilikum explores captivity, savagery and rebellion in a vital and visceral blend of theatre, drumming and dance. Poetic and lyrical, Tilikum calls out the power structures--both corporate and human--that ensure continued oppression, and the complicity of those willing to stand by and do nothing.

August 2, 2018
BLISS (OR EMILY POST IS DEAD!)
Written by Jami Brandli
Promethean Theatre Ensemble at the Athenaeum Theatre
2936 N. Southport Ave. in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood
Event and reservation details will be announced closer to the date.

About Bliss (Or Emily Post is Dead): It’s 1960 in North Orange, NJ. Clytemnestra and Medea are now housewives with a pill addiction, and Antigone is the teenage girl next door who is in love with a black boy. On the surface, they're seemingly blissful to follow the "rules” of Emily Post, the American author famous for writing on etiquette. But that's just the surface. Then Cassandra, a black working girl, moves into their neighborhood and all routines are interrupted. Cassandra is determined to finally break the curse of Apollo, the gorgeous and egotistical god who gave her this “gift” of prophecy but made it so no one would ever believe her. He makes it clear his curse is practically indestructible: yet all she must do is convince someone to believe her. Can Cassandra convince them they now have a choice in this modern era? That they don't have to live a doomed existence? Can all four women escape their ongoing fate?


The 2017-2018 Theatre Thursday event series is sponsored by the Chicago Reader.

About Chicago theater
Chicago theater is the leader in the U.S. with more than 250 theaters throughout Chicagoland, comprising a rich and varied community ranging from storefront, non-union theaters to the most renowned resident theaters in the country, including 5 which have been honored with Regional Tony Awards, and the largest touring Broadway organization in the nation. Chicago’s theaters serve 5 million audience members annually and have a combined budget of more than $250 million. Chicago produces and/or presents more world premieres annually than any other city in the nation. Last year alone Chicago theater companies produced more than 100 world premiere productions and adaptations. Each year Chicago theaters send new work to resident theaters across the country, to Broadway, and around the world. 

The League of Chicago Theatres’ Mission Statement
The League of Chicago Theatres is an alliance of theaters which leverages its collective strength to promote, support and advocate for Chicago's theater industry locally, nationally and internationally. The League of Chicago Theatres Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the art of theater in the Chicago area through audience development and support services for theaters and theater professionals.

For a comprehensive list of Chicago productions, visit the League of Chicago Theatres website, ChicagoPlays.com. Half-price tickets to the current week’s performances as well as future performances are available at HotTix.org and at the two Hot Tix half-price ticket locations: across from the Chicago Cultural Center at Expo72 (72 E. Randolph) and Block Thirty Seven (108 N. State).

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Theatre Thursdays Offer World Premiere Productions And Exclusive Access to Artists.

League of Chicago Theatres Announces
Theatre Thursdays Series for 2016-2017 Season




Series Includes Carroll Gardens (16th Street Theater), A Life Extra Ordinary (The Gift Theatre),
Cinderella at the Theater of Potatoes (The Hypocrites),
The Rip Nelson Holiday Spectacular (Hell in a Handbag Productions),
Mr. and Mrs. Pennyworth (Lookingglass Theatre Company),
The Wolf at the End of the Block (Teatro Vista), The Snare (Jackalope Theatre Company),
Linda Vista (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), and Relativity (Northlight Theatre)

The League of Chicago Theatres announces the Theatre Thursdays line-up for the 2016-2017 Chicago theatre season including world premiere productions of Carroll Gardens (16th Street Theater), A Life Extra Ordinary (The Gift Theatre), Cinderella at the Theater of Potatoes (The Hypocrites), The Rip Nelson Holiday Spectacular (Hell in a Handbag Productions), Mr. and Mrs. Pennyworth (Lookingglass Theatre Company), The Wolf at the End of the Block (Teatro Vista), The Snare (Jackalope Theatre Company), Linda Vista (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), and Relativity (Northlight Theatre).  Additional information for each event is available at http://bit.ly/theatrethursdays.

The Theatre Thursdays initiative, first launched in 2005, strengthens and diversifies the Chicago theatre community by encouraging Chicagoans to explore new venues and companies. Last season, the League revamped the program to focus on new work with twelve Theatre Thursday events, one per month. Each monthly event provides audiences with a world premiere production and an inside look at the creative process behind new works, including exclusive access to artists.

The 2016-2017 series includes:

Thursday, September 22
CARROLL GARDENS
Written by A. Zell Williams
Directed by Ann Filmer
16th Street Theater at the Berwyn Cultural Center, 6420 16th Street in Berwyn
Event begins at 6:30 pm, Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets $18 at http://boxoffice.printtixusa.com/16thstreet/eventcalendar with promo code: THRTHURS

Join 16th Street Theater for a world-premiere of A. Zell Williams's comedy, Carroll Gardens. Theatre Thursday guests are invited to a pre-show beer tasting courtesy of Oak Park's Kinslahger Brewing Company at 6:30pm. Stay after the show for a conversation with director Ann Filmer and the cast.

Davis and Robby were childhood friends. But that was a long time ago. Now Davis lives in Brooklyn which is a long way from Stockton, CA, in all ways. When Robby shows up unexpected on Davis' doorstep, Robby's brash nature sparks conflicts amongst Davis' new circle spurring debates of race and class and forcing Davis to question who he has remade himself to be and where his loyalty lies.

Thursday, October 13, 2016
A LIFE EXTRA ORDINARY
Written by Melissa Ross
Directed by John Gawlik
The Gift Theatre, 4802 N. Milwaukee in Jefferson Park
Event details for this Theatre Thursday event will be announced closer to the date.

Annabel Anderson McCafferty is an expectant mother who vanishes from her small Ohio town on Christmas Eve. Both mystery and memory play, A Life Extra Ordinary untangles and re-assembles the moments that make a life.

Thursday, November 17, 2016
CINDERELLA AT THE THEATER OF POTATOES 
Written by Andra Velis Simon
Based on Cendrillon and other compositions by Pauline Viardot-Garcia
Directed by Sean Graney
The Hypocrites at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Wicker Park
Event details for this Theatre Thursday event will be announced closer to the date.

Adapted from Pauline Viardot-Garcia’s 1904 opera Cendrillon, and many of her other compositions, Andra Velis Simon’s musical-play is an elegantly irreverent exploration of the classic fairy tale. Here, Cinderella’s version of happily-ever-after does not include acceptance by the Prince. In the actor-as-orchestra style of The Hypocrites’ Gilbert & Sullivan opera work, Artistic Director Sean Graney directs this fun holiday-time show, perfect for the whole family. From the co-adapter of H.M.S. Pinafore and director of All Our Tragic.

Thursday, December 8, 2016
THE RIP NELSON HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR 
Written by David Cerda
Directed by Steve Love
Hell in a Handbag Productions at Mary’s Attic, 5400 N. Clark St. in Andersonville
Event details for this Theatre Thursday event will be announced closer to the date.

We close the year with an old friend and Handbag creation, Rip Nelson played by Handbag favorite, Ed Jones (think, the mutant love child of Paul Lynde, Rip Taylor and Charles Nelson Reilly) in The Rip Nelson Holiday Spectacular, a show that makes The Brady Bunch Variety Hour look like Citizen Kane.

It’s 1982 and a newly sober Rip (ensemble member Ed Jones) manages to land another TV special after the death of his arch-rival, Paul Lynde. Rip is determined to get his career back on track but can he handle the stress of a network television special and stay sober? Luckily he’s got help from a cavalcade of the hottest stars of 1982! Rip pulls every trick in the book to breathe some life in the dying variety series format and save his career but soon questions if his career is worth saving.

Thursday, January 26, 2017
MR. AND MRS. PENNYWORTH 
Written and Directed by Ensemble Member Doug Hara
Puppetry by Blair Thomas
Lookingglass Theatre Company, 821 N. Michigan Ave., Downtown Chicago
Event details for this Theatre Thursday event will be announced closer to the date.

Traveling storytellers Mr. and Mrs. Pennyworth captivate audiences with spell-binding tales. But one day, The Big Bad Wolf mysteriously dies before his story is complete. Fairytales disappear from the pages, characters are utterly forgotten, and Mr. and Mrs. Pennyworth must journey through the stories to restore order before they are lost forever.

Written and directed by Ensemble Member Doug Hara, this world-premiere weaves an exceptional story of adventure, love, and unexpected endings. Influenced by Neil Gaiman and other fantasy writers, Mr. and Mrs. Pennyworth is brought to life through the wondrous puppetry of Blair Thomas and reveals the transformational power of storytelling.

Thursday, February 9, 2017
THE WOLF AT THE END OF THE BLOCK 
Written by Ike Holter
Featuring Ensemble Members Sandra Márquez and Gabe Ruíz
Teatro Vista at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. in Lincoln Park
Event details for this Theatre Thursday event will be announced closer to the date.

Chicago. Fall. One night, a boarded up bar on the dark side of the block becomes a terrifying crime scene. In the following 48 hours, the neighborhood digs deep into escalating mystery, working against time to separate fact from fiction. But as the clock ticks down, the clues spiral into a razor sharp jigsaw, and what began as a simple mystery quickly twists into a personal, pointed and political thriller. The Wolf at The End of The Block is a full-length play with five characters, three of which are Latino. The play explores the issues of racial profiling, media manipulation and family relationships. Highly charged, Holter’s story is brutally raw, funny and deftly pierces universal truths.

Thursday, March 9, 2017
THE SNARE 
Written by Samantha Beach
Directed by Elana Boulos
Jackalope Theatre Company at the Broadway Armory, 5917 N. Broadway in Edgewater
Event details for this Theatre Thursday event will be announced closer to the date.

Ruth is your average eighth-grader, keeping busy with basketball, preparing for her school’s Civil War Day, and trying to be more like her babysitter. One night, in the quiet of her bedroom, Ruth hears the voice of the devil, telling her to take action. Unprepared, Ruth’s pastor mom and family struggle to walk a path between pragmatism and faith. In this world premiere play about good vs. evil, and growing up, the question is: who will you believe?

Thursday, April 13, 2017
LINDA VISTA 
A world premiere by ensemble member Tracy Letts
Featuring ensemble members Ian Barford and Tim Hopper
Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1650 N. Halsted in Lincoln Park
Event details for this Theatre Thursday event will be announced closer to the date.

Wheeler is 50. His marriage is over, his job is mundane, and the best years of his life appear to be behind him. A move from the cot in his ex-wife’s garage to his own apartment opens up new possibilities for love and sex—complicated, painful and hilarious. Full of opinions, yet short on self-examination, Wheeler is a modern misanthrope who must reconcile the man he has become with the man he wants to be.

Tracy Letts is a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright, actor and member of the Steppenwolf ensemble. His works include August: Osage CountySuperior DonutsThe Man from NebraskaKiller Joe and Bug, among others. He is also known for his portrayal of Andrew Lockhart in Showtime's Homeland and can be seen in The Big Short and HBO’s Divorce. His play Mary Page Marlowe premiered at Steppenwolf, in March 2016.

Thursday, May 11, 2017
RELATIVITY
Written by Mark St. Germain
Directed by BJ Jones
Featuring Mike Nussbaum
Northlight Theatre at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie
Event details for this Theatre Thursday event will be announced closer to the date.

In 1902 Albert and Mileva Einstein had a baby daughter. After 1904 she was never seen or spoken of again. Forty years later, a reporter interviews Einstein about this mysterious piece of his past, revealing shocking secrets about his family and his personal life. While the reporter questions Einstein on his theory of relativity and his decisions, she also poses a query of her own: to be a great man, does one first need to be a good man?

The author of Freud’s Last Session and Becoming Dr. Ruth showcases his signature blend of insight, intellect, humor and heart in this fictional account of a legendary figure.


Please note that Theatre Thursdays event information and dates are subject to change.  Theatre Thursday events for June, July and August will be announced later in the year.

The 2016-2017 Theatre Thursdays sponsors are the Chicago Reader and Chicago Splash.
       
About Chicago theatre
Chicago theatre is a leader in the U.S. with more than 250 theatres throughout Chicagoland, comprising a rich and varied community ranging from storefront, non-union theaters to the most renowned resident theatres in the country, including 5 that have been honored with Regional Tony Awards, and the largest touring Broadway organization in the nation. Chicago’s theatres serve 5 million audience members annually and have a combined budget of more than $250 million. Chicago produces and/or presents more world premieres annually than any other city in the nation. In the 2014-2015 season, Chicago theatre companies produced more than 100 world premiere productions and adaptations. Each year, Chicago theatres send new work to resident theatres across the country, to Broadway, and around the world.




About the League of Chicago Theatres
The League of Chicago Theatres is an alliance of theatres which leverages its collective strength to promote, support, and advocate for Chicago's theatre industry locally, nationally, and internationally. The League of Chicago Theatres Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the art of theatre in the Chicago area through audience development and support services for theatres and theatre professionals.

Additional information about Theatre Thursdays is available at http://bit.ly/theatrethursdays.


For a comprehensive list of Chicago theatre productions, visit the League of Chicago Theatres website, ChicagoPlays.com.  Half-price tickets are available at HotTix.org or at one of three downtown locations.

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