FREE Open House Event Featuring FIVE ORIGINAL WORKS-IN-PROCESS via House Theatre at Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts

THE HOUSE THEATRE OF CHICAGO 

HOSTS 

FREE OPEN HOUSE EVENT 

FEATURING 

FIVE ORIGINAL WORKS-IN-PROCESS 

AS PART OF THE UCHICAGO PERFORMANCE LAB SATURDAY, AUGUST 5

13 Works Have Been Supported by The House this Summer in Partnership with University of Chicago at their Logan Center for the Arts for the Fourth Year Running.

The House Theatre of Chicago, in partnership with University of Chicago’s Theatre and Performance Studies Program and their Logan Center for the Arts, presents an afternoon Open House touring new works in development. Guests will have the opportunity to see short selections from five projects, and meet the creative artists spearheading them. The audience in attendance will break into small groups and tour each project in various creative spaces in the state-of-the-art Logan Center.  

The Open House is held Saturday, August 5 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E 60th St, Chicago IL on the University of Chicago campus. Refreshments to follow. 

**Admission is Free with RSVP via The House’s website, thehousetheatre.com.**

The House is providing varying levels of support for 13 projects through the UChicago Performance Lab in the summer of 2017. Five of those are featured in the Open House event on August 5.

WHAT: Open House featuring five theatrical works in development in five spaces of the Logan Center for the Arts. Guests will be lead on a guided tour stopping at each project’s station for a short presentation.

WHO: Company Members and guests artists of The House Theatre of Chicago will present short selections. The public is invited to attend. The event is recommended for ages 10 and up.

WHERE: The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E 60th St, Chicago IL on the University of Chicago campus.

WHEN: Saturday, August 5, from 4 p.m. - 6 p.m. with refreshments following


Projects to be Featured at the August 5 Open House
Verboten
By Brett Neveu and Jason Narducy
Directed by Nathan Allen
The story of how punk rock saved a lost kid's present and future life. It’s 1982. After making the long flight from Seattle, Dave and his parents head to his cousin Tracey’s home in Evanston for a summertime visit. Tracey and her teenage bandmates, all serious punk rockers stuck in suburbia, blow Dave away with their stories, their brashness, their ability to overcome damaging family crap with their overall punk excellentness as they head toward playing a make-or-break show.

Ellen Bond, Union Spy
Written by Jenni Lamb
Music, Lyrics & Movement by Tanji Harper & Blu Rhythm Collective
Conceived & Directed by Jess McLeod
*Included in The House’s upcoming Season 16*
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 and free slaves once and for all? Enter Ellen Bond, Union Spy! Mary Bowser is the (real!) freed former slave woman who risked her life to go undercover as "Ellen Bond, dim-witted but able servant" inside the Confederate White House. "Ellen" cooks, cleans, and uses her photographic memory to collect military intelligence from the papers on Davis's desk to help win the war and free American slaves. Meet Mary/Ellen, her fellow spies, and the generals and gentility of the Confederacy in this new multi-genre serio-comedy featuring contemporary music and fantastical breakout dance sequences!

Hatfield & McCoy
By Shawn Pfautsch
Music by Matt Kahler and Shawn Pfautsch
Directed by Matt Hawkins
**Included in The House’s upcoming Season 16**
Murder and moonshine! Hoe-Downs and Holy Rollin’! It’s the true tale of the most infamous family feud in American history. Gunplay and romance erupt between the Hatfields and McCoys, served up with a heaping helping of bluegrass and bloody revenge. Shawn Pfautsch’s love letter to Romeo and Juliet in a philosophically polarized America was originally produced in Season 4. This revised piece now features a new score, expanded to included a wide variety of Americana music styles from blues, to gospel, to pop, and of course, bluegrass.

Little Girl, Don't Fall
By Jesse Roth, with music by Matthew Muñiz
An adaptation of the Bluebeard fairytale, Little Girl, Don’t Fall is a heroine’s journey, a gothic ghost-story, and a fairytale mash-up musical for young women who don’t know how to fall in love–and are too chippy to listen to those who try to tell them.

Nova to Lodestar
By Nathan Allen, Lee Keenan, Sandor Weisz
Nova to Lodestar is a live, asymmetric, cooperative game played by two teams in two separate rooms. Lead by the creators of Season 14’s The Last Defender, this all-new adventure will once again set audience-teams to work on challenging puzzles and collaborations.  Players will take on the roles of space miners set adrift after their ships collide, and must learn to spend resources between their two ships to get everyone home safely.

Additional projects receiving support from The House this summer as part of the UChicago Performance Lab include Pinocchio, by Ben Lobpries and Joey Steakley, Thatcher Woods by Monty Cole, Borealis by Bennett Fisher, The Violet Sequence by John Henry Roberts, TONY KUSHNER CONSIDERS WRITING A GAY FANTASIA BASED ON NATIONAL THEMES: A FANTASIA BY CALAMITY WEST by Calamity West with director Seth Bockley, The Ragged Claws  by Lina Patel in collaboration with Silk Road Rising, Kissing by Abigail Boucher, and Saved by the Bell by Marika Mashburn. 

The Alice Is Here! Goodman Theatre's New Education Building Is Open

GOODMAN THEATRE WELCOMES ITS FIRST AUDIENCES TO “THE ALICE”  WITH FREE EVENTS, MAY 19-21 ***EXPERIENCE THE NEW ALICE RAPOPORT CENTER FOR EDUCATION AND ENGAGEMENT WITH “LORRAINE HANSBERRY DAY” ON MAY 19; YOUTH SPOKEN WORD + OPEN MIC ON MAY 20 AND A MAY 21 OPEN HOUSE OF CREATIVE FUN, INCLUDING  FAMILY-FRIENDLY AND MEET-THE-ARTIST EVENTS*** Here at ChiIL Mama and ChiIL Live Shows, we're so excited about "The Alice". As a Chicago mom, theatre critic, and huge arts advocate, I'm beyond excited that these new facilities will enable The Goodman to expand their excellent educational arts programming. The children are our future, whether you are pre/post/or non parents of the birth to 18 year old bracket, raising a new generation of creative thinkers benefits us all. Theatre loving, arts loving kids make great problem solvers and assets to society.  **Check out some of our past coverage and original photos of Goodman Education in action, right HERE.**     Build a play with your family, try your hand at stage combat, hear Chicago’s finest actors spill stage secrets—and more! Goodman Theatre proudly opens its Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement (“the Alice”) with free opportunities for audiences to sample the variety of programming offered in the theater’s newly dedicated space for classes, lectures, discussions and special performance events. May 19 is “Lorraine Hansberry Day,” with events connected to the critically acclaimed current mainstage production, Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, directed by Anne Kauffman (on stage through June 5). A schedule of events appears below; reservations are recommended as space is limited: GoodmanTheatre.org/Engage-Learn or 312.443.3800. Thursday, May 19 – “Lorraine Hansberry Day” in Chicago 12 Noon | Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proclaimed May 19, 2016 “Lorraine Hansberry Day,” in honor of what would have been the Chicago native playwright’s  86th birthday. The company of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window kicks off the special day with a reading of the mayoral proclamation—followed by birthday cake for all. 12:30pm | A conversation with artists about Hansberry’s body of work, the background and themes of the Goodman’s revival of her rarely-produced play, and her significance among American playwrights. 6pm | A screening of the 1961 film A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil and Diana Sands. Jackie Taylor, founder and executive director of the Black Ensemble Theater Company, introduces the film. Friday, May 20 7pm | Listen to the Poem: Spoken Word and Open Mic The Goodman Youth Poetry Ensemble delivers an electrifying performance featuring pieces from their past season and the work of other Chicago youth poets. Audience members are invited to share their own poetry works during an open mic session. 8pm | All tickets to this performance of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window are $10 for students. Saturday, May 21 9am and 10:30am | Play ’N 90 Workshop (two sessions) An interactive family program in which 5-12 year-olds and their parents/guardians fashion a theatrical creation together—in only 90 minutes. 10am | Insider Access: "How Do Actors Learn All Those Darned Lines?" Meet acclaimed actor Mary Beth Fisher (star of such Goodman productions as Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and Luna Gale) and particiate in her creative process, bringing a script from page to stage. 12 Noon | PlayBuild Workshop Realize your creative potential in this intergenerational collective workshop! Participants will create performance pieces using personal history and storytelling techniques. 2pm | Storytelling Workshop Master the art of storytelling with teaching artists from the Goodman’s GeNarrations program. In this collaborative ensemble-based workshop, participants learn the basics of writing, editing and performing personal narrative stories. 3pm | Insider Access: “Slap! Kick! Punch!” Have some energy to burn? Learn the art of stage combat, the technique used to perform physical combats without causing harm to actors, from a professional fight choreographer. 4:30pm | Insider Access: "Not Acting Our Age" A lively discussion with a handful of Chicago actors age 55+ about their esteemed bodies of work and the thrill of a life in the theater. In addition to these activities, all pre- and post-performance discussions—“PlayTalks” and “PlayBacks”—for The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and Soups, Stews, and Casseroles: 1976 by Rebecca Gilman will take place in the Alice May 19 – 21, one hour prior to and immediately following each performance. Moderated by a Goodman artist, discussions include cast members and are free of charge for patrons. About the Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement (“the Alice”) The Goodman becomes the first Chicago theater to establish a facility dedicated to education and engagement programs when it opens the Alice—the next phase in the Goodman’s decades-long commitment to educating Chicago youth and promoting lifelong learning for audiences of all ages. Named for the late Goodman Trustee Alice Rapoport, the Alice is a 10,000 square-foot, LEED certified (upon completion), $15 million expansion effort (of which 80% supports expanded programming) that deepens the theater’s practice of using its art as education—using the process of artistic creation to empower and inspire youth and lifelong learners. The new facility includes classrooms, a hands-on STEM learning lab, rehearsal spaces and more, and will enable the Goodman to impact hundreds more Chicagoans through its myriad education and engagement programs. Patrons access the Alice though the Goodman Theatre, entering at the south end of the mezzanine lobby. The Alice is named for the late Alice Rapoport, a Goodman Trustee, chair of the theater’s Education and Community Engagement Committee and passionate advocate for the theater’s outreach efforts. Artist, educator and activist Willa J. Taylor, Walter Director of Education and Engagement, has led the Goodman’s programs since 2007. Taylor and her team of associates—Bobby Biedrzycki (Curriculum and Instruction Associate), Elizabeth Rice (School Programs Coordinator), Brandi Lee (Education and Community Engagement Associate) and Adrian Azevedo (Education and Engagement Assistant)—collaborate with the Goodman’s artistic and executive leadership to oversee programmatic efforts in the Alice. About Goodman Theatre Called America’s “Best Regional Theatre” by Time magazine, Goodman Theatre has won international recognition for its artists, productions and programs, and is a major cultural, educational and economic pillar in Chicago. Founded in 1925 by William O. Goodman and his family in honor of their son Kenneth (an important figure in Chicago’s cultural renaissance in the early 1900s), Goodman Theatre has garnered hundreds of awards for artistic achievement and community engagement, including: two Pulitzer Prizes, 22 Tony Awards (including “Outstanding Regional Theatre” in 1992), nearly 160 Joseph Jefferson Awards and more. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Robert Falls and Executive Director Roche Schulfer, the Goodman’s artistic priorities include new plays (more than 150 world or American premieres in the past 30 years), reimagined classics (including Falls’ nationally and internationally celebrated productions of Death of a Salesman, Long’s Day’s Journey into Night, King Lear and The Iceman Cometh, many in collaboration with actor Brian Dennehy), culturally specific work, musical theater (26 major productions in 20 years, including 10 world premieres) and international collaborations. Diversity and inclusion have been primary cornerstones of the Goodman’s mission for 30 years; over the past decade, 68% of the Goodman’s 35 world premieres were authored by women and/or playwrights of color, and the Goodman was the first theater in the world to produce all 10 plays in August Wilson’s “American Century Cycle.” Each year, the Goodman’s numerous education and community engagement programs—including the innovative Student Subscription Series, now in its 30th year—serve thousands of students, teachers, life-long learners and special constituencies. In addition, for nearly four decades the annual holiday tradition of A Christmas Carol has led to the creation of a new generation of theatergoers in Chicago. Goodman Theatre’s leadership includes the distinguished members of the Artistic Collective: Brian Dennehy, Rebecca Gilman, Henry Godinez, Steve Scott, Chuck Smith, Regina Taylor, Henry Wishcamper and Mary Zimmerman. Joan Clifford is Chair of Goodman Theatre’s Board of Trustees, Swati Mehta is Women’s Board President and Gordon C.C. Liao is President of the Scenemakers Board for young professionals. Visit the Goodman virtually at GoodmanTheatre.org, and on Twitter (@GoodmanTheatre), Facebook and Instagram.