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Showing posts with label staged reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label staged reading. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

FREE STAGED READINGS OF THE FLOWER AND THE FURY VIA ARTEMISIA THEATRE, JULY 14-17 AT FILAMENT THEATRE

 ARTEMISIA THEATRE SWITCHES TO THE FLOWER AND THE FURY FOR FREE STAGED READINGS, JULY 14-17 AT FILAMENT THEATRE

The fight for women’s rights is ON, and Chicago’s Artemisia Theatre is going on offense. 








The Flower and The Fury by Alexa Juanita Jordan, directed by Artemisia founder and artistic director Julie Proudfoot, has been substituted for the previously announced Roe v US.

Jordan is an award-winning New York playwright making her Artemisia debut with The Flower and The Fury. She is a fiercely feminist writer with a provocative new work that follows three pregnant women as they contemplate abortion.

While Jessica swiftly and resolutely comes to the decision to terminate her pregnancy alone, Kennedy and Rachel both wrestle with their choices in individual yet similar circumstances. Throughout the play, the women’s interactions with each other, their partners, and the nurse at the abortion clinic, greatly impact their decisions and futures. The main action takes place during a brief stretch of time, at most a few weeks, before jumping 10 years ahead in the last three scenes, showing where the women end up. 

Reading times are 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday, July 14-16, and 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 17. Each reading will be followed by a dedicated talkback to inspire compassion and social justice for women. Jordan, the playwright, will be in Chicago to lead the talkbacks on Thursday, July 14, and Sunday, July 17. Admission is free (excluding a $1.50 processing fee.) Reserve now at artemisiatheatre.org

Filament Theatre is located at 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood, on the first floor of the Portage Arts Lofts building.

Filament is accessible via the Irving Park exit on 90/94. Turn west on Irving Park Ave. and at the six corners turn slight right onto Milwaukee Ave. Filament is on the right across from the Portage Theatre.

Metered street parking is available in front of the theater. Street parking is free on Sundays. Additional parking is available at the Laporte Ave. Public Parking Lot one block west of the theater via West Cuyler Ave.

Public transit: Take the Blue Line to Irving Park and transfer to the Irving Park Bus (#80) headed west. Get off at Cicero and Milwaukee. A Divvy station is also located across the street from Filament on West Cuyler Ave. For more information, including local dining options, go to filamenttheatre.org/plan-your-visit.

For more information, visit artemisiatheatre.org or follow the company on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

The Flower and The Fury: Meet the playwright

Alexa Juanita Jordan is a playwright and actor based in New York City. She received her B.A. in Drama at Vassar College, and a Classical Acting Diploma at the London Academy of Performing Arts (LAMDA.) Her newest work, The Flower and The Fury, was recently named a semifinalist (35 out of 655 submissions) in the Premiere Stages Play Festival this past spring. A monologue from the play will also appear in Smith and Kraus’ “Best Women’s Monologues 2022” later this year.

Jordan has written multiple full length and one-act plays about mental health, the grey area of the #metoo movement, reproductive justice, and the COVID-19 pandemic. She was awarded the Marilyn Swartz Six Playwriting Award in 2017 for her first play, Fine, at Vassar College. She then went on to receive her first New York Times review in 2018 for her performance in There’s Blood at the Wedding at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club.

In addition to writing and acting, Jordan serves as the executive director of the Juanita James Memorial Scholarship Foundation (JJMSF), in memory of her late grandmother. JJMSF provides mentoring and financial support to college-bound students from the Bronx housing projects. She is also on the board at CultureHub, a global art and technology community born out of decades of collaborating between La MaMa and The Seoul Institute of the Arts. For more, visit alexajuanitajordan.com.


The fight for women’s rights continues this fall with Julie Proudfoot’s Title X

 

In the fall, Artemisia follows up The Flower and The Fury with the world premiere docudrama Title X by Artemisia’s founder, Julie Proudfoot.


Title X documents the fight for abortion rights in America from 1978 to now. The play is told through the lens of eight radically different female characters: A 17-year-old wrestles with her choices under Title X. The director of a women’s clinic defends her patient’s right to reproductive justice. A member of Operation Rescue protests in front of an abortion clinic. An asylum officer interviews detainees, victims of the refugee crisis, at the Texas-Mexico border. A woman in her twenties confronts haunting memories of sexual harassment by her professor during a visit to her former college campus. A conservative congresswoman urges her pro-life supporters to fight the battle for the unborn with Christian love. A survivor of sexual assault reclaims her life after taking her boss to trial for rape. A lesbian exposes her complicated but loving relationship with her partner, who died of AIDS. In the end, the 17-year-old, now a mature woman, discovers the empowering life lessons she has learned.

“I wrote Title X over the course of a year while sheltering at home, while Trump was succeeding in reverse funding under Title 10 via coercion tactics," said Proudfoot, who will also direct. "It exposes the way the system works against women and keeps women from having autonomy and agency.”

Title X debuts November 25-December 18, 2022 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. First preview and press opening is Friday, November 25 at 7:30 p.m. Performances continue through December 18: Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets go on sale September 9 via Theater Wit’s box office, TheaterWit.org or (773) 975-8150. 


About Artemisia Theatre

Artemisia Gentileschi was a great feminist painter, forgotten by history. Now, she’s celebrated as the greatest female artist prior to the modern period. It shows why women’s stories are important. They change our perspective, on the past, the present and the future.

That’s why Chicago’s Artemisia Theatre was founded, to share women’s untold stories. Since 2011, Artemisia has enriched Chicago’s culture by taking creative risks, achieving artistic excellence, and engaging the audience directly to inspire compassion and social justice for women. Through its celebrated productions of classic and all-new feminist plays, its past Fall Fest of staged readings, and its current virtual works, and upcoming world premieres, Artemisia creates career-altering opportunities for African American, Latinx, Asian, Arab and Native American (ALAANA), Caucasian and LGBTQ theater artists.

Artemisia’s leadership team is 100 percent women, because “women still struggle to find a place where they can share their stories and be their true selves as artists,” said board president E. Faye Butler. “That’s what I love about Artemisia. It’s a sisterhood of leaders, who empower women as writers, directors, performers. A place where women can bring their fire, passion and lived experience and share true stories from their perspective.”



 Artemisia Board President E. Faye Butler



Artemisia Theatre is a recent recipient of a Chi Biz Strong Grant and is also supported by the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund, Arts Work Fund, DDT Law Group, Echo Limousine, Fox Pest Control, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, HKM Employment Attorneys LLP, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Illinois Humanities, The MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity and the Arts at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Rebellious Magazine for Women and Salvi Schostok & Pritchard Trial Lawyers.

For more, visit artemisiatheatre.org.

Friday, March 29, 2019

ONE NIGHT ONLY: All-woman cast to perform staged reading of TWELVE ANGRY MEN

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

All-woman cast to perform staged reading of 
TWELVE ANGRY MEN 
at Pride Arts Center on April 8 at 7:30 pm

Reading is one of hundreds to be performed across the US from April 5 -8 to promote gender equality and voter engagement

An all-star cast of women will lend their impassioned voices to a staged reading of the classic play, TWELVE ANGRY MEN by Reginald Rose, Pride Films and Plays Executive Director David G. Zak announced today. The reading will take place on Monday, April 8 in the  Broadway Theatre of the Pride Arts Center at 4139 N. Broadway. All seats are $10.00 and are available at www.pridefilmsandplays.com.


Top row L-R: Dana N. Anderson, Debbie Banos, Brook Celeste, Colleen DeRosa.
Middle row L-R:  Julia Germeroth, Samie Jo Johnson, Jacquelyne Jones, Diana Kaiser.
Bottom row L-R: Whitney Masters, Joan McGrath, Roxane Saylor, Shannon Leigh Webber.

The reading is one of many such readings across the country from April 5 – 8, as part of an initiative produced by the organization 12,000 Voices, to promote gender equality. The organization’s website notes that 12 ANGRY MEN was written in 1954, 19 years before women were permitted to serve on juries in all 50 states. 12,000 Voices producer Lauren Class Schneider says, “The readings will take place in every nook & cranny of the country: red, blue and purple communities in all 50 states! And after each staged reading there will be the opportunity to update voter registration and learn about voter engagement.  Voter suppression is real. Gerrymandering is real. Our voices and our votes matter. We can increase awareness and participation through the medium we all love.”

For the reading at Pride Arts Center, Brittany Gillespie will direct a cast to include Colleen DeRosa (Juror 1, the foreman), Samie Jo Johnson (Juror 2), Shannon Leigh Webber (Juror 3),  Diana Kaiser (Juror 4), Debbie Baños (Juror 5), Brook Celeste (Juror 6), Julia Germeroth (Juror 7), Dana N. Anderson (Juror 8), Joan McGrath (Juror 9), Roxane Saylor (Juror 10), Whitney Masters (Juror 11), and Jacquelyne Jones (Juror 12).

Following the staged reading on April 8,  audience members, cast, and staff will have the opportunity to update their voter registration,  Information will also be given about how to increase voter registration and voter turnout.


About TWELVE ANGRY MEN

The play was adapted from Reginald Rose’s 1954 teleplay of the same name for the CBS Studio One television series. The success of the made-for-television courtroom drama resulted in a film adaptation directed by Sidney Lumet. TWELVE ANGRY MEN was Lumet's first feature film, and the only producing credit for Henry Fonda, who also starred in the film. Viewed as a classic, the film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Screenplay. The Broadway debut of TWELVE ANGRY MEN came 50 years after CBS aired the play, opening on October 28, 2004 at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s American Airlines Theatre where it ran for 328 performances and was nominated for three Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play, Best Actor in a Play, and Best Direction of a Play.

In the story, a 19-year-old man has just stood trial for the fatal stabbing of his father. It looks like an open and shut case until one of the jurors begins opening the others' eyes to the facts. Sequestered in a small room, each juror reveals their own character as the various testimonies are re-examined, and the murder is re-enacted. Tempers get short and arguments grow heated The jurors' final verdict and how they reach it is shown in tense and electrifying scenes.

Brittany Gillespie (Director) is a Chicago based freelance director, casting director, and storyteller. She is proud to be casting director and artistic associate of Stage Left Theatre. Directing credits include: UN-LIKEABLE (Ski-Productions); PASQUINADE PARADE (Crowd Theater); THE VELVETEEN RABBIT (Millbrook Playhouse); and various pieces for Drekfest (Stage Left Theatre) & Big Shoulder Festival (American Theatre Company). Assistant director credits: THE SOURCE (Route 66); WHAT OF THE NIGHT?  (Stage Left & COR); THE BODY OF AN AMERICAN (Stage Left Theatre); BRUISE EASY (American Theatre Company); and LOVE IN THE TIME OF BUMBLEHIVE (Leapfest). Brittany spends her time outside the theater working as a bicycle tour guide and scavenger hunt host. She is a graduate of the University of Arkansas, where she majored in theatre with a concentration in directing and a minor in German.

Monday, April 8 – 7:30 pm
All seats $10.00
Pride Arts Center – the Broadway, 4139 N. Broadway, Chicago
Tickets available by phone at 866-811-4111 or 773-857-0222 or online at www.pridefilmsandplays.com



ABOUT PRIDE FILMS AND PLAYS

Pride Films and Plays is working to produce year-round theater and film projects that change lives through the generation of diverse new work (or work that is new to Chicago) with LGBTQ+ characters or themes that are essential viewing for all audiences. The company produces a five-play season of full productions, shoots one short film each year, and continues our famed play developmental projects. Pride Films and Plays is the principal tenant in Pride Arts Center. 

Pride Arts Center produces events complimenting the PFP vision, including dance, cabaret, film, and more. Events can be one-night or limited run productions or feature national treasures like Charles Busch.  PAC occupies The Broadway at 4139 N. Broadway, which has 85 seats, and The Buena, which has 50 seats at 4147 N Broadway.

Pride Films and Plays is supported by The MacArthur Fund for Arts & Culture at The Richard Driehaus Foundation, The Illinois Arts Council, City of Chicago’s City Arts Fund, the Elliott Fredland Charitable Trust, Proud to Run, The Pauls Foundation, The Heath Fund, The Service Club of Chicago, the AmazonSmile Foundation, Arts and Business Foundation, Tap Root Foundation, Arts and Business Council, and Alphawood Foundation. 

Pride Films and Plays is a member of the Smart Growth Program of the Chicago Community Trust. Pride Arts is a member of the LGBT Chamber of Commerce of Illinois, Northhalsted Business Association, Uptown United, and The League of Chicago Theatres.

Thursday, March 7, 2019

NEXT FRIDAY: One Night Only Staged Reading of All New Feminist Play "Reap The Grove" March 15th at The Den Theatre

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

REAP THE GROVE
By Caity-Shea Violette

One night only staged reading of an all-new feminist play
Directed by Julie Proudfoot
March 15, 2019 - 7:30 PM 


**Winner of the 2017 Artemisia Fall Festival**


Staged reading of dramedy REAP THE GROVE set for Friday, March 15 at The Den

Caity-Shea Violette’s play of a family of women reconnecting in the face of a life-altering decision was the winner of the 2017 Artemisia Fall Festival

Caity-Shea Violette’s heartbreakingly funny new play is a riveting story about a family of women struggling to reconnect as they react to an unexpected end-of-life decision. This new dramedy was the winner of Artemisia’s 2017 Fall Festival of new plays, earning it this staged reading. Artemisia’s Founding Artistic Director Julie Proudfoot will direct the reading, to be performed at The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, on Friday, March 15 at 7:30 pm.

In REAP THE GROVE, Sandra and Nan have a loving marriage, estranged daughters and a very special problem.  Sandra has decided to end her life on her own terms following a terminal diagnosis.  She summons her two daughters, Judith and Beckah, home to spend her final days with them.  REAP THE GROVE examines this family of women authentically, fearlessly and with a big dose of smart humor.  

Proudfoot’s cast for the reading includes Denise Hoelfich  (Compass Theatre’s WHAT WE’RE UP AGAINST) as Sandra; Justine Serino (of productions with The Gift, Silk Road Rising and many others) as Nan; Tina El Gamal (I CALL MY BROTHERS with Interrobang) as Beckah; and Elisabeth Del Toro (SHE KILLS MONSTERS with The Cuckoo’s Theater Project) as Judith.

Playwright Caity-Shea Violette is a Chicago native currently pursuing her MFA in playwriting at Boston University. She will return to Chicago for this one-night-only reading and participate in a post-reading discussion led by director Julie Proudfoot.  Violette has been working closely on the script with Proudfoot, who is a story analyst for HBO Films and Fremantle Media in addition to her work as a stage director and actress. Violette says, “Artemisia will be a powerful home to nurture this story and further empower me to push my artistic bravery to new heights to discover and honor each layer of these four women."

REAP THE GROVE is another example of Artemisia’s mission to find and develop dynamic and empowering new plays with compelling female characters who have agency, independence, and are the focal point of their own narratives. The company’s development process includes its annual Fall Festival, in which new scripts each year are given public readings; a close collaboration between Artistic Director Proudfoot and the playwright on a developmental workshop with audience discussion of each festival’s winner the following year; and a culminating fully-staged production of that play with a multi-week run the year after that.  Artemisia will stage the Midwest Premiere of SWEET TEXAS RECKONING by Traci Godfrey, winner of Fall Festival 2016, from June 7-30, 2019 at The Den.


Tickets for REAP THE GROVE are $15 and are now on sale at www.artemisiatheatre.org

CAITY-SHEA VIOLETTE (playwright) is a Chicago-based playwright and actress. Her national award-winning work has been seen in Washington D.C., New York City, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Toronto, Denver, and Chicago. She holds a BFA in Theatre from the University of Minnesota, Duluth and is a graduate of the St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists. Caity-Shea is currently pursuing her MFA in playwriting at Boston University and is passionate about exploring trauma, invisible disabilities, and gender-based violence, by creating new work for women.

Caity-Shea’s awards and recognition include: National Award Winner of the 2019 Susan Glaspell Playwriting Festival, Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival New Play Competition (National Finalist), The Kennedy Center's National Partners of the American Theatre Playwriting Excellence Award (Winner), Shakespeare's Sister Playwriting Fellowship (National Semi-Finalist), InspiraTO Playwriting Contest (Winner), Kennedy Center’s Irene Ryan Acting Competition (National Finalist), Kennedy Center's David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award (National Semi-Finalist), Kennedy Center's National Ten-Minute Play Competition (National Finalist, National Semi-Finalist), Kennedy Center's John Cauble for Outstanding Short Play (Regional Runner-Up). More information available at www.caitysheaviolette.com. 


JULIE PROUDFOOT (Director) As Founder and Artistic Director, Julie is the vision behind Artemisia, selecting the plays that are featured each season in the annual fall festival and developing and directing the theatre’s premiere productions.  An actor, director and producer, Julie is proud to be part of the amazing Chicago Theatre community and make the city home to Artemisia.  Julie’s work as an actor was most recently seen on NBC’s popular series CHICAGO MED, and as a performing understudy in TimeLine’s outstanding production of A SHAYNA MAIDEL. Julie has also acted with Shakespeare Project of Chicago, Equity Library Theatre, Nebraska Rep and Artemisia, among others, and has numerous Off-Broadway and regional theatre credits.  Julie is a story analyst for HBO Films and Fremantle Media and has extensive experience developing, directing and producing new work.




The Den Theatre
1331 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago
All seats $15.00
More info & tickets at http://artemisiatheatre.org/plays/



ABOUT ARTEMISIA: A CHICAGO THEATRE
Founded in 2011, Artemisia, A Chicago Theatre is a professional, not-for-profit theatre that produces all-new, dynamic and empowering plays that center on women who have agency, independence, and are the focal point of their own narratives, to create gender parity both onstage and off. Each season, Artemisia produces its Fall Festival of new play readings as well as fully staged productions of new plays it has developed. Artemisia is a 501 c 3 organization and, as such, relies heavily on public support to fund theatre that promotes equality and social justice for all women and girls.  

Artemisia Gentileschi was a Baroque artist whose paintings depicted violence with fierce honesty and elegance. For centuries after her death, her art was attributed to men. Feminist curators in the late 1970’s rediscovered Artemisia, who is now considered the greatest female painter prior to the modern period. A common theme in Gentileschi’s later work is women in moments of power, or triumph, which is why she is the perfect namesake for Artemisia.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

THE THEATRE SCHOOL AT DEPAUL UNIVERSITY TO HOST A READING OF THE LARAMIE PROJECT

THE THEATRE SCHOOL AT DEPAUL UNIVERSITY TO HOST A READING OF THE LARAMIE PROJECT 
DePaul Students Respond to Ole Miss Incident Through Performance

Bullying awareness month (October) is over, but huge (potentially lethal) societal issues like bullying should be front and center year round.   We've seen The Laramie Project & the thought provoking follow up, The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later at Red Twist Theatre   We highly recommend coming out for this free reading.   Bring your mature tweens and up. Teach tolerance.



WHO/WHAT:
The Theatre School at DePaul University will host a staged reading of THE LARAMIE PROJECT by Moisés Kaufman and The Members of the Tectonic Theater Project, directed by Theatre School adjunct faculty member Carolyn Hoerdemann. The reading will be followed by a moderated question/answer session, and breakout discussions.

As a response to a group of students heckling a production of THE LARAMIE PROJECT at Ole Miss, DePaul University students enrolled in a theatre course have organized a reading of THE LARAMIE PROJECT at The Theatre School at DePaul University, in order to promote tolerance and to show active solidarity with all students at the University of Mississippi. 

Ole Miss student, Garrison Gibbons, who was a member of the cast during the reading at the University of Mississippi, will be reprising his role and joining the ensemble of DePaul University students for this reading. 

Also in attendance will be Susan Burk, Laramie Project Specialist at the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Ms. Burk is also an alumna of The Theatre School at DePaul University.  She will participate as an ensemble member in the reading, and will facilitate the post-show conversation. 

This event is co-sponsored by:  DePaul University's Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity, LGBTQA Student Services, the Center for Intercultural Studies, and ACT OUT DePaul.  Members of the DePaul Athletic Department Captains' Council are involved as student leaders in the break-out discussions. The Theatre School at DePaul University (Dexter Zollicoffer, Diversity Advisor) is pleased to partner with these organizations and departments. 

WHEN:
November 18, 2013 at 6 PM

WHERE:
The Merle and Harold Reskin Lobby at The Theatre School at DePaul University. 2350 N Racine Ave (at Fullerton), Chicago, IL 60614

PARKING & PUBLIC TRANSIT:  
Please call the Box Office for more information, specific directions, and suggestions to help plan your trip. 

STATEMENT OF INTENTION FROM THE STUDENTS:
"The students of DePaul University's Performance 290 course for non-majors, and our special guests, are proud to present a reading of The Laramie Project to be held at the university campus in Lincoln Park on November 18th, 2013. The recent events at Ole Miss have brought into public attention that there are many people who still suffer from discrimination for their personal identity.  A group of Ole Miss football players made derogatory and homophobic remarks to the cast of The Laramie Project being produced at the school.  As a response, we have been inspired to continue carrying the message of acceptance and unity."  


ADMISSION:
Admission is free.  All are welcome to attend. 


MORE INFORMATION:

This reading is hosted by The Theatre School at DePaul University.  To learn more about our training and our public programming, please visit http://theatre.depaul.edu  

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