OPENING: The Hypocrites' Dracula at Mercury Theater Chicago 10/7-11/5/17

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Mercury Theater Chicago Presents

THE HYPOCRITES’ DRACULA

A world-premiere play adapted and directed by Sean Graney.

October 7 – November 5, 2017

Here at ChiIL Live Shows, we love it when our friends play well together. We're excited to see The Hypocrites emerge from The Den, their usual haunt, and present their world premiere take on Dracula at one of our favorite venues, Mercury Theatre. We'll be out for the press opening on Friday the 13th, so check back soon for our full review. We can't wait!

I would love to be a fly on the wall of the home of adapter/directors Sean Graney (Dracula) and Vanessa Stalling (United Flight 232), who are both currently working on intense Chicago productions. I sat in front of them for the United Flight 232 press opening, and can't rave enough about this award winning must see. Stalling's heartfelt and harrowing United Flight 232 is currently on stage as a critically acclaimed remount at The House Theatre. 

Award-winning director, Sean Graney's current project is directing The Hypocrites' Dracula, a script he adapted from an original script by Timothy F. Griffin for this world-premiere production. 

Mercury Theater Chicago, 3745 N. Southport Avenue – is thrilled to present The Hypocrites’ production of DRACULA, from October 7th through November 5th, 2017. Led by Jeff Award Winner Breon Arzell as Dracula, a multi-talented cast of accomplished Hypocrites company members will take audiences on a thrilling adventure of passion, yearning, cruelty and sacrifice.

The performance schedule for DRACULA is Wednesdays at 8pm, Thursdays at 8pm, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 3pm and 8pm and Sundays at 3pm.

Individual tickets range from $30-$55, and are available online at www.MercuryTheaterChicago.com, over the phone at 773.325.1700, or in person at 3745 N. Southport Avenue, Chicago.

Director Sean Graney promises “exciting horror, at least a gallon of stage blood every night, moments of humor and a depth of character not often explored in this fantastical story.” Dracula just might stake its claim as this Halloween's most thrilling adventure.

“The characters in Dracula occupy a world on a threshold between repression and liberty,” commented director Sean Graney. “Women are beginning to live autonomous lives separate from the typical yolks of oppressive tradition. The men, though they will never admit it, fear the women and want them to return to their domestic posts. Dracula, to me, asks the question, ‘How do you deal with a society that claims to promote equality, yet everyday actions and attitudes prove that the gatekeepers are afraid of losing their advantage?’ To me, that is the world we occupy now.”



DRACULA features a strong ensemble of Hypocrites company members. 

Jeff Award Winning actor/director/choreographer Breon Arzell (The Wiz, Harry Ape) will be featured in this bloody mystery as Dracula. 

Janelle Villas (Chimerica, The King and I) will portray Lucy Seward, under the care of Rob McLean (Pirates of Penzance, Love’s Labor Lost, The Shakespeare Project of Chicago) as Dr. Van Helsing. 

Insane asylum administrator Jack Seward will be played by John Taflan (All Our Tragic, Adding Machine). Aurora Real de Asusa (You on the Moors Now) will be in the role of coveted young school mistress Mina. Erin Barlow (All Our Tragic, Men on Boats) will portray insane asylum inmate Renfield. Maurice Demus (You on the Moors Now, Sucker Punch) will be Jonathan. The scenic design is by John Musial with costume design by Samantha Jones, lighting design by Mike Durst, sound design by Joe Griffin with Jon Beal as the violence and gore designer. The production stage manager is Richard Lundy.

Sean Graney is a Chicago-based theater artist who has concentrated on adapting and directing stories to create relevant theatrical pieces for our contemporary society for the last 20 years. He currently serves as the Artistic Director of The Hypocrites, a company he founded in 1997.  In 2013, he was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University where he completed writing All Our Tragic, a twelve-hour adaptation combining all thirty-two surviving Greek Tragedies. It garnered six Joseph Jefferson Awards, including Best Director and Best Adaptation. As a director, Sean has helmed over 75 productions. He was a participant in the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors in 2004. He has received four other Joseph Jefferson Awards for directing and adaptation. He is also the director and co-adaptor three Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, which have been playing at many great theaters across the country.

The Hypocrites is one of Chicago's premier off-Loop theater companies specializing in mounting bold productions that challenge preconceptions and redefining the role of the audience. Under the direction of Sean Graney, the company has a reputation in Chicago for creating exciting, surprising and deeply engaging theater as it reinterprets classics and tackles ambitious new works.

The beautifully renovated Mercury Theater Chicago is an intimate jewel box of a theater in the heart of the Southport Corridor, a sophisticated neighborhood of restaurants and boutiques just steps from Wrigley Field. A delightful theater destination, Mercury Theater Chicago takes care of its guests from the moment they arrive with valet service and dining at its adjoining restaurant, Grassroots.

ONE NIGHT ONLY: STEPHANIE MILLER‘S SEXY LIBERAL RESISTANCE TOUR PLAYS CHICAGO’S ATHENEAUM THEATRE 10/14/17

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

STEPHANIE MILLER‘S SEXY LIBERAL RESISTANCE TOUR 

FEATURING STEPHANIE MILLER, JOHN FUGELSANG AND FRANGELA , COMES TO CHICAGO’S ATHENEAUM THEATRE SATURDAY, OCT. 14 AT 8 P.M.

US Representative Jan Schakowsky Joins the Sexy Liberal Resistance Tour 

for its Chicago Engagement 

Ridicule, satire and comedy have always been one of the most important elements of political protest, and as a result, Stephanie Miller’s Sexy Liberal Resistance Tour makes a stop in Chicago at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave., Saturday, Oct. 14 at 8 p.m.  The tour, featuring Stephanie Miller, John Fugelsang, Frangela and special guest United States Representative Jan Schakowsky, hears the cries of America and stands with all Americans protecting our rights and demanding our government act for the benefit of us all.   The Sexy Liberal Resistance Tour is a show for every American who's uneasy with putting a landlord with a reality show in charge of fighting ISIS.  

Tickets for the Sexy Liberal Resistance Tour range from $52 - $92 and may be purchased at SexyLiberal.com. Tickets to the performance that includes a VIP meet and greet reception following the performance are $150.

Stephanie Miller, John Fugelsang and Frangela return in 2017 as the Sexy Liberal Resistance Tour, fully aware of the probability their taxes will be audited.  Touring for several years as the Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour, the election forced the cast  to rethink early retirement and return to the stage for a multiple city tour.  They face Washington and laugh out loud at the tragic comedy of politics and throw their finest, most scathing satire at the feet of our not so elected politicians.  To fight on with comedy ... to offer the real fake news … to offer true alternative facts. Stephanie Miller's Sexy Liberal Resistance Tour promises a rainbow blend of an America that is great now.

Stephanie Miller's Sexy Liberal Resistance Tour 2017 is:


Stephanie Miller

National television and talk radio star Stephanie Miller is a wildly popular performer with a huge and fervently devoted audience. Morning drive radio’s “The Stephanie Miller Show” is heard nationally, reaching more than three million-plus listeners weekly. She is ranked #12 on influential industry publication Talkers Magazine’s “Heavy Hundred” list.

The show also airs on SiriusXM Satellite radio’s national network of 31 million subscribers.  Her e-book “Sexy Liberal! Of Me I Sing” immediately became #1 on Amazon in political, humor and memoirs, and has just been issued in paperback by popular demand. Miller’s three comedy albums all entered the Billboard Comedy charts in the top positions, as well as chart topping on Amazon, ITunes and Googleplay.



John Fugelsang

John Fugelsang hosts “Tell Me Everything" weekdays on SiriusXM Insight #121 and PAGE SIX TV for the FOX network.  He once got George Harrison to give his last live performance on VH1 and, in the quip heard round the world, got Mitt Romney's advisor to call Mitt an 'etch a sketch' on CNN. He's been murdered on “CSI,” hosted “America's Funniest Home Videos” and Bill Maher called him “one of my favorite comedians.”   He's been a regular on CNN, MSNBC, FOX News and has performed for US troops, including the humanitarian mission in Haiti.   His new film "Dream On," a road trip in search of the American Dream, was named "Best Documentary" at the NY Independent Film Festival and recently premiered on PBS.


Frangela

Frangela is Frances Callier and Angela V. Shelton, real life best friends and America’s BFF’s.  As avowed Afro-Saxons™ and lovers of all things political and pop culture, they have been featured contributors on VH1’s “Best Week Ever,” NBC's “The Today Show,” “Dateline,” “Showbiz Tonight,” “Access Hollywood,” CNN's “Headline News,” AXS TV's “Mockpocalypse,” NPR and “AM Joy” on MSNBC. They hosted their own radio show, “The Week According To Frangela” and are regular chair-dancing guests of “The Stephanie Miller Show.”  They were featured on “The Oprah Show” in the “Best Standups in America” episode and have enjoyed touring colleges doing their brand of pop-cultural infused standup. Frances and Angela also brought hilarity to the big screen in the hit film “He’s Just Not That Into You” and most recently “Slow Learners.” They play Margaret and Betty on the hilarious Hulu show “Quickdraw.”

Jan Schawkowsky

Jan Schawkowsky is the U.S. Representative for Illinois’ 9th congressional district.

Representative Schakowsky has been a lifelong consumer advocate and a champion for, what she sees as, the disappearing middle class. From her days as a young housewife who led the campaign to put expiration dates on food products to the 2008 passage of legislation she helped write making children's products and toys safe, Jan has worked to make life better for working and middle class Americans. Schakowsky was elected to represent Illinois' 9th Congressional District in 1998, after serving for eight years in the Illinois General Assembly. She is in her tenth term, serving in the House Democratic Leadership as Chief Deputy Whip and member of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. She is a member of the House Budget Committee, as well as the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where she serves as Ranking Member of the Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee, and as a member of the Health and Oversight & Investigations Subcommittees.      

OPENING: World Premiere of THE MAKING OF A MODERN FOLK HERO Via Other Theatre at Chicago Dramatists

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Other Theatre Presents the World Premiere of

THE MAKING OF A MODERN FOLK HERO

By Martín Zimmerman

Directed by Kelly Howe

September 29 – October 29, 2017 at Chicago Dramatists

Presented in association with Chicago Dramatists' Grafting Project

Here at ChiIL Live Shows we're on board with Other Theatre's fabulous and all too necessary mission statement, to tell the stories of persons or groups who are othered by systems of oppression. We too believe in the power of theatre to enact social change. We can't wait to catch their latest new work, the world premiere of THE MAKING OF A MODERN FOLK HERO.

Other Theatre, in association with Chicago Dramatists’ Grafting Project, is pleased to launch its 4th season with the world premiere of Martín Zimmerman’s comedic graphic novel for the stage THE MAKING OF A MODERN FOLK HERO, directed by Kelly Howe, playing September 29 – October 29, 2017 at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave. in Chicago. Single tickets and season subscriptions are currently available at theothertheatrecompany.com. 

THE MAKING OF A MODERN FOLK HERO will feature Celeste Burns, Aida Delaz, Adelina Feldman-Schultz, Robert N. Isaac, Christopher Meister, Becca Sheehan and Hannah Toriumi. 

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. They leave 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 interrogate the hopes, fears and social forces that push people to yearn for and believe in the possibility of superheroes.

Comments Artistic Director Carin Silkaitis, “Martín’s play touches on some important ideas – particularly what happens when our politicians are too entrenched in the political ecosystem to be able to enact real change, even if their intentions are in the right place? I am so interested in the fact that the congressman must hire an actor to save this housing complex. He knows the right choice is siding with the disenfranchised, the poverty-stricken, but he is too embedded in the political mess to be able to vocally side with the very people he represents. After conversations with the playwright (and because of Donald Trump's campaign strategy) I am also struck by the way this play grapples with the idea of a person – one who has deep and intense psychological needs for admiration and adoration – hijacking a political movement.”

THE MAKING OF A MODERN FOLK HERO was developed in part through readings and workshops at Chicago Dramatists.

The production team for THE MAKING OF A MODERN FOLK HERO includes: Michael Johannsen (scenic design), Olivia Crary (costume design), Will Coeur (lighting design), Colin Trevor (sound design), Nick Thornton (puppet design & puppet choreography) and Kasey Trouba (stage manager).

Location: Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago
Dates: Previews: Friday, September 29 at 8 pm, Saturday, September 30 at 8 pm and Sunday, October 1 at 3 pm
Regular run: Friday, October 6 – Sunday, October 29, 2017
Curtain Times: Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm; Sundays at 3 pm Please note: there will be added performances on Wednesday, October 18 at 8 pm and Wednesday, October 25 at 8 pm.

Tickets: Previews: $20 with code “PREVIEW.” Regular run: $25. Students $15 with code “STUDENT.” Industry $15 with code “INDUSTRY.” Single tickets and season subscriptions are currently available at theothertheatrecompany.com.

*Chicago Dramatists Benefit Performances: The performances on Saturday, September 30 at 8 pm and Thursday, October 12 at 8 pm will benefit Chicago Dramatists. Tickets for these performances are available only through chicagodramatists.org.

Creative Team Bios
Martín Zimmerman (Playwright) is a multi-ethnic, bilingual playwright and screenwriter whose plays have been produced or developed at The Kennedy Center, Goodman Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse In The Park, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Alley Theatre, Roundabout Underground, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, LCT3, New York Theatre Workshop, Victory Gardens Theater, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, The Playwrights’ Center, Alliance Theatre, A.C.T. (Seattle), PlayPenn, Icicle Creek Theatre Festival, American Theater Company, The Theatre @ Boston Court, Chicago Dramatists, Primary Stages, Teatro Vista, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Playwrights Foundation, Cara Mía Theatre Co, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference and Borderlands Theater, among others. A recipient of the Terrence McNally New Play Award, Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award Citation, Humanitas Prize New Voices Award, Sky Cooper New American Play Prize, McKnight Advancement Grant, Jerome Fellowship, Carl Djerassi Playwriting Fellowship, and the National New Play Network’s Smith Prize, Martín was a Staff Writer on Netflix’s Narcos, is a Story Editor on the upcoming Netflix Series Ozark, has been the Alliance for Latino Theater Artists (ALTA) Artist of the Month, was a member of the 2011-2012 Playwrights’ Unit at Goodman Theatre, is a Playwright in Residence at Teatro Vista, a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists, and is currently under commission at Milwaukee Repertory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, and Roundabout Theatre Company. MFA in Playwriting: The University of Texas at Austin. BA in Theater Studies, BS in Economics: Duke University.

Kelly Howe (Director) is a theatre faculty member at Loyola University Chicago and Resident Dramaturg at TOTC. Recent directing credits include Sarah Myers' The Realm (TOTC), Gertrude Stein’s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, Ellen McLaughlin’s Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Juan Mayorga’s Way to Heaven, Brecht and Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, George Brant’s Elephant’s Graveyard, Martín Zimmerman’s Phoenix Unforgiven and Sarah Myers’ God of the Gaps. Recent dramaturgy for TOTC includes Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Daughters of Ire and Threesome. Kelly is a past president of Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed (PTO) and co-organizer of the collective Theatre of the Oppressed and Activism in Chicago. She co-chaired three of PTO's international conferences and the 30th anniversary conference of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) in Chicago. As an artist/scholar, Kelly focuses on activist performance, particularly Theatre of the Oppressed and theatre as feminist organizing. She co-edited Theatre of the Oppressed in Actions (2015) with Julian Boal and Scot McElvany and is working on The Routledge Companion to Theatre of the Oppressed with Julian Boal and José Soeiro. Her writing also appears in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Text and Performance Quarterly, Comparative Drama, etc. She is a member of the advisory board of the Jana Sanskriti International Research and Resource Institute, West Bengal, India. MA/PhD UT-Austin; BA Muhlenberg College. 

About Other Theatre:
Other Theatre is dedicated to telling the stories of persons or groups who are othered by systems of oppression. Othering individuals or groups sustains power and privilege. Othering inherently implies hierarchy. Othering keeps the power in the hands of those who already have it.  Othering is an "us" vs. "them" mentality often centered around race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, identity, class, religion and ability. Other Theatre is committed to telling these stories in the hope that we can lessen the amount of discrimination and oppression in our world.

We are a collective of artist-activists who believe in the power of theatre to enact social change. We believe in equality for all human beings and we will fight for it. We believe theatre is an excellent conversation starter, and we hope you will come talk with us after the show. We believe radical social change is possible and we will continue to stand up, fight, and resist until it happens.

Other Theatre Artistic Staff: 
Carin Silkaitis, Founder and Artistic Director; Maddie DePorter, Managing Director; Bryan Renaud, Associate Artistic Director; Ashley Pettit, Production Manager; Savanna Rae, Company Manager; Stephen Kossak, Casting Director; Becca Sheehan, Audience Development/Intern Coordinator; Nik Kmiecik, Social Media Coordinator; Kelly Howe, Resident Dramaturg; Tommy Rivera-Vega, Artistic Associate; Hannah Toriumi, Artistic Associate; Gay Glenn, Artistic Associate.

Other Theatre Board of Directors:
Michele Thornton, President; Kelly Soprych, Vice President; Jermaine Hill, Secretary; Stephen Silkaitis, Treasurer; Lisa Wolfe, and Michael Johannsen.

Other Theatre’s 4th Season is presented by generous grants from MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and The Saints.

About Chicago Dramatists:
Since 1979, Chicago Dramatists has been dedicated to the development and advancement of playwrights. Chicago Dramatists nurtures extraordinary playwrights with the space, resources and collaborators needed to realize new work and thrive as artists. Workshops, readings, classes and special programs provide opportunities for beginning and established dramatists to develop their work, expand their professional affiliations, showcase their plays and collaborate with actors, directors and audiences during the creative process. The Resident Playwright program is a selective program offered at no cost to playwrights who demonstrate talent and dedication to the craft of playwriting. But we also believe that to discover untapped talent and nurture playwriting as a discipline, we need to embrace playwrights wherever they are on their writing path—which is why we offer our Network Playwright program to playwrights at all levels of ability.

Every year, plays developed at Chicago Dramatists earn hundreds of professional accomplishments, including productions, awards, commissions and readings at theatres in Chicago and worldwide. Distinguished alumni of Chicago Dramatists include Tanya Saracho (El Nogalar, How to Get Away with Murder), Andrew Hinderaker (Colossus, Penny Dreadful), Rick Cleveland (The West Wing, Six Feet Under, Mad Men), Rebecca Gilman (Pulitzer nominee, Spinning into Butter, Luna Gale), Keith Huff (A Steady Rain, House of Cards), and many others.

OPENING: Ibsen & Tegby's GHOSTS & zombies Via Akvavit Theatre at Strawdog Theatre Company

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Casting Announced!

Akvavit Theatre Presents 

GHOSTS & zombies

By Henrik Ibsen & Gustav Tegby

Translated by Chad Eric Bergman
 

Directed by Co-Artistic Director Breahan Pautsch

September 28 - October 29, 2017 at Strawdog Theatre Company

Here at ChiIL Live Shows we're ready for the fall chill in the air and a touch of the macabre. We're also jazzed for Akvavit's latest, an updated spin on Ibsen by contemporary Swedish playwright, Gustav Tegby. I'm descended from Swedes who came to Chicago on a boat so rickety it sank on the return voyage! This is my heritage and ancestry and I adore the Akvavit's poetic mission statement. Can't wait to catch GHOSTS & zombies.

About Akvavit Theatre
Akvavit Theatre is haunted by Nordic visions: deep forests and ice-blue seas, the patience of the glacier, the sudden fury of the volcano, the arctic light and silence. Seeking the universal through the voices of contemporary Nordic playwrights, Akvavit Theatre is a kind of homecoming, a connecting back to the lands whose people and cultures have for generations been a part of the great prairies of North America that we call home. And like our namesake beverage, Akvavit brings a “strong spirit” to the work that we produce. Skål, Skál, Kippis! For additional information, visit www.chicagonordic.org.

Just in time to get you in the Halloween spirit, Akvavit Theatre is pleased to present GHOSTS & zombies, by Henrik Ibsen and Gustav Tegby, in a new American translation by Chad Eric Bergman*, directed by Co-Artistic Director Breahan Pautsch*. This dark and hilarious contemporary Swedish twist on Ibsen’s Norwegian classic Ghosts, will play September 28 - October 29, 2017 at the new Strawdog Theatre Company, 1802 W. Berenice in Chicago. Tickets on sale at chicagonordic.org.

GHOSTS & zombies will feature Marsha Harman as Mrs. Helene Alving, Victor Bayona as Chamberlain Alving, Jeremy Trager as Pastor Manders, Joshua K. Harris as Carpenter Engstrand, Micah Kronlokken* as Osvald and Almanya Narula as Regine with and ensemble including Jessica Kearney, Dylan M. Lainez, Madelyn Loehr*, Christiane Schaldemose, Erik Schiller and Tyler Skafgaard.

GHOSTS & zombies puts a blood-curdling spin on Ibsen's classic drama, Ghosts. As in the original, Mrs. Alving is preparing to open an orphanage in her husband's memory, while welcoming her son home from a long absence. However, things soon take a turn for the weird and scary as their country estate becomes overrun by the un-dead. Haunted by the ghosts of her past, Mrs. Alving now finds herself confronted by zombies that she is forced to stand and fight. GHOSTS & zombies shows us that we can try to bury the parts of our life we would rather forget, but we cannot control whether they walk again – slowly, hungrily – in our direction.

The production team for GHOSTS & zombies includes: Chad Eric Bergman* (set design), Rachel Sypniewski (costume design), David Goodman-Edberg (lighting design), Nigel Harsch* (sound designer), Leticha Guillaud (properties design), Kirstin Franklin* (casting director), Bethany Weise (asst. costume designer), R&D Choreography (violence design), Christiane Schaldemose (music direction), Chris Waldron (asst. director), Amy Hopkins (production manager), Harrison Ornelas (technical director), Hannah Harper-Smith (stage manager) and Katy Grabarski (asst. stage manager).

Location: Strawdog Theatre Company,1802 W. Berenice, Chicago
Dates: Preview: Thursday, September 28 at 8 pm
Regular run: Saturday, September 30 – Sunday, October 29, 2017
Curtain Times: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 4 pm. 
Tickets: Previews: $10. Regular Run: $25. Students/seniors/industry $15. Tickets go on sale Friday, September 1, 2017 available at chicagonordic.org.

*Denotes Akvavit Theatre company members.

Akvavit Theatre is also pleased to announce the addition of new company member Madelyn Loehr and associate company member Maggie Fullilove-Nugent.

Artist Biographies
Gustav Tegby (Playwright) was born in Umeå, Sweden in 1980, where he also grew up. He has written about twenty plays played at, among others, Drama, Malmö City Theater, Uppsala City Theater and a number of different free groups across Sweden, as well as in Finland and the USA. Among the titles noted, Gargantua was released to Bibu in 2014 and Everyone Loves Bernie Madoff, a raid scene version of the true and completely unlikely story of Wall Street's greatest scammers. The latter was set up on three different theaters and was also filmed for SVT's project Pulse in Sweden. As a dramatist, Gustav has been interested in popular culture, and especially for the horror genre – he has among other things given Ibsen's Gengångare an odd twist in his variant Ghosts & zombies, where the infection of Mrs. Alving's son is drawn to something worse than syphilis. In the summer of 2016 he was one of the authors of Sweden's Radio Drama's major success, The Voices of the Dead, a fictional horror documentary in eight parts. Gustav had previously run the Drama Cup for many years. He also works as a dramaturg at the National Theater.

Chad Eric Bergman (Translator) actively collaborates in the Chicago storefront scene having worked with Stage Left, Live Bait, Chicago Dramatists, MPAACT, parker, Plasticene and Akvavit in various artistic ways. He has been an artist in residence at the Ragdale Foundation and the University of Chicago’s Summer Incubator. He spent a year in Finland on a Fulbright exploring bilingual theatre. At North Park University, he has been developing a theatre curriculum that is based on the Chicago storefront theatre model.

Breahan Eve Pautsch (Director) is originally from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. She earned her BA in Theatre and English at UW-Madison and has been working in Chicago as an actor and director since 2003. She has been a company member with Akvavit Theatre since 2011, where she served as Literary Manager and Director of Development for several years before taking the position of co-Artistic Director at the beginning of 2017. She is also a company member with Indie Boots Theatre.  

FILMS ON OUR RADAR: MANOLO: THE BOY WHO MADE SHOES FOR LIZARDS NOW PLAYING AT THE MUSIC BOX THEATRE

Music Box Films Presents

MANOLO: THE BOY WHO MADE SHOES FOR LIZARDS

Directed by: Michael Roberts

Now Playing at the Music Box Theatre

"Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world."

– Marilyn Monroe

Manolo is an in-depth portrait of legendary fashion designer Manolo Blahnik, whose extraordinary dedication to his craft set a fashion standard among celebrities, stylists, and industry icons. Longtime fashion journalist Michael Roberts presents this never-before-seen peek into Mr. Blahnik’s world, featuring a ‘who’s who’ of the fashion and entertainment industries including Anna Wintour, Rihanna, Paloma Picasso, Iman, Naomi Campbell, Rupert Everett, Karlie Kloss, André Leon Tally, and more.

Official Website: http://www.musicboxfilms.com/manolo
Official Facebook Handle: @manoloblahnikfilm
Official Twitter and Instagram Handle: @ManoloFilm
Official Hashtag: #ManoloFilm



About Music Box Films:
Founded in 2007, Music Box Films is a North American distributor of acclaimed international, American independent and documentary features. Recent releases include Hannes Holm’s A MAN CALLED OVE nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Achievement in Makeup & Hairstyling at the 89th Academy Awards, Terence Davies’ A QUIET PASSION starring Cynthia Nixon, and François Ozon’s FRANTZ. Current and upcoming releases include Martin Provost’s THE MIDWIFE starring Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Frot, MANOLO: THE BOY WHO MADE SHOES FOR LIZARDS featuring ‘who’s who’ list of some of the most notable figures in the fashion and entertainment worlds, CHAVELA a documentary about the legendary Mexican Ranchera singer Chavela Vargas, AIDA’S SECRETS a moving documentary that unravels a web of family secrets, Cédric Klapisch’s BACK TO BURGUNDY, and VAZANTE Daniela Thomas’ first feature debut.

Music Box Films is independently owned and operated the Southport Music Box Corporation, which also owns and operates the Music Box Theatre, Chicago’s premiere venue for independent and foreign films. For more information, please visit www.musicboxfilms.com.




About The Music Box Theatre:
 For the last two decades, the Music Box Theatre has been the premiere venue in Chicago for independent and foreign films. It currently has the largest theater space operated full time in the city. The Music Box Theatre is independently owned and operated by the Southport Music Box Corporation. SMBC, through its Music Box Films division, also distributes foreign and independent films in the theatrical, DVD and television markets throughout the United States.

Please follow The Music Box Theatre on Instagram @musicboxchicago and Twitter @musicboxtheatre

TONIGHT: One Night Only at Greenhouse Theater, USE IT OR LOSE IT: An Evening of Short Plays About Your Rights

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Greenhouse Theater Center Presents

USE IT OR LOSE IT: 

An Evening of Short Plays About Your Rights

Saturday, September 23, 2017

A Benefit for the ACLU

PHOTO CREDIT: Greenhouse Theater Center's MC-10 Playwrights Ensemble includes (left to right) Zayd Dohrn, Rebecca Gilman, Lydia Diamond, Julie Marie Myatt, Laura Schellhardt, Sandra Delgado, Brett Neveu, Thomas Bradshaw, Philip Dawkins and Tanya Palmer.

Come on out to Greenhouse Theater Center tonight for some of our favorite playwrights and actors supporting a great cause. Tickets are pay-what-you-want.  All proceeds will benefit the ACLU. We're jazzed about the newly-created MC-10 Playwrights Ensemble, and can't wait to see what they have in store tonight and down the road!

Greenhouse Theater Center is pleased to present USE IT OR LOSE IT: An Evening of Short Plays About Your Rights, original works inspired by contemporary and historic legal battles the ACLU has fought on behalf of Americans' rights and freedoms. Written by members of the Greenhouse's newly-created MC-10 Playwrights Ensemble and directed by Devon de Mayo, Jacob Harvey and Chuck Smith, the short pieces tackle everything from the recent travel ban to the attack on reproductive rights to encounters with the TSA, offering audiences a glimpse into the vast impact and critical importance of the ACLU. 

USE IT OR LOSE IT will play one night only on Saturday, September 23 at 7 pm at the Greenhouse Theater's Downstairs Mainstage, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago.  Tickets are pay-what-you-want and are currently available at www.greenhousetheater.org, in person at the box office or by calling (773) 404-7336. All proceeds will benefit the ACLU. 

USE IT OR LOSE IT features short plays by: Thomas Bradshaw, Philip Dawkins, Sandra Delgado, Zayd Dohrn, Rebecca Gilman, Brett Neveu, Julie Marie Myatt, Tanya Palmer and Laura Schellhardt. 

The cast of USE IT LOSE IT includes: Japhet Balaban, Dana Black, Pat Kane, Jennifer Latimore, Mary Ann Thebus, Dan Waller and Wandachristine. 

The full USE IT OR LOSE IT line-up includes: 

EVERYDAY SUPER HERO
By Laura Schellhardt, directed by Devon de Mayo

January 27th, 2017 – In a backroom office of this mayhem called America, two super heroes strategize their next mission.

THIS IS A MESSAGE FROM PROTECTUS
By Sandra Delgado, directed by Devon de Mayo

Brenda just wants to hear her daughter’s voice and help her with her homework. But Brenda is one of the two-thirds of female inmates who is the parent of a minor child, and no conversation is free, easy or uninterrupted. 

HOLD ON
By Julie Marie Myatt, directed by Devon de Mayo

What do your rights feel like? One woman tries to get inside the emotion of this so-called inalienable thing. 

WONDER NEVER CEASES
By Philip Dawkins, directed by Jacob Harvey

Get inside the mind of a service dog who just wants to be there for his seven-year-old BFF after her school decides he’s a “distraction” and not, you know, an ADHA required necessity. 

GANG MEMBERS UNITE
By Thomas Bradshaw, directed by Jacob Harvey

A veteran Chicago gang member tries to unite fellow gang leaders from across the country for a common cause.

ON THE CLOCK
By Tanya Palmer, directed by Jacob Harvey

When you’re a single working mom it can be hard to find time for yourself. With abortion clinics closing and restrictions on abortions increasing, one woman fights against the clock to end an unwanted pregnancy. 

SPOTers
By Brett Neveu, directed by Chuck Smith

While undergoing additional passenger check training, two TSA employees discover their jobs may require more of them than they previously understood.

BILLIE BOGGS
By Zayd Dohrn, directed by Chuck Smith

Meet Billie Boggs, the most famous homeless black lady in all of history! She and the ACLU fought for her right to live on the streets and won.
  
DEATH FOR GILMORE 
By Rebecca Gilman, directed by Chuck Smith

In 1977, the ACLU fought to save Gary Gilmore from the firing squad. But their biggest obstacle was Gilmore himself.


About the MC-10 Playwrights Ensemble
The Greenhouse Theater's newly-created MC-10 Playwrights Ensemble is a collection of ten of the country’s most sought-after established and mid-career Chicago playwrights and theatre-makers. The ensemble, in residence at the Greenhouse Theater Center, will create new works for its stages. Beginning with the 2018-19 season, the Greenhouse will present one play per season by MC-10 member playwrights, eventually expanding to two MC-10 productions per season. These world and regional premieres aim to expand the scope, diversity and visibility of work happening at the Greenhouse and underscore the institution's commitment to creating new vital works for the American theatrical canon.

In addition to the one to two annual productions at the Greenhouse, MC-10 will curate a series of special events, pop-up performances and provocative conversations aimed at responding directly to issues and needs as they arise in our community. 

The MC-10 Playwrights Ensemble includes: Thomas Bradshaw, Philip Dawkins, Sandra Delgado, Lydia Diamond, Zayd Dohrn, Rebecca Gilman, Brett Neveu, Julie Marie Myatt, Tanya Palmer and Laura Schellhardt.

About the MC-10 Playwrights
Thomas Bradsaw’s play Carlyle premiered at The Goodman Theatre as part of their 2015-16 season. His play Fulfillment co-premiered at American Theater Company (Chicago) and The Flea Theater (New York) in fall 2015. His other plays include Intimacy and Burning (New Group); Mary (Goodman Theatre) Job and Dawn (Flea Theater); The Bereaved (Crowded Fire, Partial Comfort and the State Theater of Bielefeld in Germany); Southern Promises (PS122) and many more. He was the recipient of a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2010 Prince Prize, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts award in 2012 and a Doris Duke Implementation Grant in 2016. Mr. Bradshaw has been featured as one of Time Out New York’s “10 Playwrights to Watch” and was named “Best Provocative Playwright” by the Village Voice. A compilation of his work Intimacy and Other Plays was recently published by TCG. Mr. Bradshaw is an Associate Professor at Northwestern University. He is currently under commission from The Royal National Theater in London, Marin Theater Company in San Francisco and The Foundry Theater in New York.

Philip Dawkins is a Chicago playwright whose plays have been produced all over the country and the world. His critically acclaimed works include: The Happiest Place on Earth (Greenhouse Theater Center & Sideshow Theatre Company – Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best Solo Work), Charm (Northlight Theatre – Jeff Award for Best New Work), Le Switch (About Face Theater, The Jungle – Jeff nomination Best New Work and Best Production); Miss Marx: Or The Involuntary Side Effect of Living (Strawdog Theatre – Jeff Award for Best New Work), The Homosexuals (About Face Theater – Jeff nomination for Best New Work) and Failure: A Love Story (Victory Gardens Theatre – Jeff nomination for Best New Work). His musical adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches (with composer David Mallamud) premiered at Children’s Theater Company in Minneapolis this past winter. His play Charm will receive its New York premiere in September at MCC. Philip teaches playwriting at Northwestern University, Loyola University Chicago, his alma mater, and through the Victory Gardens ACCESS Program for writers with disabilities. Most of his plays, including his plays for young performers, are available through Playscripts, Inc. and Dramatic Publishing.

Sandra Delgado is a Colombian-American actor, writer, singer and producer born and raised in Chicago. She received the Theater Communications Group (TCG) Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship in residence at the Goodman Theater in Chicago where she developed her solo show para Graciela, subsequently performed at the Yo Solo Festival. As an actor, her vivid portrayals of strong, smart women such as the iconic Medea in Luis Alfaro's Mojada at Victory Gardens Theatre (named one of the Top Ten performances of 2013 by the Chicago Tribune) to the tough as nails, foul mouthed Veronica in Stephen Adly Guirgis' Motherf**ker with the Hat at the Steppenwolf Theatre, have made her a favorite among critics and audiences alike. Delgado's stage credits include work at Steppenwolf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens, Lookingglass, Actors Theater of Louisville and INTAR. She produced Teatro Vista's and Collaboraction's Yo Solo Festival of Latino Solo Shows and Collaboraction's popular Sketchbook Festival from 2005-2008. She is a founding ensemble member of Collaboraction and an ensemble member of Teatro Vista (Associate Artistic Director from 2006-2008). She has trained in interview-based, collaboratively- generated and physical theater with Tectonic Theater Project, Ping Chong + Company, SITI Company and Cuba's Teatro Buendia. Ms. Delgado was part of the Goodman's Playwright's Unit for the 2015-16 season and is a TCG Young Leader of Color Alum, a two-time Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events grantee, a 3Arts 3AP Project Grantee and served on the National Steering Committee of the Latina/o Theatre Commons, an advocacy group for Latino Theatre artists. In 2015, she received the Joyce Award to develop her documentary play with music, La Havana Madrid, with Teatro Vista. La Havana Madrid made its premiere at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre in April 2017 and is playing at The Goodman Theatre this summer. www.sandradelgado.net

Lydia Diamond’s plays include: Voyeurs de Venus (2006 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work, 2006 Black Theater Alliance Award for Best Writing), The Bluest Eye (2006 Black Arts Alliance Image Award for Best New Play and 2008 AATE Distinguished Play Award), The Gift Horse (Theodore Ward Prize, Kesselring Prize 2nd Place), Stick Fly (2008 Susan Smith Blackburn Finalist, 2006 Black Theatre Alliance Award for best play), Lizzie Stranton and Harriet Jacobs. Producing theatres include: Arena Stage, The Huntington, New Vic, Goodman, Steppenwolf, Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, McCarter, Playmakers Rep, Providence Black Rep, Chicago Dramatists, Congo Square, TrueColors, The Matrix and Company One. Commissions include: Steppenwolf, Actors Theatre of Louisville/Victory Gardens, McCarter, Huntington and The Roundabout. Stick Fly is published by Northwestern University Press. Ms. Diamond is a 2009 NEA/Arena Stage New Play Development Grant Finalist, and 2006-2007 Huntington Playwright Fellow.

Zayd Dohrn’s plays include The Profane, Want, Outside People, Long Way Go Down, Sick and Reborning. His work is published by Samuel French, and has been produced across the country and internationally, including at Playwrights Horizons, The Vineyard Theatre, Naked Angels, Steppenwolf First Look and The Public Theater / Summer Play Festival. He is the recipient of the 2016 Horton Foote New American Play Prize, the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, the Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Award, the Sky Cooper American Playwriting Prize, Theatre Master’s Visionary Playwrights Award and Lincoln Center’s Lecomte du Nouy Prize. Zayd attended Brown University, received his MFA from NYU and was a Lila Acheson Wallace Fellow at Juilliard. He currently teaches in the MFA program in Writing for the Stage + Screen at Northwestern. www.zayddohrn.com.

Rebecca Gilman’s plays include Luna Gale, Boy Gets Girl, Spinning Into Butter, Dollhouse, Blue Surge, A True History of the Johnstown Flood, Soups, Stews, and Casseroles: 1976, The Glory of Living, The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and The Crowd You’re in With. Her plays have received numerous productions in the U.S. and abroad, including productions at the Goodman Theatre (where she is a member of the Goodman Theatre Artistic Collective), Steppenwolf Theatre, The Acting Company, Royal Court Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre, Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Seattle Rep, Cleveland Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Alliance Theatre, Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre and Manhattan Class Company. Gilman is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, The Harper Lee Award, The Scott McPherson Award, The Prince Prize for Commissioning New Work, The Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, The Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, The George Devine Award, The Theatre Masters Visionary Award, The Great Plains Playwright Award, The Roe Green Award, an Ingram Playwriting Fellowship and an Illinois Arts Council fellowship. Boy Gets Girl received an Olivier Nomination for Best New Play and was included in Time Magazine’s list of “Top Ten Plays of the Decade.” Gilman was named a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for The Glory of Living. She is a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America. Gilman is a professor at Northwestern University and teaches in its MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage Program.

Julie Marie Myatt’s play The Happy Ones premiered at South Coast Repertory, and won the LA Drama Critic Circle’s Ted Schmitt Award for Outstanding New Play. Her play Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter premiered at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Kennedy Center as part of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays. Her play Someday, premiered as part of Cornerstone Theater’s Justice Cycle. Her play, My Wandering Boy, premiered at South Coast Repertory in the 2007, was part of Pacific Playwrights Festival, and was also produced in New York as part of the 2007 Summer Play Festival. Boats On A River premiered at the Guthrie Theater, was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and was recorded for the LA Theatre works radio play series, “The Play’s The Thing.” Her ten-minute play, Mr. and Mrs. premiered at the 2007 Humana Festival. Her play The Sex Habits of American Women was produced by the Guthrie Theater, among others, and premiered at the Magic Theatre. Her work has been developed or seen at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Rep, Cherry Lane, A.S.K. Theatre Projects, LAByrinth Theater Company, Denver Center Theatre Company, ACT Seattle, among others. She received a Walt Disney Studios Screenwriting Fellowship, a Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights’ Center, a McKnight Advancement Grant, Mark Taper Forum Fadiman Award and a Master Playwright Residency – Michener Center for Writers and Department of Theatre and Dance, UT/Austin. She is currently working on commissions for Yale Repertory and Cornerstone Theatre Company. She is an Alumni of New Dramatists, was the Mellon Playwright in Residence at South Coast Repertory 2013-2016 and teaches playwriting at Northwestern University.

Brett Neveu’s upcoming and recent theatre productions include Miss America with Greenhouse Theater Center (Chicago) and Pilgrim’s Progress with A Red Orchid Theatre (Chicago). Film/TV productions include the short Convo with Breakwall Pictures, the feature The Earl with Intermission Productions and the upcoming The Humbler new content series. Past work includes productions with 59e59 Theatre in New York, The Royal Court Theatre and The Royal Shakespeare Company in London, The Goodman Theatre, Writers Theatre, The House Theatre, The Inconvenience, TimeLine Theatre Company, A Red Orchid Theatre and American Theatre Company in Chicago. A Sundance Institute Ucross Fellow, Brett is also a recipient of the Marquee Award from Chicago Dramatists, the Ofner Prize for New Work, the Emerging Artist Award from The League of Chicago Theatres, an After Dark Award for Outstanding Musical (Old Town) and has developed plays with companies including The Atlantic Theatre Company and The New Group in New York and The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre and Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago. He is a resident-alum of Chicago Dramatists, a proud ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre, an alumni member of TimeLine Theatre Company’s Writers Collective and Center Theatre Group’s Playwrights’ Workshop in Los Angeles. Brett has been commissioned by The Royal Court Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Goodman Theatre, House Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, Writers Theatre, Strawdog Theatre, Northlight Theatre and has several of his plays published through Broadway Play Publishing, Dramatic Publishing and Nick Hern Publishing. Brett has taught writing at DePaul University, Second City Training Center and currently teaches writing for the screen and stage at Northwestern University.

Tanya Palmer is a dramaturg and playwright. Her plays include Body Talk, Fatherland, Barbra Live at Canyon Ranch, Spring and Trash and The Memory Tour, and have been developed or produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Hangar Theatre, Solar Stage, the Montreal Fringe Festival, The Harbourfront Centre, HERE and Pivot Arts, and published by Smith & Kraus, Samuel French and Playscripts, Inc. She is the Director of New Play Development at Goodman Theatre, where she coordinates New Stages, the theater’s new play program, and has served as the production dramaturg on a number of plays including the world premieres of 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, adapted and directed by Seth Bockley and Robert Falls; Smokefall by Noah Haidle, The Happiest Song Plays Last by Quiara Hudes and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Ruined by Lynn Nottage. Prior to her arrival in Chicago, she served as the director of new play development at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she led the reading and selection process for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. She is the co-editor, with Amy Wegener and Adrien-Alice Hansel, of four collections of Humana Festival plays, published by Smith & Kraus, as well as two collections of 10-minute plays published by Samuel French. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she holds an MFA in playwriting from York University in Toronto.

Laura Schellhardt’s original works include Ever in the Glades, The Comparables, Upright Grand, Air Guitar High, Auctioning the Ainsleys, The K of D, Courting Vampires and Shapeshifter. Adaptations include The Phantom Tollbooth and The Outfit. She is also the author of Screenwriting for Dummmies. Her work has been produced at The Kennedy Center, TheatreWorks Palo Alto, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, People’s Light Theatre, The Magic Theatre, Wooly Mammoth Theatre, Boston Court Theatre, ACT and Northlight Theatre, among others. Laura is a recipient of the TCG National Playwriting Residency, the Jerome Fellowship, ACT’s New Play Award, the Best New Play Award NYC Fringe, The AATE Distinguished Play Award and a Dramatist Guild Fellowship. Her work has been developed at the SoHo Rep. Writer/Director Lab, The Ojai Playwright’s Conference, The Denver New Play Summit, The Bay Area Theatre Festival, The Women Playwrights Festival, The Kennedy Center New Voices/New Visions Festival, The Bonderman Symposium, The Goodman Theatre Playwrights Unit and the O’Neill National Playwright’s Festival. Laura received her MFA in Playwriting from Brown University under the direction of Paula Vogel. She currently heads the undergraduate playwriting program at Northwestern University and is a Victory Gardens ensemble playwright. 

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 8 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 is also launching the Trellis playwriting residency, an initiative designed to cultivate the next generation of Chicago theatre creators and a two-tiered education program for college and high school students.

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!

LAST CALL: MERCY KILLERS and SIDE EFFECTS at Greenhouse Theater Center Through 10/8

Check out Two Timely "Pay What You Want" one-act plays steeped in America’s controversial relationship with healthcare. Written and performed by Michael Milligan.

Greenhouse Theater Center and Poor Box Theater, in association

with Taffety Punk Theatre Company, present

THE AMERICAN MERCY TOUR:

MERCY KILLERS & SIDE EFFECTS

Written and Performed by Michael Milligan

Directed by Tom Oppenheim

Through October 8, 2017 

MercyKillers (pictured) Actor and playwright Michael Milligan in MERCY KILLERS. Photo by Daylon Walton.


Side Effects-1 (pictured) Actor and playwright Michael Milligan in SIDE EFFECTS. Photo by Teresa Castracane.

Greenhouse Theater Center and Poor Box Theater, in association with D.C’s award winning Taffety Punk Theatre Company, are pleased to present THE AMERICAN MERCY TOUR: MERCY KILLERS and SIDE EFFECTS, two one-act plays steeped in America’s controversial relationship with healthcare. Written and performed by Michael Milligan and directed by Tom Oppenheim, these moving and unapologetic pieces will be presented as a single theatrical event, immersing the audience in the stories of patients and physicians, coming out of the waiting room and into the fray. 

MERCY KILLERS and SIDE EFFECTS will play September 7 – October 8, 2017 at The Greenhouse Theater Center (Upstairs Studio), 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. Tickets (pay-what-you-want) are currently available at greenhousetheater.org, in person at the box office or by calling (773) 404-7336.  

In MERCY KILLERS, Joe, a blue-collar red state auto mechanic faced with his wife’s failing health, must grapple with the stark divide between his values and his reality. Pushed to the breaking point by debt, disease and a busted system, Joe must decide what compromises he will make to keep his wife alive. MERCY KILLERS is all at once a tender love story and an unblinking look at those the system leaves behind.

Flipping to the other side of the stethoscope, SIDE EFFECTS follows William, a family practice physician on the brink of burnout. Caught between his ambition to become the healer his father once exemplified and the corporatization of his chosen profession, William must reconcile the art and business of medicine, or be forced to lose his practice. In this Chicago premiere, we see the human side of those who heal us, throwing light onto the turmoil that remain out of sight from the examination table.

“Michael Milligan is one of those rare theatre artists who can combine his craft, intellect and activism in a perfect storm of unapologetically political performance,” comments Greenhouse Theater Center Artistic Director Jacob Harvey. “These pieces and the issues they explore are increasingly important in our political moment, but what truly sets them apart is their unwillingness to simplify. Milligan’s pieces are bi-partisan and in their splendid, terrifying honesty put faces to the statistics and figures we so easily grow numb to.”

History of “The American Mercy Tour”
“I wrote Mercy Killers in response to a number of personal encounters with the healthcare system,” comments Michael Milligan. “A good friend of mine showed up at the Folger Theatre stage door after a show, carrying a small duffle bag, in which he had all of his belongings. He’d been living on the streets for a couple years. I invited him back to my place, where I discovered he also had a number of medical problems, a slipped disk in his neck from a fall and a golf ball size lump on his arm. I took it on myself to try to get him in to see someone. The difficulty of that blew my mind. It was overwhelming. If I lived in any number of other nations, I could have made an appointment and walked my friend to a doctor’s office, and the first question would not have been ‘what insurance do you have.’” 

“The situation for many healthcare workers is also desperate.” Milligan says, “there’s even diagnostic terminology now for it, it’s called ‘moral distress.’ It’s crippling doctors and nurses; many of them are burning out and leaving the profession. The medical literature says that ‘moral distress occurs when one knows the ethically correct action to take but feels powerless to take that action.’ The healthcare system becomes more bureaucratized and corporatized every year, medical decisions are increasingly influenced by claims analysts, hospital administrators, and entitlement bureaucrats, Side Effects is a meditation on the conflicts of interest that arise as a result.” 

The impulse to create Side Effects was similarly visceral. When Milligan was on the road performing Mercy Killers, he started interviewing doctors and nurses in each community. Side Effects has already been well received by the medical community, including a special presentation by the Mayo Clinic. 

"Michael Milligan has captured the sum total of pressures that confront today's physicians in Side Effects. A realistic, engaging and very dramatic portrayal of the life of an average doctor trying to meet the demands of a busy practice as he nearly succumbs to a breakdown and considers leaving the profession he loves so much. Anyone involved in medicine, from the caregivers to the patients we serve, would benefit from seeing this performance." –Robert E McAfee MD, Former President, American Medical Association.

About the Artists
Michael Milligan (Playwright/Actor) Broadway: August: Osage County, La Bete, Jerusalem. Off Broadway: Thom Pain, Mercy Killers. The Golem. Chicago: Iago in Othello and Tug of War: Civil Strife at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Mercy Killers at American Theater Company. Michael will appear in the Goodman’s upcoming world premiere, Blind Date. Michael has performed Shakespeare hither and yon with groups like the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Shakespeare Theater in DC. Alabama, Utah, Colorado, New Jersey, Milwaukee, and Illinois Shakespeare festivals, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and Shakespeare and Company. Regionally, Michael has played at the Guthrie, Westport Playhouse, The McCarter Theater, St. Louis Rep, Cincinatti Playhouse and more. Michael received the 2013 Fringe First award in Edinburgh for Mercy Killers which he has performed 100s of times around the country. Michael’s other plays include Phaeton, Heroin, Urgent: Aliens, The Sea Wolf, and a musical adaptation of Aesop’s Fables commissioned by Circle in the Square in NYC. Television credits include: Law and Order, Person of Interest, The Knick, Chicago Justice, and APB.  Michael is a graduate of the Juilliard Drama Division where he received the John Houseman Prize. When not acting and writing, Michael is director of PR and Marketing for his brother’s knife company, New West Knifeworks and is also the founding artistic person of the Poor Box Theater. Michael lives in Chicago.

Tom Oppenheim (Director) Directorial credits include Michael Milligan’s Mercy Killers, which won the prestigious Fringe First Award at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe; A Bright Room Called Day off-Broadway, As You Like It by William Shakespeare (with Steve Cook), Songs and Statues by Peter Nickowitz (world premiere), Our Town by Thornton Wilder, What Shall I Give My Children? by Don K. Williams (world premiere), Imagining Heschel by Colin Greer (all for the Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company). As artistic director and president of the Stella Adler Studio of Acting for over 15 years, Tom has articulated a mission, engaged top faculty, structured a world-class training program and created a cultural center. He originated the Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company in 2002 which has since presented over twenty production including 11 world premieres. He created MAD (the Harold Clurman Center for New works in Movement and Dance Theater) a dance theater company that has resented over 30 new works, the majority of which were commissioned world premieres, and which includes Marie Gillis, Bill T. Jones and Mikhail Baryshnikov on the advisory board. He spearheaded the creation of the Harold Clurman Art Series which has presented artists including Harold Bloom, Edward Albee, John Ashbery, Julianne More and Harold Mabern in events that are free and open to the public.  Under Oppenheim’s leadership, the Stella Adler Outreach Division, a program originally designed to educate urban youth, was created.  Since 2004, the division has provided free theater training to over 5,000 low income New York City citizens.  In addition, the Stella Adler Studio of Acting trains over 500 actors per year. Oppenheim studied acting at the National Shakespeare Conservatory and with his grandmother, Stella Adler. Acting credits include the title role in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” as well as Michael in Buzz McLaughlin’s “Sister Calling My Name”, both with the Harold Clurman Theater Company. Tom co-edited The Muses Go To School (New Press 2012) and his writing is featured in Arthur Bartow’s Training of the American Actor (TCG, 2006).

About the Companies 
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 Churchhill, after which came 2016’s much-lauded Solo Celebration!, an 8 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 is also launching the Trellis playwriting residency, an initiative designed to cultivate the next generation of Chicago theatre creators and a two-tiered education program for college and high school students.

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!

Taffety Punk Theatre Company’s mission is to establish a dynamic ensemble of actors, dancers and musicians who ignite a public passion for theatre by making the classical and the contemporary exciting, meaningful, and affordable. The company was recently nominated for Helen Hayes Awards in choreography for 2016’s productions of Phaeton and An Iliad. Past awards include the John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company at the 2008 Helen Hayes Awards. The company was also a 2010 finalist for the D.C. Mayor's Arts Award for Innovation in the Arts. 

      The Poor Box Theater
      An actor, an audience, and an empty space.
      Keeping overhead low, we reach high.
      Through simplicity, we delve into complexities.
      Limiting spectacle, we expand imagination.
      A light in dark corners reveals hidden treasures.
      One vulnerable heart redeems the whole world.
      The greatest revolution is empathy.

The Poor Box Theater brings “pop up” performances to theaters, arts centers, church basements, libraries, union halls, medical schools, conferences and living rooms around the country. The Poor Box Theater is committed to bringing challenging, quality theater to out of the way parts of America — Mercy Killers has toured West Virginia, Oregon, Texas, Maryland, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, California and more. From the Mayo Clinic, to bilingual performances with the Living Hope Wheelchair Association in Texas, from the floor of the House of Representatives in St. Paul, to a 16-city tour with the California Nurses Association, the Poor Box Theater sparks needed dialogue about the issues of the day.