Kooza

Due to high demand for tickets, Cirque du Soleil has added the final 18 performances to the Chicago engagement of Kooza. The final Kooza performance in Chicago will now be August 24, 2008, under the blue and yellow Grand Chapiteau at the United Center (parking lot K).

Kooza is a return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil that combines two circus traditions - acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and fragility, presented in a colorful mélange that emphasizes bold slapstick humor. Between strength and fragility, laughter and smiles, turmoil and harmony, Kooza explores themes of identity, recognition and power. The show is set in an electrifying and exotic visual world full of surprises, thrills, chills, audacity and total involvement.

Special Offer Alert: Click Here for Half-Price Tickets to Kooza

City Lit Theater Announces 2008-2009 Season

A film noir-styled Hamlet directed and co-written by Mike Nussbaum, two world premiere adaptations of works by important American woman writers, and rotating repertory production of a pair of plays by two of the greatest English playwrights of the last century will make up City Lit Theater's 2008-2009 season, artistic director Terry McCabe announced.  The season, City Lit's twenty-ninth, will consist of Dashiell Hamlet by Mike Nowak, Mike Nussbaum, Kathleen Thompson and Paul H. Thompson, The Confession by Mary Roberts Rinehart, Scoundrel Time by Lillian Hellman, and- in rotating rep- Old Times by Harold Pinter and Private Lives by Noel Coward.

"It's a pleasure and an honor to have Mike Nussbaum working here," McCabe said.  "Dashiell Hamlet is a terrific play that I've admired for years, and I'm thrilled to be able to bring it and him to City Lit.  It's a great kick-off to a season that we're especially excited about:  a psychological thriller by America's great lost mystery writer, Hellman's compelling and controversial memoir of going up against the House Un-American Activities Committee, and a pairing of plays by Pinter and Coward that absolutely belong together."

For more information visit www.citylit.org.

TUTA Theatre Chicago also Announces Its 2008-2009 Season

TUTA Theatre Chicago has announced it's 2008-2009 international upcoming season of shows, and the continuation of their physical theatre training center.  In this, their ninth season in the city of Chicago, the critically acclaimed theatre company will be presenting the classic Bard tale of The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and a Chicago Russian Theatre Festival featuring both the U.S. Premiere of Playing The Victim, by Presnyakov Brothers and the return of TUTA's critically acclaimed, sold-out production of Uncle Vanya featuring the original cast.

TUTA's 2008/2009 Theatre Season:

TUTA opens the season with the entirely real, merciless, stormy, spicy, sweaty tragedy of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, directed by Artistic Director Zeljko Djukic.  TUTA's international perspective aims to reawaken the relevance and freshness of Shakespeare's turbulent universe, and bring a level of excitement and surprise to the contemporary audience.

2009 will kick off TUTA's Russian Theatre Festival, beginning with the National Premiere of Prenyakov Brothers acclaimed show Playing The Victim, directed by guest artist Yasen Peyankov.  Composed as a postmodern "variety show", with realities merging and colliding frequently, a number of hilarious character vignettes, and even singing and dancing, Playing the Victim is a fabulously funny satire that will be a refreshing treat for Chicago audiences

In May 2007, Uncle Vanya, translated by Yasen Peyankov and Peter Christensen and directed by Zeljko Djukich, became TUTA's fastest selling show in the company's history.  Returning due to popular demand, TUTA presents this sold - out and critically acclaimed production with the entire original cast. 

For more information about TUTA visit the website at www.tutato.com.

Several Chicagoans Featured in Mamma Mia! National Tour Cast

Several Chicagoans, including Susie McMonagle (Donna Sheridan), Michael Aaron Lindner (Harry Bright), and Nathan Alan Johnson (Ensemble) will perform in the national touring production of Mamma Mia! set to hit Chicago's stage this fall for a limited two-week engagement September 17 - 28, 2008.  The tour continues playing to record breaking houses all across North America.

Leading the cast of 30 is Susie McMonagle as Donna Sheridan, the independent single mother whose carefree past catches up with her on the eve of her daughter's wedding.  Prior to Mamma Mia! Susie could be seen on Broadway as Fantine in Les Misérable and in the National tours of The Secret Garden, The Sound of Music, Les Misérables and Pump Boys and Dinettes. Bride-to-be "Sophie Sheridan" is played by Rose Sezniak, who is a recent graduate of Catholic University in Washington DC.  Her fiancé "Sky" is played by Geoffrey Hemingway.

Kittra Wynn Coomer and Michelle Dawson play Donna's best friends and former back-up band, Rosie and Tanya, (respectively) who reunite with their best friend on the island for Sophie's wedding.  The three men from Donna's past and Sophie's possible dads are John Hemphill (Sam Carmichael), Martin Kildare (Bill Austin), and Michael Aaron Lindner (Harry Bright).  Sophie's & Sky's best friends are played by Rebecca Covington (Ali), Nicole Laurenzi (Lisa), Adam Kaokept (Pepper), and Anthony CeFala (Eddie).

Seen by over 30 million people around the world, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus' global smash hit musical Mamma Mia! is celebrating 6 sold-out years at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway, and is currently playing record-breaking engagements in Las Vegas and on National Tour in the United States.  The original West End production has played more than 3,500 performances, an international tour has played in more than 30 foreign cities, and the feature film of Mamma Mia!, produced by Judy Craymer and Gary Goetzman, has recently been released.

Jeff Awards-NonEquity Wing Awards Now to Award Single Winners

The Jeff Awards Committee announced that starting with the current Non-Equity Theatre season (which began on April 1st), all Non-Equity Awards Categories will now be competitive, with a single recipient chosen from the Nominees, with the exception of New Work and New Adaptation categories, which will remain non-competitive.  This brings the Non-Equity Jeff Awards under the same competitive rules as the Equity Jeff Awards.