A Red Orchid Theatre

Kirsten Fitzgerald, actress, ensemble member and Artistic Director of A Red Orchid Theatre, has a hard time defining what makes her company unique, "We tend to talk about it only in really pedestrian terms - 'intimate', 'edgy,' - the kind of thing everyone says about themselves."

A Red Orchid, however, is not a theatre like any other, and for them, facing their 18 th season "intimate" and edgy" are no mere marketing jargon. For intimacy, AROT boasts a flexible little 60-70 seat house in the Old Town neighborhood, a space whose low ceilings and ambitious set designs tend to make the place feel smaller rather than larger. In the case of the recent Abigail's Party one gets the feeling that the actors are too large for their stage and could come crashing into the audience at any moment.

As for edgy, "The guts have to be spilled in order for the show to be ready" Fitzgerald says with a smile. "That doesn't mean it has to be dramatic or tragic and there doesn't have to be blood onstage. But it's palpable, it's an urgency."

A Red Orchid Theatre is an ensemble company in the most traditional and integral sense. Formed initially by a group of friends including Guy Van Swearingen, Michael Shannon, and Larry Grimm - who are all still active members - the company has since grown to 16 actors, directors, designers, stage managers, and playwrights. For Fitzgerald, "The ensemble is based on wanting to get intimate with each other in an artistic working relationship and deepen the relationships onstage to help deepen the relationship with the audience."

This desire to deepen relationships has lead to the creation of the A Red Orchid Youth Ensemble, unique in the city, this is a professional ensemble of young actors first brought together for 2009's A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant . After the show opened to critical and commercial success, Fitzgerald explains, "we realized we had a group of people who wanted to work together again." The young actors, who rejoined for last season's new production of the Scientology Pageant as well as an appearance at Collaboraction's SketchBook X, meet weekly to spend a few hours strengthening their acting training and a few hours working on co-creating their own shows. It's a natural extension of a theatre built on the fruit of strong relationships.

"Every play we do we try to think about the human story," says Fitzgerald, "even if it's a story about the Atomic bomb [like the upcoming Louis Slotin Sonata] we think of that as just a vehicle for the human story."

Learn more about A Red Orchid Theatre by visiting their website, becoming a fan on Facebook or following them on Twitter.

Benno Nelson

You can read more of Theatre In Chicago contributor Benno Nelson's writing at The@er (http://the-at-er.blogspot.com)

Full Storefrontal

Read the other articles in Benno Nelson's "Full Storefrontal" series that focuses on small theatre companies around Chicago on the Full Storefrontal page.