Performed by the celebrated performance ensemble Universes, this thrilling exploration of the American experience prowls the dark corners of our contemporary landscape and asks, "If Hurricane Katrina happened again, would we be ready?" An electrifying evening infused with hip-hop, song, poetry and dance, Ameriville is a passionate and hopeful vision of a community's responsibility to another amidst a nation in turmoil.
Androcles, a humble but devout Christian, befriends a lion in the forest by removing a thorn from its paw. Both lion and man are captured by the Romans to serve as entertainment in Caesar’s Circus. Shaw’s play gives us a fascinating examination of the diversity of Christian motives and thought. There is, in addition to Androcles, the Patrician lady, Lavinia, whose body recoils from sacrificing to the Roman gods. The warrior, Ferrovius, refuses to fight in the arena because his religion commands that he turn the other cheek. And there is the coward, Spintho, who runs away from Christianity. All their fates depend on what happens in the arena.
Anne Kelly needs help. She's pushing 40 and still lives with her mother. Her deadbeat brother won't even return her calls and the ancient family home seems to be falling down around her. When Levi, a sweet but dim-witted younger man, comes into her life, Anne begins to see the upside of not always being the grown up.
Ten years out of high school, three unhappy friends show up “not-quite-invited” to their classmate’s hotel room for the perfect bachelorette celebration. Half a bathtub of booze later, the former prom queen is melting down, the nice-girl cokehead is on a mission to mend the mauled wedding dress, and the lacerating maid of honor finds her picture-perfect life less stable than it seemed. A smash hit Off Broadway, Leslye Headland’s shrewd and biting play is an aria to the anxiety and self-loathing of a generation.
Featuring beautiful, a cappella renditions of rare American folk songs, this play with music tells the Depression-era story of two extraordinary women dependant on one another to gain acceptance in a divided society. When Susannah, a WPA song collector for the Library of Congress, overhears Pearl singing in a Texas prison, she will pull every string possible to introduce the woman with the silky voice and steely spirit to the world.
Jon Stienhagen’s Blizzard ’67 takes us to the fast-paced, high-pressured, glamorous Loop of the late 1960s when ambitious, arrogant businessmen fought ruthlessly for power and respect. Lanfield, Henkin, Emery, and Bell spend their work days competing mercilessly with each other but when they find themselves trapped in the most fearsome blizzard Chicago has ever known, it is their survival, rather than promotion, on the line. If they don’t work together and overcome their corporate rivalries, they’ll be left out in the cold. For the 45th anniversary of the infamous blizzard that shut down Chicago for days, an ensemble of four actors will recreate that chilling Chicago memory and the surrounding frenzy.
Aston brings Davies, a fast talking tramp, to his cramped home full of odds and ends—best characterized as junk—offering him a bed and a much needed place to get on his feet. Davies quickly realizes that Aston and his brother Mick have a different take on the world around them. From Aston’s constant puttering and half finished fix-it jobs to Mick’s grand plans for the future, the three become an unlikely trio desperately trying to connect to one another but always missing the mark.
Clutter is based on the compelling true story of the wealthy, reclusive Collyer brothers who became hoarders in their Fifth Avenue mansion in 1920s Harlem. After years of compulsive collecting, the brothers have become notorious shut-ins in their aristocratic New York neighborhood. Langley Collyer is missing and Homer Collyer is found dead amongst floor-to-ceiling piles of newspapers, books, and junk. The police investigating the case, two brothers with a strained relationship mirroring that of the Collyers, are simultaneously making discoveries about themselves. Narrated by the brothers and the police investigating the bizarre case, this darkly fascinating tale is a poignant and profound exploration of human behavior.
During this amusingly inaccurate play, the audience is taken on a gut-busting roller coaster ride filled with important historic figures and events that have been warped and twisted for the sole purpose of comedy. In just about two hours, The Complete History of America (Abridged) covers 500 years of American history—from the birth of Bob Dole before Christ to the assassination of JFK by Lucy Ricardo. You’ll laugh your star-spangled head off and cry red, white and blue tears as everything you know about American history is distorted through hilarious sketches, songs and parodies.
"Dark Play or Stories for Boys" follows a teenage boy's foray into the virtual world. His fictional internet identity begins as a harmless game, but the game takes on a frightening reality when real emotion overtakes his online relationship. When Nick's virtual world collides with the real world, his fantasies of love, intimacy, obsession and betrayal spiral into consequences that lead him to the brink of death.
Artistic Director Nathan Allen returns to his very first script having spent the last decade developing The House’s voice. The House’s original production featured magic, music, dance, and film. Now Allen, along with The House’s incredibly diverse ensemble of artists, bring their experience in creating ensemble theater and devising story to the life of history’s greatest magician, while reaching deep into its bag of tricks to create an altogether new theatrical event.
New York. Today. A Muslim-American lawyer is rapidly moving up the corporate ladder while he distances himself from his cultural roots. At the moment of achieving his life-long ambitions, he falls victim to professional and personal betrayals that manifest in one of the most explosive and controversial scenes ever written for the theater. American Theater Company teams up with the Broadway producers of Urinetown and last season’s A View From the Bridge to premiere Ayad Akhtar's examination of a modern Muslim-American struggling to define his identity.
Doyle Mayfield, an old-guard country star with a handful of hits back in the 70s and 80s, is reviving his career thirty years, four wives, and three Debbies later. The new Debbie, a single mother with three children, sees this lovable lothario as her last chance to make it big in Nashville – but she also questions hitching her star to this loose cannon.
The Drawer Boy is a story about the healing power of art and the true bonds of friendship. The Drawer Boy examines the relationship between two WWII veterans whose lives are turned upside down when a young actor visits their farm to gather research for a play. What starts off quite innocently unfolds into a powerful journey as the two older men rebuild the story of their lives, the truth of which had long been left unspoken.
One of the most infamous scandals in financial history becomes a dynamic
new theatrical event that was a sold-out sensation in London. Crafted as
sprawling tragedy mixed with savage comedy, Enron follows a group of
ambitious men and women through the breathtaking rush of greed and fraud that led to a legendary financial collapse. Along the way we gain disturbing insight into the backroom secrets of big business and confront a world where appearance has little relation to reality.
A bold collision of text with extraordinary objects and imagery ignites this muscular, innovative adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest—carved out by three actors, a menagerie of handcrafted puppets, and original music and animations.
Larry Shue's hilarious farce, Charlie Baker - a proof reader by day and a boring husband by night - adopts the persona of a foreigner who doesn’t understand English. When others begin to speak freely around him, he not only becomes privy to secrets both dangerous and frivolous, he also discovers an adventurous extrovert within himself.
With flair and panache, con-artist Oba – played by returning Vitalist actor Jamie Vann – develops an increasingly absurd scheme whereby war-weary and financially stressed villagers sell him pictures of their dead, only to be charged exorbitant prices when they seek to retrieve them. The wrinkle in the racket is the “agent” who represents the ghosts. Eventually, the prospect of sellers’ remorse prompts a stampede on the market, thereby seeming to assure Oba’s fortune in the best wheeler-dealer, robber-baron tradition.
What would you give to live the life of your dreams? What if there was no one to stop you? How far could you go and still be able to sleep at night? Brian is on the fast track to a successful career but one thing is weighing him down: his children. Together with his wife Stacey and a mysterious broker named Marco, the couple hatch a plan to trade their kids for another chance at happiness and a rekindled sex life. But when doubts about the kids’ fate start to haunt Stacey, how long can their newly found happiness last? Red Tape Artistic Director James D. Palmer teams up with an all ensemble cast to mount this dark, comic parable from the author of A Brief History of Helen of Troy.
South African dramatist Craig Higginsonʼs tour de force new play pairs dark, sexually charged psychological drama with uncompromising wit. Set in contemporary Paris, this gripping new play explores the tense relationships of class, race and language between Celia, a beautiful young white English teacher and Pierre, her French-Congolese pupil.
This bold and daring project is based on the mysterious demise of performance artist Alexander Gog, an event still shrouded in rumor and supposition, and which, due to ongoing legal considerations, must be presented in this fictionalized manner.
A triumphant story of the complex bond between a mother and daughter, GYPSY is based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee and has a soaring score including Let Me Entertain You, Some People, and Everything’s Coming Up Roses.
How do four brave and exhausted women share the burden of one grotesquely enormous baby? They struggle to nurture and restrain the giant darling. But the baby has an existential crisis, which sparks a fight for control. His tyrannical attempts to pit the women against each other ultimately test the limits of love. Darkly poetic and arresting, He Who brings together live performers, puppets and original music for an intimate audience experience. Master puppeteer Michael Montenegro conceives and directs this world premiere.
When Claudia left Ian and her old life in adult entertainment to return to her small-town roots, she found more than just a new start—she met her soon-to-be husband Trevor, the local youth minister and a man of god. But when Ian shows up on her doorstep just weeks before her wedding, their past together comes roaring back to life bringing doubts to Claudia’s now moral and well-ordered existence. In this honest exploration, playwright Randall Colburn brings an original voice to the complicated topics of love, sexuality and religion.
It’s the summer of ’69 and the death of music icon Judy Garland has emboldened her gay followers. A routine police raid on an underground Greenwich Village hotspot erupts in to a full-scale riot, the impetus of the modern gay rights movement. That’s the well-known, oft-rehearsed myth of Stonewall, anyhow. Smash that myth against the vivid theatrical imagination of playwright Ike Holter, add a howling live rock ‘n roll band, and you get the world premiere play, Hit the Wall. Remixing this historic confrontation reveals ten unlikely revolutionaries, caught in the turmoil and fighting to claim “I was there.”
As famed escape artist Harry Houdini circles the globe performing one incredible stunt after another, Victor, a young devotee goes through his own rigorous magician’s training – locking himself in closets, holding his breath under water and walking into walls. After a chance encounter with his hero, Victor receives a special box that just might contain the secrets of Houdini’s great success.
Even though his dad is a frog and his mom claims to be a princess, Jack grew up in a house without fairy tales. So when he is thrust into a mysterious forest, threatened by bears and witches and trolls, he must find a way to survive on his own without any knowledge of the “rules” of traditional folktales. Travel with Jack on a madcap quest to rescue a trio of pigs, escape from some extremely gruff billy goats, and help his parents find their Happily Ever After, in a world premiere fractured fairy tale. Based on popular fairy tales and nursery rhymes, from the Brothers Grimm and beyond.
The Hunchback Variations takes the form of a panel discussion between Quasimodo, hunchback of Notre Dame, and Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, on their attempt to create a mysterious sound effect called for in Anton Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard. Playing out over 11 scenes, or “variations,” the story details the duo's collaboration -- one doomed by their mutual deafness, their unpleasant working conditions, and the fact that Beethoven has not yet finished reading the The Cherry Orchard.
During the 900-day Nazi siege of Leningrad, Russian botanist Ilya is charged with protecting a cache of valuable seeds for future generations. As the weeks turn to months and food grows scarce, Ilya and his co-workers are torn between their lives’ work, the dictates of a brutal regime, and the harsh realities of survival in a time of war. Consumed by innumerable hungers and haunted by memories of happier days, Ilya must choose whether to preserve his life or protect his ideals. A powerful drama of deprivation and loss, in a world premiere adaptation. Based on the 2003 debut novel by American author and journalist Elise Blackwell (The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish, An Unfinished Score).
“I am an invisible man.” In this world premiere stage production, the first authorized by The Ralph and Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust, a landmark American novel comes to life. Ralph Ellison’s classic story of a young African American’s search for his identity blazes with luminous theatricality and truth. Adapted by Oscar-nominated writer Oren Jacoby, Invisible Man marks the first Chicago appearance by award-winning New York City director Christopher McElroen, a founding artistic director of the Classical Theatre of Harlem.
Written by UK playwright April De Angelis, IRONMISTRESS is a play in verse that follows Martha Darby, a widow who inherits her husband’s iron foundry in bleak Victorian England, a world where women had no power. On the eve of her young daughter Little Cog’s wedding, Darby engages in a night of games and storytelling that dredges up ugly memories and forces both women to confront their desires for dominance. Yates’s vision is both richly comic and darkly unsettling, and highlights the everyday barbarism towards women during the Industrial Revolution. Inside a mechanized cage, the audience will watch mother and daughter either breaking free of the male mantle of power or being destroyed by it.
The Jackie Wilson Story having been a huge success first opening in 2000 and with a national tour in 2002 which culminated at the famous Apollo Theater in New York, is the perfect production to open this legendary season. Written & Directed by Jackie Taylor, this promises to be a bigger and better production with a few star studded surprises.
The hit musical LEGALLY BLONDE, written by Heather Hach with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, jumpstarts the Marriott Theatre’s 2012 Season. The hilarious MGM film is now a smash hit musical! When college sweetheart and sorority queen, Elle Woods, gets dumped by her boyfriend she is determined to get him back. So she grabs her Chihuahua, puts down her credit cards, hits the books and sets out to go where no other Delta Nu has gone before – to join him at Harvard Law School. The verdict is that this much fun should not be legal! From sunny California to the Harvard Halls of Justice this all-singing, all-dancing feel good musical will be the highlight of your year. In addition to the seven Tony Award nominations LEGALLY BLONDE received during its first year on Broadway, the show also was honored with ten 2007 Drama Desk Award Nominations and a 2007 Outer Critics Circle Award. LEGALLY BLONDE will be Directed and Choreographed by Marc Robin. Come witness the power of pink.
Once upon a dark and blustery Christmas Eve, a young man named Martin sits waiting. In the corner of the office, a printer spits, smokes and hisses in a way that would seem malevolent if Martin didn’t know better. He waits for the repairman, and watches the clock tick, and wonders what it is that he’s doing with his life. Little does he know that before the evening’s out, a series of mysterious strangers will force him to confront his ideas about success, happiness, and failure--and they’re starting with what’s hidden in the back of his drawer. In Little Triggers, Martin has to find the through-line for his story, and he had better do it fast, because the snow won’t stop falling, and the printer’s out for blood.
With existential terror, Megacosm presents us with a world full of revolt and chaos both inside and out. An industrialist in the near future utilizes every means possible to get an inventor to sign over his revolutionary creation that will inevitably change the world. Corporate greed never met creative angst with such dramatic and hilarious results.
On December 4, 1956, an auspicious twist of fate brought together Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley. The place was Sun Records’ storefront studio in Memphis. The man who made it happen was the “Father of Rock-n-Roll,” Sam Phillips, who discovered them all. The four legends-to-be united for the only time in their careers for an impromptu recording session that embodied the birth of rock ‘n’ roll and has come to be known as one of the greatest rock jam sessions of all time.
The rag-tag theatrical Hay family find themselves in a run-down tour of classical theater. Thrown into increasing backstage hysteria with a pregnant ingénue, a lawyer who tries to convince the couple to split and a visit from their daughter and her fiancé, the situation is further complicated as Frank Capra is attending the matinee to scout for his latest film.
The year was 1939 in Hollywood, and the movie "Gone With the Wind" was in production. But just three weeks later, legendary producer David O. Selznick closed the set and fired Director George Cukor. With just five days to get back on track, Selznick hired screenwriter Ben Hecht to write a new script from Margaret Mitchell's bestselling 1037 page novel. One problem though - Hecht had never read the novel! This left Selznick no choice but to pull Director Victor Fleming from "Wizard of Oz" and lock him in a room with Hecht and himself until the script was complete.
How hard can it be for two organizations to split a nine-billion dollar pie? Impossible, apparently. Drew is a hotshot agent hell bent on making his blue-chip but troubled client the number one pick in the pro football draft, until the team that owns the pick hires his ex-wife to rebuild the long-suffering franchise. Obstacles surmount as Drew angles to get the best possible deal for his client, but does any of it matter when labor discord threatens the very existence of the game? From the writer of Signal’s hit jukebox musical “Aftermath.”
April 9, 1947- Baseball’s Opening Day is one week away, and Branch Rickey, General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, will call up Jackie Robinson to break the color-barrier and play as the Major League’s first black ballplayer. If he does, Robinson will face loud and heated opposition from virtually every owner, manager, and player in baseball – and it won’t be a cakewalk with the fans, either. Who will be his allies if he makes the most daring and important play of his life?
A man questions his father about the possible existence of another estranged son, and the questions opens up a series of events that neither men could ever have expected. Penned by one of the world’s most uncompromising playwrights, Caryl Churchill’s A Number is a beguiling hour-long psychological thriller that blends topical scientific speculation with a stunning portrait of the relationship between fathers and their sons.
Octavarius: So Nefarious is a high octane, no holds barred, improv comedy invasion. The Nefarious, Octavarius's original show, combines classic improv games with the artful tradition of Chicago improvisation. It's like Whose Line Is It Anyway, Jackson Pollock, and ConAir had a baby and you can come see it perform.
Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, and Peter's younger sister set out on a harrowing adventure that will result in the birth of Neverland, the accidental creation of Peter's shadow, and the appearance of a fearsome new enemy on the horizon: Captain James Hook.
When Pinkalicious Pinkerton eats one too many pink cupcakes, she catches a serious case of “Pinkititis” and turns pink from head to toe! Will her broccoli-eating brother be able to help cure her before it’s too late? Find out in the colorful musical adventure, remounted from Emerald City Theatre’s sold out production at their Chicago home at The Apollo Theater. This heartwarming musical’s Gateway Theme of healthy eating is sure to strike a chord among parents and picky eaters alike. Emerald City’s Gateway Themes are a topic of conversation adults can have with their early-learner. Education and Artistic staff create materials in the playbill to provide support for adults. All performances will include an age appropriate pre-show activity in the lobby and an autograph session with the cast after the performance.
Punk Rock is Simon Stephens most successful play to date and was a major hit for the Lyric Hammersmith in London. Based on the playwright's experience as a teacher, this play explores the underlying tensions and potential violence in a group of affluent, articulate seventeen year old students. Contemporary and unnerving the story explores the pressures of teenage life as as group of educated, intelligent young people begin to plan for college and the rest of their lives with the step-by-step, dislocated, latent violence simmering under the surface of success revealed.
This latest work by Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet ruthlessly examines guilt and oppression via a compelling crime mystery. Two high-profile lawyers—Henry (Geoffrey Owens) who is black, and Jack (Marc Grapey) who is white—are called to defend a wealthy white client Charles (Patrick Clear) who is charged with the rape of an African-American woman. Along with
their new hire, Susan (Tamberla Perry), they soon find themselves embroiled in a complex case where blatant prejudice is as disturbing as the evidence at hand. With characteristic bluntness, Mamet leaves nothing unsaid in this no-holds-barred suspense story.
In this dark comedy, Jeremy, an aspiring writer, finds himself with a useless degree and an inability to score all but the most humiliating of day jobs, so he takes his financial future into his own hands by dealing cocaine. But even as he delves deeper into that dark world, the most dangerous commodity in his possession may very well be his own book.
The romantic comedy tells about a husband and wife, and the hit love song he wrote for her whose proceeds they lived off for the next 25 years. But when Sam’s creative stagnation and memories of passionate youth drive him to Facebook to seek a new muse, Rose decides it’s time for the togetherness of an anniversary cruise in the Greek Islands. Will the sublime music that Sam hears coming from Siren’s Island cause him to jump overboard on his marriage, or will it rekindle the flame?
Six Characters in Search of an Author first premiered in 1921 to mixed, vivid reactions. Pirandello was one of the masters of the early twentieth century counter-movement to theatrical realism.
Emerald City revisits its original version of the classic fairy tale of Snow White. After a difficult and lengthy journey from far away lands, TJ Barker’s Troupe of Theatricals have arrived in Chicago a little worse for the wear. But the show must go on! The Troupe tells the story as Snow White finds safety from her wicked Stepmother with the seven dwarfs and some magical talking animals. With her Stepmother scheming and a Prince searching, how long can she live quietly in the enchanted forest?
In the midst of societal upheaval, when the lines between church and state are being drawn between those for whom religion is the bedrock of society and a younger generation eager to accept change, comes the charlatan Tartuffe. Masquerading as a man of God, Tartuffe worms his way into the life of pious family patriarch Orgon and is soon trying to make off with the man’s wealth, his daughter, and even his wife! Though the rest of the family goes to hilarious lengths to show Orgon the error of his ways and expel Tartuffe from their home, the con man always seems to be one step ahead of them.
For photojournalist Sarah Goodwin, happiness is rushing from hotspot to hotspot capturing images of global conflict. When she barely survives a bomb blast in Iraq, she’s forced to return home into the care of her long-time lover, James. She’s caught off-guard by James’s desire for family and by the simple domestic life pursued by Richard, her editor, and his much younger girlfriend, Mandy. Pressed to consider settling into a “normal” life, Sarah must confront her addiction to the drama and chaos of war. From Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies, Time Stands Still is a witty, intelligent look at what happens when ordinary life is refracted through the lens of war.
When Billie and Eric, a pair of inept police officers, set up a sting operation to trap the crooked mayor, nothing can go wrong---unless everything goes wrong! Set in a pair of matching hotel rooms, UNNECESSARY FARCE is filled with doors slamming, clothes flying, and bagpipes bleating, all of which adds up to an over-the-top tale of mix-ups and mayhem that’s laugh out loud funny from start to finish.
A Woman's Path is more than a retreat for middle-aged women in clownishly tacky blazers; it's the last chance at happiness for five disturbed, lost souls. With arts and crafts, nature walks, horrific bear attacks, gentle lesbianism, fist fights and gallons upon gallons of white zin, this retreat weekend will be a healing journey that is seared into these ladies' memories whether they want it to be or not.
