Signal Ensemble Theatre

Signal Ensemble Theatre artistic directors Ronan Marra, Christopher Prentice and Joseph Stearns have announced the line-up for its 2007-08 Season in residence at the Chopin Theatre. The company's fifth year, featuring a 20th-Century American playbill, includes an iconic American drama, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and the company's first musical.

The season opens in August in the studio with Sam Shepard's Obie Award-winning story of love, yearning and abandonment, Fool for Love, directed by General Artistic Director Ronan Marra. In November, Producing Artistic Director Christopher Prentice stages Jon Marans's Pulitzer-nominated play about the redemptive power of music, Old Wicked Songs. In January, Marra directs the company's first musical, 1776, a telling of the seminal act in American history, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, on the mainstage.

"In our fifth season we will delve further into the American canon, examining not only how we view ourselves but how others in the world see us," said Christopher Prentice, Signal's producing artistic director. "Fool for Love is a distinctly American piece and contrasts with Old Wicked Songs, which offers a European observation. 1776 will be extremely salient in this very important election year as we seek to rethink our American values."

Signal Ensemble Theatre's 2007-08 Season at the Chopin will include:

Fool for Love
by Sam Shepard
directed by Ronan Marra
August 3 – September 2, 2007

Set in a stark motel room at the edge of the Mojave Desert, Fool for Love tells the story of troubled lovers Eddie and May. Caught in a vicious cycle of yearning and abandonment, they long to be together but find no real solace in each other's arms. Vicious, erotic and funny, Fool for Love is Signal's first production of one of America's most celebrated living playwrights.


Old Wicked Songs
by Jon Marans
directed by ensemble member Christopher Prentice
November 16 – December 16, 2007

Old Wicked Songs depicts a clash of cultures and attitudes as a brash American piano prodigy travels to Vienna to combat an artistic block that threatens his career. A technically brilliant performer, he studies with a passionate master teacher. The music of Robert Schumann binds these men together, melting the stubbornness and denial that surrounds them. Old Wicked Songs was a finalist for the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  

1776
Music and Lyrics by Sherman Edwards, Book by Peter Stone
directed by ensemble member Ronan Marra
January 25 – March 1, 2008

Set during a "hot as hell" summer in Philadelphia, 1776 is the Tony Award-winning musical about the seminal act in American history: the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Sectional differences, pride and fear threaten the Declaration and the fledgling nation. The score features hits such as "Sit Down, John," "He Plays the Violin" and "Mama Look Sharp."

Signal Ensemble Theatre's fifth season will be performed at the Chopin Theatre (1543 W. Division) in Chicago. Subscription packages and single tickets will go on sale July 1 at signalensemble.com.