Theatre News Wire

Profiles Theatre continues its 25th Anniversary Season with the Midwest premiere of Gidion's Knot by Johnna Adams, directed by Artistic Director Joe Jahraus and featuring Amy J. Carle and Laura Hooper. The production runs January 17 - March 9, 2014 at The Alley Stage, 4147 N. Broadway. Please note the new opening date: The press opening is Saturday, January 25 at 8:00pm.

Over the course of a 90-minute parent/teacher conference, a grieving mother and an emotionally overwhelmed primary school teacher engage in a fraught conversation about the recent suspension and tragedy involving Gidion. The boy may have been bullied severely - or he may have done the abusing. The enthralling discussion develops into a dramatically charged collision of freedom of expression, the failure of our school system and personal responsibility.

Gidion's Knot received its world premiere in July 2012 at The Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University in West Virginia. At the 2013 Humana Festival, Gidion's Knot received the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for best script premiering outside New York. Johnna Adams won the 2011 Princess Grace Award and was a 2012 Finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. Her plays have been read or produced by The Alliance Theatre Lab, The New Group, Impetuous Theater, Rude Guerilla Theater Company, the Hunger Artists Theatre Ensemble and the Chicago Dramatists Workshop among many others.

Directed by Profiles Co-Artistic Director Joe Jahraus, the cast of Gidion's Knot features Guest Artists Amy J. Carle (North China Lover and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Lookingglass Theatre) and Laura Hooper (The Revenants at WildClaw Theatre).

"Chicago is where I received my undergraduate degree in Acting from DePaul's Theater School, and I am so excited to have my first Chicago production with Profiles," says playwright Johnna Adams. "This is an amazing, daring and loving company. Their belief in the play has been so inspiring to me. I consider this a sort of homecoming production. The play is set on the outskirts of Chicago to honor my artistic roots in the city and how perfect for the city to get to see the play! Chicago was a rich place of nurture for me when I lived there and I hope the play let's the community feel some of my love for it in return."

The designers for Gidion's Knot are Katie-Bell Springmann (scenic), Mike Durst (lights), Jeffrey Levin (sound and original music), and Raquel Adorno (costumes), with Garth Moritz serving as stage manager and Danica Jenelle Horton as assistant director.

Profiles Theatre, currently celebrating their 25th Anniversary Season, will alternate two more productions between their two venues, The Main Stage at 4139 N. Broadway and The Alley Stage at 4147 N. Broadway with Midwest premieres of the award-winning plays Cock by Mike Bartlett and Hunter Gatherers by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb.

Tickets for Gidion's Knot are $35 for Thursdays, $40 for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are available by phone, (773) 549-1815, or online, www.profilestheatre.org. Performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 5:00 and 8:00 pm, Sundays at 7:00 p.m.