2010 TCG National Conference
Performances in Chicago June 14-20
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Many theatres offer discounts for TCG Conference attendees. Contact the theatre directly for details.
2,000 Feet Away
by Anthony Weigh
Directed by Jimmy McDermott
Steep Theatre Company
866-811-4111
Th -Sat at 8pm
$20-$22
In Eldon, Iowa, convicted sexual offenders are prohibited by law from living within 2,000 feet of any school, playground, bus stop, shopping mall...A deputy is assigned to find a home for one of the convicted in a community where he is not allowed and he certainly is not wanted.
BAAL
by Bertolt Brecht
Directed by Zeljko Djukic
Original Music by Joshua Schmidt
TUTA Theatre Chicago at Chopin Theatre
773-278-1500
Th-Sa at 8pm, Su at 3pm
$12-$25
With this production, TUTA strives to musically enlighten the play of young Brecht known for its inaugural form and risky themes of stardom and power. A fusion of serious drama and music, this premiere will have a strong emphasis on the musicality of the words, saturating them with rhythm, harmony, sound and structures. Developed through company workshops, this collaboration brings forward an original score, full of surprises and frequent shifts in perspective that explore the value of the politically charged subject of arts in times of economic crisis.
BABY
Book by Sybille Pearson
Music by David Shire
Lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr.
Actors Theatre Company
773-327-5252
Th-F-Sa at 8, Su at 2
$25
Is there anything more exciting, frightening and utterly life changing than impending parenthood? Baby tells the story of three couples on a university campus as they deal with the painful, rewarding and funny consequences of this universal experience. With an award winning score by Richard Maltby, Jr and David Shire (Closer Than Ever; Starting Here, Starting Now), Baby follows these couples as they come to grips with the highs and lows of pregnancy. The ideal show for anyone who has ever been a parent...or a baby! Please join Actors Theatre for our inaugural production at the Theatre Building Chicago.
THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS
Book by: Larry L. King & Peter Masterson
Music & lyrics by: Carol Hall
Directed & Choreographed by: Kevin Bellie
Circle Theatre
708-771-0700
Fri, Sat at 8pm; Sun at 3pm
$12-$20
Circle presents this Broadway blockbuster of small town vice and political side stepping recounting the good times and the demise of the Chicken Ranch, known since the 1850s as one of the better “pleasure palaces” in all of Texas. Governors, senators, mayors and even victorious college football teams frequented Miss Mona's bordello until puritanical hypocrites focus righteousness on the landmark. Religious zealots dictating decency and morality—sound familiar? Stomp your feet and holler out loud, this down home charmer will thrill audiences.
BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL
Music by: Elton John
Book and Lyrics by: Lee Hall
Directed by: Stephen Daldry
Broadway In Chicago at Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre
800-775-2000
Tue-Thur at 7:30pm; Fri, Sat at 8pm; Wed and Sun Matinees at 2pm
$30-$100
The most celebrated show of the year, BILLY ELLIOT the Musical has captured hearts worldwide, delighted the critics and swept the awards - winning ten 2009 Tony Awards including BEST MUSICAL! BILLY ELLIOT is a joyous, exciting and feel-good celebration of one boy following his heart and making his dreams come true. Full of life, laughter, astonishing dancing and unforgettable music, this uplifting experience will stay with you forever. Based on the international smash-hit film.
BLUE MAN GROUP
Briar Street Theatre
773-348-4000
W-Th at 8; F at 7, 10; Sa at 4, 7, 10; Su at 1, 4, 7
$49-$64
The mute, cobalt-blue trio provides a multi-sensory experience that fuses theater, percussive music, art, science and vaudeville into a unique form of entertainment.
BODY AWARENESS
Written by: Annie Baker
Directed by: Benjamin Thiem
Profiles Theatre
773-549-1815
$25-$35
It's "Body Awareness" week on a Vermont college campus and Phyllis, the organizer, and her partner, Joyce, are hosting one of the guest artists in their home, Frank, a photographer famous for his female nude portraits. Both his presence in the home and his chosen subject instigate tension from the start. Phyllis is furious at his depictions, but Joyce is actually rather intrigued by the whole thing, even going so far as to contemplate posing for him. As Joyce and Phyllis bicker, Joyce's adult son, struggles to express himself physically with heartbreaking results.
BODY AWARENESS received its lauded World Premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company in May 2008. It received a Drama Desk Nomination and Outer Critics Circle Nomination for Outstanding Play. Annie Baker is currently a member of the Ensemble Studio Theater's Youngblood Playwrights Group and she was one of only seven playwrights selected to participate in the 2008 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab.
CO-ED PRISON SLUTS
Directed by: Mick Napier
Annoyance Theatre
773-561-4665
Friday nights at 10:01pm
$15
The flagship show for The Annoyance and the longest running musical in Chicago, "Co-Ed Prison Sluts" follows the prison's newest inmate, Alice, as she learns the ropes from the other inane inmates including Hamster Man, The Dame, Skeeter, Slick, Henry, and Dr. Bellows and his dog Fluffy. And she learns the number one rule - to fear the dreaded Clown.
With hit songs such as "Hey We're in Prison", "Sh*t, M*ther-F*cker", and "The Dog is Eating my Hamster Now", Co-ed Prison Sluts is anything but a family musical, and it's f*cking funny.
CHASTE
Written by: Ken Prestininzi
Directed by: Kate Hendrickson
Trap Door Theatre
773-384-0494
Wed-Sat at 8pm
$20
Inspired by the real life story of Lou Andreas-Salome--Russian-German novelist, essayist, psychoanalyst, and a muse, colleague, and companion for such authors and thinkers as Nietzsche, Rilke, and Freud--Chaste is a darkly comic look at what happens when three artists decide to live together in a chaste love triangle.
CIRQUE SHANGAI: CLOUD NINE
Cirque Shanghai at Pepsi Skyline Stage
$12.50-$19.50
Chicago's Navy Pier is thrilled to announce the return of Cirque Shanghai this summer to delight and astonish audiences of all ages for a fifth straight summer season with a new world premiere production, "Cirque Shanghai: Cloud Nine." Embraced by Chicagoans and visitors alike as Chicago's Summer Circus, "Cirque Shanghai" will perform rain or shine, at the Pepsi Skyline Stage, the 1,500-seat, canopied, open-air theater on Navy Pier.
The Dames Storm Division
Finn McCool's
$15
In The Dames Storm Division, Chicago's premier concept burlesque troupe will climb into the world famous Division Street bar district and reveal the north side's hottest assets. Compiling some of their most scintillating and in your face acts, new fans and old ones will discover how hot burlesque should be.
DEAD LETTER OFFICE
World Premiere by Ben Viccellio
Dog & Pony Theatre Company at Storefront Theater
312-742-8497
Thur - Sat at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 3 pm
$17-$22
In this world premier thriller written by Ben Viccellio, each staff member of the Dead Letter Office communicates in his or her own special manner. While examining the changing nature of language in our digital culture, the play surveys the staff sorting the backlog of the postal system and searching for anything of value among the written letters. But when a newcomer joins the group, she uncovers a secret - a secret buried deep within the walls of the post office and threatened to be lost with the buildings imminent destruction.
THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
Book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar
Music and Lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison
Marriott Theatre In Lincolnshire
(847) 634-0200
wed 1pm and 8pm; Th-Fri 8pm; Sat 4:30pm and 8pm; Sun 1pm and 5pm
$35-$48
To chase his blues away, a modern day musical theater addict drops the needle on his favorite LP, the 1928 musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone. When the record begins to play, the musical magically bursts to life on stage, telling the tale of a pampered Broadway starlet who wants to give up show business to get married, her producer who sets out to sabotage the wedding, the dim but debonair groom, a Latin lover, a pair of bumbling gangsters, and of course, the drowsy chaperone. This hilarious show-within-a-show features a zany book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar and a soaring score by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison.
THE FARNSWORTH INVENTION
By Aaron Sorkin
Directed by Nick Bowling
TimeLine Theatre Company
773-281-8463
$25-35
From the creator of The West Wing and A Few Good Men comes this fascinating new play direct from Broadway. Two ambitious visionaries — Philo T. Farnsworth, an Idaho farmboy, and David Sarnoff, head of RCA — battle through corporate espionage, family tragedy, financial disaster and the thrill of discovery for the rights to one of the greatest inventions of all time: the television.
FUERZA BRUTA: LOOK UP
Broadway In Chicago at Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University
800-982-2787
$50-80
Breaking free from the confines of spoken language and theatrical convention, FUERZA BRUTA: LOOK UP is an event where worlds collide and reality takes a back seat. At show time, audiences are ushered onto the main stage where they are engulfed in a 360 degree spectacle featuring mind-blowing visual effects just inches above the audience that must be seen to be believed - a man running full throttle on a giant treadmill, bursting through a series of moving walls; performers suspended in mid-air surrounded by a vast sea of mylar; and gorgeous women twisting ethereally in a lucite pool above the audience.
THE GHOST SONATA
by August Strindberg
Directed by Max Truax
Oracle Productions at Oracle Theatre
773-244-2980
Fri/Sat 8pm; Sun 7pm
$20
Mr. Truax follows up his Oracle debut - 2008's stunning conceptual TERMEN VOX MACHINA - with an elegant, haunting interpretation of Strindberg's classic chamber play. This mesmerizing and complex narrative portrays a world where two families are imprisoned in their legacy of greed, duplicity and manipulation. Truax's vision highlights the play's depiction of the destructive force of truth. There are things in life much more frightening than death.
GL2010 " Not Your Generic Latina"
By Teatro Luna
Developed & Directed by Miranda Gonzalez
Original Music by Tamara Roberts
Teatro Luna @ Chicago Dramatists Theatre
773.878.LUNA(5862)
Th-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 3:00 & 6:00 pm
$12-20
Created and produced in 2000, the original Generic Latina was Teatro Luna’s pioneering inaugural production devised to combat the various Latina stereotypes dominating mainstream media. In honor of the 10 year anniversary of our first examination of Latina identity, the Lunáticas take on the question: What has changed for Latinas over the past 10 years? Generic Latina 2010 challenges you to confront old stereotypes and face new ones through original music, spoken word, and new autobiographical stories reflecting the diverse lives of these women: from one young woman’s legal battle to change her name, to an intimate portrait of a Brazilian’s first time wax (you mean to say that Brazilians don’t really wax that way?), to a woman’s surprise discovery that the only internationally understood reference to her own culture is West Side Story.
HUNTING AND GATHERING
Written by Brooke Berman
Directed by Brian Golden
Theatre Seven of Chicago at Greenhouse Theater Center
773-404-7336
Thurs-Sat 8:00; Sun 3:00
$12-$24
Bess is a hunter, a straightforward college student who tells the world exactly what she wants and usually gets it. Ruth is a gatherer, a frustrated romantic on the endless quest for a perfect apartment. In this Chicago Premiere, a chance meeting between strangers leaves Ruth wondering: does a woman have to be a predator to survive? Theatre Seven presents the Chicago Premiere of Brooke Berman's lightning-quick comedy about the meaning of home and the endless quest for a perfect apartment.
ITSOSENG
Written and Performed by Omphile Molusi
Original Direction by Tina Johnson
Chicago Shakespeare Theater
312-595-5600
Wed, Fri, Sat at 7:30; Thr at 9:30
$15*
Following sold-out runs in Edinburgh, London and South Africa, Omphile Molusi makes his American premiere with his “tour de force performance” (Metro, UK) in Chicago. Balancing comedy and tragedy, Molusi deftly portrays multiple characters as he shares the fortunes and misfortunes of a post-apartheid township. “A dynamic stage presence... he engrosses us with the energy of a man whose story needs to be heard.” (Variety)
*special TCG Conference rate – use promo code ‘TCG’ when ordering online or by phone.
Jackie Mason -No Holds Barred
Broadway In Chicago at Bank of America Theatre
800-775-2000
$35-60
The irascible, irreplaceable and incomparable Jackie Mason brings his latest one-man comedy tour de force featuring all new material, JACKIE MASON - NO HOLDS BARRED. Long passionate about politics, Jackie Mason is well known for his tough and outspoken position on a variety of issues. Jackie combines pungent political satire, insightful observations on the foibles of modern life, and impeccable timing to create material that leaves audiences laughing until they cry show after show. Once in a generation, a performer emerges who is so extraordinary, so brilliant, that he or she become the standard to whom all others are compared. Jackie Mason is such a performer, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest stand-up comics of all time, now more popular than ever!
JACOB AND JACK
A world premiere
By Ensemble playwright James Sherman
Directed by Dennis Zacek
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater
773-871-3000
Tu-Th 7:30, F at 8, Sa at 5, 8:30, Su at 3
$20-$48
Jack Shore, a well-known television personality, is appearing for one night only in a tribute to his grandfather, Jacob Shemerinsky, great star of the Yiddish Theatre. Backstage, in his dressing room, Jack confronts his challenges as an actor and as a husband to his co-starring wife. Simultaneously, 75 years in the past, Jacob has problems of his own. Actors play their past and present roles in a dizzying display of life in the theatre in this time-traveling comedic farce, echoing past James Sherman smash comedies like Beau Jest, Jest a Second and Affluenza!
LADY X
Written by: David Cerda
Directed by: Derek Czaplewski
Hell in a Handbag Productions at Mary's Attic
1-800-838-3006
Thurs- Sat. at 7:30
$10-$20
Ripped from yesterday's headlines, LADY X, is the story of clipjoints, vicious gangsters, and the doomed dames that keep the customers happy, in a tale so startling, so lurid, that only Hell in a Handbag Productions would dare tell it!
LOOKINGGLASS ALICE
Written and directed by David Catlin
Lookingglass Theatre Company
312-337-0665
$30-$60
Adapted by Ensemble Member and Artistic Director David Catlin from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Lookingglass Alice is a muscular, acrobatic, and dizzyingly playful show for all ages. This Alice falls, floats, flies, defies gravity and the rules of logic during her wonderland journey through the looking glass to become a queen. With a juggling Mad Hatter, a precariously balancing Humpty Dumpty, and a bumbling Knight who invents his way into Alice’s heart, Lookingglass Alice revisits the stories that inspired the founding of Lookingglass Theatre Company twenty years ago. Lookingglass Alice is produced in association with The Actors Gymnasium.
LOW DOWN DIRTY BLUES
By Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman
Northlight Theatre
847-673-6300
$22-$55
This sizzling and sassy world premiere musical comes straight to Northlight from the creators of the hit shows Fire on the Mountain and It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues. For decades, Blues artists have captivated audiences with the Dirty Blues—music packed with passion and soul—along with innuendo, insinuation and, above all, humor! Featuring songs made (in)famous by the likes of Mae West, Muddy Waters, Ma Rainey, Sophie Tucker, Howlin' Wolf, Pearl Bailey and many others, Low Down Dirty Blues is a rousing, raucous, musical good time!
Featuring Mississippi Charles Bevel and Felicia P. Fields.
THE MARRIAGE OF BETTE AND BOO
By Christopher Durang
Directed by Dan Taube
Village Players Performing Arts Center
866-764-1010
$15
As in any marriage Bette and Boo were full of high hopes, but as the years have progressed that hope has faded. Bette's long list of stillborns and Boo's love for drinking is made even more stressful by their families long lists of complaints and expectations. The family priest responds the best he can to help the couple--by impersonating a strip of frying bacon. As the years go on and the marriage disintegrates, their only son Matt looks back to understand what went wrong between his parents, and what finally went right. This Obie award-winning play casts away the shroud of what marriage should be, and instead shows everyone what love really is.
MID-LIFE! THE CRISIS MUSICAL
Book, Music & Lyrics by: Bob Walton and Jim Walton
Metropolis Performing Arts Centre
847-577-2121
Thur at 7:30; Fri at 8; Sat at 7; Sun at 3
$27-$43
Empty-nests and proctology exams, morning aches and gray hair... In your ears. Middle age has never been so much fun. This musical comedy goes where most people dare not venture – and takes you on an incredibly touching, joyous and hysterical ride through it all. There’s something for everyone – for men desperately clinging to their youth, there’s the side-splitting number “Weekend Warriors.” “He Got What He Deserves” is for any post-divorce woman. And for anyone who’s ever gone into a room and forgot why, there’s the universally understood “What Did I Come in Here For?” Whether you are middle-aged, going to be soon, or already on the other side, Mid-Life! The Crisis Musical warmly embraces the joy and wisdom that comes with getting older.
NEVERWHERE
A world premiere based on the urban fantasy by Neil Gaiman
Adapted by Robert Kauzlaric
Directed by Paul S. Holmquist
Lifeline Theatre
773-761-4477
Fri at 7:30; Sat at 4 & 8; Sun at 4
$30
When Richard Mayhew stops to care for an injured girl on the street, he is drawn into a nightmare shadow world beneath the city of London. To return to his normal life, Richard must brave countless trials, uncover the truth behind a dark conspiracy, and face the indomitable Great Beast. Journey to London Below with a rogues’ gallery of liars, outcasts and assassins, on a treacherous voyage to awaken the hero within.
NO EXIT
by Jean-Paul Sartre
Directed by Sean Graney
Hypocrites at Athenaeum Theatre
1-800-982-2787
Thurs-Sat at 8pm, Sun at 3pm
$15-25
In his groundbreaking existential drama, No Exit, a trio of recently deceased strangers discover themselves locked in a windowless room, forced to cohabitate with each other - and only each other - for all eternity.
THE ODD COUPLE
by Neil Simon
Directed by Michael Menendian
Raven Theatre Company
773-338-2177
Thur-Sat at 8; Sun at 3
$25-$30
The boys are back! Neil Simon's classic comedy offers a hilarious tale of ordinary men who are extraordinarily irreconcilable. Oscar Madison, the super slob and Felix Unger, the ultimate neat freak battle as recently single middle-aged roommates. The explosively bad union brings reality T.V. at its finest to the stage.
OF MICE AND MEN
By John Steinbeck
Directed by Belinda Bremner
Oak Park Festival Theatre
708-445-4440
Thurs - Sat at 8:00; Sunday at 7:00
$15 to 25
John Steinbeck's deeply moving story of love and labor during the depression will be presented in a natural outdoor setting.
THE PRODUCERS
Book and Music by: Mel Brooks
Directed by Dominic Clemente Jr.
Musical Direction by J. Wolfgang Weging
Independent Stars at Elmwood Park Auditorium
708-997-1714
Thur-Sat at 7:30; Sun at 2
$10
Outrageous, hilarious, a teeny bit offensive, off the wall, and the winner of a record 12 Tony Awards are just a few things that The Producers is. But it is never boring and you will find yourself holding your sides with laughter as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom sing and dance their way through the greatest show biz scam that there ever was!
THE SILVER PROJECT
American Theater Company
773-409-4125
June 16-20 @ 9p
American Theater Company celebrates its 25th Anniversary with The Silver Project, a year-long festival of 30 world premiere short plays penned by some of the country's leading playwrights. Artistic Director PJ Paparelli asked over 30 playwrights across the country to choose a year between 1985 and 2010 and write a short play that explores the company's mission: what does it mean to be an American. Directed and performed by over 50 Chicago artists, the plays will be presented in five parts throughout the year and as a complete cycle during the National Theatre Communications Group Conference June 16-20, 2010 here in Chicago.
SHAKESPEARE'S KING PHYCUS
An Historical-Pastoral-Tragical Comedy in Five Acts
By Tom Willmorth.
Directed by Ira Amyx
The Building Stage
(773) 598-8240
Previews Wed & Thurs 8pm ($10); Friday-Sat 8pm; Sunday 7pm,
$15 for TCG conference attendees. Normal ticket $25
All is not well in the state of The Building Stage. Queen Gertrude is dead; King Phycus is
blinded; Hamlet’s nauseous sister Juliet is being wed against her will to the cloying, hunchbacked
Gloucester whilst her one true love, the Roman Romeo, assists Brutus in plotting the
ruination of the English throne. Join us as the flat-footed charlatans of the Lord Chamberlain’s
Men combine forces with the visionary roustabouts of The Strange Tree Group to present an
Elizabethan tragedy of (ahem) ‘Shakespearean’ proportions. A cast of six Strange Tree
stalwarts take on six blended tragedies, thirty-one parts, forty location changes and one
enormous sword-swinging battle of twenty thousand men in this world premiere send up of
Shakespeare's first (and possibly worst) tragedy:
SHAKESPEARE’S KING PHYCUS!
SKETCHBOOK X
A mixed-media festival of Theatre, Video, and Music
Collaboraction Theatre Company at Chopin Theatre
312-226-9633
Mon, Thur - Fri. at 8; Sat-Sun at 7
For the landmark 10th anniversary, Collaboraction's Sketchbook X returns to the Chopin Theatre where the inaugural Sketchbook Festival debuted in January 2000, featuring twenty 7 minute plays and devised works. One of the most provocative mixed media theater festivals in the United States, Collaboraction's critically acclaimed SKETCHBOOK Festival has provided a unique and uninhibited platform where thousands of multi-disciplinary artists have come together to create a singular world of theatre, music and visual art, inviting the audience to be both spectator and artist.
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
Written by Tennessee Williams
Directed by David Cromer
Writers' Theatre
847-242-6000
Tue-Wed at 7:30; Thur-Fri at 8; Sat at 4 & 8; Sun at 2 & 6
$40-$65
One of Chicago’s foremost directors takes on one of the country’s greatest plays. After staging last season’s nationally-acclaimed production of Picnic, David Cromer returns to Writers’ Theatre. Hailed a “genius” by The Wall Street Journal and fresh from his Broadway debut, Cromer directs Tennessee Williams’ winning drama, A Streetcar Named Desire.
Blanche DuBois arrives unexpectedly on the doorstep of her sister Stella and her explosive brother-in-law Stanley. Over the course of one hot and steamy New Orleans summer, Blanche’s fragile façade slowly crumbles, wreaking havoc on Stella and Stanley’s already turbulent relationship. Embodying the turmoil and drama of a changing nation, A Streetcar Named Desire strips Williams’ tortured characters of their illusions, leaving a wake of destruction in their path.
SUICIDE, INCORPORATED
A World Premiere by Andrew Hinderaker
Directed by Jonathan Berry
The Gift Theatre
773-283-7071
$25-30
It's been a tough week at work. Profits are down, lawsuits are up, and you totally forgot to bring something to the staff potluck. But none of that is even a minor concern compared to this: your boss is onto you. He's begun to suspect the truth, that you're trying to ruin the company by keeping its clients alive.
SWEAR JAR
Directed by Mick Napier
Annoyance Theatre
773-561-4665
$15
Swear Jar, a dirty, uncensored sketch show directed by Annoyance Founder and Artistic Director Mick Napier, will be the first sketch show directed by Napier at The Annoyance in the theatre's 22 year history.
SWEET AND HOT: THE SONGS OF HAROLD ARLEN
Directed by Fred Anzevino
Music Direction by Steve Carson
Choreography by David Heimann
Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre at No Exit Cafe
800-595-4849
$10-45
Sweet and Hot is musical revue of Harold Arlen's famous, toe-tapping songs, including "Over the Rainbow" from the film The Wizard of Oz and voted the #1 song of the 20th century. Arlen composed all songs from the movie as well other perennial favorites as "It's Only a Paper Moon," "Stormy Weather," "Get Happy" and "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive."
THE TALLEST MAN
Written by Jim Lynch
Directed by John Mossman
The Artistic Home
866-811-4111
$25-27
As the people of a tiny Irish village wrestle with the spectre of poverty, forbidden love and the dawning of the 20th century, a looming spirit haunts the local pub. Secrets lurk behind every turn of turf and intrigue behind every Irish eye. Only the strongest, or tallest, will survive.
TOBACCO ROAD
By Jack Kirkland, from the novel by Erskine Caldwell
Directed by Cecilie Keenan
American Blues Theater at Victory Gardens Biograph Theater
773-871-3000
$20-40
Tobacco Road, adapted by Jack Kirkland from Erskine Caldwell’s 1932 novel, is the second-longest running drama in Broadway history. American Blues Theater (Chicago’s second-oldest Equity Ensemble) revives this sharp, unrelenting, wickedly funny story to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Tobacco Road examines the extreme lengths people will travel for survival. In a rural shack in Georgia during the Great Depression, the Lester family faces eviction from their own land. The patriarch Jeeter struggles to keep his farm’s deed, feed his starving family, and arrange suitable marriages for his children despite no money, no seeds, and no foreseeable way out. The Lester family’s desperation and dysfunction show brutally honest truths and emotionally shocking decisions, both outrageously humorous and horrifying.
TOO MUCH LIGHT MAKES THE BABY GO BLIND
Neo-Futurists at Neo-Futurarium
773-275-5255
F-Sa at 11:30, Su at 7
$9 plus the role of one die
Our signature show is now in its nineteenth year, making it the longest-running show in Chicago today. Too Much Light..., with its ever-changing "menu," is an attempt to perform 30 plays in 60 minutes. The show runs Fridays and Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. and Sundays at 7:00 p.m. Seating is first-come, first-served, cash only at the door. Listen to a sample...
THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES
By Eve Ensler
Directed by Lauren Rawitz
Metropolis Performing Arts Centre
847-577-2121
Wed & Thur, 8pm
$28.50-$33.50
Critically acclaimed and adored by audiences, The Vagina Monologues returns for a limited summer run. Featuring true stories of women from around the world, The Vagina Monologues is full of stories that are funny, witty, impassioned and always candid, creating an eclectic mix of narratives all centered on the experience of being a woman. Featuring our amazing original cast. Includes strong adult language and themes. Not recommended for children or young teens.
WAR WITH THE NEWTS
By Jason Loewith and Justin D.M. Palmer
Based on the novel by Karel Capek
World Premiere
Next Theatre Company in association with The Department of Theatre at Loyola University Chicago
847-475-1875
Thur at 7:30; Fri and Sat at 8; Sun 2
$25-$40
Can one man stop an empire? In 1936, Czech-born Karel Capek wrote a spooky, fantastical novel about the discovery of an intelligent race of giant salamanders, which humanity enslaves for profit and national advantage. This highly-anticipated adaptation comes to us from Jason Loewith and Artistic Associate Justin D.M. Palmer in collaboration with puppet designer Michael Montenegro. On the heels of an enlightening research trip to the Czech Republic, the artistic team has truly unlocked the theatrical magic of this portentous story. Brought to life with pools, puppets and projections, War With the Newts is an incredibly timely satire about a global economy planting the seeds of its own destruction.