How I Became an Interesting Person: Chicago Dramatists

Will Dunne's World Premiere

How I Became an Interesting Person

Continues Chicago Dramatists' 30th Anniversary Season

Chicago Dramatists continues its 30th anniversary season with resident playwright Will Dunne's new comedy, How I Became an Interesting Person. According to Wayne Drabowski, he is what the Neanderthals evolved into. His room is what caves evolved into. And his isolation is what life evolved into at the end of a 20th century where no one really knows what's happening on the other side of the wall. In escaping his isolation, Wayne finds himself more and more entangled with his elderly landlady, Mrs. Walker, and three unusual boarders with whom he shares the bathroom and refrigerator. There is something for everyone in this offbeat look at life changes and interpersonal relationships. The show runs about two hours with one intermission.

Opening nights: Friday, January 23, and Saturday, January 24, 2009, 8 p.m. (receptions following)

Closes Sunday, February 22, 2009

Runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m.

Previews on January 15, 16, 17, and 22, 2008, at 8 p.m.

Call the Box Office for Tickets at: 312-633-0630, www.chicagodramatists.org, www.hottix.org

$30 on Fridays and Saturdays

$25 on Thursdays and Sundays

$15 for previews

$10 industry and student tickets (Thursday and Sunday shows only)

Group rates for groups of seven or more on request.

CAST/STAFF: Associate Artists Roslyn Alexander (Mrs. Walker), Michelle Courvais (Judy), with guest artists Will Clinger (Wayne), Walter Thon (Todd) and Ron Quade (Paul). Russ Tutterow (Director), Grant Sabin (Scenic Design), Jeff Pines (Lighting Design), Kerith Wolf (Costume Design), Scotty Iseri (Sound Design) and Jenniffer Thusing (Properties Design).

Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60642 (note new zip)

Some street parking; CTA bus (Chicago-66, Milwaukee-56);

Blue Line train (Chicago stop);

Valet parking available for $10 ($7 for subscribers)

BIO: A Chicago Dramatists Resident Playwright since fall 2006, Will Dunne is the author of "How I Became An Interesting Person," "Love and Drowning," and "Hotel Desperado" - each selected for presentation at the US National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center (1996-1998). "How I Became An Interesting Person" also received a Charles MacArthur Fellowship for comedy, and was later developed at the Australian National Playwrights Conference and in Croatian translation at The National Theatre of Istria. His play "The Ascension of Carlotta" was produced in spring 2008 by the 16th Street Theatre in Berwyn, IL. In partnership with Chicago Dramatists, "Deep Gardens" was produced at Chicago's Second City. "Moonrise" and "Good Morning, Romeo" were finalists for the Heideman Award at Actors Theatre of Louisville. West Coast productions of "Eleventh Hour," "I Married a Werewolf," "The Bridge," and "Between Quakes" received four Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, two DramaLogue Playwriting Awards, and a Best-of-Year mention from the San Francisco Examiner.

Will Clinger as Wayne Drabowski and Michelle Courvais as Party Girl in Chicago Dramatists’ world premiere production of "How I Became an Interesting Person", at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave., in Chicago's West Town neighborhood, running 1/15-2/22/09, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.  and Sundays at 3 p.m. Information about the show at www.chicagodramatists.org and 312-633-0630.  Photo by Jeff Pines.

COMING NEXT: Nambi E. Kelley's "Hope VI" runs April 22-May 31, 2009.

A wrecking ball hits the Robert Taylor Homes on Chicago's Southside, and six-year-old Hope Graves and her family are left struggling to survive. But Hope has a scar now, and has become strangely quiet. Are TV and her dreams enough to help her escape?