Lifeline Theatre Holds Annual BIPOC Adaptation Development Showcase

Lifeline Theatre will Showcase Desi Moreno-Penson's work-in-development, El Bacalao: The Catfish Man(based on Euripides' “The Bacchae”), directed by Ruben Carrazana, on Friday, July 14 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, July 15 at 2:30 p.m.; and Brandon Zang's work-in-development Nuwa In Fairyland, directed by Helen Young on Saturday, July 15 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, July 16 at 2:30 p.m. at Lifeline Theatre,  6912 N. Glenwood Ave.

Ticket prices are $25 (student and senior discounts available) and may be purchased by visitingwww.lifelinetheatre.com or at the Lifeline Theatre Box Office, 773.761.4477.  The presentations will run approximately 2.5 hours with an intermission.

 

After a selection process that more than doubled the amount of submissions Lifeline received during the inaugural workshop in 2021-2022, Moreno-Penson and Zang have been working with members of Lifeline's artistic ensemble, as well as team members of their choosing, for the last five months to utilize Lifeline's unique and effective process of development to help nurture these playwright's new adaptations that move us beyond the margins of our own lives.

 

EL BACALAO: THE CATFISH MAN, loosely based on Euripides' The Bacchae and taking place in the small backwater town of Thebes, Florida, tells the story of a dysfunctional, cantankerous Cuban family on the verge of losing everything. A storm's coming; a restaurant is closed; a young girl is dead. And a Yoruban demigod is hell bent on vengeance.

 

Desi Moreno-Penson (she/her) is a playwright, actor, dramaturg, and independent theater producer based in NYC. She has an MFA in Dramaturgy and Theater Criticism from Brooklyn College. Her plays have been developed/produced at Ensemble Studio Theater (EST), INTAR, MultiStages, Perishable Theater (Providence, RI), Henry Street Settlement, SPF-Summer Play Festival, terraNOVA Collective, Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) @the Cherry Lane, Urban Theater Company (Chicago), Teatro Coribantes (San Juan, PR), among others.

 

Ruben Carrazana (Director)  is an actor, director, writer, producer, and teaching artist originally from Miami. Directing credits include Broken Nose Theatre, BoHo Theatre, Pegasus Theatre Chicago, 2nd Thought Theater (Dallas), Stage West, Cry Havoc Theater, Cara Mía Theatre, Latino/Oak Cliff Cultural Center, and Jesters. He is a recent transplant to Chicago after working professionally in the Dallas theater scene for several years, and is currently the Community Engagement Manager at Northlight Theatre. Ruben holds a BFA in Theatre from Southern Methodist University.

NUWA IN FAIRYLAND: Adopted by an American family when he was a baby, 15-year-old Benji has no memory of his life in China. However, after he is cast as Puck in his school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Benji's method acting exercises begin to blur his sense of reality. In the mystical land of the fairies, Benji has a chance encounter with the Chinese goddess Nüwa, who may hold the key to the boy's connection to his birthplace. Told through a blend of Shakespearean fantasy and Chinese folklore, Nuwa In Fairyland is a story about the melancholy of separation and the child trafficking endemic in China.

 

Brandon Zang (he/him) is a playwright from Vancouver, British Columbia. His play, Ah Wing and the Automaton Eagle, is the winner of the Canadian Playwriting Competition Special Merit Award, the Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prize, and a Wayward Voices Panel Favorite. Zang is currently an MFA playwright at Boston University and holds a double BA in anthropology and theater from the University of Chicago.

 

Helen Young (Director) recent directing credits include What The Constitution Means to Me and, The Chinese Lady, TimePieces reading of The Chinese Lady, The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin, and served as Associate Director of The Audience and Assistant Dramaturg of Chimerica all at TimeLine Theatre. Other credits: The Great Leap (Farmers Alley); Wild Boar and lead director for New China Festival (Silk Road Rising); American Hwangap and Tiny Dynamite(A-Squared/Halcyon) and Tea (Prologue). Other selected credits include work with Remy Bumppo, Artistic Home, Playground-Chicago, and Miranda Theatre in New York. Helen is also an actor (SAG/AFTRA).

 

Lifeline presents Desi Moreno-Penson's work-in-development, El Bacalao: The Catfish Man (based on Euripides' The Bacchae) on Friday, July 14 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, July 15 at 2:30 p.m.; and Brandon Zang's work-in-development Nuwa In Fairyland on Saturday, July 15 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, July 16 at 2:30 p.m. at Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave. Ticket prices are $25 (student and senior discounts available) and may be purchased by visiting www.lifelinetheatre.com or at the Lifeline Theatre Box Office, 773.761.4477.

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