Circuit Theatre Stages 6-Hour Epic THE VALENTINE TRILOGY, Beg. Tonight

This August, the Circuit Theatre Company, a local, IRNE-nominated company run and operated by theatre artists ages 18-25 from across the country, will present the East-Coast premiere of Nathan Allen's epic trilogy of plays, "The Valentine Trilogy." This theatrical event features a cast of twenty, a live band playing a kick-ass rock score, juggling, magic, stunts, and more.

In, "The Valentine Trilogy," one unlikely hero's quest leads him from the Wild West to medieval Japan to an imagined, Gotham City-like Boston of the 1930's as he fights for love and justice! As we watch him grown up, fall in love, fall from grace, and redeem himself, and as the line between good and evil gets harder and harder to see, it becomes clear that being a hero is much harder than it looks.

Created at the House Theatre of Chicago, one of Chicago's hottest theatre companies, this trilogy of full-length plays presents one continuous story, but does so in the style of three film genres: a western, a samurai film, and a superhero noir. Plus, there's singing, cowboys on bicycles, bionic women, and flying old people.

Director Skylar Fox says of the trilogy, "The plays are all about empathy. They're more about understanding how it feels to become an adult than telling anyone what it means. It is a time in every person's life that is messy, complicated, painful, and definitely epic. We (the cast and crew) are still figuring out what it means to really become adults. We do know that we are told what it means in our culture through movies. Hence the genres. It is a very clever, nuanced way that Nathan (the playwright) tells this story."

These plays, presented together in rep for the first time in history by The Circuit Theatre Company, are sure to thrill you, as they ask the question: "What does it really mean to become a hero?"

The three plays that make up this trilogy, "San Valentino and the Melancholy Kid," "Curse of the Crying Heart," and "Valentine Victorious!", will be presented in rep from tonight, August 2nd-August 17th at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.

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