16th Street to Debut 2014 Season at WIRE, 12/7

16th Street Theater and North Berwyn Park District debut their Season Seven 2014: How To Be Good in a FREE event on Saturday, December 7 from 5:00 - 6:30 PM at Berwyn's newest music venue WIRE at 6815 Roosevelt Road in Berwyn, Illinois. Enjoy WIRE's cash bar while 16th Street performs excerpts from their 2014 Season Seven featuring four premieres by four female writers: Laura Jacqmin, Andrea Thome, EM Lewis and playwright-in-residence Shayne Kennedy. Associate Artist and scenic designer Kurt Sharp will also be remembered at this event.

Be good. I just want to be good. Get a good job. Live in a good neighborhood. Be a good citizen. Feel good. Look good. Have good things. Wanting to "do good" is one thing. How it plays out is another.

In 2014 16th Street Theater confronts what it means to be good, how our good deeds are measured, and who gets to decide. We begin in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood where an affluent, African-American couple chooses to do good, whatever the consequences. We then venture up north and back in time to 1980 Wisconsin where two daughters of Chilean refugees try to make sense of their parents' past and present. Next we take on America's most dangerous subject: GUNS before traveling to the suburbs to discover dangers lurking right next door. We finish up with holiday stories you have never heard before from three of 16th Street's favorite writers: Elizabeth Berg, Robert Koon and Juan Francisco Villa.

Here are the five plays, plus one Night Out at Berwyn's FitzGerald's Nightclub, making up 16th Street Theater's Season Seven: How To Be Good:

DO-GOODER
by Laura Jacqmin
Directed by Ann Filmer
January 16 - February 22, 2014
a world premiere

When Gordon and Carmel move to Chicago, it's to do good: they're going to rent the soon-to-be-vacant apartment in their graystone to a low-income black family. But when this threatens to disrupt the lives of current tenants Erik and Nora, a power struggle between two married couples - one black, one white - erupts, calling into question what it means to be good.

NIGHT OUT AT FITZGERALD'S
Saturday, March 22, 2014 5:00 PM
For 100 Club members only

16th Street partners with Berwyn Library to share excerpts from a novel TBA at Berwyn's own nationally-recognized music venue FitzGerald's.

PINKOLANDIA
by Andrea Thome
Directed by Ann Filmer
April 3 - May 10, 2014
a rolling premiere in collaboration with New York's Lark Play Development Center

Exiled from Chile to the strange land of Reagan-era Wisconsin, two young sisters must create imaginary worlds to uncover the story of their family's past. Traveling through fantasies of glaciers, talking bears and Nazi-fighting revolutionaries, Pinkolandia is a play about growing up - because sometimes, when you lose your country, you have to invent your own.

THE GUN SHOW
By EM Lewis
Directed by Kevin Christopher Fox
July 10 - August 2, 2014

We have a problem with guns in America. The problem is, we really, really like theM. Starring Juan Francisco Villa.

AGREED UPON FICTIONS
by Shayne Kennedy, playwright-in-residence
Directed by Megan Shuchman
September 11 - October 18, 2014
a world premiere

Katie is a good mother. Her family is happy and secure. But when the most vulnerable member of the community is revealed as a threat, Katie's instincts lead her to try to protect both her neighbor and her family, leaving no one feeling safe.

OUR HOLIDAY STORIES
by Elizabeth Berg, Robert Koon and Juan Francisco Villa
November 13 - December 13

Changing Holiday traditions with holiday stories you have never heard before from three of 16th Street's favorite writers: Elizabeth Berg (The Pull of the Moon), Robert Koon (Menorca) and Juan Francisco Villa (Empanada for a Dream)

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