A Red Orchid Theatre Announces 2010-2011 Season

A Red Orchid proudly announces its 2010-2011 season, featuring the Midwest Premieres of Paul Mullin's Louis Slotin Sonata, directed by Ensemble Member Karen Kessler, and Enda Walsh's The New Electric Ballroom, directed by Robin Witt. The season continues with a World Premiere adaptation of The Iliad, directed by StEve Wilson and featuring the women of the A Red Orchid Youth Ensemble, and Machiavelli's The Mandrake, adapted by Peter Constantine and directed by Steve Scott.

"As always, our 2010-2011 productions have been hand-picked by our Artistic Ensemble to create a season of exceptionally honest and intimate theatre. Our season asks whether we are more ambitious animals than moral ones? More curious than kind? The exploring of these questions is often hilarious, sometimes horrifying and always carries the potential for deepened intimacy," says Artistic Director Kirsten Fitzgerald. "On the heels of our most successful season to date we maintain that theatre is potentially the greatest sustenance for the human spirit. I would add to this something that Paul Mullen, the opening playwright of our 2010-11 season, said to me, ‘theatre at its best exists at the intersection of the intimate and the sublime.' I believe life at its best exists at that same intersection."

The A Red Orchid 2010-2011 season is:

The Midwest Premiere of
Louis Slotin Sonata
By Paul Mullin
Directed by Ensemble Member Karen Kessler
September 10- October 24, 2010
Press Opening September 13, 2010 at 7pm

Will our innate curiosity and confidence kill us or lead us to greater awakenings? At 3:20 PM on Tuesday, May 21, 1946 Louis Slotin's hand slipped-a small, practically insignificant blunder, except that Slotin was the chief -bomb builder at Los Alamos, and at that fateful moment he held in his hands a plutonium bomb core named "Rufus". With a structure inspired by classical music's sonata allegro form, Louis Slotin Sonata traces the true story of a brilliant scientist's last nine days, as his body and mind gradually succumb to the chaos wrecked by radiation.

A World Premiere Adaptation
The Iliad
By Craig Wright
Adapted from Robert Fagles' translation
Directed by StEve Wilson and featuring the young women of the A Red Orchid Youth Ensemble
November 12 - December 19, 2010
Press Opening November 14, 2010 at 7pm

Adapted by Craig Wright specifically for our young, all-female cast, this version of The Iliad offers a provocative and playful new spin on Homer's age-old tale of the Trojan War. Vengeance, loyalty, or honor: which is most important? And, in this saga of bloody battles and huge male egos, where exactly do women and children fit in? Packed with swordplay, gender politics, and even a few songs, this is one war you don't want to miss.

The Midwest Premiere of
The New Electric Ballroom
By Enda Walsh
Directed by Robin Witt
January 20 - March 6, 2011
Press Opening Jan 23, 2010 at 7pm

Trapped in the years that have passed since their halcyon days at The New Electric Ballroom, three sisters relive memories of something resembling romance with hilarious and horrible effect. Interruptions from the local fishmonger only remind of the dangers of love and life outside. Words, in Mr. Walsh's harsh but illuminating vision, are both the making of experience and its destruction. How do we share our history and how does it shape us?

Machiavelli's The Mandrake
Adapted by Peter Constantine
Directed by Steve Scott
April 8- May 24, 2011
Press Opening April 11, 2010 at 7pm

The Italian merchant has always dreamed of loving the beautiful Lucretia but Lucretia is now married to a real pea-brain, the church could use some cash and perhaps some folks are just board. The plots and conniving involve everyone in town, from the seemingly purest of the pure to the slimiest of the slime. Is nothing sacred? And with everyone behaving so badly, can anyone possibly win?

About A Red Orchid
Since 1993 A Red Orchid Theatre has been an artistic mainstay of the Chicago theatre community; known and praised for its powerful ensemble, creative design and its gripping, intimate productions. The resident Ensemble maintains the conviction that passionately committed theatre will draw passionately committed audiences, and the 2009-2010 subscription season promises to bring Ensemble and audience even closer together.

A Red Orchid Theatre is: Lance Baker, Dado, Jennifer Engstrom, Kirsten Fitzgerald, Joseph Fosco, Steve Haggard, Mierka Girten, Larry Grimm, Karen Kawa, Karen Kessler, Danny McCarthy, Brett Neveu, Michael Shannon, Guy Van Swearingen, Doug Vickers, Tiffany Wilson and Craig Wright.
The A Red Orchid Youth Ensemble includes: Chaz Allen, Najwa Brown, Jackson Chalinor, Jaiden Fallo, Paola Lehman, Melanie Nielan, Adam Rebora, Kara Ryan, Elenna Sindler, Katie Jordan, Elita Ernstien, Alex Turner and Aria Szalai-Raymond.

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