A Red Orchid Theatre Presents THE NEW ELECTRIC BALLROOM 1/20-3/6/2011

A Red Orchid Theatre continues its 2010-2011 Season with The New Electric Ballroom, written by Enda Walsh and directed by Robin Witt. The production will run January 20 - March 6, 2011 at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells. Press opening is Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 3PM and 7PM.

Do you remember your first time? Trapped in the years that have passed since their halcyon days at The New Electric Ballroom, these Irish sisters relive memories of something resembling romance with hilarious and horrible effect.

Enda Walsh is among Ireland's most widely produced contemporary playwrights, having written extensively for the stage, radio and film. He was a founding member of Corcadorca Theatre Company in Cork in 1994, where he produced his breakthrough play Disco Pigs that won the Stewart Parker Award and the George Devine Award. His screenplay Hunger won numerous awards including the 2008 Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Best First Film, Best Film awards at the Sydney and Jerusalem Film Festivals and the Gold Hugo Award at Chicago International Film Festival, among many others.

"The New Electric Ballroom is a sad, lyrical, and funny play about sisters who avoid life by reliving, over and over, a traumatic event from their long-past teenage days. The women have sequestered themselves from the real world as they pick and scrape at an old, emotional scab, all the time using a torrent of words to keep their bitterness and pain fresh and alive. But it isn't all gloom and doom," says Robin Witt. "Walsh hints at the possibility of escape from the devastating cycle of heartache--and in the process he writes one of the most profoundly moving descriptions of love won and lost that I have ever read. Rehearsals have been both joyous and heartrending. I am thrilled and honored to be a part of bringing this gorgeous play to Chicago audiences."

The human need to connect to someone or something outside ourselves is a theme that has long sparked our curiosity at A Red Orchid, adds Artistic Director Kirsten Fitzgerald. "There are so many forces - both inside and out - battling this human desire. It seems so very basic and yet it eludes everyone at times. Is the "hard truth" that we are alone? Are we safer alone? Upon first read, I knew this play was a brilliant fit for A Red Orchid because of the intimacy and fearlessness with which Enda Walsh wrote his people. With every rehearsal it reveals some new horrible-wonderful realization."

The New Electric Ballroom features A Red Orchid Ensemble Members Kirsten Fitzgerald (Ada), and founding Artistic Director Guy VanSwearingen (Patsy), with Kate Buddeke (Breda) and Laurie Larson (Clara).

The creative team includes Jessica Kuehnau (Set Designer), Karen Kawa (Costume Deisgner), Sarah Hughey (Lighting Designer), Joe Fosco (Sound Designer), and Jesse Gaffney (Properties). Kate McGroarty is the Assistant Director and Stephanie Heller is the Stage Manager. Anita Deely is Dialect Coach.

Kate Buddeke (Breda) returns to A Red Orchid where she was previously seen in BUG and Eric Larue. She is a proud ensemble member of American Blues Theatre where she was seen last season in Tobacco Road. More recently she was on stage with Route 66 Theatre in McMeekin Finds Out. While in New York she appeared in the Broadway productions of: Carousel, Death of A Salesman, Gypsy and A Streetcar Named Desire, and Off-Broadway in Paris Commune, Bug and Mill Fire. Film & TV include: The Flight of the Conchords, The Sopranos, Law & Order C.I., Choking Man. Kate is the recipient of four Joseph Jefferson Awards and she sang the National Anthem, solo, at Wrigley Field.

Kirsten Fitzgerald (Ada) returns to the A Red Orchid stage where she was last seen in Abigail's Party and Pumpgirl (both of which garnered Jeff Nominations). Other A Red Orchid credits: Weapon of Mass Impact, The Sea Horse (2006 Jeff Award), The Killer, Mr Bundy (Jeff Nomination) and The Removalists. Kirsten has also worked with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Steppenwolf, Apple Tree, Next, Circle, Goodman, Shattered Globe, Remy Bumppo, Plasticene, and Defiant Theatres and has been seen on the television show, ER. Kirsten teaches acting at Columbia College and in addition to being a proud ensemble member of A Red Orchid, serves as the Artistic Director.

Laurie Larson (Clara) makes her A Red Orchid debut with The New Electric Ballroom. She most recently appeared in the Jeff-recommended production of The Wedding with TUTA ensemble. Other recent shows include Cadillac with Chicago Dramatists and Tranquillity Woods with Steppenwolf's First Look series. She has also worked with Next and Strawdog Theatre, Piven Theatre Workshop, European Repertory Company, Northlight, Apple Tree, and Fox Theatricals, among others. Film work includes roles in Stranger Than Fiction and The Express, as well as the pilot episode of TNT's Leverage.

Guy Van Swearingen (Patsy) Guy is an ensemble member and the founding artistic director of A Red Orchid Theatre. He last appeared on stage at AROT in Blasted. Guy was seen in the Steppenwolf Theatre's touring production The Time of Your Life at Seattle Rep and A.C.T. on the west coast. Other credits include Taking Care also with Steppenwolf, Eleven Rooms of Proust with Lookingglass Theatre, Come Like Shadows with the Plasticene Physical Theatre, and Cleansed with the late great Defiant Theatre. Other A.R.O.T. appearances include Gagarin Way, BUG, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, The Cut, Tis' Pity She's a Whore, The Questioning of Nick³, Victims of Duty, The Killer, Cops, The Removalists and The Connection. T.V. Credits include Early Edition and TURKS. Film work - The Merry Gentlemen, Public Enemies, Mad Dog & Glory, The Negotiator, Ali, The Weatherman and the independent film "Blackbird".

Robin Witt (Director) returns to A Red Orchid where she previously directed Not a Game for Boys and was seen on stage in BUG. Last season she directed the smash hit, Harper Regan at Steep Theatre as well as Stage Door for Griffin Theatre. She has worked with Center Theater, Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Mary-Arrchie Theatre, Columbia College, Northwestern University, Creative Directions, Everyman Theatre (Baltimore, MD), Wisdom Bridge, Goodman Theatre, Theatre on the Lake, Oak Park Festival Theatre, and A Red Orchid Theatre (Bug). Recently, Witt was a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, where she directed Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day. Currently, Witt is on the faculty at University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Witt has an MFA in Directing from Northwestern University, and a BFA in Acting from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Enda Walsh (playwright) is counted among Ireland's most successful and widely performed contemporary playwrights, and his plays have contributed considerably to the ongoing interest in new Irish theatrical writing around the world. Walsh was born in Dublin in 1967. He attended Greendale Community School, in Kilbarrack, North Dublin, where another genius of contemporary Irish literature, Roddy Doyle, worked as a teacher. Later Walsh moved to Cork where he began to work with director Pat Kiernan at the Corcadorca Theatre Company. Winner of the 1997 Stewart Parker and the George Devine Awards, he won The Abbey Theatre Writer in Association Award for 2006. Productions of his plays at the Edinburgh Festival have won four Fringe First Awards, two Critic's Awards and a Herald Archangel Award (2008). His plays, notably Disco Pigs, Bedbound, Small Things, Chatroom, New Electric Ballroom, The Walworth Farce and most recently Penelope have been translated into more than 20 languages and have had productions throughout Europe and in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.

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.

Title: The New Electric Ballroom
Written by: Enda Walsh
Directed by: Robin Witt
Dates: Previews: January 20-22, 2010
Press opening: Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 3PM and 7PM
Regular Run: Thursday, January 27 - March 6, 2011
Schedule: Thurs: 8:00 p.m.
Fri: 8:00 p.m.
Sat: 8:00 p.m.
Sun: 3:00 p.m.
Location: A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells Ave.
Tickets: $15 previews, $25-$30 regular run. ($25 Thurs, $30 Fri-Sun)
Box Office: Located at 1531 N. Wells Ave, Chicago, (312) 943-8722; or online www.aredorchidtheatre.org

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