A Red Orchid to Stage Youth Project World Premiere of THE HAVEN PLACE
By: BWW News Desk Nov. 21, 2016
Seven kids must travel across a country unmade by the Elder Gods in a 1988 Winnebago SuperChief Motorhome to find what may be the last safe pocket of Humanity: a small town in northern Canada.
The Haven Place features Sam Blin (George), Haley Bolithon (Hazel), Sarah Cartwright (Jessie), Julissa Contreras (Oz), Ada Grey (Bug), Aria Szalai-Raymond (Beadie), Nicole Rudokov (Crow) and Eden Strong (Lou).
The creative team includes John Wilson (Scenic Design), Kotryna Hilko (Costume & Props Design), Heather Sparling (Lighting Design), and Jeffrey Levin (Sound Design). Leean Torske is the Dramaturge and Assistant Director, Olivia Bedard is the Stage Manager, Jamie Crothers is the Assistant Stage Manager and Shannon Golden is the Production Manager.
The Haven Place includes American Sign Language (ASL). ASL Interpreters working on the show include Whitney Love, Isaac Riddle, Rob Russo and Kristin Schmitz.
"The show has a heavy focus on Deaf and hearing integration. It will feature one Deaf actress and seven hearing actors. The development of this work has been an amazing opportunity for real-time, ground floor accessibility," notes playwright Levi Holloway. "We are teaching our hearing actors to sign, to lean into each other and discover new ways to approach storytelling. No one will be voicing our Deaf actress. It's a real world application of what Deaf and hearing integration looks like."
"The Haven Place is an amazing opportunity for young artists to not only have the chance to work in a professional setting, but also to experience inclusion in a new, exciting way," notes Managing Director Abigail Madden. "Through this process, we are seeing communication barriers being broKen Down every day in so many different ways and it's an inspiring thing to be a part of."
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Levi Holloway is a Chicago based actor, writer, director, illustrator, and teaching artist. He's performed with theatre companies such as Steppenwolf, Northlight, Aboutface, Chicago Children's Theatre, Silk Road Rising, Provision, Shattered Globe, Hell in a Handbag and more. He teaches for Lookingglass Theatre, Silk Road, Adventure Stage, and Chicago Children's Theatre. He is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Neverbird Project, a youth based Deaf and hearing youth company, where he's written and produced original adaptations of Peter Pan, Jungle Book, Robin Hood, and most recently Pinocchio. Pinocchio will be remounted this spring, helping to launch Chicago Children Theatre's new space, The Station. He holds a BFA in acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University. This is his first playwriting commission with A Red Orchid Theatre.
Steven Wilson appeared last season on A Red Orchid's stage in Sender after taking some time off to earn his MFA in Directing from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to his graduate school hiatus, Chicago audiences may have seen Steven's work with The Hypocrites where he was a longtime company member, appearing in over a dozen productions. Here at A Red Orchid, Steven is an Artistic Associate and founded the Youth Ensemble, where he directed several memorable productions including A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant and The Iliad. Recently, Steven recently directed The Hypocrites' Jeff Recommended production of Green Day's American Idiot and worked as Assistant Director on the Goodman Theatre's production of The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window.
In 2008, The A Red Orchid Youth Project began as a creative outgrowth of AROT's first successful all youth production of A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, the satirical musical by Kyle Jarrow, from a concept by Alex Timbers. With a warm critical and public reception, the young actors involved in the show were eager for more theatrical opportunities and the play's director, Steven Wilson, had such a positive experience that classes, workshops, readings and programming focused exclusively on working with the young actor began to take root. With Wilson and founding AROT ensemble member, Larry Grimm, a veteran teaching artist in theatre and high schools, teaming up as co-directors, youth actors were given training in audition technique, improvisation, on-camera workshops and commedia dell arte.
The philosophy of the Youth Project mirrors A Red Orchid's professional aesthetic: the belief that the best way to honor youth, maturity and intelligence is with a comparable selection of gutsy and authentic material on the human experience. Past Youth Project productions include the holiday remount of A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, Craig Wright's adaptation of Homer's The Iliad, featuring an all-girl cast under the age of 16, two years participation in Collaboraction's signature short play event, Sketchbook, and Theatre Seven's The Chicago Landmark Project.
In May of 2013, as part of the Now is The Time initiative, a coalition of more than 15 theaters sponsored by the Chicago Public Library and Facing History and Ourselves devoted to creating dialogue around the pervasive citywide issue of youth violence, intolerance and bullying, the Youth Project performed Our City Ourselves: Youth Voices for Tolerance, which profiled three different neighborhood stories affected by violence and intolerance.
Since 1993 A Red Orchid Theatre has been an artistic mainstay of the Chicago theatre community and was named Chicago's Best Theatre in 2010 by Chicago Magazine. Known and praised for its ferocious ensemble, creative design and its gripping, intimate productions, the Artistic Ensemble maintains the conviction that passionately committed theatre will draw passionately committed audiences. Located at 1531 N. Wells Ave, Chicago, contact (312) 943-8722; or online www.aredorchidtheatre.org.
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