American Theater Company's 31st Season to Include Premieres from Thomas Bradshaw, Dan LeFranc

American Theater Company (ATC) announces Season 31: The Legacy Season, honoring ATC's late artistic director PJ Paparelli and continuing the theater's dedication to developing new works. The Legacy Season kicks off this November with the co-world premiere of Fulfillment by Thomas Bradshaw with an Off-Broadway company in New York (to be announced this summer). Next in January 2016 is the world premiere of Bruise Easy by Dan LeFranc, writer of ATC's blockbuster world premiere The Big Meal. In the spring, ATC presents the regional premiere of Abe Koogler's Kill Floor at ATC immediately following its world premiere at New York's LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater. The Legacy Season concludes with a fresh, new look at William F. Brown and Charles Smalls' The Wiz, in a co-production directed by Bailiwick Chicago Artistic Director Lili-Anne Brown.

Prior to Fulfillment in the fall, ATC will host a Legacy Celebration honoring its late Artistic Director PJ Paparelli. Details will be announced this summer.

"All four shows in our Legacy Season are projects that PJ championed at American Theater Company," says Interim Artistic Director Bonnie Metzgar. "He had an uncanny ability to discover and nourish the country's top playwrights and to provide intensive development opportunities for their new works. We celebrate PJ's legacy by partnering with NY organizations to tell two important American stories, by introducing a new work by one of his closest collaborators Dan LeFranc, and by cracking open a great American musical, The Wiz, with one of Chicago's powerhouses of musical theater, Lili-Anne Brown."

Past world premiere productions at ATC include Stephen Karam's The Humans, which opens Off-Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company this fall, and Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer Prize-winning Disgraced, which enjoyed a successful Broadway run and returns to Chicago as part of Goodman Theatre's upcoming season.

AMERICAN THEATER COMPANY'S 2015-2016 LEGACY SEASON:

Co-World Premiere
Fulfillment
Written by Thomas Bradshaw
November-December 2015

New York. Today. Michael has everything: the girlfriend, the condo, and the primo job at a top law firm. But after eight years, he has continually been passed up for a partnership, and starts to suspect it's because of racial discrimination. When his boss tells him why, he has to decide whether he has the strength to confront a personal demon. In one of the most controversial stories ever to appear on ATC's stage, playwright Thomas Bradshaw bravely and honestly exposes the painful gray areas between the personal and the professional in America's upper class. This production is a co-world premiere with a TBA Off-Broadway company in New York.

World Premiere
Bruise Easy
Written by Dan LeFranc
January-February 2016

Suburbia. Today. In the glow of florescent streetlights, two estranged siblings meet in the driveway of their childhood home and begin the conversation of a lifetime. From the writer of ATC's blockbuster play The Big Meal comes this poetic and haunting portrait of middle-class America.

Regional Premiere
Kill Floor
Written by Abe Koogler
March-May 2016

A Small Town. Today. Following a long incarceration, a mother returns to her hometown to restart her life. After securing a job at the local slaughterhouse, the challenges of reentry unfold as she reunites with her teenage son, a staunch vegetarian. Writer Abe Koogler pens a witty, funny, surprising and moving search for connection in modern America. This production immediately follows its World Premiere at NY's LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater.

Co-production with Bailiwick Chicago
The Wiz
Music and Lyrics by Charlie Smalls, Book by William F. Brown
Directed by Lili-Anne Brown
May-July 2016

Oz. Today. When a twister comes roaring through her housing development, Dorothy is dropped down into an urban dreamscape only vaguely resembling the world she knows. In this Tony Award-winning musical, William F. Brown and Charles Smalls re-envision the American classic The Wizard of Oz with an all African-American cast. This co-production between Bailiwick Chicago and American Theater Company examines what it means to live with intelligence, compassion and courage in today's tough cities.

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