AstonRep Theatre Company Announces 2017-18 Season

AstonRep Theatre Company is pleased to announce its 2017-18 Season, kicking off this fall with 1984, a chilling view of a world controlled by a totalitarian government, based on George Orwell's classic novel, adapted for the stage by Robert Owens, Wilton E. Hall Jr. and William A. Miles and directed by Artistic Director Robert Tobin. This winter, the season continues with a FESTIVAL OF ONE ACTS BY Tennessee Williams, celebrating one of the 20th century's greatest writers. AstonRep's season concludes next summer with THE LARAMIE PROJECT, a community's deeply-moving response to the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, written by Moisés Kaufman and the Members of Tectonic Theater Project and directed by Associate Artistic Director Derek Bertelsen. The 2017-18 season will also include the 9th ANNUAL WRITERS' SERIES, a daylong festival of workshops from talented local and regional writers.

1984 and THE LARAMIE PROJECT will be staged at AstonRep's artistic home, The Raven Theatre (West Stage), 6157 N. Clark St. in Chicago. Venues for the FESTIVAL ONE ACTS BY Tennessee Williams and WRITER'S SERIES will be announced shortly. Tickets for all productions will go on sale at a later date. For additional information, visit www.astonrep.com.

September 14 - October 8, 2017

1984

Adapted by Robert Owens, Wilton E. Hall Jr. & William A. Miles Jr.

From the novel by George Orwell

Directed by Artistic Director Robert Tobin

at The Raven Theatre (West Stage), 6157 N. Clark St. in Chicago

Based on the novel by George Orwell, 1984 is a terrifying and breathtaking view of a world controlled by a totalitarian government. Orwell asks what is left when freedom of speech, the press, love, and even the past are subject to authoritarian whims? Big Brother is watching. A theatrical event that is both powerful and disturbingly provocative.

Fall 2017

9TH ANNUAL WRITERS' SERIES

Location to be announced.

A festival of talented local and regional writers who have an opportunity to workshop near-finished plays and works in development. Over the course of a day, five to seven new works are read by professional actors followed by focused talkback sessions - a time-honored celebration of artistic collaboration.

Winter 2018

FESTIVAL OF ONE ACTS BY Tennessee Williams

Location to be announced.

AstonRep presents classic favorites and rarely seen works by one of the 20th Century's greatest writers.

June 7 - July 8, 2018

THE LARAMIE PROJECT

at The Raven Theatre (West Stage), 6157 N. Clark St. in Chicago

The Laramie Project presents a deeply complex portrait of a community's response to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man living in Laramie, Wyoming. In a series of poignant reflections, the residents of Laramie react to the hate crime and surrounding media storm with anger, bewilderment and sorrow. The play portrays the seismic and deeply personal impact Matthew's death had on this small town while also demonstrating the power of the human spirit to triumph over bigotry and violence. As we near the twentieth anniversary, Matthew Shepard's story still reverberates, urging us on with its clarion call to confront the destructive power of bullying and hate, in all forms.

About the Directors

Robert Tobin (1984) is the Artistic Director of AstonRep Theatre Company and has been involved in some capacity with every one of AstonRep's 19 productions. Recent directing credits with AstonRep include the Chicago Premieres of The Women of Lockerbie and The Water's Edge, The Dumbwaiter/In The Moment, The Lover and The Erpingham Camp. In Chicago, Robert has worked as an actor, playwright and/or director with companies including Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare, First Folio, Oak Park Festival Theatre and Redtwist, among many others. Regionally, he has worked with the Utah, Colorado and Montana Shakespeare Festivals, Festival 56, The MET Theatre (Los Angeles) and the Geffen Playhouse (Los Angeles), among others. As a playwright, he has had several critically acclaimed plays produced in Chicago, Los Angeles and regionally and recently won Best Literary Adaptation as part of the City Lit Theatre's "Art of Adaptation" Festival.

Derek Bertelsen (The Laramie Project) currently serves as Associate Artistic Director for AstonRep Theatre Company. Previous directing credits with AstonRep include Eleemosynary (co-director with Jeremiah Barr), The Black Slot, The Lyons, Lieutenant of Inishmore, Wit, Next Fall and Doubt. Other Chicago directing credits include Prelude To A Kiss, Mary-Kate Olsen Is In Love (The Comrades, where is serves as Artistic Director), Design for Living, The Children's Hour (Pride Films & Plays), God of Carnage, The Dinner Party (BrightSide Theater). Regional credits include Brighton Beach Memoirs (Festival 56), The Wizard of Oz (Shawnee Summer Theater), and five seasons at Timber Lake Playhouse including Rumors, Boeing-Boeing, and Monty Python's Spamalot. Assistant directing credits include RACE (Goodman), Angry Fags (Steppenwolf Garage), and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Bailiwick Chicago).

About AstonRep Theatre Company:

AstonRep Theatre Company was formed in the summer of 2008. Since then, the company has produced 19 full-length productions and sevn annual Writers' Series. AstonRep Theatre Company is an ensemble of artists committed to creating exciting, intimate theatrical experiences that go beyond the front door to challenge audiences and spark discussion where the show is not the end of the experience: it is just the beginning.

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