Bailiwick Chicago Theater to Feature CARRIE & DESSA ROSE in 2013-14 Season

Bailiwick Chicago Theater has just announced its 2013-14 Season, featuring two stunning musicals in their Chicago premieres. In March 2014, Artistic Director Lili-Anne Brown directs an intimate production of the stirring musical drama Dessa Rose by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, the Tony Award-winning team behind Ragtime, Once on This Island and Seussical!, with music direction by Collective Member James Morehead. Immediately following in May 2014 comes a unique resurrection of the 1988 musical CARRIE with book by original screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen, lyrics by Academy Award-winner Dean Pitchford, music by Academy Award-winner Michael Gore, directed by Collective Member Christopher Pazdernik with music direction by Collective Member Aaron Benham. The 2013-14 Season also marks Bailiwick Chicago's participation in Victory Gardens Theater's inaugural Resident Theater Program. Tickets for the 2013-14 Season will go on sale at a later date.

"Both of these shows deal with women who are subjugated and yearn to break free. They become empowered through the most extreme circumstances - for good or for ill," comments Bailiwick Chicago Artistic Director Lili-Anne Brown. "It's exciting to have two musicals that share a common story, but are as different as they could possibly be in how that story is told."

Please note: The Chicago premieres of Dessa Rose and CARRIE will replace the previously announced productions of BOOTYCANDY and APPLAUSE in Bailiwick Chicago's 2013-14 Season. For additional information visit bailiwickchicago.com.

The Bailiwick Chicago Theater 2013-14 Season includes:

March 6 - April 5, 2014
Dessa Rose - Chicago Premiere!
Book and Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, Music by Stephen Flaherty
Directed by Artistic Director Lili-Anne Brown
Music Direction by Collective Member James Morehead
Featuring Jayson "JC" Brooks (of JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound)
at Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago

Dessa Rose is a stirring musical drama based on the noted novel by Sherley Anne Williams. Told as an oral history and related by two women, Ruth and Dessa Rose, this powerful tale of an unlikely friendship takes place in 1847, 14 years before the outbreak of the American Civil War.

Based on both fact and fiction, the musical weaves together the stories of two real women, one white and one black, who struggled for different kinds of freedom in an era defined by men. Ruth Sutton is a white woman abandoned by her husband and living on an isolated farm. Dessa Rose is an escaped slave on the run from a bloody slave rebellion, with a newborn infant to protect, who seeks refuge with Ruth. Hidden in this Alabama backwater, the two women's uneasy alliance ultimately transcends any racial barriers as they find the strength to confront the world on their own terms. Their dangerous journey to freedom and self-realization makes for a musical that is by turns comic, tragic, uplifting and inspiring.

May 29 - July 12, 2014
CARRIE - Chicago Premiere!
Book by Lawrence D. Cohen, Lyrics by Dean Pitchford, Music by Michael Gore
Directed by Collective Member Christopher Pazdernik
Music Direction by Collective Member Aaron Benham
Featuring Katherine Condit
at Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago

Carrie White is a misfit. At school, she's an outcast who's bullied by the popular crowd, and virtually invisible to everyone else. At home, she's at the mercy of her loving but cruelly over-protective mother. But Carrie's just discovered she's got a special power, and if pushed too far, she's not afraid to use it...

Based on Stephen King's bestselling novel of the same name, the show's original authors have newly reworked and fully re-imagined the vision of this gripping tale. Set today in the small town of Chamberlain, Maine, CARRIE features a book by Lawrence D. Cohen (screenwriter of the classic film), music by Academy Award-winner Michael Gore (Fame, Terms of Endearment), and lyrics by Academy Award-winner Dean Pitchford (Fame, Footloose).

Saturday, November 2, 2013
THE CHICAGO CASTING AUCTION for The Drowsy Chaperone
Dank Haus German American Cultural Center Grand Ballroom, 4740 N. Western Ave., Chicago

Bailiwick Chicago Theater's CHICAGO CASTING AUCTION returns for its third year with a live auction on Saturday, November 2, 2013 and public performances of the Broadway musical The Drowsy Chaperone in January/February 2014.

Bailiwick Chicago Theater's annual CHICAGO CASTING AUCTION is a unique opportunity for non-professionals to experience the thrill of being on stage in a professionally produced Chicago stage production. More than 50 roles will be auctioned off for this season's production, The Drowsy Chaperone, during the annual auction at Chicago's Dank Haus German American Cultural Center Grand Ballroom. Contenders for leading and major supporting roles take the stage during the nail-biting live auction, often encouraged by the crowd to show off their vocal and dancing talents. Additional supporting and chorus roles are won via silent auction. After casting is complete and five weeks of rehearsals, all the fun culminates in public performances of The Drowsy Chaperone. The event raises more than $50,000 annually for Bailiwick Chicago Theater programming. For tickets and additional information, visit castingauction.com.

Bailiwick Chicago is a non-profit professional company with a mission to produce contemporary musicals and plays, reinvent classic musicals and develop new work, while sharing a powerful and authentic Chicago theatrical experience. The company celebrates and engages our community through diverse programming, artistic partnerships and outreach opportunities. In its first three seasons Bailiwick Chicago has garnered 44 award nominations, including 10 Non-Equity Jeff Award Nominations in its first Jeff-Eligible season (2011-12). For additional information, visit bailiwickchicago.com.

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