Buffalo Theatre Ensemble Presents MIRACLE ON SOUTH DIVISION STREET

Buffalo Theatre Ensemble (BTE), the professional Equity company in residence at the McAninch Arts Center, 425 Fawell Blvd. on the campus of College of DuPage (COD), caps its 2018-2019 season with "Miracle on South Division Street" by Tom Dudzick, directed by Steve Scott, May 2-June 2.

"Miracle on South Division Street" revolves around the Nowak family, members of the Roman Catholic, Polish-American community living on the East Side of Buffalo, N.Y. Clara, the family matriarch, happily runs her soup kitchen and tends to the family heirloom - a 20-foot shrine to the Blessed Mother that commemorates the day in 1942 when the Blessed Virgin Mary materialized in her father's barber shop.

In a family meeting, daughter Ruth, a struggling actress, divulges her plan to go public with the family miracle by creating a one-woman play about the sacred event. However, the entire family's faith is shaken to the core when a deathbed confession causes the family legend to unravel. The New York Times calls the play, "a sprightly, gentle comedy," and the Tucson Weekly calls it, " a good-natured piece that has us laughing from start to finish at a wonderfully contrived setup and characters who are not so very different from people we know and love."

The cast for "Miracle on South Division Street" includes *Rebecca Cox (Ruth), featured in BTE's 2017-2018 season opener, the Jeff Recommended "The 39 Steps;" *Nick DuFloth (Jimmy), seen most recently as Gunney Sergeant in BTE's 2019 Jeff Recommended production of "Defiance;" Millie Hurley (Clara), seen in last spring's Jeff Recommended production of "Outside Mullingar;" and * Kelli Walker (Beverly), seen most recently in this fall's "The Ding Dong, Or How the French Kiss," as well as last spring's Jeff Recommended production of "Outside Mullingar." * Denotes BTE Ensemble Member Steve Scott (Director) returns for his seventh production at BTE, where he most recently directed last season's "Outside Mullingar."

For more than 30 years he served as Producer at The Goodman Theatre, and is currently an artistic associate at the Goodman; his directing credits there include "The Santaland Diaries;" "Ah, Wilderness;" "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike", Horton Foote's "Blind Date;" the world premiere of Tom Mula's "Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol;" and six editions of "A Christmas Carol."

Scott has directed at a wide variety of professional companies in Chicago; recent productions include "Mothers and Sons" at Northlight, "Death of a Salesman" at Redtwist (where he is a company member), "Bus Stop" at Eclipse Theatre (where he is a 20-year company member), "Rose" at the Greenhouse Theatre, "The Spitfire Grill" for the Dunes (IN) Summer Theatre, and "Summer and Smoke" and "Stage Door" at the Theatre Conservatory of the College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where he has been on the faculty for over two decades. He has also taught at Columbia College Chicago, Loyola University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Northern Illinois University, and the Latin School of Chicago; and serves on the board of Season of Concern.

For his work as a director, Scott has received six Jeff nominations, an After Dark Award, and numerous Broadway World nominations; he received the 2017 Special Jeff Award for his contributions to the Chicago theater community and the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from the League of Chicago Theatres.

Additional members of the artistic/design team include Sarah Lewis (Scenic Design), Rachel Sypniewski (Costume Design), *Jon Gantt (Lighting Design), *Christopher Kriz (Original Music and Sound Design), and Vivian Knouse (Properties Design). Stage Manager is Cathryn (Bula) Bulicek; Assistant Stage Manager is Plainfield's Danielle Wiseman, Brandon Torres BTE Assistant Stage Management Scholarship recipient.

Buffalo Theatre Ensemble presents "Miracle on South Division Street" by Tom Dudzick, directed by Steve Scott, in the Playhouse Theatre of McAninch Arts Center, 425 Fawell Blvd., May 2-June 2. Press opening is Friday, May 3. Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $40. For more information, visit AtTheMAC.org or call 630.942.4000.

All BTE 2018-2019 season performances contain adult themes and language. Related Special Events: Post-show discussion with director, actors and crew, Friday, May 10.

The mission of Buffalo Theatre Ensemble is to provide a forum in which artists, scholars, writers, students and community members explore new ideas and provocative issues through the production of high-quality theater for the enjoyment of its audiences. Since 1986 BTE has staged more than 117 productions. For more information about BTE visit btechicago.com.

BTE thanks the DuPage Foundation for their generous support in the reinstatement and continued operation of Buffalo Theatre Ensemble. BTE also thanks the Norm Woodel Inspiration Fund for its assistance in the rebirth and further development of Buffalo Theatre Ensemble.

The McAninch Arts Center (MAC) at College of DuPage is located 25 miles west of Chicago near I-88 and I-355. It houses three indoor performance spaces (the 780-seat proscenium Belushi Performance Hall; the 236-seat soft-thrust Playhouse Theatre; and the versatile black box Studio Theatre), the outdoor Lakeside Pavilion, the Cleve Carney Art Gallery and classrooms for the college's academic programming. The MAC has presented theater, music, dance and visual art to more than 1.5 million people since its opening in 1986 and typically welcomes more than 100,000 patrons from the greater Chicago area to more than 230 performances each season.

The mission of the MAC is to foster enlightened educational and performance opportunities, which encourage artistic expression, establish a lasting relationship between people and art, and enrich the cultural vitality of the community.

Visit AtTheMAC.org or facebook.com/AtTheMAC for more information.

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