Caffeine Theatre Announces 2011-2012 Season

Caffeine Theatre has announced its programming for its 8th season, which will feature two Midwest premiere productions. Since its inception, Caffeine has presented poetically infused and
idea-driven performances, while seeking to provide Chicago audiences with a meaningful public forum to explore social questions. "This season Caffeine will present two exciting plays that are intelligent, witty, and that dive into the heart of two very different cultures and societies," says Producing Artistic Director Jason Beck, "we are also delighted to present two exciting readings which will underscore our commitment to exploring and challenging social questions through the
medium of the theatre."

To open the season, Caffeine will present the Midwest premiere of Liz Duffy Adams' play OR, directed by Catherine Weidner. In OR, Restoration poet and spy Aphra Behn is trying to write her first professional play to keep herself out of debtor's prison, but she is
interrupted by a tryst between her friends and sometimes lovers - actress Nell Gwynn and King Charles II. Meanwhile, Aphra must also foil an assassination plot by her former fellow double-agent William Scott. This rollicking, bodice-ripping farce will open on October 30
(previews October 28 and 29), and run through December 4, 2011. OR will be presented at Collaboraction at the Flat Iron Arts Building, located at 1575 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. Award-winning playwright Liz Duffy Adams is a New Dramatists alumna and a recipient of a New
York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award, a Will Glickman Playwright Award, a Frederick Loewe Award in Music Theatre, a Weston Playhouse Music Theater Award, and a commission from Children's Theater Company, Minneapolis. Her work has been written, produced, or
developed at the Humana Festival, The Women's Project, Portland Center Stage, Portland Stage Company, Syracuse Stage, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Millay Colony for the Arts, New Georges, Shotgun Players, Moxie Theater, Clubbed Thumb, and Crowded Fire Theater, among other places.

As the second production of the season, Caffeine presents the Midwest premiere of THE OXFORD ROOF CLIMBER'S REBELLION, by Stephen Massicotte, directed by Thomas Weitz. Set in England in 1920, THE OXFORD ROOF CLIMBER'S REBELLION explores the real-life friendship between poet Robert Graves and Lawrence of Arabia. In the aftermath of World War I, both men face their personal demons and disillusionment of participation in a war that literally still haunts them. Robert retreats into himself and shuts down, while Ned lives an over-the-top dandified lifestyle. They combat the inertia of post-war life by playing mischievous pranks on university administrators. Eventually the pranks escalate into a climactic confrontation involving problems of social class and espionage. This production will open March 10, and will run through
April 14, 2012, with previews on March 8 and 9. Performances will be at Lincoln Square Theatre, located at 4754 N. Leavitt St., Chicago. 

Stephen Massicotte's award-winning plays LOOKING AFTER EDEN, PERVERT, and THE BOY'S OWN JEDI HANDBOOK series originated at Calgary's Ground Zero Theatre. In 2002, his play, MARY'S WEDDING, premiered at Alberta Theatre Projects' playRites Festival and won the 2000 Alberta
Playwriting Competition, the 2002 Betty Mitchell Award for Best New Play, and the 2003 Alberta Literary Award for Drama. THE OXFORD ROOF CLIMBER'S REBELLION won the 2007 Canadian Author's Association CarolBolt Award for the best English-language play and the 2007 Gwen Paris
Ringwood Award of the Alberta Literary Awards for best play.

Caffeine will also produce two staged readings. In December, Brian Bell will direct a reading of PENTHESILEA, by Heinrich Von Kleist, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the poet's death. In February, 2012, Caffeine will present a reading of Zack Rogow's THINGS I DIDN'T
KNOW I LOVED, a play about Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, as part of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs annual conference in Chicago. More information and details will be announced shortly.

WHEN:
OR previews 10/28 and 10/29. Runs 10/30 - 12/4/2011. THE OXFORD ROOF CLIMBER'S REBELLION previews 3/8 and 3/9. Runs 3/10 - 4/14/12. PENTHESILEA will be presented in December to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Kleist's death. THINGS I DIDN'T KNOW I LOVED is
scheduled for February, 2012, as part of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs annual conference in Chicago. Details will be announced shortly.

WHERE:
OR will be presented at Collaboraction at the Flat Iron Arts Building, located at 1575 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago. THE OXFORD ROOF CLIMBER'S REBELLION will be at Lincoln Square Theatre, located at 4754 N. Leavitt St., Chicago.

ADMISSION:
Regular tickets are $20. Group rates (10 or more people) are available at (312) 409-4778. Seniors (over 60), and college students receive a discount (with ID).

BOX OFFICE/INFORMATION:
For more information or to buy tickets, contact (312) 409-4778 or info@caffeinetheatre.com Further information also available at caffeinetheatre.com

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