Cast Announced for A MURDER IN THE COURT OF XANADU at A Theater in the Dark

A Theater in the Dark has announced its launch date and casting for the second production of its 2022-23 season - the original drama A MURDER IN THE COURT OF XANADU, written & directed by Corey Bradberry and featuring an original musical score by Paul Sottnik. Following the theater's popular and award-winning audio productions of A WHITE WHALE, A WAR OF THE WORLDS, A CHRISTMAS CAROL IN THE DARK and A MATTER OF RED HERRINGS (all of which are now available to stream), A MURDER IN THE COURT OF XANADU will be available to the public for streaming at www.atheaterinthedark.com beginning Thursday, November 3.

In A MURDER IN THE COURT OF XANADU, the court of Kublai Khan's Xanadu is transposed into the 21st century as one of the largest international corporations on the planet. However, the empire is threatened from within by a savvy financial executive named Ahmad. As Ahmad consolidates power and Khan drinks himself to an early grave, ghosts from the past come back to threaten the fortress they've both built for themselves. With unexpected twists in every scene and infused throughout with historical detail, this story serves up a murder mystery most foul and unusual while bringing into the present the largest empire of the ancient world.

The five-person cast of A MURDER IN THE COURT OF XANADU includes actors from Chicago as well as the Washington D.C. and New Orleans areas. Performing the audio play are Nessa Amherst (Marigold), Robinson J. Cyprian (Kane), Van Ferro (An Actor Who Plays Many Parts), Gabriel Fries (Ahmad), and Erin Lin (Marla).

Amherst is a Washington, D.C.- based writer and actress whose credits include the play THE SURVIVAL, which was produced by National Queer Theater and performed at Lincoln Center in New York City earlier this year. Cyprian, of Hammond, Louisiana, is known to A Theater in the Dark audiences for his role as Captain Ahab in A WHITE WHALE and multiple roles in A WAR OF THE WORLDS. More recently, he played Westmoreland in HENRY IV PART I (New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane) and Lincoln in TOPDOG/UNDERDOG, produced by RoBenHood Productions, which he co-founded.

Van Ferro has appeared in SHIPWRECKED: AN ENTERTAINMENT and FAILURE: A LOVE STORY for Oil Lamp Theater. Fries has been seen recently in CAMPAIGNS, INC for TimeLine Theatre and HAND TO GOD at Paramount Theatre. Lin is a freelance voice actress based in the Chicago area with many credits in of audiobooks, radio commercials, YouTube channel voiceovers and news narration for brands like Johnson & Johnson, Alibaba, the Atlantic, Vox and the New Yorker.

A MURDER IN THE COURT OF XANADU is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.

The third and final audio production of A Theater in the Dark's 2022-23 season will be the original audio play THE WHITE CITY: AN AUDIBLE EXHIBITION ON H.H. HOLMES, MURDERER by Rick Kinnebrew, directed by Corey Bradberry. Planned for a digital streaming release early 2023, WHITE CITY is a theatrical thriller surrounding the notorious Chicago serial killer H. H. Holmes, who is said to have murdered more than 20 people during the World's Columbian Exposition.in 1893. The story focuses on the victim of the only murder for which Holmes was convicted, his business partner Ben Pitezel.

Audiences can access each production of A Theater in the Dark's 2022-23 season for $12.99 to receive both a digital download and online streaming access to the recording, or they can subscribe to the full season and will gain access to all three of the '22-'23 season's audio plays for $30.00. Season Passes can be purchased at https://www.theatreinthedark.com/store/2223seasonpass.

Patreon subscriptions are available at https://www.patreon.com/atheaterinthedark for $3.25 per month and will provide the additional benefit of access to A Theater in the Dark's entire library of streamable audio plays (THREE STORIES UP, A WAR OF THE WORLDS, A CHRISTMAS CAROL IN THE DARK, A WHITE WHALE, and A MATTER OF RED HERRINGS), along with access to the '22-'23 season's new productions. With either the Season Pass or Patreon subscription, listeners will be contacted as new audio plays are released and will be given advance access to the plays ahead of the general public.

A Theater in the Dark emerged in fall 2019 with its innovative in-person production of its original noir thriller THREE STORIES UP, performed for audiences sitting in complete darkness. When the COVID pandemic shut down all live performances in 2020, the company was perfectly positioned to pivot to streaming productions of audio plays. Returning to the traditions of the golden age of radio, they received critical acclaim and popular success during the pandemic shutdown with their live audio play productions of A WAR OF THE WORLDS, A CHRISTMAS CAROL IN THE DARK, and A WHITE WHALE.

RESCRIPTED, in reviewing A MATTER OF RED HERRINGS, said "A Theater in the Dark excels at the art of radio drama and A MATTER OF RED HERRINGS is just the latest example." The CHICAGO SUN-TIMES said A Theater in the Dark's 2021 A WHITE WHALE (an original adaptation of Melville's MOBY DICK) was "packed from stem-to-stem with some of the best, most evocative writing I've heard from a theater this year." The production was honored with the "Critics Choice Award" of the 2021 Atlanta Audio Fringe Festival and the "Best Audio Production" at the 2021 Thornhill Theatre Festival. CHICAGO STAGE AND SCREEN said of A MATTER OF RED HERRINGS that "The direction by Corey Bradberry keeps the action and dialogue rapid-fire, and the intelligent cast makes the world of the audio play come to vivid life."

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