Cast Set for The Comrades' 2017 Inauguration Day Reading of THE TAMING

The Comrades have announced the cast for their 2017 Inauguration Day staged reading of THE TAMING by Lauren Gunderson.

The reading will be directed by Kate Leslie and will play the Greenhouse Theater Center (2257 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago) on Friday, January 20, 2017 at 10:00pm, following a performance of the company's winter 2017 production of PRELUDE TO A KISS by Craig Lucas, which starts previews January 12.

The cast includes company members Alison Plott (Patricia), Angela Horn (Bianca), and Comrades newcomer Courtney Dane Mize (Katherine).

Inspired by William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Lauren Gunderson's THE TAMING is a hilarious, raucous, all-female "power-play" in which contestant Katherine has political aspirations to match her beauty pageant ambitions. All she needs to revolutionize the American government is the help of one ultra-conservative senator's aide on the cusp of a career breakthrough, and one bleeding-heart liberal blogger who will do anything for her cause.

"In 2013 I wrote The Taming, an all-female political farce for Crowded Fire Theatre, to unpack the deep frustration of a divided and obstructionist patriarchy," Gunderson recently wrote in a blog post on Playscripts.com, "to laugh with the painful truth about extremism on both sides, to toy with our country's history and wrestle with its foundational imperfections, and to make manifest a dream of reason and understanding prevailing in America. That feels more necessary now than three years ago," she added.

"Over 25 theatres across the country will be presenting readings of THE TAMING on Inauguration Day and The Comrades are excited to bring this riveting script to Chicago audiences," said Artistic Director Derek Bertelsen.

The performance will be free, although reservations will be highly recommended. Tickets can be reserved in early January. For more information on The Comrades, please visit them online at www.the-comrades.com.

The Comrades were founded in early 2016. The have previously produced the Chicago premiere of Mary-Kate Olsen Is In Love at the Apollo Theatre and Dying City at the Heartland Studio. Company members include Derek Bertelsen, Alison Plott, Angela Horn, Mike Newquist, Cydney Moody and David Coupe.

Playwright Lauren Gunderson is the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation's 3-Year Residency with Marin Theatre Co. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU's Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her work has been commissioned, produced and developed at companies across the US including South Cost Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful And Her Dog!), The O'Neill, The Denver Center, Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre, Synchronicity, Olney Theatre, Geva and more. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You, Exit, Pursued By A Bear, and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists (Silent Sky, Bauer) and Samuel French (Emilie). She is a Playwright in Residence at The Playwrights Foundation, and a proud Dramatists Guild member. She is from Atlanta, GA and lives in San Francisco. For more information, please visit LaurenGunderson.com and or find her online @LalaTellsAStory.

Director Kate Leslie is currently the Director of Programming for Emerald City Theatre. She recently worked with The Comrades as the assistant director for Dying City by Christopher Shinn. Kate has directed with a number of storefront companies including Exit the Queen and The Blasphemy of Bees as a part of the 27th and 26th Annual Rhinofest (respectively) and short plays seen in Skin in the Game (Stage 773), All in the Timing (Stage 773), Big Shoulders (American Theater Company), Snapshots (20% Theatre Company), It Comes In (The Side Project), Belarusian Dream Theater (Stage Left), Tell It & Speak It & Breathe It & Think It (The Ruckus), and The Whiskey Radio Hour (Whiskey Rebellion).

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