Casting Announced for SCENES FROM A GREEN WORLD

This world premiere drama examines the friendship of two remarkable women, one an ex-prisoner of the Heart Mountain Internment Camp, and the other, a Holocaust survivor. A supportive and transformative relationship between these best friends is tested when family and health issues change the routine. Scenes For A Green World explores the potential for redemption when reconnecting to one's early years can be both a curse and a blessing. What can be nurtured to blossom out of the dark ground of the past to sustain the future for oneself and others?

The botanist, Dina Novak, and the artist, Hiroko Takahashi, both retired public school teachers in Chicago, meet at the Lincoln Park Conservatory to discuss everything under the sun, and usually not the wartime of their childhoods. That is, until Dina's granddaughter Sadie moves to Chicago to teach and can't seem to get on the same page as Hiroko's American-educated, but Osaka-born, furniture designer nephew, Osamu. In this heartwarming drama, the younger generation still have a thing or two to learn about love from their elders.

Emma Brayndick (Sadie) has been acting and dancing pretty much as long as she has been breathing. She has been a member of the On The Spot Ensemble since she was eleven years old, most recently appearing in and co-directing Lisette Dances Divine. Emma is also the artistic director of Dancing On The Spot (DOTS) where she has led four devised improvisational dance shows. She has designed sets for four prior productions, Lisette Dances Divine, Pieces of Klee, Martha and Armando, and Brick Wall.

Ginger Leopoldo (Hiroko) is an educator, actor, director, and community organizer she received her B.A. and M.A. in Theatre from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a proud founding member and Artistic Director for CIRCA Pinto, celebrating its 27th Anniversary season. She is a company member with Old World Theatre Company and had been an Artistic Associate with A-Squared Theatre Workshop. She was recently seen in OWTC's productions of God's Favorite, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, The Good Person of Szechuan, and Prologue Theatre's production of Tea.

James Macapagal (Osamu) is thrilled to make his Chicago theatre debut in Scenes for a Green World. A proud graduate of The Annoyance Theatre Training Center, James is a member of the improv team, Club ASIA, and has performed at The Annoyance Theatre, iO, The Crowd, and Second City. When James isn't making up words, he can be found writing them for the iO Comedy Network video sketch team, Deep Stretch, and producing shows such as the 2018 48 Hour Improv Marathon.

Liliana Mitchell (Dina) is happy to be working with Mike Brayndick again in her third production with On the Spot Theatre. Her passion has always been theatre but she also does voice-over work and has just published her first children's book, "The Ladybug Story".

More from Playwright/Director

"My goal was to tell a story that serves as a positive example of the way people from different cultures can connect and become best friends," writer Michael Brayndick shared. "Many Americans have come to this country with stories of historical trauma that they or their families have suffered. And the two women in the story represent what it means to be American in the way they look out for each other and in their determination to live full and vital lives despite their pasts making a better world for everyone around them. The ideal of America being a much needed refuge for others is an essential part of our American history and there is a universality of the story that goes beyond the specificities of the dark events the women suffered when young."

"In Scenes For A Green World, I set myself the challenge to tell the story of four people through their meetings at the Lincoln Park Conservatory over the course of a year, starting in the spring of 2007. Like most of my plays I looked for ways to bring humor into the drama as it is in life."

Artistic Director

Mike Brayndick, of the On the Spot Theatre Company, began as resident writer at the Chicago Playwrights' Center with Fragments from the Permanent Collection, Connecting Flight, Anna Gerhardt, and In the Garden of the Prison, also broadcast on WJUF. His adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers toured England, and was performed at London's Bloomsbury Theatre. Smithsonian and Luce Foundation grants led to How to Make a Rainbow, developed at the Juilliard, and directed by Mike at the 2005 St. Ives Festival in the UK and the Greenhouse Theater Center in Chicago in 2013. Also at the Greenhouse, On the Spot presented his adaptations of Turgenev's Home of the Gentry and Balzac's, Pére Goriot, as well as his drama, Pieces of Klee. Mike's contemporary comedies Only You Could Think That, What About Martha, All about Armando, Sex Lives of the Zebra Finch, Lost and Found, Lisette Dances Divine, and Brick Wall have all been produced in Chicago by On the Spot.

Scenes For A Green World will be performed at The Greenhouse Theater Center, Upstairs Studio, 2257 N Lincoln Ave, with a preview performance on Thursday, July 26, officially opening Friday, July 27 through Sunday, August 19. Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 7:30pm and Sunday matinees at 2:30pm.

Tickets are $25 General Admission with a discounted $18 rate for seniors, students, industry, and groups. The preview performance on Thursday, July 26, and all Thursday performances are $13 including the service charges.

For advance tickets call the Greenhouse Box Office at 773-404-7336 or purchase online at www.greenhousetheater.org.

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