City Lit Theater to Stage World Premiere of FORTY-TWO STORIES This Spring

Douglas Post's Forty-Two Stories, a comedy set in a Lake Shore Drive high-rise condominium, will receive its world premiere full production as the third show in City Lit Theatre's 2016-17 season. The press opening will be Sunday, April 23rd at 3 pm following previews from April 14-22nd.

Forty-Two Stories is a comedy about life in a high-rise condominium building where a professional student from the University of Chicago is moonlighting as a janitor, a stressed-out apartment manager is at odds with the residents and on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and a motley assortment of other staff members struggle with survival in the face of urban pandemonium and the possibility that one of them might be breaking into the units and stealing women's underwear.

It was first performed as a radio play with L.A. Theatre Works where it featured Fran Adams, Ed Begley Jr., Samantha Bennett, Dan Butler, Arye Gross, Michael Luckerman, Charlie Robinson, Tom Virtue and Fred Willard. Subsequently, it received a second radio production with Chicago Theatres On The Air where it featured Rengin Altay, Edward Asner, Jane Blass, Kyle Colerider Krugh, Sam Macy, Mike Nussbaum, Morocco Omari, David Pasquesi and Steve Pickering. It was recently given a workshop production at Raven Theatre as a part of their New Play Development Series.

Forty-Two Stories' world premiere will be directed by Scott Westerman (Macbeth and Interrogation for The Artistic Home), Westerman's cast will include Tara Bouldrey (Demetra Marr), Paul Chakrin (Ross), Martin Diaz-Valdes (Sergio), Annie Hogan (Alice), Edward Kuffert (Frank), Scott Olson (Zachary), Reginald K. Robinson, Jr. (Timothy). Robert Vignisson (Ed) and Fred Wellisch (Gunter).

Westerman's production team will include Anders Jacobson and Judy Radovsky (scenic designers), two-time Jeff winner Izumi Inaba (costume designer), Eric Watkins (lighting designer), Zack Berinstein (sound designer), Hazel Marie Flowers-McCabe (production manager) and Rachel Mihich (stage manager).

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Douglas Post (Playwright). Douglas Post returns to City Lit Theater, which has previously produced his musical adaptation of The Wind in the Willows and his political drama Somebody Foreign. His one-man thriller Bloodshot completed a successful run earlier this season at the Greenhouse Theater Center after having previously been seen in London, Vienna and Calgary. The Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones called Bloodshot a "strikingly gripping yarn" while Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times said it was a "tour de force of writing and acting."

His other plays, which include Cynical Weathers, Blissfield, Drowning Sorrows, Earth and Sky and Murder in Green Meadows, and musicals, which include The Kingdom of Grimm, God and Country and The Real Life Story of Johnny de Facto, have been produced in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Canada, England, Wales, Germany, Austria, Russia and China.

He has received the L. Arnold Weissberger Playwriting Award, the Midwestern Playwrights Festival Award, the Cunningham Commission Award, the Blue Ink Playwriting Award and three Playwriting Fellowship Awards from the Illinois Arts Council, and has been nominated for a Jeff Award and an Emmy Award. Mr. Post lives in Chicago where he is a founding member of the Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble, serves on the faculty at Chicago Dramatists, and has composed songs and incidental music for over 25 productions.

Scott Westerman (Director) is a freelance theatre director, actor, teacher, and new works facilitator based in Chicago. Directing credits include shows with The Artistic Home, City Lit, Chimera, beyond this point, Barter Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre Company (Camp Shakespeare), Stage Left (Downstage Left), Northlight Theatre Academy, The Smithsonian Institution, American Theatre Company (Bridge), Impulse Theatre Company, the National High School Institute (Cherubs), the Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts), and Reverie Theatre Company, of which he was a co-founder and co-Artistic Director. Acting credits include work with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford's, Everyman, The Warehouse, the Barter, Northlight Theatre, The Artistic Home, Chicago Dramatists, Strawdog, Lifeline, Stage Left, Apple Tree, A Crew of Patches, Mary Arrchie, Festival Theatre of Oak Park, and Reverie. Film credits include Machine Gun Preacher and Prison Break. Scott has an MFA in Classical Acting from The Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University.

City Lit Theater is located inside the historic Edgewater Presbyterian Church building at 1020 West Bryn Mawr Avenue, one block west of Sheridan Road and a block and a half east of the Bryn Mawr Red Line L stop. The 84 Peterson bus, the 96 Broadway bus, the 147 Lake Shore Express bus, and the 151 Sheridan bus all stop near City Lit. Valet parking and self-parking are available for theatre customers who call ahead for details.

City Lit receives funding from the Alphawood Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and the Ivanhoe Theatre Foundation. City Lit specializes in literate theatre, including stage adaptations of literary material.

IF YOU GO:

City Lit Theater Company presents
Forty-Two Stories
By Douglas Post
Directed by Scott Westerman
WORLD PREMIERE
April 14 - May 28, 2017
Previews Friday, April 14 - Saturday, April 22
PRESS OPENING Sunday, April 23 - 3 pm
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm. Mondays May 15 and 22nd at 7:30 pm
Preview ticket prices $28.00, seniors $23, students and military $12 (all plus applicable fees)
Regular run Sunday, April 23 - Sunday, May 28
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm.
Regular run ticket prices $32.00, seniors $27.00, students and military $12 (all plus applicable fees)
Performances at City Lit Theatre, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Chicago 60660 (Inside Edgewater Presbyterian Church building)
Tickets on sale now at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2592667 or 773-293-3682

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