Collaboraction’s 1001 Comes To Flat Iron Arts Building 7/28-8/28

Collaboraction's critically acclaimed "1001" is a provocative, funny and fast-paced post-modern retelling of "The Arabian Nights" which made its Chicago premiere last September. This piece first introduced Chicago audiences to the work of New York-based playwright Jason Grote, who has been hailed as a thrilling new voice in American theater. The original cast and crew return for the remount including Director Seth Bockley, an equally thrilling new visionary in American theater, for this explosive production in Collaboraction's new space. "1001" opens for a five week run July 28 - Aug. 28 at the Flat Iron Arts Building, 1579 North Milwaukee Avenue, after five performances July 20 - 24 at Theater on the Lake, 2401 N. Lake Shore Drive. For tickets and more information, visit collaboraction.org.

Sexy and surreal, "1001" is a theatrical mash-up that mixes Middle East politics with a modern tale of young love, asking the question "Can passion conquer history?" A six-actor ensemble plays a dizzying variety of roles, including the fabled princess Scheherezade, a Palestinian businessman, Sindbad the sailor, an American Jew named Alan, Gustave Flaubert, a princess with a lisp and even Osama Bin Laden. Featuring Collaboraction's signature blend of modern media and visceral storytelling, this moving, hilarious and intimate production takes audiences on a theatrical journey into uncharted territory.

Time Out Chicago gave the Chicago premiere of "1001" a "Five-Star" rating and raved that, "Bockley's fluid direction, marked by striking visuals, aids and abets...the swiftness and slyness with which Grote shifts gears." The Chicago Tribune declared, "The production is full of visual tricks and displays an eclectic array of styles."

"1001" was Jason Grote's first professional production in Chicago when Collaboraction first premiered the show in Sept. 2010. The play has been produced by The Denver Center Theater; Page 73 (N.Y.); The Theater @ Boston Court (Pasadena, Calif.); Contemporary American Theater Festival (Shepherdstown, W. Va.); Mixed Blood Theater (Minneapolis, Minn.); Rorschach Theater (Washington, D.C.); and Just Theater (San Francisco, Calif.).

Upon its premiere at the Denver Center Theater, "1001" was named "Best New Play" by Denver's alternative weekly, Westword. "1001" was also included in critics' year-end top ten lists in Time Out New York, The Rocky Mountain News and The Boulder Daily Camera, was nominated for Best New Play of 2008 by L.A. Weekly and was listed as the 72nd Most Important American Play in a national poll of theater professionals conducted by The Denver Post.

Seth Bockley is a Chicago-based playwright, director and performer. Credits include 1001 by Jason Grote, Jon -- winner of the 2008 Jeff Award for Best New Adaptation (Collaboraction); The Twins Would Like To Say (Dog & Pony); and Laika's Coffin and Winter Pageant 2010 for Redmoon Theater, where he spent two years as a Directing ApprentIce Through TCG's New Generations program. His musical February House, a collaboration with lyricist and composer Gabriel Kahane, premieres next spring at The Public Theater. In June he directed Jason Grote's Civilization (all you can eat) for Clubbed Thumb's SummerWorks series at HERE Arts Center in New York City. He is a member of the Goodman Theater's Playwrights' Unit and a recipient of the Goodman's Ofner Prize.
Jason Grote has been produced nationally and internationally, and has received wide-spread critical acclaim and recognition. Additional plays include "Maria/Stuart" (Woolly Mammoth); "Hamilton Township" (Salvage Vanguard); "This Storm Is What We Call Progress" (Rorschach Theater); "Box Americana; Civilization (All You Can Eat)"; and "Darwin's Challenge." His work has also been produced or developed at The O'Neill National Playwrights' Conference, The Sundance Theater Lab, Playwrights' Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, The Atlantic Theater, Soho Rep, Portland Center Stage, The Edinborough Festival Fringe, The Williamstown Theater Festival, The Bielefeld Festival (Germany), HERE, Baltimore Centerstage, The Glej Theater (Ljubljana, Slovenia), The Lincoln Center Directors' Lab, among others. Grote has been commissioned to write new work by ACT/Seattle, The Denver Center, The Keen Company/Playscripts Inc., among others.
"Jason Grote is one of a generation of brainy new American dramatists - including Tracy Letts and Will Eno - who understand that to reach new audiences, political theater needs to move beyond moral indignation and outrage, past spoon-feeding an attitude," says LA Weekly. The Washington Post says Grote "has made a name for himself in recent years with scripts that explode the boundaries between the ordinary and the chimerical, the political and the aesthetic, the intimate and the dizzyingly cosmic."

Bockley and Grote first collaborated on Grote's 10-minute play "Yetsi'at Metzrayim," which premiered as part of Collaboraction's 10th annual SKETCHBOOK Festival last year.
The five week run of "1001" will play Thursday, July 28 - Sunday, Aug. 28 at the Flat Iron Arts Building. The show schedule is Thursday-Sunday at 8 p.m. There are additional performances Monday, Aug. 8 and Monday, Aug. 22 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 - $25. Student and industry tickets available for $15. For tickets or more information, visit collaboraction.org or call 312.226.9633.

The five show run of "1001" at Theater on the Lake runs Wednesday, July 20 - Saturday, July 23 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, July 24 at 6:30 p.m.

Cast and Design Team
The cast of "1001" features Mouzam Makkar (Scheherazade/Dahna); HB Ward (One-eyed Arab, Jumul's Master, Mostafa, Slave, Sindbad, Voice of Alan Dershowitz, Dhnn); Joel Gross (Shahriyar, Alan); Carly Ciarrocchi (The Virgin Bride, Dunyazade, The Princess Maridah, Juml, Kuchuk Hanem, Lubna); Antonio Brunetti (Jorge Luis Borges, The Emir Ghassan, The Horrible Monster, Osama Bin Laden, Wazir); Edgar Sanchez (Yahya Alhumsayni, Asser, Gustave Flaubert, The Orthodox Jewish Student, Voice of Moderation, A Eunuch).

The "1001" design team features Mikhail Fiksel (Sound Design and Composition); AJ Tarzian (Set Design); Elsa Hiltner (Costume Design, 2010) and Kristen Ahern (Costume Design, 2011); Deborah Lindell (Props Design, 2010) and Nathalie Ayala (Props Design, 2011); and Mac Vaughey (Lighting Design).

More about Collaboraction
Collaboraction celebrates its 16th year as a Chicago-based arts organization and has recently moved into a theatre and operation headquarters in the historic Flat Iron Arts Building, 1575 N. Milwaukee Ave., in the heart of Wicker Park. Collaboraction is excited to present the remount of "1001" by Jason Grote, directed by Seth Bockley in August 2011 following a run at the Chicago Park District's Theatre on the Lake.

By incorporating innovative artists and interdisciplinary collaboration, Collaboraction creates groundbreaking theatrical and art-based experiences. Presenting such smash hits as 2010's Chicago premiere of "1001" by Jason Grote, 2008's world premiere of "Jon" by George Saunders and directed by Seth Bockley, and 2007's critically acclaimed production of "The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow: an instant message with excitable music" by Rolin Jones, as well as the annual SKETCHBOOK Festival, Collaboraction has worked with more than 2,500 artists to bring more than 60 productions and events to more than 50,000 audience members. For more information, visit collaboraction.org.

Photo Credit: Saverio Truglia

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