Curious Theatre Branch Shares its 35th Season of Original Works

Curious Theatre Branch has announced its 35th season of all original work including Moon at the Bottom of the Ocean, written by Bryn Magnus and directed by Jenny Magnus, September 1 - 23; The Rose is off the Bloom, December/January 2024, written and directed by Beau O’Reilly; Goodness, April 2024, written and performed by Jenny Magnus and The 35th Annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival, June 2024. Tickets for the season opener, Moon at the Bottom of the Ocean are now available at CuriousTheatreBranch.com.

Curious has been holding up their end of the Chicago theater scene since 1988, creating new works of the imagination, works focused on language and creatively expressing the difficulties of being human.  For the first time in over 20 years, three of the original Curious playwrights, Bryn Magnus, Beau O’Reilly and Jenny Magnus, have new work in the same season. This is an amazing feat for Curious, having three writers all active from the founding of the company in 1988, coming back together to create an amazing season of world premieres.  Curious continues to evolve as a company, having welcomed five new members in 2023, the first new members in 10 years.  Curious is invested in being more canny and skillful at making new art, and bringing younger people out and up so that they can make new stuff and blow everyone’s mind.  

The 2023 - 2024 35th Anniversary Season includes:

WORLD PREMIERE

Moon at the Bottom of the Ocean

September 1 - 23

Written by Bryn Magnus

Directed by Jenny Magnus

Performed by Jeffrey Bivens, Vicki Walden, and Julia Williams

Assistant Directed by Charlotte Lastra

Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave. 

Opening Night: Friday, Sept. 1 at 8 p.m.

Performance Schedule: Friday and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.

(There are no performances Saturday, Sept. 9 and Sunday, Sept. 24)

Tickets: Pay What You Can, suggested price is $20

Who is mooning at the bottom of the ocean? How did the moon even get down there? Writer Paul loves singer Leslie. They've been married, let's say, a while now. But Paul is stuck. He can't write and the mediocre hack at the corner coffee shop is getting all the accolades. What's a chump to do? Hire a P.I., obviously, to discover the secret of literary success. Will Paul learn the deep-down mysteries, or find himself washed up? A new comedy by Bryn Magnus, his first Curious production since 2015's Black River Falls.

WORLD PREMIERE

The Rose is off the Bloom

December 2023 and January 2024 (dates TBA)

Written and directed by Beau O’Reilly

Assistant Directed by Chris Zdenak

Music Direction by Troy Martin

Performed by Brook Celeste, Ed Dziallo, Barry Loman, Stevet Lehman, Mike Amandes, Kristin Garrison, Bill Fergusen, Tori Delany and Jayita Bhattacharya

Facility Theatre, 1138 N. California Ave.

Tickets: Pay What You Can, suggested price is $20

The Rose is off the Bloom … the year is 1995. HelenTonite is a French performance artist who has landed in the Chicago Fringe theater, her political performance pieces, unflinching, have attracted a tiny following, mostly men who are not sure what they are watching. Across the street at the new Starbucks in town Walter, a floating thru middle age sometimes actor, daydreams his way towards any Waiting for Godot revival he can imagine …they have families, they have possible lovers and snappy dialogue and their worlds collide when they are both cast, reluctantly, in the Goodman Theaters production of A Christmas Carol. Jerry Garcia puts in an appearance, his life of guitar solos are recreated and Nancy Drew makes lunch out of paper spaghetti.

WORLD PREMIERE

Goodness

April 2024 (dates TBA)

Written and performed by Jenny Magnus

Facility Theater, 1138 N. California Ave.

Tickets: Pay What You Can, suggested price is $20

What is goodness? How are we supposed to be good and interesting? Is the pressure to be good, to be proper, to not hurt others, to not transgress, actually a way to hold one down?  Can someone be not good but in tiny ways no one might notice? And what about the word, “virtue”? Loosely dubbing off Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations,” Jenny Magnus sings her way through this dilemma, as she has been doing for 30 years. She is asking, is not being good the same as being bad?

The 35th Annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival

June 2024

Multiple Venues

Tickets: Pay What You Can, suggested price is $20

Following up on June 2023’s festival, in a new form in which four venues presented 60 shows of all new work, ranging from veteran theatermakers to first-time makers, all pay what you can and all self-produced and supported, publicized and hosted by Rhinofest: 2024. The 35th edition will allow Curious and participants to refine this new form and continue Chicago’s longest running new works festival. 

Programs, dates and locations are subject to change. 

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