Greenhouse Theater And On The Spot Present SONS AND LOVER

The Greenhouse Theater Center and On The Spot Theatre present the U.S. premiere of the full-length drama SONS AND LOVERS, based on the novel by D.H. Lawrence and adapted and directed by On The Spot Artistic Director Mike Brayndick. SONS AND LOVERS will play August 29 - September 29, 2019 in The Greenhouse Theater Center's Upstairs Studio, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at greenhousetheater.org, in person at the box office or by calling (773) 404-7336. The press opening is Saturday, August 31 at 7:30 pm.

SONS AND LOVERS features Pete Blatchford, Brian Boller, Miles Borchard, Emma Brayndick, Baird Brutscher, Erika B. Caldwell, Heidi Drennan, Stephen Dunn, Amy Gray, Corrie Riedl and Tina Shelley.

Set in England during the first decade of the twentieth century, SONS AND LOVERS dramatizes the early years of the spirited and lyrically inspired writer D.H. Lawrence as he charted his course from a Midlands coal mining town into the larger world. The story portrays his parents' turbulent, mismatched marriage, his own first affairs of the heart, and his mother's jealousy about the women he brought into his life. In the process, Lawrence developed his views on the mystical role of sexuality in shaping the soul and the power of determined creativity to overcome dark circumstances.

Comments Director Mike Brayndick, "D.H. Lawrence was rhapsodic about the glories of our physical and spiritual being. He also provided an unstinting vision of human flaws. Written in 1913, Sons and Lovers has a very modern resonance dynamically revealing the tension between the desire for love and the need for a fulfilled individuality. This play tells the story from the perspective of his older self who ruefully relives the past he must constantly rediscover, while his younger self struggles to grow and be free in the present of a time-haunted life."

The production team includes Emma Brayndick and Pat Henderson (scenic design), Kate Setzer Kamphausen and Michele Brayndick (costume design), Casey Brayndick and Andy Long (sound design), Steve Wisegarver (stage combat coach), Saren Nofs-Snyder (dialect coach), Joshua Simpson (intimacy coach), Ron Rude (technical director) and Andy Long (stage manager).

About the Artists

Mike Brayndick (Adapter/Director) is the Artistic Director of On The Spot Theatre Company. He 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 commissioned by Traffic of the Stage in Hampstead toured the UK 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 original works, Pieces of Klee, Lisette Dances Divine and Scenes For A Green World. Mike's contemporary comedies Only You Could Think That, What About Martha, All About Armando, Sex Lives of the Zebra Finch and Lost and Found have all been produced in Chicago. Most recently, his full-length romance set in 1950's Cornwall, England, Called Home By the Sea, was performed at Berger Park Coach House Theatre along with his one-act farce set in contemporary London, Rondelay.

About the Companies

The Greenhouse Theater Center (GTC) is a producing theater company, performance venue and theatre bookstore located at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood.

GTC began its producing life in 2014 with the smash hit Churchill, followed by 2016's much-lauded Solo Celebration!, an eight month, 16 event series highlighting the breadth and depth of the solo play form. In 2017-18, the Greenhouse presented its first full subscription season, including Machinal (4 stars from Chicago Tribune's Chris Jones), a remount of the Jeff Award-winning Rose and the Chicago premiere of Birds of a Feather.

As a performance venue, the Greenhouse complex offers two newly-remodeled 198-seat main stage spaces, two 60-seat studio theaters, a newly-built 44-seat cabaret space, two high-capacity lobbies and an in-house rehearsal room. GTC also houses Chicago's only dedicated used theatre bookstore, located on the second floor the complex.

The Greenhouse Theater Center's mission is first and foremost to grow local theatre. GTC seeks local theatre companies and artists to partner on co-productions, offering partners a multitude of resources including an equitable split of production costs, production manager, full-service box office and front-of-house staff, artistic consultation, marketing and public relations support and a full-service bar with concessions. For additional information, call (773) 404-7336, ext. 13.

On The Spot Theatre Company was created in 2003 by Mike Brayndick to develop and stage new plays for performance "on the spot" in a variety of venues. In the new play development process, Mike creates a collaborative space in which he works with actors to allow characters and stories to evolve out of a few initial scripted scenes or the exploration of a germ idea. Each week he brings in more scenes for the actors to play with as the script grows into a whole. Discussion of the play continues as it goes through multiple readings in the workshop from one draft to the next. On The Spot intends to continue to expand the ensemble and develop new plays in the evolving method outlined above. For additional information, visit onthespottheatrecompany.weebly.com.

PHOTO CREDIT: (front) Brian Boller with (back, l to r) Miles Borchard, Stephen Dunn and Amy Gray in a publicity image for Greenhouse Theater Center and On The Spot Theatre's U.S. premiere of SONS AND LOVERS. Photo by Andrew Thorpe.

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