Greenhouse Theater Center Announces Full 2017-18 Season
By: BWW News Desk May. 04, 2017
Next winter, best-selling author Laurence Leamer's critically acclaimed drama ROSE is back by popular demand! Following a sold-out run during last season's Solo Celebration! Series, celebrated Chicago actress Linda Reiter reprises her role as matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy in this intimate piece directed by Steve Scott. "Following the success of last year's series, the Greenhouse is continuing its commitment to solo performance in both its production and education efforts," comments Artistic Director Jacob Harvey. "We will offer a series of workshops and events throughout the run of Rose, as well as partner with solo artists whose work explores social justice themes to co-produce their work on our stages as supplements to our season."
The Greenhouse's 2017-18 Season concludes next spring with the Chicago premiere of Marc Acito's BIRDS OF A FEATHER, directed by Artistic Director Jacob Harvey. Based on one of America's most banned books, Acito's hit comedy brings to life the story of the Central Park Zoo's gay penguins to tell a truly hilarious human story.
Season subscriptions packages are currently on-sale at greenhousetheater.org, in person at the Greenhouse box office or by calling (773) 404-7336. Three-play assigned seating package: $93. Two-play flex pass: $63. Subscribers enjoy discounted tickets, unlimited ticket exchanges, first choice for seats and additional exclusive benefits. Single tickets will go on sale at a later date.
"As one of Chicago's newest Equity companies, the Greenhouse is thrilled to bring audiences a consciously curated season of true stories. In times of great change, elevating the individual's journey allows us a deeper understanding of the collective," comments Artistic Director Jacob Harvey. "This concept also defines our new education and revitalized Trellis Residency Initiative. We are excited to begin growing tomorrow's artists and audiences today."
The Greenhouse Theater Center's 2017-18 Season:
August 11 - September 24, 2017
MACHINAL
Directed by Jacob Harvey
Movement by Elizabeth Margolius
Presented in association with North Central College
Press opening: Monday, August 14, 2017 at 7:30 pm
How do you escape the machine? One young woman must break out in this exhilarating reimagining of MACHINAL, the American classic inspired by the first woman to face the electric chair. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, Helen finds a thrill in the arms of a flyby lover. But when reality returns, how far will her fight for freedom take her? And who will pay the ultimate price?
January 12 - March 11, 2018
ROSE
By Laurence Leamer
Directed by Steve Scott
Starring Linda Reiter
Press opening: Monday, January 15, 2018 at 7:30 pm
An intimate portrait of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Camelot's "Queen Mother," as she retraces the rise and fall of her great family. A break-out hit during the 2016 Solo Celebration! Series follwing its successful Off-Broadway run, ROSE is based on never-before-heard interviews compiled by distinguished Kennedy biographer Laurence Leamer.
April 27 - June 10, 2018
BIRDS OF A FEATHER - Chicago Premiere!
By Marc Acito
Directed by Jacob Harvey
Press opening: Monday, April 30, 2018 at 7:30 pm
It takes two to Tango. Roy and Silo are your typical gay American dads with one noticeable exception: they're penguins! No strangers to the spotlight, these two Central Park Zoo chinstrap penguins have partnered and adopted an egg, but will they be able to raise little Tango together? BIRDS OF A FEATHER is a heartwarming and surprising tale, based on the true story that became one of the most banned books in the U.S.
Artist Biographies
Sophie Treadwell (Playwright, Machinal) Best remembered today for her acclaimed 1928 expressionist drama Machinal, based in part on the infamous murder trial of Ruth Snyder, Sophie Treadwell was an innovative American dramatist whose career spanned almost 60 years and nearly 40 plays. A relentless experimenter in dramatic subjects, styles and forms, Treadwell was one of a select number of American women playwrights who also actively produced and directed their own works. She was also a professional journalist, and she constantly used her writings to explore women's personal and social struggles for independence and equality. (From: Sophie Treadwell. A Research and Production Sourcebook by Jerry Dickey).
Jacob Harvey (Director, Machinal and Birds of a Feather) is the Artistic Director of the Greenhouse Theater Center, beginning his tenure by launching the organization's producing arm with the Solo Celebration!, a series of 16 solo plays and events over eight months. He also contributed to the series as a director, helming the Chicago premier of Circumference of a Squirrel, as well as the co-production I Do Today (The Other Theater Company.) Locally, he has taught for American Theatre Company's Bridge Program, and was named one of Newcity's "Players 2017." A freelance director, teaching artist and producer, Harvey was awarded the Bret C. Harte Director/Producer Fellowship for Berkeley Repertory Theatre's 2013/14 Season; served as Associate Producer and Interim Director of Programming for the Drama Desk Award Winning New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF); and served as the Co-Artistic Director of the Ovation Award-Nominated Mechanicals Theatre Group in Los Angeles. He is also a Producer for Your Theatrics International, and was the Co-Producer of Ladyhawks (NYMF 2013 Best of Fest under the title Volleygirls) and the Associate Producer of Ryan Scott Oliver's 35MM: A Musical Exhibition. Other regional directing credits include, Mr. Marmalade (The Theatricians), The Shape of Things (Silver Bell Productions) and the world premiere of the new musical The Many Selves of Mia Scott (Carrie Hamilton Theater). He is also the creator of the upcoming musical web series currently in development, The Cycle. He attended the BFA program at Marymount Manhattan College and is a graduate of The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.
Elizabeth Margolius (Movement Director, Machinal) is a stage and movement director with a primary focus in developing and directing new and rarely produced musical theatre, operetta and opera. She has worked with theatres in various capacities throughout the country, including the Santa Fe Opera, Florida Studio Theatre, the Virginia Shakespeare Festival and New York's Encompass New Opera Theatre. Her Chicago directorial credits include: Uncle Philip's Coat for Greenhouse Theater, code name: CYNTHIA for FWD Theatre Project, Haymarket: The Anarchist's Songbook for Underscore Theatre, The Girl in the Train for Chicago Folks Operetta, Goldstar, Ohio for American Theater Company, The Merry Wives of Windsor for Chicago Shakespeare Theater (Assistant Director to Barbara Gaines), Opus 1861 for City Lit Theater, nominated for three Joseph Jefferson Awards, Violet for Bailiwick Chicago nominated for five Joseph Jefferson Awards, among others. Margolius is an alumna of the 2004 and 2005 Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab in New York, a 2007 recipient of a full directorial scholarship at the Wesley Balk Opera-Music Theater Institute in Minneapolis, a 2009 respondent and workshop artist for the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival, and a 2010 finalist for the Charles Abbott Fellowship. She is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director Emeritus of DirectorsLabChicago. Elizabeth is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
Laurence Leamer (Playwright, Rose) Rose is Laurence Leamer's first play. Leamer is an award-winning journalist and historian who has written 14 books, many of them bestsellers. He has experienced many different lives. As a college student, he worked in a French factory. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal stationed two days from a road. As a young journalist, Leamer worked in a coal mine in West Virginia and covered the war in Bangladesh for Harper's. His one novel, Assignment, is about drug trafficking in Peru, where Leamer lived for two years. Most of his career Leamer has written nonfiction. His trilogy on the Kennedys - The Kennedy Women, The Kennedy Men and Sons of Camelot - were all New York Times best sellers. John Grisham called Leamer's most recent book, The Price of Justice: A True Story of Greed and Corruption, "superb...This is a book I wish I had written." The journalist's new book, The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle that Brought Down the Klan, was published in June.
Steve Scott (Director, Rose) is the Producer of Goodman Theatre, where he has overseen more than 200 productions; he is also a member of Goodman's Artistic Collective. His Goodman directing credits include Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Horton Foote's Blind Date, Rabbit Hole, Binky Rudich and the Two-Speed Clock and No One Will Be Immune for the David Mamet Festival, Dinner With Friends, Wit, the world premiere of Tom Mula's Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, A Midsummer Night's Dream (co-directed with Michael Maggio) and the 2011 and 2012 editions of A Christmas Carol. He also has directed at Silk Road Rising, American Blues Theatre, A Red Orchid Theatre, Redtwist Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Shattered Globe Theatre, The Next Theatre Company, and many others. He is the recipient of five Jeff nominations, an After Dark Award, the Illinois Theatre Association's Award of Honor and Eclipse Theatre Company's Corona Award.
Marc Acito (Author, Birds of a Feather) wrote the book of the Broadway musical Allegiance, which New York Newsday recognized for its "well-structured book" and "fully developed characters." Acito's comedy Birds of a Feather won Washington D.C.'s Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play. He won the Ken Kesey award for his novel How I Paid for College, which he adapted as a one-man musical starring Alex Brightman. Other projects include A Room with a View (Old Globe and 5th Avenue Theaters), Chasing Rainbows, about the adolescence of Judy Garland (Goodspeed Musicals) and It's a Secret, a musical in Mandarin for Broadway Asia in China. This June, he'll direct his rock musical comedy Bastard Jones at the cell theatre in New York. A former commentator on NPR's All Things Considered, Acito now writes regularly for Playbill and teaches Musical Theater History and Story Structure at NYU. He's a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, MENSA and Weight Watchers.
About the Greenhouse Theater Center
The Greenhouse Theater Center is a producing theater company, performance venue and theatre bookstore located at 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Our mission is first and foremost to grow local theatre.
The Greenhouse Theater began its producing life in 2014 with the smash hit Churchhill, after which came 2016's much-lauded Solo Celebration!, an eight month, 16 event series highlighting the breadth and depth of the solo play form. With a focus on our community, the Greenhouse is also launching the Trellis playwriting residency, an initiative designed to cultivate the next generation of Chicago theatre creators and a two-tiered education program for college and high school students.
As a performance venue, our complex offers two newly remodeled 190-seat main stage spaces, two 60-seat studio theaters, two high-capacity lobbies, and an in-house rehearsal room. We strive to cultivate a fertile environment for local artists, from individual renters to our bevy of resident companies, and to develop and produce their work. In 2016, the Greenhouse announced a new residency program, which offers a reduced rate to local storefront companies while giving the Greenhouse a stake in the resident's success. We also offer the community affordable access to our work by housing Chicago's only dedicated used theatre bookstore, located on the second floor of our complex.
With new ideas always incubating, the Greenhouse Theater Center is flourishing. Come grow with us!
Photo credit: Johnny Knight
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