ICT Announces Redemption As Topic For 8th Season, Beginning 2010

Infamous Commonwealth Theatre (ICT) is proud to announce the topic for their eighth season: REDEMPTION. ICT is taking a break from producing for the remainder of 2009 in order to focus on internal administrative changes. However, ICT plans to explore the many facets of our new season topic with three upcoming productions in 2010.

Saturday, Jan. 16, 2010
5TH ANNUAL ICT 24 HOUR PROJECT
at Vittum Theater, 1012 N. Noble St., Chicago

See what happens when a group of playwrights, directors, actors and musicians gather to create and stage a collection of original plays - all inspired by different definitions of REDEMPTION - in just 24 hours.

March 27 - May 2, 2010
THE CRUCIBLE
by Arthur Miller
directed by ICT Artistic Director Chris Maher
on the West Stage of Raven Theatre, 6152 N. Clark St.

RE⋅DEMP⋅TION (noun): deliverance from sin; salvation.

Set during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and written in direct response to the McCarthy trials in the 1950s, this scathing indictment of censorship remains a timeless classic of American drama - a master study on the inherent frailty, delicate beauty and limitless possibility of the human spirit.

Arthur Miller was an American playwright and essayist who passed away in 2005. He wrote a wide variety of dramas, including plays such as The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons and Death of a Salesman (1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), all of which are studied and performed worldwide. Mr. Miller was often in the public eye, most famously for refusing to give evidence against others to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Mr. Miller is considered by both audiences and scholars as one of America's greatest playwrights.

Director Chris Maher graduated with a degree in theatre performance from Illinois State University in 1997. Upon arrival in Chicago, he served as Artistic Director for the now defunct East Window Theatre Company. He appeared in several shows for them and directed Say Goodnight Gracie in 1999. He joined Open Eye Productions in 2001 and became artistic director in 2004. His Open Eye directing credits include Christopher Durang's Titanic, You Can't Take It With You, Assassins, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Trust, and most recently, The Solid Gold Cadillac. Last year, Mr. Maher directed the Midwest Premiere of Robert Schenkkan's Lewis & Clark Reach The Euphrates for ICT. Mr. Maher became Artistic Director of ICT in June 2009.

July 10 - Aug. 8, 2010
ESCAPE FROM HAPPINESS
by George F. Walker
directed by Genevieve Thompson
on the West Stage of Raven Theatre, 6152 N. Clark St.

RE⋅DEMP⋅TION (noun): deliverance; rescue; atonement for guilt.

This darkly caustic comedy follows the idiosyncratic members of one very broken family in search of wholeness again. Both a viciously funny satire and poignant meditation on forgiveness, Escape from Happiness offers a unique and hilarious perspective on the many familial ties that bind.

George F. Walker is one of Canada's most prolific and widely produced playwrights. His plays include the Suburban Hotel Series - a cycle of six plays that all take place in the same suburban motel room - and the East End Trilogy of Criminals in Love, Better Living and Escape from Happiness - all plays that follow the same family. Mr. Walker is also a screenwriter for television and film. He was awarded the C.M. (Member of the Order of Canada) in 2005 for his services to Canadian Theater and Literature.

Genevieve Thompson co-founded Infamous Commonwealth Theatre in 2001 and served as its artistic director until June 2009. She received both the Non-Equity Jeff Award & After Dark Award for Outstanding Direction as co-director of ICT's production of The Kentucky Cycle and most recently directed ICT's critically acclaimed staging of The Grapes of Wrath. Other ICT directing credits include Tetherball: A Song in Three Acts, TreeGirl, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, Credo, My Thing of Love, and the Jeff-nominated and After Dark Award-winning Cloud 9. She has appeared onstage with ICT in Keely and Du, Savage in Limbo and Big Dreams and is a graduate of Milliken University.

ICT's unique mission is to illuminate diverse perspectives around one centralized topic per season.
ICT has received four Non-Equity Jeff Awards and seven After Dark Awards since its inception. For more information on ICT, please visit www.infamouscommonwealth.org.

 

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