IDOMENEUS, MARIA/STUART and More Set for Sideshow Theatre Co.'s Upcoming Season

Sideshow Theatre Company has announced its full 2012/13 Season, which brings to light lingering secrets and apocalyptic preparations. Later this month, Sideshow Artistic Director Jonathan L. Green directs German playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig’s IDOMENEUS at the DCASE Storefront Theater, bringing a fractured examination of a classic myth to life at the hands of a massive and adventurous cast. In March, Sideshow brings nationally-renowned playwright Jason Grote’s MARIA/STUART to the stage at Theater Wit, directed by Marti Lyons. Darkly funny and viciously incisive, this pitch-black family comedy brings together three sisters with a shared secret that threatens to be exposed by supernatural forces beyond their control. Finally, next June, Sideshow Artistic Associate Karie Miller stars in the world premiere of playwright and improviser Carrie Barrett’s one-woman show THE BURDEN OF NOT HAVING A TAIL, directed by Sideshow Ensemble Member Megan A. Smith. The end of the world is coming and one lone woman has the skills necessary to survive it. (Luckily, she’s willing to share.) Presented at Chicago Dramatists, join Sideshow for this witty and ultimately touching look at what it means to prepare for the end.

The 2012/13 Sideshow Theatre Company Season:

The U.S. Premiere of
IDOMENEUS
By Roland Schimmelpfennig
Translated by David Tushingham
Directed by Sideshow Artistic Director Jonathan L. Green
August 18 – September 23, 2012
at the DCASE Storefront Theater, 66 E. Randolph St., Chicago
Featuring Sideshow Ensemble Members Matt Fletcher and Nate Whelden and Sideshow Artistic Associate Karie Miller with McKenzie Chinn, Katy Carolina Collins, Joshua Davis, Joey deBettencourt, Hank Hilbert, Ann James, Susaan Jamshidi, Danny Junod, Lona Livington, Kyra Morris, Cody Proctor and Dylan Stuckey.

Idomeneus, King of Crete, has killed his son. Or maybe not. Maybe he's let his son live, but angered the gods in doing so. Or maybe the person he thinks is his son is an imposter. Maybe his real son actually turned into a talking, shape-shifting sea-creature and is back to have a heart-to-heart. Or maybe it's all true, all at once. A kaleidoscope of monsters, mythmaking and sudden, striking humor, the U.S. premiere of Roland Schimmelpfennig’s smash-hit IDOMENEUS details the end of a war between nations and the beginning of a war between reason and superstition. Idomeneus makes a promise to the gods, and what comes next is a fractured and lyrical modernized myth brought to life with astounding theatricality by Sideshow's adventurous ensemble of storytellers.

Roland Schimmelpfennig is one of the most produced European playwrights. His plays have been translated into over 20 languages and he made his U.S. debut in 2007 with a production of his play Arabian Nights, produced by NYC’s Play Company. At present, he is the resident playwright at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. In 2010, Schimmelpfennig was awarded the Mühlheimer Dramatists Award for his play The Golden Dragon. The play premiered at the Burgtheater Vienna last season and will receive about 20 productions this and the upcoming season in Europe. Schimmelpfennig also received the highest Playwriting Award in Germany, the Else-Lasker-Schüler-Prize, to honor his entire oeuvre.

The Chicago Premiere of
MARIA/STUART
By Jason Grote
Directed by Marti Lyons
March 30 – May 5, 2013
at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago

Everything was going just fine before the shapeshifter showed up. Grandma Ruthie’s three tolerably dysfunctional daughters were throwing her a birthday party (including unbalanced Sylvia, with her terrifying hook hands). The kids were coming too, and nobody planned on mentioning the family’s horrific secrets. But now there’s soda and cheese puffs spilled everywhere and a mysterious pink letter is circulating around the kitchen. What happens when it’s opened is just the tip of the iceberg in the Chicago premiere of Jason Grote’s dark comedy, as supernatural forces conspire to bring everyone to the brink of confronting the pasts they’ve kept so carefully buried.

Jason Grote is a playwright and television writer based in Brooklyn. His other plays include 1001, Civilization (all you can eat), Hamilton Township, Darwin’s Challenge, Safe in Heaven Dead, Box Americana and This Storm Is What We Call Progress. He is a staff writer for the NBC/Dreamworks show Smash, produced by Steven Spielberg, Theresa Rebeck, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Current projects include a commission from ACT/Seattle about Stalin and Shostakovich and a musical adaptation of 1001 with composer Marisa Michelson. His work has been produced and developed at The Museum of Modern Art, The Sundance Theater Lab, Playwrights Horizons, The O’Neill, The Denver Center, New York Theater Workshop, Portland Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth, Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, Page 73, Ensemble Studio Theater, Voices of Change – Festival for New American Plays (Theater Bielefeld, Germany), Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, The Foundry, Mass MoCA, The Luminato Festival, Soho Rep, The Lark, The Glej Theater (Slovenia), Salvage Vanguard, HERE, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, Baltimore Centerstage, Collaboraction, Theater @ Boston Court, and elsewhere. He is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and was the 2006 P73 Playwriting Fellow. His plays have been published by Samuel French and Playscripts Inc. and in The Back Stage Book of New American Short Plays 2005 (edited by Craig Lucas). His comics debut will take place in the upcoming Significant Objects anthology from Fantagraphics, edited by Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker.

The World Premiere of
THE BURDEN OF NOT HAVING A TAIL
By Carrie Barrett
Directed by Ensemble Member Megan A. Smith
June 29 – August 4, 2013
at Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago
Featuring Artistic Associate Karie Miller

The end of the world is coming and Sideshow wants you to be ready. Join Artistic Associate Karie Miller in her cozy, fully-equipped and completely secure underground bunker as she walks you through how to survive the inevitable apocalypse. From rice appreciation to the dangers of scented shampoos, you’ll get a complete and thorough primer on the ins-and-outs of being prepared for the all worst-case scenarios, from an undisputed expert in the field. But what exactly brought her down here in the first place, and what’s the price of complete safety? The answers are revealed in the world premiere of Carrie Barrett’s hilarious, surprising and joyfully morbid new play.

Carrie Barrett’s plays have been produced, workshopped or developed at The National Playwrights Conference at The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Katselas Theatre Company (Los Angeles), Gotham Stage Company (New York), Steep Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, American Theatre Company, Northwestern University and through Remy Bumppo Theatre Company. Her improv and sketch comedy has been produced at i.O Theatres (Chicago & Los Angeles), Second City Unhinged and various festivals such as Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Piccolo Spoletto Fringe, Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival, Chicago Improv Festival and Los Angeles Improv Festival. She is a 2009 graduate of Northwestern’s MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage program where she studied under playwrights Rebecca Gilman and Laura Schellhardt. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

Tickets:
Tickets and group sale information for the 2012/13 Season can be found at www.sideshowtheatre.org or by calling the Sideshow Box Office at (773) 809-4782. Tickets for IDOMENEUS are also available by calling Brown Paper Tickets at (800) 838-3006.

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