Jackalope Theatre Company Sets 2016-17 Season

Jackalope Theatre Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Gus Menary and Managing Director Nate Silver, announces its 2016/17 season. The company's 9th season features three productions: a world premiere, a U.S premiere, and a Midwest premiere. The season begins with the U.S premiere of Octagon by Kristiana Rae Colón, directed by Tara Branham, continues with the world premiere of The Snare by Samantha Beach, directed by Jackalope Associated Producer Elana Boulos, and concludes with the Midwest premiere of Ideation by Aaron Loeb, directed by Jackalope Artistic Director Gus Menary.

All three of Jackalope's main productions will take place in Jackalope's theatre space within Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N Broadway. In addition to these three shows, Jackalope will present a fully curated season of work in The Frontier, 1106 W Thorndale. The full details of this programming will be announced in the fall, and will include collaborations with other Chicago theatre companies, a lineup of developmental workshops, and presentations by guest companies. Already slated for production in The Frontier is another collaboration with the collective of Senn Arts High School theatre students, The Yard, the monthly Good Evening with Pat Whalen, and The 8th Annual Living Newspapers Festival in August of 2017.

"I wanted Jackalope's 9th season to focus on new work that's willing to take risks," says Artistic Director Gus Menary. "This year we feature a cadre of some truly exciting playwrights, all who bring unique perspectives and ask difficult questions. From rebellious slam poets, to modern religious families, to the closed-door meetings of secretive corporations, this season investigates the America of today, and challenges audiences to consider what assumptions we make, what prejudices we carry, and which values we hold most dear."

Jackalope is offering a 2016/17 Season Pass, which gives patrons access to the three world premiere shows in Broadway Armory Park, tickets to Jackalope's forthcoming collaboration with The Yard, exclusive access to Jackalope's artists at special events, reserved seating and free parking for all productions, and special invitations to Jackalope's lineup of developmental work and supplemental events at The Frontier. The 2016/17 Season Pass is $75 and is available for purchase via www.jackalopetheatre.org.

J A C K A L O P E S E A S O N 9: U P - C L O S E

OCTAGON

U.S. Premiere

By Kristiana Rae Colón

Directed by Tara Branham

October 19 - November 20, 2016 | Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway

Press Night: Tuesday, October 25 at 7:30pm

After Wall Street and Tahrir Square, after ISIS and the NSA, after Ferguson and Eric Garner: here come the poets. In a downtown poetry slam with a place on the team to be won, eight young poets prepare to do battle. But backstage it's all kicking off with love triangles, families to feed and wounds to rip open. And in the end, is it about winning - or finding the words that need to be said?

THE SNARE

World Premiere

By Samantha Beach

Directed by Elana Boulos

February 22 - April 1, 2017 | Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway

Press Night: Tuesday, February 28 at 8:00pm

Ruth is your average eighth-grader, keeping busy with basketball, preparing for her school's Civil War Day, and trying to be more like her babysitter. One night, in the quiet of her bedroom, Ruth hears the voice of the devil, telling her to take action. Unprepared, Ruth's pastor mom and family struggle to walk a path between pragmatism and faith. In this world premiere play about good vs. evil, and growing up, the question is: who will you believe?

IDEATION

Midwest Premiere

By Aaron Loeb

Directed by Gus Menary

May 10 - June 27, 2017| Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway

Press Night: Tuesday, May 16 at 7:30pm

Jackalope Theatre presents the Midwest premiere of the critically acclaimed play the New York Times called "Amusing and intriguing...Triumphant...First-rate." Aaron Loeb brings a dark comic edge to this psychological suspense thriller, in which a group of corporate consultants work together on a mysterious and ethically ambiguous project. As the lines between right and wrong are blurred, these characters must navigate the cognitive dissonances and moral dilemmas to decide for themselves if everything is as it really seems.

Kristiana Rae Colón is a poet, playwright, actor, educator, Cave Canem Fellow and executive director of the #LetUsBreathe Collective. Her play Octagon, winner of Arizona Theater Company's 2014 National Latino Playwriting Award and Polarity Ensemble Theater's Dionysos Festival of New Work, had its world premiere at the Arcola Theater in London in September 2015. Her work was featured in Victory Gardens Theater's 2014 Ignition Festival. In 2013, she toured the UK with her collection of poems promised instruments published by Northwestern University Press. In autumn 2012, she opened her one-woman show Cry Wolf at Teatro Luna in Chicago while her play but i cd only whisper had its world premiere at the Arcola Theater in London. Colón is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and one half of the brother/sister hip-hop duo April Fools. She appeared on the fifth season of HBO's "Def Poetry Jam."

Tara Branham is a Chicago based director and casting director. She is thrilled to be directing Octagon at Jackalope Theatre. Upcoming credits include: Bars and Measures by Idris Goodwin at Prop Thtr, and good friday by Kristiana Rae Colón at Oracle Theatre and Twisted Knots by Dale Danner with Chicago Commercial Collective. Tara has worked previously with Step Up Productions, Pride Films & Plays, Prologue Theatre Company, Babes with Blades and Halcyon Theatre. Tara has assistant directed for Tina Landau, Andreas Mitisek, Kip Fagan, Amy Morton, Kimberly Senior, Sean Graney, Lisa Portes, and Meghan Beals-McCarthy at various theatres including Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Actors Theater of Louisville, and Chicago Opera Theater. She is the Director of Casting for Step Up Productions and Pegasus Theatre Chicago.

Samantha Beach is a Chicago-based playwright and actor. Her plays include Thing 100 (O'Neill Festival Finalist 2014, Leah Ryan FEWW Finalist, 20% Theatre DarkRoom), Welcome to the Laborhood (Northlight Theatre Education), Blubber (Actors Theatre of Louisville Solo Mio) and she is the bookwriter for Mill Girls, a new musical (The Music Theatre Company Young Artist's Program). She has appeared onstage at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Signal Theatre Ensemble, Next Theatre, Awkward Pause and Windy City Playhouse. Sam is also a teaching artist and faculty member with the NHSI Cherubs Program. She completed the Actors Theatre of Louisville Apprenticeship and graduated from Northwestern University.

Elana Boulos is the Associate Producer and Director of Casting for Jackalope Theatre, where she has been a company member since 2014, and has cast every Jackalope production since Exit Strategy. As a director, Elana has worked with Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia, Griffin Theatre, Dog and Pony, Collaboraction, Awkward Pause Theatre, The Inconvenience, Timber Lake Playhouse, and Jackalope Theatre. Elana is a graduate of the University of the Arts with a BFA in Theatre Direction.

Aaron Loeb is a Bay Area playwright whose work has been performed around the country. His full-length plays include The Proud, Alcestis (Doesn't Live Here Anymore), Brown, First Person Shooter, Blastosphere (with Geetha Reddy), What Your Parents Don't Want You to Know... (an opera by Kurt Erickson for which Loeb wrote the libretto) and Abraham Lincoln's Big, Gay Dance Party, which had its world premiere at SF Playhouse and went on to premiere Off-Broadway in 2010. Among the honors Loeb has received are: two Bay Area Theater Critic Circle Awards for Best New Play (First Person Shooter in '07, ALBGDP in '08), Outstanding Play from the New York International Fringe Festival (ALBGDP '09), GLAAD Media Award Nominee (ALBGDP '09), and seven "Emerging Playwright Awards" from PlayGround. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Inc and a PlayGround resident playwright. By day, he works in video games at Electronic Arts, where he makes mobile games.

Gus Menary is a founding member and Artistic Director of Jackalope Theatre. For Jackalope he directed Ike Holter's Exit Strategy (Non-Equity Jeff Nominations - Best Play, Best Director, Best Ensemble), Andrew Swanson's Lunacy! and Moonshiner, and Shawn Reddy's My Name is Mudd .Other Chicago credits include Brett Neveu's Detective Partner Hero Villain at Strawdog Theatre Company and Nat Cassidy's Reckoning of Kit and Little Boots for First Floor Theatre. He is a founding member of The Inconvenience and co-directed their live sitcom, B-Side Studio. He was recently named one of the "50 People Who Really Perform for Chicago" by Newcity.

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