Joey Slotnick, Lauren Katz and Jim Dennen's New Improvised Show IN THE ROOM Set for Lookingglass This Weekend

Lookingglass Theatre Company presents In the Room, a special event developed by Lookingglass Ensemble member Joey Slotnick and artistic collaborators Lauren Katz and Jim Dennen. In the Room will be presented for three nights only, tonight, April 30 - May 2, 2015 at 9:00pm at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. Tickets can be purchased through the box office at (312) 337-0665 or www.lookingglasstheatre.org.

Long-time creative collaborators Joey Slotnick, Lauren Katz and Jim Dennen embark on a new experiment in improvisation, In the Room. This experience brings YOU into the room to witness the development of a new show as these seasoned veterans open the doors to their workshop process and they begin to create their next fully improvised production. The experience provides unmasked access to the starts and stops of experimentation, including all of the risk, error, vulnerability, humor, intimacy, and surprise that is the basic raw material of creative collaboration in its earliest stages.

In the Room will run after the performance on Title and Deed by Will Eno, featuring Michael Patrick Thornton.

Lookingglass Artistic Director Andrew White comments, "Improvisation has frequently been a Lookingglass staple in our development of new work, and it's a pleasure to welcome back to our stage three masters of the art. In the Room offers an opportunity to see the development of a new show in process, and to be witness to the risk-taking, courage and raw inspiration involved in creating from scratch an entirely new adventure with each performance. This is an inside look at the process and it's going to be a pleasure to buckle in each night and go for the ride."

Joey Slotnick is a Lookingglass Ensemble member and has appeared at Lookingglass in Our Town, Great Men of Science Nos.21&22, Arabian Nights, Up Against It, The Master and Margarita, Wants and Needs, Hard Times. He appeared on Broadway in The Big Knife and Off-Broadway in Dying For It, Happy Hour, Offices, Almost an Evening, The New York Idea, The Altruists. Regional credits include Chapter Two at Buck's County Playhouse, Animal Crackers at The Williamstown Theater Festival, Animal Crackers at the Goodman, (Jeff nomination), Romance at Bay Street. He has appeared in the films The Cobbler The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Too Big to Fail, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Hollow Man, Blast from the Past, Twister, Judas Kiss, Dinner and Driving, Since You've Been Gone. TV credits include Unforgettable, Growing Up Fisher, Psych, The Office, Nip/Tuck, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Pirates of the Silicon Valley, The Single Guy, Boston Public and Family Guy.

Lauren Katz returns to work with Lookingglass Theatre after having last been seen on its stage in Cascabel last summer, Wants and Needs and Great Men of Science Nos. 21 & 22. Chicago/NY credits include Up (Steppenwolf Theatre), When the Messenger is Hot (Steppenwolf Theatre/59E59th Street Theatre, Filmdome (Victory Gardens), SKL (Steppenwolf), ED (Remains Theatre). TV credits include Arrested Development, Parks & Recreation, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Film credits include Highball, Kicking and Screaming, Mr. Jealousy, Rudy, Women in Trouble and the upcoming Confessions of a Teenage Mormon. Lauren studied and taught at The Piven Theatre Workshop and received her BFA from DePaul University.

Jim Dennen's work as a theater artist and director has been seen in regional theaters and festivals around the U.S. and abroad. He was the founding director of the Chicago-born, nationally-acclaimed improvisational theatre company ED, whose work was foundational in the emergence of what is now widely known as "long form improvisation." As a filmmaker, Jim has specialized in experimental work with live performance, improvisational techniques in narrative development, and documentary, and won a New Television Award funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. He is head of the directing program at Kenyon College and has taught courses on performance theory and practice, acting, directing, improvisation, documentary filmmaking, public speaking, and expository writing at UCLA, Brown, and Harvard. Recently, he collaborated with designer/educator, Anastasia Congdon, and Pritzker Prize-winning architect, Wang Shu, on a semester-long experimental workshop at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China, exploring the intersection of performance and architecture.

DETAILS:

In the Room

Developed by: Joey Slotnick, Lauren Katz, Jim Dennen

Dates: Thursday, April 30 at 9:00 p.m.

Friday, May 1 at 9:00 p.m.

Saturday, May 2 at 9:00 p.m.

Location: Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic

Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson.

Prices: $15

Box Office: Buy online at www.lookingglasstheatre.org or by phone at (312) 337-0665

The Lookingglass box office is located at Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave.

Inventive. Collaborative. Transformative. Lookingglass Theatre Company, recipient of the 2011 Regional Theatre Tony Award, was founded in 1988 by eight Northwestern University students. Now in its 27th season, Lookingglass is home to a multi-disciplined ensemble of artists who create story-centered theatrical work that is physical, aurally rich and visually metaphoric. The Company has staged 62 world premieres, received 101 Joseph Jefferson awards and nominations, and work premiered at Lookingglass has been produced in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, Berkeley, Philadelphia, Princeton, Hartford, Kansas City, Washington D.C., and St. Louis. Lookingglass original scripts have been produced across the United States.

The Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago's landmark Water Tower Water Works opened in June 2003. In addition to developing and presenting ensemble work, Lookingglass Education and Community programs encourage creativity, teamwork and confidence with thousands of community members each year.

Lookingglass Theatre Company continues to expand its artistic, financial and institutional boundaries under the guidance of Artistic Director Andrew White, Executive Director Rachel Kraft, Producing Artistic Director Philip R. Smith, Artistic Director of New Work Heidi Stillman, a 24-member artistic ensemble, 15 artistic associates, 11 production affiliates, an administrative staff and a dedicated board of directors led by Chairman Joe Brady of Jones Lang LaSalle and President John McGowan of CTC | myCFO (a part of BMO Financial Group). For more information, visit lookingglasstheatre.org.

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