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League of Chicago Theatres Announces “Theatre Thursday” Event Series for 2018-2019 Season
By: Stephi Wild Sep. 07, 2018
The League of Chicago Theatres announces the Theatre Thursday event line-up for the 2018-2019 Chicago theatre season, featuring one World Premiere per month. The Theatre Thursday events include works created and performed by a diverse range of playwrights and artists at theatres located across the Chicagoland area. Additional information for each event is below and ticketing details will be available online at http://bit.ly/theatrethursdays.
The Theatre Thursday initiative, first launched in 2005, strengthens and diversifies the Chicago theatre community by encouraging Chicagoans to explore new venues and companies. In 2015, the League of Chicago Theatres revamped the program to focus on new work with Theatre Thursday events happening once a month. Each monthly event provides audiences with a world premiere production and an inside look at the creative process behind new works, including exclusive access to artists.
"Theatre Thursdays are a way to experience one of the reasons Chicago theatre has become world renowned, the incredible array of world premiere plays produced each year here," says Deb Clapp, Executive Director of the League of Chicago Theatres. "These ten plays offer us an extraordinary range of playwriting and events meant to keep the conversation going long after we leave the theatre. Every night in neighborhoods throughout the city, theatre-goers can experience new voices and new plays, Theatre Thursdays showcases just ten of those but encourages everyone to try more!"
The 2018-2019 Series Includes:
September 20, 2018
SOUTHERN GOTHIC by Leslie Liautaud
Windy City Playhouse
3014 W. Irving Park Rd. in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood
Tickets: $65
Use code THURSDAY at checkout on windycityplayhouse.com, or call our box office at 773.891.8985. *If buying online, select ticket type: "Adult"
Join Windy City Playhouse for a special performance of the immersive Southern Gothic. Admission includes a drink ticket to sample modern twists on classic 1960s cocktails pre-show. After the performance, stick around for a private talk-back with the cast and creators of Southern Gothic, including Artistic Director Amy Rubenstein.
About Southern Gothic: It's 1961. Ashford, Georgia. Tom Collins is the drink of choice. Dean Martin's on the radio. Everyone's driving a Cadillac, and Suzanne Wellington is about to turn 40. Four couples gather to celebrate the big day - old college buddies who've known one another for decades. But even best friends keep secrets, and over the course of this evening's party, a few of those are bound to be revealed...
Event and reservations details for the following productions will be announced closer to the date.
October 11, 2018
WITCH by Jen Silverman
Writers Theatre
325 Tudor Court in Glencoe
About Witch: Mischief is afoot in the sleepy village of Edmonton and the fate of the world is at stake in this smart modern fable. When the emotionally conflicted son of the local lord and an ambitious newcomer come into conflict, help presents itself to both of them in the same guise-as the Devil himself. But while these two young men take advantage of the Devil's bargain to accomplish their own questionable ends, someone else in town stands her ground-Elizabeth, an outcast whom everyone believes to be a witch.
November 1, 2018
FRANKENSTEIN by Manual Cinema
Court Theatre
5535 S. Ellis Ave. in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood
About Frankenstein: Love, loss, and creation merge in unexpected ways in this thrilling classic gothic tale. Stories of Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein, and his Monster expose how the forces of family, community, and education shape personhood-or destroy it by their absence.
December 13, 2018
LA RUTA by Isaac Gomez
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
1650 N. Halsted in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood
About La Ruta: To the U.S.-owned factories in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, La Ruta is just a bus. But to the hundreds of women who live, work and often disappear along the route, it's so much more than that. Inspired by real testimonies, and using live music to evoke factory work and protest marches, La Ruta is a visceral unearthing of secrets buried in the desert and a celebration of the Mexican women who stand resiliently in the wake of loss.
January 24, 2019
HOW TO CATCH CREATION by Christina Anderson
170 N. Dearborn in Chicago's Loop
About How to Catch Creation: Four artists and intellectuals in San Francisco struggle to nurture creative impulse and establish legacy-in both their professional and personal lives. When one discovers the works of a black queer feminist writer from a bygone era, their lives begin to intersect in unexpected ways.
February 21, 2019
THE ABUELAS by Stephanie Alison Walker
Teatro Vista at Victory Gardens Theater
2433 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood
About The Abuelas: Gabriela is an Argentine concert cellist living in Chicago with her American husband and adjusting to life as a new mom. Life is good until a visit from two strangers upends everything. Walker's play, about the devastating repercussions of Argentina's military dictatorship from 1976-1983, asks how one goes on after discovering their life is a lie. Does the restoration of truth bring freedom or suffering? Is it possible to integrate two identities into one life? The Abuelas explores these questions as well as the heart's capacity for forgiveness even in the face of the harshest betrayal.
March 28, 2019
ACT(S) OF GOD by Kareem Bandealy
821 N. Michigan Ave. on Chicago's Magnificent Mile
About Act(s) of God: Three siblings, two parents, and one very unexpected dinner guest. As a family gathers for an overdue dinner, a mysterious envelope arrives with astonishing news. They soon find themselves scrambling to welcome a visitor of cosmic proportion. Absurdity reigns as ancient fissures open wide, long-held certainties crumble, and sh*t gets real. Will this nuclear family explode? Lookingglass Ensemble Member Kareem Bandealy unleashes this existential dark comedy, directed by Artistic Director Heidi Stillman (Cascabel, Hard Times).
April 18, 2019
PINOCCHIO by Joseph Streakley and Ben Lobpries. Based on the works of Carlo Collodi
The House Theatre of Chicago at the Chopin Theatre
1543 W. Division in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood
About Pinocchio: The House brings to life the classic fairy tale of a wooden boy who wishes to become real. Funny, imaginative, and moving, Pinocchio explores how the lies we tell ourselves hurt those we love.
May 2, 2019
FAST FOOD CHAIN by Andrew Marikis
Adventure Stage Chicago at the Vittum Theater
1012 N. Noble in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood
About Fast Food Chain: Fast Food Chain follows a brother and sister as they wrestle with the pressure of food insecurity in Chicago. They struggle to make it on their own until one day they discover a garden in the unlikeliest of places. It's an adventure into magical realism, showcasing the power of community and storytelling in combating social issues.
June 20, 2019
MIRIAM FOR PRESIDENT by Madhuri Shekar
2433 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood
About Miriam for President: Miriam hates to be known as "that girl who got kidnapped then escaped that sex trafficking ring." She wants to be known as Miriam, your top candidate for student council president at Roosevelt High School. But her parents, counselor, and best friend keep insisting that she's not ready. But what do they know? What do they really know about what happened to Miriam? From Madhuri Shekar, the author of Queen, comes a powerful play about survival, rebirth, and the silent crime of human trafficking in Chicago.
Theatre Thursdays is partially supported by the Chicago Reader.
Chicago theatre is the leader in the U.S. with more than 250 theaters throughout Chicagoland, comprising a rich and varied community ranging from storefront, non-union theaters to the most renowned resident theaters in the country, including 5 which have been honored with Regional Tony Awards, and the largest touring Broadway organization in the nation. Chicago's theatres serve 5 million audience members annually and have a combined budget of more than $250 million. Chicago produces and/or presents more world premieres annually than any other city in the nation. Last year alone Chicago theatre companies produced more than 100 world premiere productions and adaptations. Each year Chicago theatres send new work to resident theaters across the country, to Broadway, and around the world.
The League of Chicago Theatres is an alliance of theatres which leverages its collective strength to promote, support, and advocate for Chicago's theatre industry locally, nationally, and internationally. The League of Chicago Theatres Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the art of theatre in the Chicago area through audience development and support services for theatres and theatre professionals.
For a comprehensive list of Chicago productions, visit the League of Chicago Theatres website, ChicagoPlays.com. Half-price tickets to the current week's performances as well as future performances are available at HotTix.org and at the two Hot Tix half-price ticket locations: across from the Chicago Cultural Center at Expo72 (72 E. Randolph) and Block Thirty Seven (108 N. State).
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