Mary-Arrchie's 'HELLISH HALF-LIGHT: Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett' Kicks Off Tonight at Angel Island

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. continues its 28th Season with HELLISH HALF-LIGHT: Shorter Play of Samuel Beckett featuring six of the Irish playwright's works directed by Jennifer Markowitz, playing today, July 22 - August 30, 2014 at Angel Island, 731 W. Sheridan Rd. in Chicago. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, July 1, 2014 at www.ticketweb.com or by calling the box office at (773) 871-0442. The press performance is Thursday, July 24 at 8 pm.

HELLISH HALF-LIGHT features Molly Fisher, Rudy Galvan, Lauren Guglielmello, Adam Soule, Stephen Walker and Kathrynne Wolf.

Six actors assume multiple roles as six of Samuel Beckett's shorter works are staged together in one theatrical experience, in which audience members and characters seamlessly share the same space.

The six shorts include Castastrophe, Come and Go, Play, Rough For Theater I, Rough For Theater II and What Where: an autocratic director and his assistant put the final touches on the last moment of a play that consists entirely of a man standing still onstage; three women of indeterminable age sit quietly together on a bench surrounded by darkness, whispering secrets to each other; a man, his wife and his mistress, each imprisoned in individual urns, are held captive by an interrogating, hellish half-light; on a derelict street corner, a man in a wheelchair meets a blind beggar; two bureaucrats search through papers and testimony used to decide the fate of the man standing at a window, posed to jump; and an interrogator engages in self-reflection by directing a memory to perform.

The production team for HELLISH HALF-LIGHT includes: Nate Combs (scenic design), Stefin Steberl (costume design), Tyler Garlock (lighting design), Joe Court (sound design), Lukas Brasherfons (dramaturg), Mike Sanow (technical director), Molly Dannenberg (assistant director) Richard Cotovsky (production manager) and Andrew C. Donnelly (stage manager).

Performances take place at Angel Island, 731 W. Sheridan Rd., Chicago. Previews: Tuesday, July 22 and Wednesday, July 23 at 8 pm. Press performance: Thursday, July 24 at 8 pm. Regular run: Friday, July 25 - Saturday, August 30, 2014. Curtain Times: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm.

Please note: there will not be a performance of HELLISH HALF-LIGHT on Friday, August 15 at 8 pm due to separate programming for Mary-Arrchie's annual Abbie Hoffman Died For Our Sins Theater Festival, playing August 15 - 17, 2014 at Angel Island. The HELLISH HALF-LIGHT performance on Saturday, August 16 will be part of this year's Abbie Fest line-up. Tickets: Previews: $10. Regular run: $25. $20 student/senior discount. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, July 1, 2014 at www.ticketweb.com or by calling the box office at (773) 871-0442.

About the Director: Jennifer Markowitz has worked as a director in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Edinburgh, Dublin, England and Israel. In Chicago, she is the original director of Will Kern's Hellcab, which ran for over nine years at Famous Door Theatre. She also directed award-winning productions of this play in Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Dublin and throughout Israel. Her production of Never Come Morning at Prop Thtr won nine Joseph Jefferson Citations, including "Best Director" and "Best Production". At Mary-Arrchie, she directed the 2013 critically acclaimed production of Kenneth Brown's The Brig.

In England, where she recently received an MFA in Theatre Research/Practice at the University of Warwick, Markowitz formed a site-based theater company called TREMA (a German term referring to both stage-fright and the moment prior to a psychotic break). With TREMA, she directed site-responsive productions of Our Town: Act III (Thornton Wilder), Spring Awakening (Frank Wedikind), Crave (Sarah Kane), A Dream Play (August Strindberg) and Far Away (Caryl Churchill). Also in England, she directed STRAY, a production of three short plays on separate sites within same location: Victoria Station (Harold Pinter), The Wayfarer (Valerii Bryusov), and Fewer Emergencies (Martin Crimp).

Jennifer has taught acting, directing and site-based theater throughout the UK at Warwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Portsmouth and Plymouth Universities. She has also taught Practice as Research methodologies and site-based art to MA Students in Reykiavic, Iceland. In the U.S., she has taught acting and guest directed at The Theatre School, DePaul University, Columbia College Chicago and University of Notre Dame.

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. was established in 1986 and is currently in its 28th full season of theater. We are committed to producing theater as an ensemble including actors, directors, and designers who are intimately involved in the process. We approach material, published and original, dealing with the fears and passions of the human condition involving characters who are often misunderstood, societal outcasts, and victims of their own exile. We have garnered a reputation for making risky choices by embracing challenging material for both our audience and the artists involved. We are dedicated to bringing light to controversial subjects and presenting alternative viewpoints of these subjects giving our audience different information to consider as they walk away from the theater. For additional information, visit www.maryarrchie.com.

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