New Colony, Prologue, & Walkabout Set for Steppenwolf's 2014 Garage Rep Season

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is pleased to announce the three Chicago companies selected for the fifth annual Garage Rep: The New Colony, Prologue Theatre Company and Walkabout Theater Company. These innovative storefront companies present three productions in rotating repertory for a ten-week run February - April, 2014 in the Garage Theatre (1624 N Halsted St). Tickets go on sale at a later date.

"In our fifth year of Garage Rep we remain committed to programming a kaleidoscopic repertory of exciting work. We are thrilled to partner with The New Colony, Prologue Theatre, and Walkabout Theater over the next eight months," comments Producer Jacob Padrón. "These three storefront companies bring to the Garage projects that are artistically vibrant, challenging and diverse. Steppenwolf Theatre is proud to support the dynamic ecology of the Chicago storefront scene by offering the Garage as a place for these companies to play and grow."

Steppenwolf Theatre Company's Garage Rep 2014 Line-up

The New Colony presents
reWILDing Genius
By Andrew Hobgood and Meg Johns
Directed by Andrew Hobgood

A group of friends at one of the nation's top universities sets out to change the world. Self-identified geniuses, cyber-vigilantes, hacktivists and even anarchists, the friends cast off the laws of the land as they attempt to alter Humanity's fate. But as they plot against enemies and build complex data schemes, will their friendships survive? reWILDing Genius asks, how far is too far in our quest to save us from ourselves.

The New Colony (Andrew Hobgood and Evan Linder, Co-Artistic Directors; Stephanie Shum, Managing Director), the 2011 recipient of the Broadway In Chicago Emerging Theater Award, strives to contribute original material to the American artistic canon and develop a new kind of theater going audience. Through collaboration with emerging artists of all disciplines, The New Colony continually develops new work and fresh perspectives. With the goal of exploring enticing subject matter and the common language of experience, The New Colony will cultivate the next generation of arts supporters. thenewcolony.org.

Prologue Theatre Company presents
Saturday Night/Sunday Morning
By Katori Hall
Directed by TaRon Patton

Memphis, 1945: Miss Mary's beauty parlor and boarding house is alive and hopping-full of young African American women primping their hair and telling stories of their soldiers overseas. But as the final days of WWII approach, the women wrestle with the uncertainty of what the future will hold when-and if-their men return. Hilarious and historical, Saturday Night/Sunday Morning is a story about finding friendship and love in unexpected places.

Prologue Theatre Company (Angela Alise, Artistic Director; Amanda Renee King, Managing Director) was incorporated in 2008, and is currently in its fifth season of producing untold historical stories from underrepresented voices. Prologue was founded in response to what we saw as an intense segregation within Chicago's theatrical community, and a desire to help build a more diverse and complete understanding of America's historical and dramatic canon. We produce new and forgotten works, focusing on the experiences of women, people of color and LGBTQ populations that have relevance to current issues. prologuetheatreco.org.

Walkabout Theater Company presents
The Wild
Directed by Thom Pasculli
Dramaturgy by Kendra Miller
Created by Nigel Brown, Mac Dowd-Whipple, Al Evangelista, Cooper Forsman, Dana Murphy and Paul Scudder
World Premiere

Rising tides, erotic dances and seductive demi-gods encroach on an isolated tropical paradise. Inspired by the work of playwright Charles Mee and Walkabout's physical training practices, The Wild is the world premiere of a devised laboratory theater performance which confronts distant realities and their infringement on our daily lives.

Since 1999, Walkabout Theater Company (Kendra Miller, Artistic Director; Thom Pasculli, Associate Artistic Director; Lauren Sivak, Managing Director) has performed and produced new site-specific and experimental work in Chicago, challenging traditional theatrical models of production, performance, narrative and story. Through active exploration of the theatrical form and the architecture in which theater is created, Walkabout seeks to deepen the connection between the artist and the Chicago community. walkabouttheater.org.

Since the inaugural repertory in 2010, Garage Rep has brought the work of 12 storefront theater companies in Chicago to the Steppenwolf stage, including: The Twins Would Like To Say by Dog & Pony Theatre Company, punkplay by Pavement Group and Adore by XIII Pocket in 2010; Heddatron by Sideshow Theatre Company, The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen by The Strange Tree Group and Sonnets for an Old Century by UrbanTheater Company in 2011; Hit the Wall by The Inconvenience, Oohrah! by LiveWire Chicago and He Who by Theatre Zarko in 2012; and See What I Wanna See by Bailiwick Chicago, She Kills Monsters by Buzz22 Chicago and BlackTop Sky by Theatre Seven of Chicago in 2013. Garage Rep 2014 marks the fifth annual series, adding The New Colony, Prologue Theatre Company and Walkabout Theater Company to the distinguished list of Garage Rep participants.

The Steppenwolf Garage is dedicated to new plays, new artists and new audiences for the American theater. It offers artists the opportunity to present their work with the scale, space and resources it merits. For audiences, it provides opportunities to engage in multigenerational conversation about the new, provocative work emerging from Chicago's diverse and vibrant theatre scene.

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