PARAGON Fest, a Sci-Fi and Fantasy Play Festival, Announces Lineup at Otherworld Theatre of Chicago

Otherworld Theatre announced the lineup of its annual PARAGON Play Fest, the world's largest Science Fiction and Fantasy genre play festival. PARAGON Play Fest, now in its 4th year, is the largest Science Fiction and Fantasy play festival in the world; featuring 40 Science-Fiction and Fantasy plays performed over 2 days. Collaborating with hundreds of Theatre Artists, locally and internationally to increase exposure for an underserved theatre genre, PARAGON Play Fest has become an annual festival and a unique part of Chicago's diverse cultural landscape. Curated by Otherworld Theatre Company's Literary Manager Elliott Sowards and Otherworld's Artistic Director, Tiffany Keane Schaefer for the fourth year running. The 40 plays chosen are a small sample of the hundreds that were submitted from around the world. Weekend and Day Pass Tickets are on sale now at www.otherworldtheatre.org

This year, PARAGON will produce Otherworld Theatre mainstage playwrights D. Matthew Beyer (last season's Down the Rocky Road and All the Way to Bedlam) and Elizabeth A.M. Keel (playwright of the upcoming Mainstage production, Corona). Beyer's time travel farce, Everything is Fine and Keel's play which centers on two messengers at the beginning of the world, Missives will be presented at PARAGON Fest.

Plays written by Chicago playwrights include NPCs (Alex B. Reynolds), Inhuman Nature (Brian Pastor), Capacity for Curiosity (Brian Pastor), Wasting Time (Chloe Whitehorn), 5 Robots Working that Hustle (Jared McDaris), Humans in Space (John Enright), Tracy and Her Dream Guy (Michael Higgins), Enhanced (Michael Higgins), The Lost (Mzuri S. Handlin), Blackbird (Mzuri S. Handlin), Reconciliation (Steven Townshend), For the Record (Steven Townshend), Trolls (Steven Townshend), and The Surrogate (Zane Zielinski).

Domestic plays include Obotray (Donald Ralph Lampton), Interventions (Greg Lam), Qui Pro Domina (Hyten Davidson), The Frontier (Isabella D'Esposito), Hayley and the Big Red Button (Isabella D'Esposito), The Things We Saved From the Rot (J.R. Dawson), Panspermia (James Patrick Kelly), Perfect Mate (Jeanne Beckwith), Anniversary (Jeanne Tiehen), Time Beavers (Joe Janes), A Friend in the End (Joe Janes), The Constant Present (Joe Janes), Pegasus Pan-Dimensional Travel (Keith Gatchel), AAA Muse Ltd (L.C. Bernadine & Brian Huther), Survival of the Fittest (Maiken Wiese), Garters (Natalie Zutter), Bits (Patrick Brennan), The Dodo (Rob Walker), Outpost (Scott C. Sickles), Wednesday (Scott Mullen), and Faustus Financial Management (Sean Nixon).

International plays include Last Tragedy (Christos Callow Jr., London, UK), Sam Shifts Gears (Marilyn Anne Campbell, Canada).

"PARAGON is not just the largest Science Fiction and Fantasy Play Festival in the world (40 plays in 2 days). It's a yearly collaboration of over 100 talented artists throughout the Chicago theatre community who learn first hand, through their productions, how well Sci-Fi and Fantasy translates to the stage. We've been fortunate enough to have Chicago award winning directors participate in PARAGON every year. For most of them, PARAGON was their first experience working on Sci-Fi and Fantasy Theatre. If we can inspire these talented artists to take their experience with PARAGON and go out in the world and create more Sci-fi and Fantasy Theatre on their own, than we've really made an impact on growing this genre," said curator Elliott Sowards.

Ticket prices for PARAGON Play Fest are $10 per block, $20 for a single day pass, or $30 for a full weekend pass. Tickets may be purchased at the door, or by visiting www.OtherworldTheatre.org Otherworld Theatre is a two-stage facility with a mainstage which boasts a flexible performance and seating area that seats approximately 120 seats in its larger The Bradbury space, a 40 seat Alchemist's Lab space, bar, and lobby located a few blocks north of Wrigley Field. Street parking is available and Otherworld Theatre is ADA and CTA accessible by Red Line Sheridan/ #22 Clark Bus and #9 Ashland bus.

Otherworld targets theatre patrons of all ages, genders, and races, with a particular focus on fans of Science Fiction and Fantasy, or "genre" storytelling. This is a large, underserved market, particularly when it comes to live theatre. Otherworld's productions reach a wide ranging audience and multiple fandoms.

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