Photo Flash: Interrobang Theatre Project's THE NORTH POOL

Interrobang Theatre Project will conclude its 2015-16 Season, exploring "Unnatural Disasters," with the Midwest premiere of the psychological drama THE NORTH POOL by Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph, directed by Co-Artistic Director James Yost*, playing May 27 - June 26, 2016 at The Athenaeum Theatre (Studio 2), 2936 N. Southport Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at www.interrobangtheatre.org, by calling (773) 935-6875 or in person at The Athenaeum Theatre Box Office. The press opening is Sunday, May 29 at 2 pm.

THE NORTH POOL features Salar Ardebili and Rob Frankel.

Khadim has no idea why he's been called into the Vice Principal's office at Sheffield High. At first, Vice Principal Danielson is cagey, using a minor violation to keep the boy at school for detention. It doesn't take long for tensions to mount around a crime that Khadim may (or may not) have committed. The truth is ever-shifting in what amounts to a game of cat-and-mouse. As the clock winds down on the last hours of the semester, both Danielson and Khadim must carefully maneuver hauntingly unexpected revelations. THE NORTH POOL is a psychological drama that explores the complexities of racial and cultural profiling and personal accountability.

"The North Pool is about the power of guilt," comments Co-Artistic Director James Yost. "The two characters who carry this story are fraught with guilt and the heaviness of responsibility, as they discover that the one thing that connects them is the suicide of another student they both knew in very different ways. As in this season's first two productions, Katrina: Mother-in-Law of 'Em All and Recent Tragic Events, we see these characters traverse feelings of loss and emerge on the other side completely changed."

The production team for THE NORTH POOL includes: Greg Pinsolneault (scenic design), Noel Huntzinger* (costume design), Rob Stepeck (lighting designer), Mealah Heidenreich (properties design), Lisa Giebler (technical director), Samantha Dzirko (production manager), Sarah Gise* (assistant director) and Albert "Beep" Trefts (production stage manager). *Denotes Interrobang Theatre Project Company Member.

Tickets: Previews: $10. Regular run: $24; $17 students (with ID), $14 seniors (65+). Tickets are currently available at www.interrobangtheatre.org, by calling (773) 935-6875 or in person at The Athenaeum Theatre Box Office.

About the Creative Team

Rajiv Joseph's (Playwright) Broadway play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama, and also awarded a grant for Outstanding New American Play by the National Endowment for the Arts. Joseph's New York productions include Gruesome Playground Injuries, Second Stage Theatre, 2011; Animals Out of Paper, Second Stage Theatre, summer 2008; The Leopard and the Fox (adaptation), Alter Ego, fall 2007; Huck & Holden, Cherry Lane Theatre, 2006; All This Intimacy, Second Stage Theatre, 2006. World premieres of new plays this year, include The North Pool at Theatre Works in Palo Alto; The Lake Effect at Crossroads Theatre in New Jersey; and The Medusa Body at the Alley Theatre. He received his BA in Creative Writing from Miami University and his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal.

James Yost (Director) is Co-Artistic Director of Interrobang Theatre Company. With BareBones Theatre Group (Charlotte, NC) for which he served as artistic director for 12 years, Yost has staged over 50 plays and won several awards including "Theatre Person of the Year" in 2001. Selected credits include: Mr. Marmalade, Psycho Beach Party and Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical, The Graduate, The Play About the Baby, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Drift, Ugly Art, bash; the latter-day plays, Squirrels, The Wizard of Oz, Lend Me A Tenor, True West, The Pitchfork Disney and Noises Off. Yost has produced several new play festivals and was the co-producer of Charlotte's City Stage Summer Play Festival. For Interrobang Yost has directed Orange Flower Water, Ibsen is Dead, and last season's critically-acclaimed Midwest premiere of Really Really. Yost teaches acting, directing, production design and film at the high school and collegiate levels. He is published in Teaching Theatre Journal, a publication of Dramatics Magazine.

About Interrobang Theatre Project

Now in its sixth season, Interrobang Theatre Project, under the artistic leadership of Georgette Verdin and James Yost, has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a "company to watch" and by Time Out Chicago as "one of Chicago's most promising young theatre companies." Productions have included the world premiere of Ibsen is Dead by Calamity West; the Midwest premiere of The Argument by Gregory Moss; the Jeff Award Recommended The Pitchfork Disney, Terminus and Orange Flower Water; Speaking in Tongues, Here Lies Henry, and the critically-acclaimed Hot 'N' Throbbing which Time Out Chicago's 5-star review called a "scintillating revival" and Newcity Stage exclaimed, "Interrobang Theatre Project, guns ablaze, dives headfirst into the play's challenging themes, and offers a rare production in which every element onstage is as robust and capable as every other."

What's an interrobang?

An interrobang is the combination of a question mark and an exclamation point, joining the Latin for "question" (interro) with a proofreading term for "exclamation" (bang). Through the plays we produce, Interrobang Theatre Project aims to pose worthwhile and exciting questions which challenge our understanding and assumptions of who we are and the world in which we live. With our audience, we are changing our world one play at a time.

For more information, please visit www.interrobangtheatreproject.org.

Photo Credit: Emily Schwartz

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