Prop Theatre Presents NEVERLAND This Fall

Prop Thtr is pleased launch its 2018-19 season with NEVERLAND, a new devised riff on J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, written and directed by the Prop's new Artistic Director Olivia Lilley and devised by the Ensemble. This spin on the classic tale centers on the final days of Neverland, as seen from the divergent perspectives of Peter, Wendy and Hook. NEVERLAND will play October 26 - November 25, 2018 at 3502 N. Elston Ave. (near Kedzie and Addison) in Chicago's Avondale neighborhood. Tickets go on sale Monday, October 1, 2018 at www.propthtr.org. The press opening is Monday, October 29, 2018 at 8 pm.

NEVERLAND will feature Kate Black-Spence as Hook, Gaby Labotka as Peter Pan, Steph Vondell as Wendy, Rory Jobst as Smee and Mary Iris Loncto as Tinker Bell with Tyler Brockington, Bernadette Carter, Dylan Fahoome, Mateo Hernandez, Stella Akua Mensah, Sissy Anne Quaranta, Caitlin Shantz and Electra Tremulis as The Lost. Understudies: Jenn Geiger and Elizabeth Wigley.

NEVERLAND chronicles the final days of Peter Pan's utopia. When Wendy, an Avondale teenager, becomes the newest addition to The Lost, Peter's band of runaway teens from different decades, she discovers an underground kingdom ready to shatter. Struggling to find it's future under the direction of confused leadership, bloody past practices, and centuries long wars over legacy, the inhabitants of Neverland can no longer hide from what they've become. The journey from childhood to adulthood has never been so treacherous than in this "Peter Pan" in the era of Trump's America.

Comments Director and Prop Artistic Director Olivia Lilley, "Peter Pan, as a source material, is riddled with the attitudes and values of the society out of which it was born: turn of the century England. In this new riff on the classic, we're hoping to create an original story that feels vital and tackles the struggles we're in the midst of grappling to rebuild our own society today. This play is built out of the ashes of now."

The production team for NEVERLAND includes: Nina D'Angier (set, props design) Diane Hamm (costume design), David Goodman-Edberg (lighting design), Ele Matelan (foley design, props), Catherine Miller (casting director), Madeline Moeller (assistant director), Marlana May Carlson (production stage manager) and Carolyn Waldee (rehearsal stage manager)

About the Director

Olivia Lilley (Writer/Director) is an Iranian-Irish Chicago playwright, director and producer. Her work runs the gamut from irreverent takes on classic texts (Faust: Save me or I'll die, The Portrait of Dorian Gray) to dance theatre biographies (In Sarah's Shadow, I Saw The Best Minds of My Generation) to new plays that tackle contemporary intersectional issues (Mary Shelley Sees The Future, Expectations for little mixed girls, Miss Young Hollywood Thing Gone Wrong). Olivia is the founding Artistic Director of The Runaways Lab Theatre (Voted Best New Theatre Company in the Chicago Reader's "Best Of 2014"). She is the Creative Director of Pop Magic Productions, the Artistic Director of The Prop Thtr and an Artistic Associate with Pivot Arts. Olivia received her BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.

About The Prop Thtr

Since beginning in 1981, Prop Thtr has aimed to create, inspire and assist in the creation of new plays and other time-based works of art. Working closely with established artists as well as emerging, Prop has played a vital role in Chicago's cultural scene. We incubate, develop and produce new work and emerging artists for the Performing Arts. Prop Thtr is a founding Core member of the National New Play Network.

PHOTO CREDIT: (left to right) Steph Vondell as Wendy, Gaby Labotka as Peter Pan and Kate Black-Spence as Hook in a publicity image for Prop Thtr's production of NEVERLAND. Photo by Matthew Gregory Hollis.

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