Redtwist Theatre to Present THE BEAUTIFUL DARK, 7/27-9/1

How do you stop a violent mind? What should parents do when it may seem that their son is planning a violent act--and the boy has become nearly incommunicado?

In THE BEAUTIFUL DARK, Nancy's son, Jacob, announces he has failed out of college, and upon returning home, sleeps all day. From this deceitful calm, Nancy makes a startling discovery: Jacob didn't flunk out; he was kicked out for writing a graphic play about a killing spree on campus, carried out by a young man who sounds eerily like her son. As the evidence mounts against Jacob, Nancy is forced to confront her darkest fears. Is her son capable of the unthinkable? And can she stop him before it's too late?

THE BEAUTIFUL DARK opens at Redtwist Theatre on Saturday, July 27 at 3 p.m. and runs Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. until September 1 (no evening performance July 27 and no performance on July 28). Tickets will cost $25 on Thursdays and $30 Friday-Sunday with a $5 discount for seniors and students. The show previews July 24-26 at 7:30 p.m. with $15 tickets. For reservations call 773-728-7529, email reserve@redtwist.org or visit www.redtwist.org.

Erik Gernand began writing THE BEAUTIFUL DARK the week after the shooting in Arizona that injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. He was inspired by an editorial he read in defense of the parents of the shooter that posed the question: What would you have done if he were your child?

A number of theaters have worked with the script: two separate development workshops at American Theater Company (Chicago), Saturday Reading Series at Chicago Dramatists (Chicago), 2-week workshop and workshop production at T. Schreiber Studio (New York), directed by new About Face Artistic Director Andrew Volkoff (Chicago), 2-week workshop and staged reading at Redtwist Theatre (Chicago) and a staged reading at The Barrow Group in NY, 2012.

THE BEAUTIFUL DARK was a New Works Project Winner (T. Schreiber Studio, NY) in 2012, the Winner of the Premiere Stages Play Festival (Union, NJ) and a finalist for the Woodward/Newman Drama Award in 2012.

THE BEAUTIFUL DARK is Erik's first production with Redtwist Theatre, and will open in September at Premiere Stages in Union, NJ. His plays have been in development or production at American Theater Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Barrow Group (NY), and Chicago Dramatists. Erik's short films have screened at more than 100 film festivals around the world including SXSW, Cinequest, and Chicago International Film Festival, as well as been broadcast on IFC, PBS, and The Logo Channel. He is a lecturer in Radio-TV-Film at Northwestern University.

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