Strawdog Announces 23rd Season Themed Extraordinary Matters, Kicks Off 10/10

Strawdog Theatre Company is proud to announce their 23rd anniversary season of presenting "the whole wide world in a little black box," with three main stage plays focusing on the theme ‘Extraordinary Matters." The 23rd anniversary season includes Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsey's State of the Union, Edward Kemp's translation of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and an adaptation of Manfred Karge's The Conquest of the South Pole.

These productions, plus ongoing late night offerings, are presented at Strawdog's space in the heart of Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, 3829 N. Broadway Street. The scheduled run for each production is Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 4 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 7 p.m. Adult single ticket prices are $20 (single benefit performance night tickets are $40 each, closing night tickets are $30 each); preview tickets are $10, student and senior tickets are $15 (with ID); and $15 tickets are available for groups of ten or more. Season flex-passes are $50 for three admissions and $100 for six admissions, benefit performances count as two admissions. (All benefit performances include post-show reception with refreshments). Admission for Strawdog Late Night programming starts at $5. Some events are free. Tickets are available at 773.528.9696 or www.strawdog.org.

Artistic Statement
Strawdog Artistic Director Nic Dimond said, "The plays that we selected for our 23rd season all pivot around the idea of "Extraordinary Matters," and they attack that idea from radically different angles. As usual, each play gives us a chance to explore a different style, and this year we run the gamut from State of the Union's "Very American Naturalism" to Master and Margarita's fantastical Zombie Ball (hosted by Satan himself, of course) to the stripped down expressionism that runs rampant through Conquest of the South Pole."
Dimond continues, "State of the Union gives us a chance to immerse audiences in the vivid glow of an America that is still riding high from victory in WWII, when everything was charming and involved cocktails. But this world also has its dark sides, and this story exposes some fascinating "smoky backroom deals" that can help us track our current partisan political world to its origins. At its core, State of the Union is about the ordinary things that can keep an extraordinary man from trying to gain an extraordinary office."
"The Master and Margarita is a hot new adaptation of Bulgakov's classic novel that fantastically weaves together the worlds of an atheist Russian State, Pontius Pilate's Jerusalem and the fantasy "world of the night" that is cracked wide open when the Devil comes a visitin' in a paranoid Soviet Moscow. This satire directed against a suffocating bureaucratic social order actually boils down to a simple, beautiful love story in which to some, the extraordinary is the everyday."
"Finally, in our Conquest of the South Pole, a handful of miserable, unemployed friends try to escape their reality by reenacting the story of the first successful expedition to the South Pole in their attic. The story features the extraordinary power of imagination in the battle against the ordinary despairs that so many of us face."

Strawdog Theatre Company's 23rd Season "Extraordinary Matters" includes:
State of the Union • October 10 - November 13, 2010
Previews Thursday, Oct. 7 and Friday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m., benefit performance Saturday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m., Opening/Press Night Sunday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m.
Written by Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsey, directed by Geoff Button
Strawdog opens their 23rd anniversary season with Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsey's 1946 Pulitzer Prize-winning political comedy, State of the Union. The story follows fictional Republican presidential candidate Grant Matthews and his estranged wife Mary as they reunite to go under the media microscope. Matthews begins as a truth talking, idealist, man-of-the- people but quickly falls prey to the American political machine. State of the Union was adapted for a 1948 film directed by Frank Capra, starring Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. Strawdog is thrilled to welcome Geoff Button in his Strawdog directing debut. Button is a recent graduate of Northwestern University's MFA directing program and a longtime company member of the theater company The Hypocrites. He directed their productions of Desire Under the Elms and True West (Non-Equity Jeff Nominations - Best Play, Best Director). While at Northwestern he directed productions of Neil LaBute's In a Dark, Dark House, Tony Kushner's Angels In America: Millennium Approaches and The Who's Tommy.
The Master and Margarita • February 27 - April 2, 2011
Previews Thursday, Feb. 24 and Friday, Feb. 25 at 8 p.m., benefit performance Saturday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m., Opening/Press Night Sunday, Feb. 27 at 7 p.m.
Novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, adapted by Edward Kemp, directed by Louis Contey
Edward Kemp's adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's landmark satirical novel, The Master and Margarita, is a phantasmagorical ride through Stalinist Russia. The Master, a playwright trying desperately to get his script about Jesus and Pontius Pilate produced, fights with Theatre Critics and Cultural Commissars at every turn. He is driven to the edge of a despair so deep that not even his lover Margarita can reach him. Into the middle of this bleak picture steps the shabby aristocrat Professor Woland, a specialist in black magic and his unwholesome entourage (including a talking cat). The entourage has to come to set Moscow on its ear with magic, violence and a party of the damned that no bureaucrat could ever hope to censor. Strawdog is thrilled to welcome Timeline Theatre Associate Artist Louis Contey in his Strawdog directing debut. Contey directed the critically-acclaimed productions of Awake and Sing!, Lillian, and Copenhagen for Timeline Theatre Company as well Shattered Globe's smash Requiem for a Heavyweight. He is a 12-time Jeff Nominee and has received seven Jeff Citations.
The Conquest of the South Pole • April 24 - May 28, 2011
Previews Thursday, April 21 and Friday, April 22 at 8 p.m., benefit performance Saturday, April 23 at 7 p.m., Opening/Press Night Sunday, April 24 at 7 p.m.
Written by, Manfred Karge; adapted by Calvin McLean, Caron Cadle, and Ralf Remshardt, directed by Kimberly Senior
Strawdog's 2010-2011 season concludes with an adaptation of German playwright Manfred Karge's 1986 comedy The Conquest of the South Pole. The play follows Braukmann and his friends as they fight off the crushing desperation of long-term unemployment by re-enacting Roald Amundsen's first successful trek to the South Pole, while never leaving Braukmann's attic. As some of the men slowly regain their lives on the other side of the dole, others keep journeying on into the new Antarctica. Strawdog is proud to welcome back company member Kimberly Senior, who directed their critically- acclaimed productions of Uncle Vanya, Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters as well as Next Theatre Company's The Overwhelming, Timeline Theatre Company's All My Sons, and Redtwist Theatre's The Pillowman.

Strawdog Late Night
Strawdog Late Night features a variety of programming (Theatre Wars, live music, comedy, improv, roasts) in the Hugen Hall Cabaret space within the theatre, following each night's mainstage performance at 11 p.m. (10 p.m. Sundays). Admission for Late Night starts at $5 and varies for visiting artists. A cash bar is available and some events are free. Check www.strawdog.org for current listings.

Strawdog has received numerous Non-Equity Jeff Awards, including awards for Hurlyburly (1999) Outstanding Ensemble, Outstanding Actor Michael Dobbs, Outstanding Supporting Actress Stephanie Manglaras, Outstanding Supporting Actor Bart Petty; Detective Story (2003) - Outstanding Production, Outstanding Director Shade Murray, Outstanding Ensemble, Outstanding Set Design Ray Vlcek; Three Sisters (2005) - Outstanding Set Design Brian Sidney Bembridge; Marathon ‘33 (2007) - Outstanding Ensemble and A Lie of the Mind (2008) - Outstanding Original Music Mikhail Fiksel and Gregor Mortis.

Public transportation to Strawdog is available on the CTA via the Red Line Sheridan stop, plus 36-Broadway, 80-Irving Park, and 151-Sheridan buses.
The current Strawdog ensemble includes Jennifer Avery, Hank Boland, Abigail Boucher, Don Cardiff, Erin Carlson, Michael Dailey, Anita Deely, Amy Dunlap, Paul Fagen, John Ferrick, Mikhail Fiksel, Aly Renee Greaves, Carmine Grisolia, Christopher Hainsworth, Kyle Hamman, Erik Hellman, Tom Hickey, Shannon Hoag, Anderson Lawfer, Sean Mallary, Kat McDonnell, Gregor Mortis, Stacy Parker Hirsch, Michaela Petro, Mike Przygoda, John Henry Roberts, Justine C. Turner, Jamie Vann and James Anthony Zoccoli. Strawdog Artistic Director is Nic Dimond, Managing Director is Hank Boland and General Manager is Cortney Hurley. Notable Strawdog alums include Elizabeth Auman (TimeLine), Alexandra Billings (actress, cabaret star), Nancy Bishop (casting director), Chrisanne Blankenship (director), Becca Cardo (voice-over artist), Kristin Caskey (Fox Theatricals), Scott Cummins (actor, director), and James Denton (Desperate Housewives). Strawdog supports Mookie Jam, a Chicago-based, not-for-profit organization created to assist artists living with multiple sclerosis - www.mookiejam.org.
Strawdog Theatre Company is committed to ensemble acting and an immersive design approach, offering Chicago the premiere storefront theatre experience. The Company develops new work, reimagines classic plays, explores new fusions of music and theatre, asks provocative questions and delivers their audience the unexpected. Strawdog provides a home for their celebrated ensemble to work and play with the most sought after artists in Chicago theatre along with the best new talents in the city. Founded in 1988, the Strawdog ensemble has consistently produced shows built on authentic human connections, and the comfortable 70-seat theater in Lakeview is perfect for offering their audience a quintessential Chicago storefront theatre experience. "The whole wide world in a little black box." Strawdog is a proud member of the NortHalsted Area Merchant Association, The Chicago Storefront Theatre District and the League of Chicago Theatres.
Strawdog Theatre Company was formed in 1988 by a group of actors who had performed together in a production of Euripides's Helen at a (now defunct) Theatre On the west side. The group took their name from Sam Peckinpah's movie "Straw Dogs" (Theatresaurus Rex was, thankfully, the runner-up), and they produced their first show, Len Jenkin's Five of Us at a (now defunct) space in Bucktown. At the time, the Chicago Reader said "Strawdog Theatre Company's inaugural production brings ... truth home with a vengeance," and Skyline Chicago added, "The Strawdog troupe shows us what an ensemble can do." Twenty-three years later, Strawdog Theatre Company has survived the ups and downs of Chicago theatre, and is still dedicated to bringing the truth to audiences through the committed work of an award-winning ensemble of actors and designers.
Strawdog Theatre Company is supported in part by The Alphawood Foundation, The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, The Saints, The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Illinois Arts Council (a state agency), and the through the generous contributions of businesses and individuals.

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