THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MADAM BARKER and More Set for Red Tape Theatre's 10th Season

Red Tape Theatre (RTT) announces their 2013/14 Season, which marks their 10th Anniversary Season and first season under the direction of new Artistic Director, Brandon Ray. The season opens October 14th, 2013 with the world premiere of The Life and Death of Madam Barker by Brooke Allen, with music and lyrics by John Fournier and directed by Eric Hoff. Then, in January of 2014 RTT will present the US premiere of hamlet is dead. no gravity by Ewald Palmetshofer, translated by Neil Blackadder and directed by Seth Bockley. Concluding the season in May of 2014, RTT will present another US Premiere, Earthquakes in London, by Mike Bartlett and directed by Brandon Ray. Red Tape Theatre's 10th Season will be presented at its home in St. Peter's Episcopal Church, located at 621 W Belmont Ave.

The Life and Death of Madam Barker by Brooke Allen
October 14-November 10

Madam Barker was originally conceived and created by Molly Brennan and John Fournier for 500 Clown and the Elephant Deal. The Life and Death of Madam Barker is a raucous cabaret of music and comedy featuring Molly Brennan as Madam Barker and Chicago's own singer-songwriter John Fournier as John the Piano Player. RTT is thrilled to welcome Madam Barker in her first full length production to its stage this fall. For more information about Madam Barker, visit www.madambarker.com.

Playwright, Brook Allen's credits include It Comes In - Site Specific Play Festival (The Side Project, summer 2013), The One Minute Play Festival (Victory Gardens Theatre, 2013), Ruby Wilder (Not Waiting Productions, 2008, / New York International Fringe Festival, 2010 / Tympanic Theatre 2012), House Work (Not Waiting Productions, 2007 / 2010 Semi-Finalist for the Leah Ryan's Fund for Emerging Women Writers), among others. In the spring of 2013, Brooke became the first Playwright in Residence for RTT's Fresh Eyes program where she began development on The Life and Death of Madam Barker. Her play The Deer will open with The Ruckus in the spring of 2014, directed by her favorite creative partner Eric Hoff.

Director, Eric Hoff is returning to RTT after having previously directed last season's The Skriker. He's directed Brooke Allen's Ruby Wilder for the NY International Fringe in 2010 and in the spring of 2014 will direct Allen's The Deer at The Ruckus. His Chicago credits also include Ike Holter's Hit the Wall at the Steppenwolf Garage which went on to have a successful run at Barrow Street Theatre Off-Broadway.

PLEASE NOTE: The following performances will feature Michaela Petro in the title role of Madam Barker. October 17, 24, 28 & 31 and November 4 & 7.

Hamlet is dead. no gravity by Ewald Palmetshofer & translated by Neil Blackadder
January 2014

RTT's second show of their 10th season, hamlet is dead. no gravity will be a US Premiere, having previously received a staged reading in Chicago at the International Voices Project in March, 2013. In this play, relationships among family and friends shift, morph and are never what they seem - it is inevitable that something is going to happen. Playwright Ewald Palmetshofer weaves language and rhythm into something comic and threatening that ultimately leaves just one question open: to resign or to act?

Palmetshofer is the recipient of the Retzhofer Literary Prize (2005) and the Playwrights Prize of the Cultural Group of German Industry at the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI). His plays have been produced at the Schauspielhaus Vienna, the Schaubühne Berlin, the Theater an der Ruhr Mühlheim, the Schauspielhaus Dresden, among many others.

Translator, Neil Blackadder translates drama and prose from German and French, specializing in Contemporary Theatre. His English versions of plays have appeared in TheatreForum, The Brecht Yearbook and elsewhere and his work has also been supported by Ledig House, the Banff Centre, and frequently by the Goethe-Institut. Neil is Professor of Theatre at Knox College, and the author of PERFORMING OPPOSITION: MODERN THEATER AND THE SCANDALIZED AUDIENCE (Praeger, 2003).

Director, Seth Bockley is a Chicago-based playwright, director and performer. Directing credits include Philip Dawkins' Failure: A Love Story (Victory Gardens), The Ugly One by Marius von Mayenburg (Sideshow Theater), Jason Grote's Civilization: all you can eat for Clubbed Thumb (Summerworks 2011) and Grote's 1001 for Collaboraction, as well as CommComm, Jon, and numerous Redmoon events and spectacles. His devised project Guerra: A Clown Play, created through TCG's "On The Road" grant with Mexico City-based La Piara, was seen in Millennium Park Chicago's "In The Works" series and traveled to New York and Albuquerque in '12/'13. He is an artist in residence at the University of Chicago, and a playwright in residence at the Goodman Theatre.

Earthquakes in London by Mike Bartlett
May 2014

Earthquakes in London received its world premiere at the Royal National's Cottesloe Theatre in August of 2010 where it was described in the Guardian as an "epic, expansive play about climate change, corporate corruption, fathers and children". This will mark another US Premiere for RTT, and the RTT directorial debut of new Artistic Director, Brandon Ray. The play centers around the lives and loves of three sisters, abandoned long ago by their doom-mongering father who predicts environmental apocalypse, as the three women attempt in their own different ways, to come to terms with the fact their father's pessimistic forecasts may be right. Bartlett won the 2006 Tinniswood Award for his play Not Talking and in 2010 Bartlett's play c*ckwon the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement In An Affiliate Theatre.

Brandon Ray, RTT's new Artistic Director, was formerly the inaugural Artistic Director of Chicago's New Leaf Theatre. While at New Leaf, he directed the Joseph Jefferson award-nominated productions of As It Is In Heaven and the US premiere of David Hare's The Permanent Way. Other Chicago directing credits include Reckless and Accelerando at New Leaf, Three Hymns of Apathy at the side project, With Every Wish at Petri Dish Theatre and Beatrice and Beau at Collaboraction's 9th Sketchbook festival. This fall, he will direct the world premiere of Bilal Dardai's The Sovereign Statement for the Neo-Futurists.

Brandon received his MFA in Directing from Illinois State University's prestigious School of Theatre and Dance last May. He teaches theatre and literature at both Prairie State College in Chicago Heights and the University of St. Francis in Joliet. He currently lives in Frankfort with his wife Amy and three year-old son Charlie.

Now in its tenth season, RTT is committed to the creation of new and experimental work. RTT's plays invite their audiences to re-imagine their world. RTT's work serves a vital purpose in our community: to arrest attention and create empathy. Their ensemble collaborates with playwrights, musicians, dancers, and visual artists on their three annual productions housed in St. Peter's Episcopal Church. The unique performance space allows them to continually reinvent the audience/artist relationship.

The complete cast for The Life and Death of Madam Barker is as follows:

DIRECTED by Eric Hoff

BARKER- Molly Brennan

JOHN- John Fournier

BARKER U/S- Michaela Petro

OLIVE- Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel

SAM- Derek Van Barham

FRANK- DonNell Williams

GEORGE- Carrie Drapac*

DAMES

Steve Love

Elise Mayfield

Ricky Harris

Havalah Grace

PORTERS

Andres Enriquez

Alex Grelle

Todd Michael Kiech

Elizabeth Levy

MUSICIANS

Shay Norman

Rawson Vint

*Denotes RTT Ensemble Member

The casts for hamlet is dead. no gravity and Earthquakes in London are TBA.

Pictured: Molly Brennan (Madam Barker) and John Fournier. Photo Credit: Austin Oie.

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