THE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI Opens Tonight

Nearly 30 years after its acclaimed premiere, one of the most popular works in Goodman Theatre history opens tonight in the Owen Theatre in a major revival-and will be available to view online next month! A high-quality video stream of Manilow Resident Director Mary Zimmerman's famed production of The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci will be available to watch from the comfort of home, recorded with multiple cameras and produced in collaboration with Christiana Tye Productions and Hatfield Post/Production. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci appears on stage through March 20 (tickets $15 - $55) and a high-quality video of the production is available to view online in a limited streaming run (starting March 15 through April 3, tickets available now for $25); visit Goodmantheatre.org/Notebooks or call 312.443.3800. Goodman Theatre is grateful for the support of its Women's Board (Major Production Sponsor), ITW and Mayer Brown (Corporate Sponsor Partners), Russell Reynolds Associates (Contributing Sponsor) and The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation.

Acrobatics, music and movement unite to deliver a poetic glimpse into the mind of history's ultimate Renaissance man, Mary Zimmerman once again directs her work, featuring a cast of eight as "Leonardo"-including Adeoye, Christiana Clark, Christopher Donahue (who appeared in the original production), Kasey Foster, Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel, John Gregorio, Anthony Irons and Wai Yim. Understudies for this production include Chloe Baldwin, Sean Blake, Jack DeCesare, Lawrence Grimm, Andrea San Miguel and WIll Wilhelm. The design team includes Scott Bradley (Set), T.J. Gerckens (Lighting), Co-Composers Michael Bodeen (also Sound) and Miriam Sturm-all of whom worked on the original production-and Mara Blumenfeld (Costumes).

"What Leonardo demonstrates in all his work and life-and what I think is so useful to us now more than ever-is a type of radical attentiveness. Every part of the world enchanted him. Attention to the available, natural world is so far from how most of us conduct ourselves, lost as we are within electronic simulacrums of manipulated, constructed realities. But when we stay awake-alive and present-to the miraculous all around us, our lives are infinitely enriched," said adapter/director Mary Zimmerman. "It's always a profound experience to return to a work after so long, and this piece is very dear to my heart, very personal. Most of my work is literary, based in ancient and often fanciful stories. My mother was an English professor, and I sometimes think all my work is due to her. But my father was a physicist, and The Notebooks belongs to him."

Zimmerman created The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci from 5,000 of the legendary Italian scientist/philosopher's unbound surviving pages-written between 1475 and 1519 in his signature backwards handwriting, read by using a mirror. All of the spoken text in the performance is taken from his notebooks and various treatises on topics ranging from anatomy to love, botany to painting, engineering to dreams. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci's Goodman debut in 1993 in the intimate 100-seat Studio Series (at the Art Institute of Chicago) was hailed as "a beautiful, beguiling and absolutely brilliant piece of work" (Chicago Tribune) and "an indisputable masterpiece in both concept and realization" (Chicago Sun-Times). The production became a highlight of Lincoln Center's 1994 "Serious Fun! Festival," hailed as "the most exhilarating theater I've seen in years" (New York Daily News); was revived at the Goodman in 1997; and appeared in an extended run Off-Broadway and at theaters across the country.

Please note: In compliance with the City of Chicago vaccine requirement, proof of vaccination with an FDA or WHO-authorized vaccine is required for all guests. Masks are required at all times in the theater and patrons under 5 are not permitted. Learn more GoodmanTheatre.org/Protocols.

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