The Artistic Home will follow up its highly acclaimed and Jeff recommended production of By the Bog of Cats - a contemporary Irish take on Medea - with a much cheerier updating of a classic. Their summer production for 2017 will be David Ives' comedy in verse, The School for Lies. As Ives did with The Liar, his "translaptation" of Corneille's Le Menteur, he honors the French 17th Century practice of writing in verse, but uses contemporary language even as he maintains the Molière play's original setting of Paris in 1666.
The comedy is a battle of wits between Frank, a traveler from England known for his misanthropic wit, and Celimene, a beautiful young widow with a satiric tongue who is busy avoiding several keen suitors and a pressing legal suit. As Frank turns Celimene's world upside-down, she discovers that she can still find love amidst the lies and uproarious, naughty array of characters that never seem to miss a chance at having the last word. The Artistic Home's production, filled with racy romance and scathing humor, will open to the press Sunday, July 2 at 7:00 pm, following previews from June 28 - July 1.
The School for Lies will be directed by company's Artistic Director,
Kathy Scambiatterra. She says, "I, personally, know what a joy it is to speak Mr. Ives' text and fling your body and soul into his world. So, I knew that our ensemble would experience joy in working on the piece and we all could use a laugh right now as our country muddles through its own school for lies." Her cast will include ensemble members Devon Carson, Reid Coker,
Brookelyn Hebert,
Julian Hester, and Annie Hogan, along with visiting artists Averis I. Anderson, Ted James,
Mark Pracht and Todd Wojcik. The design team includes Elyse Balogh (scenic design),
Zach Wagner (costume design), Cat Wilson (lighting design), Joseph Cerqua (sound design/original music). Madeleine Lyons is the stage manager and Kayla Adams is the assistant director.
Top Row L-R: Averis I. Anderson, Devon Carson, Reid Coker
Middle Row L-R: Brookelyn Hebert, Julian Hester, Annie Hogan
Bottom Row L-R: Ted James, Mark Pracht, Todd Wojcik Reviewing the 2011 off-Broadway premiere of The School for Lies, The New York Times' Charles Isherwood said, "Mr. Ives's coruscating wordplay is really the star of the show... Such is the ingenuity of his verse making that you find yourself anticipating with pleased excitement the arrival of the next rhymes, many of which are stuffed inside the lines in addition to at the ends."
The production will play at The Artistic Home's theatre at 1376 W. Grand Avenue. Tickets are now on sale by phone at 866/811-4111 or online at
http://www.theartistichome.org/. Previews will be Wednesday June 28 through Saturday July 1 at 8:00 pm each night. Regular run (July 6 - August 13) performances will be Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, and Sundays at 3 pm.
David Ives (playwright) first came to wide notice in the theatre with his one-act plays, of which he has written over three dozen both for theatre and the radio. The greater part of them are collected in the anthologies All in The Timing (originally an evening of six one-acts that won of the Outer Critics Circle Playwriting Award), Time Flies, and The Other Woman and Other Short Plays. He has been included in the Best Short Plays series seven times to date. His full-length plays include Venus In Fur; The Liar (adapted from Corneille's comedy, and winner of the
Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play); The Heir Apparent (adapted from J.F. Regnard's comedy); New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza (winner of the Hull-Warriner Award); The School for Lies (adapted from Molière's The Misanthrope); Is He Dead? (adapted from
Mark Twain);
Irving Berlin's White Christmas; Ancient History; Don Juan in Chicago; The Land of Cockaigne; and Polish Joke. He has translated Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear (winner of a
Joseph Jefferson Award) as well as
Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play, wrote the libretto of an opera (The Secret Garden, with music by
Greg Pliska, which premiered at the Pennsylvania Opera Theatre in 1991), and has adapted 32 shows for New York's celebrated Encores! series of American musicals in concert. He is also the author of three young-adult novels: Monsieur Eek, Scrib, and Voss. A former Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting and a graduate of Yale School of Drama, he lives in New York City. He is on the Council of the
Dramatists Guild of America.
Kathy Scambiatterra (director) is Artistic Director and co-founder of The Artistic Home. As a director, she has helmed acclaimed, Jeff nominated and After Dark Award-winning productions for The Artistic Home including: Waiting for Lefty, In the Boom Boom Room, Angel City, After the Fall, Street Scene, Peer Gynt, The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Petrified Forest, Modigliani, Days to Come, The Touch of the Poet, The Night of the Iguana, The Time of Your Life. Other directing credits include The Copperhead (City Lit) Angel City, Welcome to the Moon and Other Plays (LA Dramalogue Award), A Christmas Carol (Pacific Resident Theater (LA). Her Chicago acting credits include: The Seagull, Interrogation, Watch on the Rhine, Beaten, The American Plan, Sweet Bird Of Youth, The Skin of Our Teeth, Look Homeward Angel, Juno and the Paycock, Natural Affection, Orpheus Descending (The Artistic Home); The Glass Menagerie,
Nelson Algren Live, The Diary of Anne Frank (Steppenwolf); Broadway Bound (Drury Lane Oakbrook); A Flea in Her Ear (Chicago Shakespeare); Romeo and Juliet (
Goodman Theatre), among others. Regional credits; The Quick Change Room (Pacific Resident Theatre). TV/Film credits: recurring role on Chicago PD, The Appointment, Draggage, Sin Collector, Into the Wake. She has received four leading role Jeff nominations for work in Sweet Bird of Youth, Natural Affection, Abundance, The School for Wives. Ms. Scambiatterra is the director of the actor training program at The Artistic Home Studio. In addition, she has taught at The School at Steppenwolf, Columbia College, Center Theater's The Training Center, Chicago, IL; Carolyn Berry Studio, The Pacific Resident Theatre LA, CA; Director's Symposium, US Army, Heidelberg, Germany; Screen Training Ireland, Dublin, Ireland; and currently at Chicago High School for the Arts, Classical Conservatory.
ABOUT THE ARTISTIC HOME
The Artistic Home is noted for their innovative and intimate presentations of rarely-produced classics as well developing new works. Audiences may know The Artistic Home best from their recent Jeff-Nominated productions of By the Bog of Cats, The Seagull, Watch on the Rhine, Macbeth and The Late Henry Moss or the 2013 Jeff Award-winner The Goddess. Other Artistic Home productions include the Jeff-Award-winning production of Juno and the Paycock, which also received three After Dark Awards, the Jeff-Nominated Sweet Bird of Youth, The Tallest Man, Landscape of the Body, Natural Affection, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, After the Fall and Peer Gynt (which also received an After Dark award for Direction).
For more than 15 years, The Artistic Home has consistently produced compelling theatre in Chicago. First formed in 1998 with the belief that the actor is at the heart of great theater, the company strives to give birth to unforgettable moments; to touch audiences who are increasingly distanced from human contact; to readdress the classics and explore new works with passion.
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