The Gift Ends 2009 Season With The World Premiere of SUMMER PEOPLE 10/22-12/13

SUMMER PEOPLE October 22nd - December 13th, A World Premiere by Ensemble Member Jenny Connell, Directed by Ensemble Member Paul D'Addario

Featuring Ensemble members Danny Ahlfeld and Lynda Newton with guest artists Rob Belushi, Justin James Farley, Minita Gandhi, Rae Gray, and Grace Goble.

Set in coastal Maine and Fallujah , Iraq in the summer of 2004, Summer People is about what happens behind the Home Front with a girl about to grow up, a family about to rebuild, and a soldier about to return...

Previews for Summer People are October 22nd-October 25th. The Press Opening is Monday, October 26th at 7:30 p.m. The production opens on Thursday, October 29th at 7:30 p.m., and runs through December 13th, 2009. Showtimes are Thursdays and Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30pm with Sunday matinees at 2:30.
For tickets: (773) 283-7071 or buy online @ www.thegifttheatre.org

The Gift Theatre
4802 N. Milwaukee
The Gift Theatre is conveniently located at 4802 N. Milwaukee in Chicago 's Jefferson Park neighborhood-two storefronts north of Lawrence , on the west side of Milwaukee -and is easily accessible by the Kennedy Expressway, the Lawrence and Milwaukee buses, and the CTA Blue Line.

Preview tickets are $15.
Regular run prices are $25 (Thursdays, Friday, Saturday, Sunday) Group rates are available for groups of 10 or more by calling the Box Office. $20 tickets are available at all Sunday performances for students, seniors, and industry with proper identification.

Gift Ensemble Member Brendan Donaldson is the set designer, Scott Pillsbury is the lighting designer, Driehaus Award For Fashion Excellence Winner Branimira Ivanova is the Costume Designer, Joe Court is the Sound Designer, and the Stage Manager is Corrie Bessie.

Jenny Connell is a writer, actor, and teacher. Her plays include Portrait, Summer People, Fire Escape, Chrysalis, Colony, DragonGirl and The Psyche Project. She's been a finalist or semi-finalist for BAPF, the Heidemann, the O'Neill, and the Women's Playwright Festival, and has been nominated for the Weissberger. Her screenplays include Unmoored, The Passenger, and Playing House. Jenny trained and performed as an actor in Chicago at Steppenwolf and Court Theatres, and as a playwright at UT Austin, where she received her MFA. She lives and teaches in Brooklyn , and is a proud member of The Gift. This is her first professionally produced play.

The Gift Theatre is dedicated to telling great stories on stage with honesty and simplicity. Since its 2002 debut, The Gift has consistently established itself as an actors' theatre, consistently eschewing directorial cleverness for honest, powerful connections between the actors and the audience. With the conception of The Lab-an ensemble-only forum dedicated to artistic growth and exploration-The Gift continues to deepen its commitment to the idea of ‘ensemble' by training together on an ongoing basis. Previous and future instructors in The Lab include Sheldon Patinkin, Jeff Perry, and Dr. Eric Forsythe.

Previous productions include The Ruby Sunrise, Talk Radio, Stop/Kiss, Santa's Great American Depression Holiday Show! America, Streamers, W;t, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, White People, Three Sisters, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Blithe Spirit, 365 Days/365 Plays, The Halloween Show, Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Glass Menagerie (Remount-Theatre on the Lake), The Good Thief, The Clearing, Hurlyburly, The Glass Menagerie, The Pavilion, A Young Man In Pieces, Language of Angels, 6, County Fair, The Countess, Alcatraz (Abbie Hoffman Festival), Orestes 2.0, Boys' Life, and Sexual Perversity in Chicago (giftSYDNEY).

The educational program of The Gift Theatre Company, giftED., continues its work at The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) by combining theatre and speech therapy to combat pediatric oral aversion in addition to its work through Chicago Public Schools, staging extant productions such as Pecos Bill as well as creating new pieces for the theatre, such as HOME / ROOM. The Gift is also beginning to secure equipment for its first feature-length project under its film component, giftFILM.

The Gift Theatre is the only professional theatre company in the working class neighborhood of Jefferson Park . As one of Chicago 's most exciting theatre companies, The Gift is marked by acting of the highest caliber with continual training in The Lab, the important educational work being done at RIC through giftED., and sold-out houses on the northwest side of Chicago . Recent generous support has been provided by the Donnelley Foundation and Driehaus Foundation as well as The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Illinois Arts Council.

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