Tickets to Writers Theatre's ARCADIA Now on Sale

Writers Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma, presents the first production in the Theatre's new home, Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, directed by Michael Halberstam. The show runs March 16 - April 24, 2016 at the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre in Writer Theatre's new theater center at 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe. The Press Opening is Wednesday, March 23 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets for Arcadia will go on sale on Tuesday, January 12, 2016. The Box Office is currently located at 321 Park Avenue, Glencoe; 847-242-6000; www.writerstheatre.org. Note: As of February 12, 2016, the Box Office location will move to the new facility at 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe.

In the heart of a 19th century English country estate awash in secret desires, illicit affairs and professional rivalries, a brilliant young student proposes an earthshaking scientific theory. Two hundred years later at that same estate, academic adversaries Hannah and Bernard race to unravel the enticing mysteries left behind in a heated battle for intellectual and sexual dominance.

Part detective story and part comedy of manners, Tom Stoppard's elegant, time-jumping masterpiece forges a complex comedy of wit, romance, poetry, sex and scientific theory, introducing characters whose lives and passions intersect across the centuries.

Directed by Artistic Director Michael Halberstam, who previously helmed WT's hit productions of Stoppard's The Real Thing and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Arcadia is an ideal first production in Writers Theatre's new home, serving as bridge between the Theatre's celebrated past and its exciting future.

"I cannot think of a more fitting way to embrace our new home than with a production of Tom Stoppard's beautiful ode to the past, the present and the future," said Artistic Director Michael Halberstam. "It is a play that stands at the core of our mission to focus on intimate engagements with text and artist. It takes advantage of the epic canvass that our beautiful new Nichols theatre can encompass while rooting itself firmly in the intimate relationship that can still be articulated between audience and actor. Our cast and production team is rooted firmly in Chicago and embody the remarkable breadth of artistry that lies at the heart of our very unique and exciting community."

The cast of Arcadia includes Greg Matthew Anderson (Septimus Hodge), Chaon Cross (Lady Croom), Kate Fry (Hannah Jarvis), Torrey Hanson (Jellaby), Nathan Hosner (Captain Brice), Callie Johnson (Chloe Coverly), Scott Parkinson (Bernard Nightingale), Gabriel Ruiz (Richard Noakes), Alistair Sewell (Gus Coverly), Christopher Sheard (Valentine Coverly), Elizabeth Stenholt (Thomasina Coverly), and Rod Thomas (Ezra Chater).

The designers are Collette Pollard (Scenic Designer), Rachel Anne Healy (Costume Designer), John Culbert (Lighting Designer) and Josh Schmidt (Sound Designer). The Stage Manager is David Castellanos, and the Dialect Coach is Eva Breneman.

Tom Stoppard (Playwright) is one of the premiere playwrights working in modern drama today. His seminal works for the theatre include: Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead (Tony Award for Best Play), The Real Inspector Hound, Jumpers, Travesties (Tony Award for Best Play), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Night And Day, On The Razzle, The Real Thing (Tony Award for Best Play), Rough Crossing, Dalliance, Hapgood, Arcadia (Tony nominee for Best Play), Indian Ink, The Invention Of Love (Tony nominee for Best Play), The Coast Of Utopia (Tony Award for Best Play) and Rock 'N' Roll (Tony nominee for Best Play). He is also a very successful screenwriter, writing or co-writing the screenplays for Brazil, Empire of the Sun and Shakespeare in Love (for which Stoppard won an Oscar), among others. He was appointed a Commander of the British Empire in 1978, knighted in 1997 and appointed to the prestigious Order of Merit in 2000.

Michael Halberstam (Artistic Director and Director) is the co-founder of Writers Theatre. He has directed over thirty-five productions for the company, including Not About Heroes (starring Nicholas Pennell), Private Lives, Look Back in Anger, Candida, The Father, Crime and Punishment, Benefactors, Seagull, The Duchess of Malfi, Othello, The Savannah Disputation, the world premiere musical A Minister's Wife, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, She Loves Me, The Real Thing, Hamlet, Sweet Charity, Days Like Today, Isaac's Eye, and in Spring of 2016 he will be directing Arcadia, the first show in the new theatre center. Halberstam has appeared in numerous Writers Theatre productions, including Richard II (title role), Loot and Misalliance. Previously, he spent two years at The Stratford Festival in Ontario and performed in Timon of Athens, The Knight of the Burning Pestle (title role), Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It. Halberstam's other Chicago acting credits include productions with Wisdom Bridge, Court Theatre and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Elsewhere he directed The Gamester (Northlight Theatre), A Man For All Seasons (Peninsula Players Theatre), Hamlet (Illinois Shakespeare Festival), Candida (Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre in New York), Ten Little Indians (Drury Lane Theatre), a highly acclaimed revival of Crime and Punishment, which Writers Theatre produced off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in New York City, Enchanted April and State of the Union (Milwaukee Repertory Theater). In 2010 he directed A Minister's Wife at Lincoln Center Theater, and also directed the west coast premiere at San Jose Repertory Theatre in 2013. His forays into opera have included The Rape of Lucretia (Chicago Opera Theater), Francesca De Ramini featuring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christopher Eschenbach and Le Freyshutz, a Berlioz adaptation of the Weber opera conducted by Christopher Eschenbach in its North American premiere (Ravinia Festival). He spent two and a half years teaching Shakespeare at The Theatre School at DePaul University and has received awards for excellence in theater management and/or artistic achievement from The Chicago Drama League, The Arts & Business Council of Chicago, Chicago Lawyers for the Creative Arts, and The Chicago Associates of the Stratford Festival. He also received the 2010 Zelda Fichandler Award, the 2013 Aritstic Achievement Award from the League of Chicago Theatres, and was named the Chicago Tribune's 2013 "Chicagoan of the Year" for Theater. He currently serves on the executive board of the Arts Club of Chicago.

Greg Matthew Anderson (Septimus Hodge) is an Artistic Associate at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company where credits include Power, The Best Man, The Philadelphia Story, Bronte, On the Verge, The Marriage of Figaro, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Night and Day, The Importance of Being Earnest, Chesapeake (Jeff nomination), You Never Can Tell, Northanger Abbey, An Inspector Calls, and Travesties. Other Chicago credits include: Rock 'N Roll, the commercial production of Immediate Family (Goodman Theatre), Sense and Sensibility, The Mousetrap (Northlight Theatre), Arcadia (Court Theatre), Sons of the Prophet, Oklahoma! (American Theater Company), and A Moment Alone (The iO Theater). Television: Chicago Fire, Betrayal, The Playboy Club, Underemployed, The Chicago Code, Detroit 187, and the pilot Matadors. Film: Transformers: Age of Extinction, The Middle Distance, and Older Children. Greg is a graduate of Duke University's Department of Theater Studies.

Chaon Cross (Lady Croom), Chicago credits include: The Wheel, The Cherry Orchard, (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Proof (Joseph Jefferson Award Nomination), Uncle Vanya, The Glass Menagerie, Scapin, The Romance Cycle, Phèdre (Court Theatre), Cyrano (Court Theatre and Redmoon Theater), As You Like It, Private Lives, Cymbeline, Troilus and Cressida, The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Taming of the Shrew (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Macbeth (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Brothers Karamazov (Lookingglass Theatre Company) and Grace (Northlight Theatre). Regional credits include: Lady Windermere's Fan (Milwaukee Repertory Theater) and Pride & Prejudice (Cleveland Play House). TV credits: Chicago Fire (NBC), Boss (Starz) and Detroit 187 (ABC). Film credits: My Dog Skip (Warner Bros).

Kate Fry (Hannah Jarvis) returns to Writers Theatre after appearing in Marjorie Prime, Hedda Gabler, The Letters, A Minister's Wife and Oh Coward!. Chicago credits include Outside Mullingar (Northlight Theatre), In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play (Victory Gardens Theater), As You Like It, Henry IV Parts One and Two (also at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon), The Merchant of Venice, The Moliere Comedies, The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labor's Lost, Two Gentlemen of Verona (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Caroline or Change, Arcadia, The Romance Cycle, My Fair Lady, The Cherry Orchard (Court Theatre) and productions at The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. Regional credits include The School for Scandal (Center Theatre Group in LA), My Fair Lady (McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton) and Into the Woods (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis). Off-Broadway credits include A Minister's Wife (Lincoln Center Theater). She is the recipient of two Joseph Jefferson Awards, an After Dark Award and Chicago's Sarah Siddons Award. Fry is married to actor/teacher Timothy Edward Kane. They have two sons.

Torrey Hanson (Jellaby) Recent Chicago credits: Pericles, Julius Caesar, Elizabeth Rex, Madness of King George (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), c*ck(Profiles Theater), Language Archive (Piven Theatre Workshop), Paulus (Silk Road Rising), Spoon River Anthology (Provision Theater), and Never the Sinner (Northwestern University). Regional and international credits: Milwaukee Repertory Theater (75 productions 17 seasons), Oregon Shakespeare Festival (5 seasons), Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre Festival, A Contemporary Theatre, The Empty Space, Cleveland Play House, Indiana Repertory Theater, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Resident Ensemble Players at the University of Delaware, Madison Repertory Theatre, Subaru Theater Company in Tokyo. Television: Empire, Crisis, Chicago Fire, Cheers, and Wings. Online: Onion Network.

Nathan Hosner (Captain Brice) Chicago credits include: productions with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Paramount Theatre, ShawChicago Theater Company, and The Shakespeare Project of Chicago. Additional credits include: Peter and the Starcatcher (First National Tour) and productions with American Players Theatre, The New Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Arkansas Shakespeare Festival, the BoarsHead Theater, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Door Shakespeare and the Madison Repertory Theatre New Play Festival. Nathan is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London.

Callie Johnson (Chloe Coverly) Chicago credits include Melba Snyder in Pal Joey (Porchlight Music Theatre, Jeff Award-Cameo Performance); Natalie Goodman in Next to Normal (Drury Lane Theatre, Broadway World Award: Best Musical Revival), Carrie White in Carrie: The Musical (Bailiwick Chicago, Jeff Nomination-Best Leading Actress, Broadway World Nomination: Best Leading Actress). She is a 2012 BFA graduate of Columbia College Chicago's musical theatre program, a proud player of the Peninsula Players in Door County, and is originally from Genoa, IL. Callie is a vocal student of Rebecca Schorsch.

Scott Parkinson (Bernard Nightingale) Chicago credits include: sixteen productions at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, including the title role in Richard II, the Fool in King Lear, Caesar in Antony & Cleopatra and Speed in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Other Chicago credits include: Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Guys & Dolls (Court Theatre), Angels in America (The Journeymen), Northlight Theatre, Goodman Theatre; title roles in Hamlet and Richard III, Iago in Othello (Shakespeare on the Green). Regional credits include: An Iliad and c*ck(Studio Theatre), Angelo in Measure for Measure, Cassius in Julius Caesar, The Persians (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet, Treplev in Seagull (The Old Globe), The School for Scandal (Mark Taper Forum), Hartford Stage and La Jolla Playhouse. Off-Broadway credits include: Hamlet (Classic Stage Company), You Belong To Me (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Stage Manager in David Cromer's Our Town, Orson's Shadow (Barrow Street Theatre), The Third Story (MCC Theater), Rose Rage, and Crime & Punishment. National Tour: The 39 Steps. Broadway: The Coast of Utopia (Lincoln Center Theater). TV: Forever, Law & Order: SVU. Featured interview, North American Players of Shakespeare.

Gabriel Ruiz (Richard Noakes) is a proud ensemble member of Teatro Vista Theater Company and a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University. Chicago credits include How Long Will ICry?, and understudying The Motherf**ker with the Hat (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); The Upstairs Concierge (Goodman Theater); White Tie Ball (Teatro Vista); Creditors (Remy Bumppo Theatre Company); Sita Ram (Chicago Children's Choir); After (Profiles Theatre); Working: The Musical (The Broadway Playhouse); Richard III, Short Shakespeare! A Midsummer Night's Dream (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); and Arabian Nights (Lookingglass Theater Company). Regional credits include Why Torture is Wrong and The People Who Love Them (Forward Theater Company); and Blood and Gifts (The Lincoln Center). Television credits include Boss and Chicago Fire.

Alistair Sewell (Gus Coverly) Chicago credits include: Jay in Lost in Yonkers (Northlight Theatre). Based in Madison, other theater credits include: From Up Here, The Farnsworth Invention (Forward Theater Company), And Then They Came for Me (Children's Theater of Madison) and Turn of the Screw (Madison Opera). Film credits include Into the Wake, The Half of Me That's Him, The Mourning Hour and Blame.

Christopher Sheard (Valentine Coverly) Chicago credits include: Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight (Windy City Playhouse), SPILL (TimeLine Theatre), A Doll's House (directed by Michael Halberstam, Definition Theatre Company), SS! Macbeth and SS! Romeo and Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), c*ck(Profiles Theatre) and A Christmas Carol (Metropolis Performing Arts Centre). Regional credits include: Boy by Anna Ziegler (Ensemble Studio Theatre); 9 productions with American Players Theatre, most recently Romeo and Juliet and The Seagull; and two summers with the Great River Shakespeare Festival. He received his B.A. from Florida State University, his M.F.A. from The University of Illinois PATP.

Elizabeth Stenholt (Thomasina Coverly) Chicago credits include: Zoe in Airline Highway (understudy, Steppenwolf Theatre Company), Morse Braithwaite in One Flea Spare (Eclipse Theatre Company), Laurie in Brighton Beach Memoirs (Raven Theatre, Fox Valley Repertory) and Victoria Roubideaux in Plainsong (Signal Ensemble Theatre). Recent Films include: Swan Song, Life & Death of an Unhappily Married Man and Pictures For Lily.

Rod Thomas (Ezra Chater) Chicago credits include: Jeff in Brigadoon (Goodman Theatre), Javert in Les Miserables (Paramount Theatre), Dan in Next to Normal, The Game's Afoot, Hairspray, Sugar, Barefoot in the Park, Big - The Musical (Drury Lane Theater), A Midsummer Night's Dream, The People vs. Friar Laurence (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), City of Angels, Mary Poppins, White Christmas, Guys and Dolls (Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire), as well as work with Court Theatre, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Light Opera Works and Theatre at the Center. Mr. Thomas was a standby for Scar and Pumbaa in Disney's The Lion King for the Broadway, National Tour and Las Vegas companies. His television appearances include: Chicago Fire (NBC). A recipient of Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Award, Mr. Thomas is a graduate of Northwestern University.

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