TimeLine Theatre Company Announces 25th Anniversary Season

TimeLine Theatre Company, acclaimed for presenting plays that explore today's social and political issues through the lens of the past, is thrilled to announce that it will celebrate its 25th Anniversary season with a return to live productions starting in January 2022.

The company's 2021-22 subscription season will feature two previously announced productions that were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic but that continue to offer poignant and timely reflections on today's social and political issues: the world premiere of a new play developed through TimeLine's Playwrights Collective, plus an award-winning Chicago premiere.

TimeLine's 2021-22 subscription season includes two riveting plays that link past, present and future:

• The world premiere of Relentless by TimeLine Company Member Tyla Abercrumbie, directed by TimeLine Company Member Ron OJ Parson, previously scheduled to conclude TimeLine's 2019-20 season. Set just over 100 years ago in 1919, Relentless weaves a complicated tale of family, legacy, and progress and features characters who have weathered a great deal-revolution, change, even a pandemic-in ways that we see mirrored in our present day.

• The Chicago premiere of The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh, directed by Helen Young, previously scheduled last spring as part of TimeLine's shuttered 2020-21 season. This piercing and darkly poetic portrait of the United States as seen through the eyes of the first Chinese woman to come here illuminates the roots of the prejudice, bigotry, and hate facing today's Asian American and Pacific Islander community and inspires us to see and understand each other anew.

Both productions will be presented at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., in Chicago. This alternate location was chosen to best support current COVID-19 safety protocols for audiences, artists, and staff.

Alongside a growing coalition of more than 65 performing arts venues and producers across Chicagoland, TimeLine has agreed to ensure COVID-19 vaccination and mask requirements for audiences, artists, and staff. In general, current protocols require that patrons be masked and fully vaccinated with an FDA-authorized vaccine, or provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test, in order to attend. These protocols are subject to change as the pandemic evolves; for more information about TimeLine's current COVID-19 safety protocols, visit timelinetheatre.com/health-and-safety.

Save on tickets to TimeLine's 2021-22 Season with a 2-Admission FlexPass Subscription. Four different tiers, priced from $52 to $121, are now on sale. For more information and to purchase, call (773) 281-8463 x6 or visit timelinetheatre.com.

TimeLine's last live, in-person presentation was a performance of James Ijames' Kill Move Paradise, directed by Wardell Julius Clark, on March 12, 2020, before the theatre was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the company has explored new ways to fulfill TimeLine's mission-hosting two virtual convenings of TimeLine South, its summer arts programs for teens; offering streaming versions of Kill Move Paradise and To Master the Art to audiences across the globe; creating online programs that dug deeper into TimeLine productions and programs, including Relentless, The Chinese Lady, and the Playwrights Collective; looking "Back to Our Future" at an entirely virtual fundraising gala; and furthering its plans to establish a new home in Uptown.

"We can't wait to welcome audiences back for Season 25 and at long last, to gather together as one in the same space," said Artistic Director PJ Powers. "And as we celebrate a quarter century as an organization, TimeLine is embracing a new beginning. We have our eye on the future, with a renewed commitment to being a place for discussing and learning, for healing and processing, for grappling with the past and looking toward a better tomorrow-and for basking in the beauty of live theatre." i??

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