Tympanic Theatre to Present 'TODAY WE ESCAPE: Plays Inspired by OK Computer' This Spring

Tympanic dares you to brave The Den and explore several dystopias with us for the final show in our eighth season: TODAY WE ESCAPE: Plays Inspired by OK COMPUTER. Enter a sterilized future inspired by one of the most haunting -- and touching -- albums ever recorded.

TODAY WE ESCAPE: Plays Inspired by OK COMPUTER
March 13th through April 4th
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.
Special industry performance on Wednesday, March 25, at 8 p.m.
The Den Theatre (1333 N. Milwaukee Ave.)
Tickets $20 general, $15 students/industry/seniors

A companion piece to Tympanic's critically-acclaimed 2012 play festival, Deliver Us From Nowhere -- itself drawn from Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska -- Today We Escape pairs twelve Chicago playwrights and directors to create an evening of theatre inspired by Radiohead's experimental album, OK Computer. Each writer will use a song on the record as the springboard for a short play before an ensemble of musicians composes original music based on the plays themselves. Like Deliver Us....Today We Escape is a meditation on how art reflects art; a live album in the most unique sense of the word, and a celebration of music that is at times detached, yet strangely comforting.

THE PLAYWRIGHTS:

Michael Patrick Thornton - co-founding Artistic Director of The Gift Theatre.

Randall Colburn* - Hesperia (Writers Theatre), Verse Chorus Verse (Tympanic Theatre), Happy. Happier Then. (Deliver us from Nowhere Festival - Tympanic Theatre)

Ted Brengle* - Assistant Literary Manager at Tympanic Theatre, Daughters of Necessity (Deliver us from Nowhere Festival - Tympanic Theatre)

Wren Graves - The Boy Who Fell (Tympanic Theatre)
Joe Zarrow - Principal Principle (Stage Left and Theatre Seven of Chicago)

Natalie DiCristofano - Burn the Black Dog (Wayward Productions), A Play (Tympanic Theatre), SUGAR (You're Welcome Productions)

Justin Gerber - Film Editor/Senior Staff Writer at Consequence of Sound, Man Will Meddle (Deliver Us From Nowhere Festival - Tympanic Theatre), The Timey Wimey Fantastic Brilliant Extravaganza (Geronimo!) (co-writer, The Right Brain Project)

Chris Bower - Found Objects, Curious Theater Branch, When You're Dead (Deliver Us From Nowhere Festival - Tympanic Theatre)

Scott Barsotti - Company member with WildClaw Theatre, current member of the Goodman Playwrights Unit, The Revenants (WildClaw), Jet Black Chevrolet (the side project), Brewed (Tympanic Theatre) & The Stray (Deliver Us From Nowhere Festival - Tympanic Theatre)

Brooke Allen - The Deer (The Ruckus), The Life And Death of Madam Barker (Red Tape Theatre), Ruby Wilder (Tympanic Theatre)

Alex Lubischer - The Xylophone West (The Fine Print Theatre Company), Survey No. 5 (Collaboraction)

Rory Jobst - Film Producer and Company Member at Oracle Productions, Daniel Day- Lewis and the Big Potatas (Prop Thtr), Samuel Beckett, Andre the Giant, and the Crickets (Oracle b*sides)

THE DIRECTORS:

Allison Hendrix: co-Artistic Director of Kokandy Productions, actor with Kokandy Productions, The Hypocrites, The Ruckus

Dennis Frymire: Company Member with The Ruckus and Founding Member of Broken Road Theatre Company, Fault Lines (Broken Road)

Allison Shoemaker*: Director of Marketing & PR at The Ruckus; Heist Play and The Strange (The Ruckus), The Stray (Deliver Us From Nowhere Festival - Tympanic Theatre)

Richard Paro: Artistic Director of Mudgeonsoul Productions and Indie Boots Theatre and Film Festivals

Amanda Dunne Acevedo: Genesis Ensemble, Director of Education at Northlight Theatre, Resurrecting Beauty (Deliver Us From Nowhere Festival - Tympanic Theatre)

Lindsey Barlag Thornton: Genesis Ensemble, School of the Art Institute, We Are The Things of Ghosts, Phenomena (Genesis Ensemble)

Josh Sobel: Literary Manager/Ensemble Member at Strawdog Theatre, Artistic Director at Haven Theatre, The Hunting of the Snark/Just So Stories (Strawdog), How We Got On (Citadel)

Spenser Davis: Literary Manger of Broken Nose Theatre, the Artistic Director of Hobo Junction, From White Plains (Broken Nose Theatre)

Scott Weinstein: Titanic & Spelling Bee (Griffin Theatre), Seussical (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre)

Rebecca Willingham: Assistant Directed Cicada (Route 66), strangers, babies (Steep Theatre), The Seafarer (Seanachai Theatre Company)

Eric Turner: The Tempest (City Lit)

Joshua Ellison*: Assistant Literary Manager at Tympanic Theatre, Vacation (Area IV Theatre), Julia Pastrana... (Tympanic Theatre), Daughters of Necessity (Deliver Us From Nowhere Festival - Tympanic Theatre)

Michael Carnow*: Artistic Associate at Tympanic Theatre, 200 Feet & Counting (The Ten Festival - The Gift Theatre), The Drive (Deliver Us From Nowhere Festival - Tympanic Theatre)

THE BANDS:

McKenzie Gerber
The Barbarians

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Stage Manager: Erin Altekruse*
Production Manager: Dan Caffrey*
Casting Director: Kelly Parker
Sound Designer/Original Music: Maxwell Shults*
Props Designer: Holly McCauley*
Video Director: Chris Waldron*
Poster Design: Joshua Mikel*
Artistic Director: Dan Caffrey*
Managing Director: Brenda Scott Wlazlo*
Literary Manager: Chris Acevedo*
Co-director of Development: Ali Delianides*

*denotes Tympanic Company Member or Artistic Associate

About Tympanic Theatre Company - After moving to Chicago in the Fall of 2006, a handful of fellow alumni from Florida State University founded The Tympanic Theatre Company. Producing seven seasons thus far of thrilling new work, the collective has since expanded to 31 members and associates, and is helmed by Artistic Director Dan Caffrey and Managing Director Brenda Scott Wlazlo.

Besides being a resident company at the side project from 2007 to 2011, Tympanic has participated in the Department of Cultural Affairs' Incubator Series, extensively workshopping Randall Colburn's Verse Chorus Verse (directed by Kyra Lewandowski) before mounting the full world premiere, as well as Mary Arrchie's Abbie Hoffman Festival and Curious Theatre Branch's Rhino Fest. Recent productions include Deliver Us From Nowhere-a collection of short plays each based on a song from Bruce Springsteen's album Nebraska-the world premiere of Dan Caffrey's Sandalwood (directed by Aaron Henrickson and co-produced with the side project), the world premiere of Scott T. Barsotti's Brewed, (directed by Anna C. Bahow and co-produced with The Ruckus), and the Midwest Premiere of Shaun Prendergast's The True History Of The Tragic Life And Triumphant Death Of Julia Pastrana, The Ugliest Woman In The World (directed by Joshua Ellison), which was performed entirely in the dark.

The Tympanic Theatre Company is dedicated to producing new and developed work with fantastical, frightening, or absurd subject matter that provokes, inspires, and entertains. Through our use of vibrant storytelling, dynamic language, and colorful characters, we invite our audience to plunge headfirst with us into theatrical worlds that are fresh, energetic, and visceral.

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