Victory Gardens Theater Launches 2009-2010 Season With IGNITION Festival Of New Plays, Begins 9/11

Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago's #1 producer of new plays, is planning a bold launch for its 2009-2010 season with Ignition, the company's first-ever national festival of new plays by America's top emerging writers of color under 40 years old.

Victory Gardens' most daring new play development projects in 36 years, Ignition boasts overlapping world premieres of a pair of fresh new plays by two of America's fastest rising playwrights: Year Zero by Michael Golamco, and The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz.

Ignition actually began in spring 2008, when 120 writers of color under 40 answered Victory Gardens' nationwide call to submit new scripts for the first phase of the festival. The top six plays were selected, workshopped, and presented as staged readings in an incredibly well received, weeklong festival last summer, curated by Victory Gardens Associate Artistic Director Sandy Shinner.

Ignition truly catches on fire this fall, first with Michael Golamco's Year Zero, an intimate family drama about a Cambodian family in modern-day California, September 11-October 18, 2009. Fueling even more excitement for Ignition, Year Zero has the added distinction of being the debut show in Victory Gardens new, 120-seat Studio Theater, now in the final phase of construction on the second floor of the Biograph. Press opening for Year Zero is Monday, September 21 at 7:30 pm.

Just two weeks later, previews of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity begin firing up the Biograph mainstage. Kristoffer Diaz' smart, comic, hip hop infused look at professional wrestling, geopolitics and refrigerator crispers, runs September 25-November 1, 2009. Press opening is Monday, October 5, 7:30 pm. The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity is presented in association with Teatro Vista.

Related new play readings, industry panels, the late night Spark Plug party on October 9, and the opportunity to invite producing theaters to visit Chicago for a wider viewing of the playwrights' work promise to make Ignition Chicago's hottest theater ticket next fall, and the culmination of a new play festival of national acclaim.

The Victory Gardens Biograph Theater is located at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, in the heart of Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Single tickets for both Ignition world premieres are on sale now, for $30-$48. Five-play subscriptions to Victory Gardens' 2009-2010 season start at only $80, and can include one or both Ignition plays. To inquire about tickets or subscriptions, call the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater box office, 773.871.3000 or visit victorygardens.org.

The Ignition Festival is sponsored in part by the Chicago Community Trust.

More about...

YEAR ZERO
By Michael Golamco
Directed by Andrea J. Dymond
September 11 - October 25, 2009
Press Opening Monday, September 21, 7:30 pm

Vuthy Vichea is a 16-year-old Cambodian American. He loves hip-hop and Dungeons and Dragons. He is a weird kid in a place where weirdness can be fatal: Long Beach, California. And since his best friend moved and his mother died, the only person he can talk to is a human skull he keeps hidden in a cookie jar.

Sharp, funny, and packing an emotional wallop, Year Zero is a touching family drama about being chased across an ocean by death, standing firm, and confronting it head on. An Ignition Festival standout last spring, Year Zero also won the Grand Prize of Chicago Dramatists' Many Voices Project, subsequently won the Pacific Century Playwriting Competition at East-West Players, and was a finalist at the 2009 Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference.

Michael Golamco, who writes for stage and screen, has also seen his play Cowboy Versus Samurai produced eight times after its New York premiere, including in Canada and Hong Kong. It was published in the Smith and Kraus anthology New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2006. His short play Heartbreaker was recently named a finalist for the Actors Theater of Louisville's National 2009 Ten Minute Play Contest/ Heideman Award. In addition, Golamco has just been awarded a new playwriting commission by South Coast Rep, and has been selected to become a new member of New Dramatists. For more information, visit michaelgolamco.com.

Year Zero will be directed by Victory Gardens Resident Director Andrea J. Dymond. Dymond's recent VGT productions include Gloria Bond Clunie's Living Green, Jeffrey Sweet's Court Martial at Fort Devens, and Sonja Linden's I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda.

Year Zero stars Joyee Lin (Vuthy), Jennifer Shin (Ra), Tim Chiou (Han) and Allan Aquino (Glenn). Designers include Richard and Jacqueline Penrod, set; Mary Badger, lights; Francis Maggio, costumes; Kyle Irwin, sound; John Boesche, projections; and Grant Sabin, props. Rachel Robinson is production stage manager.

This touching family drama promises to be wonderful pick for Victory Gardens' first world premiere in its intimate new Studio Theater. Previews of Year Zero are September 11-20: Tuesday through Thursday at 7 pm; Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm; Sunday at 3:30 pm. Previews are $30 - $37. Press opening is Monday, September 21 at 7:30 pm. Regular performances are September 23-October 18: Tuesday
through Thursday at 7 pm; Friday at 7:30 pm; Saturday at 4 pm and 7:30 pm; Sunday at 3:30 pm. Performances are $37-$48. Added matinees are Wednesday, October 7 and 14 at 2 pm. No evening performance Tuesday, September 22 or September 29. Ask the box office about student, senior, Access, rush and "10 @ $20" discount offers.

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THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY
By Kristoffer Diaz
Directed by Eddie Torres
Presented in association with Teatro Vista
September 25 - November 1, 2009 Press Opening Monday, October 5, 7:30 pm

Macedonio Guerra is a middle-rank pro wrestler who may have discovered his ticket to the big time: an impossibly charismatic, hip-hop-influenced Indian kid from Brooklyn. Their boss has the perfect concept: team them in the ring as terrorists.

Diaz' smart, comic look at pro wrestling, geopolitics, and refrigerator crispers is a theatrical smackdown of dazzling hip-hop language, presented with a fresh, funny, high-octane flair. Set in the world of professional wrestling, Chad also raises pertinent questions about racial identity and pop culture in our society.
Kristoffer Diaz is a playwright and educator, currently living and working in Minneapolis, where he is a 2009-2010 Jerome Fellow. In addition to generating major buzz at Ignition, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity was a finalist for the 2008 O'Neill Playwrights Conference, and subsequently won Arizona Theater Company's National Latino Playwriting Award. His full-length plays also include Chad, Welcome to Arroyo's and Guernica, which have been produced and developed at Victory Gardens, American Theatre Company, The Orchard Project, Hip-Hop Theater Festival, The Lark, Summer Play Festival, Donmar Warehouse, and South Coast Repertory. Diaz also was one of the creators of Brink!, the apprentice anthology show at the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays. He is a new playwright-in-residence at Teatro Vista. For more information, visit www.kristofferdiaz.com <http://www.kristofferdiaz.com/> .

Edward Torres (director) is a Co-Founder and current Artistic Director of Teatro Vista...Theatre With a View. Most recently, he appeared in the Goodman's production of Luis Alfaro's Electricidad. He also appeared in Victory Gardens' critically acclaimed Pulitzer-Prize winning play Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz. Directorial credits for Teatro Vista include The Show Host, co-produced with Victory Gardens Theater (also at Theater on the Lake), Ambrosio, Broken Eggs (Theater on the Lake), The Boiler Room co-produced with Steppenwolf Theatre for their Student Exchange Program (also at Theater on the Lake) and the critically acclaimed production of Aurora's Motive (also at Theater on the Lake).

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity stars Usman Ally (Vigneshwar Padujar, aka VP), Kamal Angelo Bolden (Chad Deity), Desmin Borges (Macedonio Guerra, aka The Mace), James Krag (Everett K. Olsen, aka EKO, Ring Announcer), and Christian Litke (Joe Jabroni). Designers include Brian Bembridge, set; Christine Pascual, costumes; Jesse Klug, lights; Misha Fiksel, sound; D.J. Reed, props; and David Woolley, SAFD, fight director. Production stage manager is Tina M. Jach.

Previews of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity are September 25-October 4: Tuesday through Thursday at 7:3 pm; Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; Sunday at 3 pm. Previews are $30 - $37. Press opening is Monday, October 5 at 7:30 pm. Regular performances are October 7-November 1: Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 pm; Friday at 8 pm; Saturday at 5 pm and 8:30 pm; Sunday at 3 pm. Performances are $37-$48. Added matinees are Wednesday, 21 and 28 at 2 pm. No evening performance Tuesday, October 6 or October 13. Ask the box office about student, senior, Access, rush and "$20 Ringside Seats" discount offers.

Ignition Industry Weekends are October 9-11, October 23-25

Victory Gardens will program two special Ignition Industry Weekends - October 9-11, and October 23-25 - to offer producing theaters from around the U.S. the opportunity to visit Chicago for a wider viewing of the playwrights' work. A weekend of readings, panel discussions and networking opportunities, plus two of the hottest new plays in the U.S. playing on two stages at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, promise to make Ignition a new play festival of national merit.

In addition, on Friday, October 9th, following the 8 pm performance of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Victory Gardens Fresh Squeezed series will throw open the Biograph doors at 10:30 pm for SparkPlug, a post-show party celebrating the Ignition Festival, showcasing local emerging artists of color throughout the theater.

The basics

The Victory Gardens Biograph Theater is located at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. For tickets and information, call the Victory Gardens box office - 773.871.3000 - or visit victorygardens.org.

Group discounts: Gather a group of 10 or more to take advantage of discounted group rates. Call
773.549.5788 ext. 2131 for group information.

Dining: Go to victorygardens.org/boxoffice for a list of Victory Gardens' dining partners. Each is within walking distance of the Biograph, and all offer a special discount to patrons who present a Victory Gardens ticket stub (day of show only.)

Parking: $11 valet parking is available for all performances. Discounted parking is available one block south at Children's Memorial Hospital for all shows except weekday matinees (no overnights). Metered and street parking is available, but mind the Neighborhood parking restrictions.

Public transit: By CTA train, take the Red, Purple and Brown lines to the Fullerton stop. Walk east on Fullerton to Lincoln, then north 1/2 block to the theater. The #8 Halsted, #11 Lincoln, #37 Sedgwick/Ogden, and #74 Fullerton CTA buses all stop at the corner of Fullerton and Halsted, 1/2 block south of the theater. See transitchicago.com for times and routes.

Subscribe!

Right after Ignition, Victory Gardens' 2009-2010 season continues with the smash hit holiday musical The Snow Queen, back for her fourth season as Chicago's #1 alternative to traditional holiday fare, followed in the new year by the Chicago premiere of Blue Door, a Pulitzer-Prize nominated journey through four generations of black history by award-winning playwright and actor Tanya Barfield, a writer new to the Gardens.

Next come three new works from Victory Gardens' own Playwrights Ensemble: the Chicago premiere of Lonnie Carter's The Lost Boys of Sudan, James Sherman's world premiere farce Jacob and Jack, and finally, the debut of A Guide for the Perplexed by Joel Drake Johnson, author of Victory Gardens' 2007 smash hit Four Places. Adding star power to Victory Gardens' season, A Guide for the Perplexed will boast the return to a Chicago stage of acclaimed actor Kevin Anderson, opposite fellow Steppenwolf ensemble member Francis Guinan.

Five-, six- and seven-play subscriptions are on sale now, starting at only $80. Flex Plans, two-year subscriptions, and value added packages including Neighbors Night, Humanities Night, Happy Hour, Access Project, and Sitter Saturday are also available. Convenient parking, easy ticket exchanges, exclusive invitations to special events, a free subscription to Victory Magazine, and plenty of pre- and post-show deals at area bars and restaurants are always part of the Victory Gardens subscription package. Save money and support Chicago's #1 producer of new plays by subscribing today - 773.871.3000 or victorygardens.org.

About Victory Gardens Theater

Victory Gardens Theater is home to the bold voices of world premiere theater. The company features the work of its own 14-member Playwrights Ensemble, as well as that of exciting playwrights who are changing theater in the United States and abroad. Since it's founding in 1974, the company has produced more world premieres than any other Chicago theater, a commitment recognized nationally when Victory Gardens received the 2001 Tony Award for Regional Theatre. The company's dedication to developing, supporting and producing new work makes Victory Gardens an American Center for New Plays.

Working with a $3.1 million annual budget in 2008/09, Victory Gardens continues to expand its artistic and institutional boundaries under the guidance of Artistic Director Dennis Zacek, Executive Director Jan Kallish, Associate Artistic Director Sandy Shinner, Board President Jeffrey Rappin, a dedicated staff and board, and the support of its loyal subscribers.

Victory Gardens Theater is supported by the Illinois Arts Council (IAC), a stage agency, and is partially supported by a CityArts Program 4 Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Major funders include Alphawood Foundation, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Arie & Ida Crown Memorial, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Illinois Tool Works, Joyce Foundation, Kraft Foods, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Albert Pick, Jr. Fund, Polk Bros. Foundation, Prince Charitable Trusts, Shubert Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, and Wrightwood Neighbors Association.

For complete information, visit victorygardens.org.

 

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