WE'RE GONNA BE OKAY, DIAGRAM OF A PAPER AIRPLANE and More Set for American Theater Co's 33rd Season
By: BWW News Desk May. 04, 2017
In the New Year, ATC presents Basil Kreimendahl's We're Gonna Be Okay, making its Chicago premiere, January 25-March 4, 2018, directed by Davis. The production premiered as part of Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays. Next spring brings another world premiere to ATC, Carlos Murillo's Diagram of a Paper Airplane, May 3-June 10, 2018, directed by Bonnie Metzgar. Over the course of the entire season, ATC will host its second Chicago Open Residency Experiment (CORE), a series of week-long residencies for artists of all disciplines.
"At ATC, the artist comes first," says Davis. "We select seasons of artists and then dialogue with them about the work they need to make and how we can champion it. To us that is the point of the arts institution; we provide a space where artists can interrogate their art and experiment with their work for the good of the American theater. Season 33 is an articulation of those values. As we built the season we've used a phrase I scribbled on the board above my desk as our programing compass. The phrase is: Laugh, Cry, & Hug Your Neighbor. As an institution, we are working on this concept of neighborliness through our support of artists in process, the youth we serve and the work we produce. This year we're presenting two world premieres, a second production and line up of artists in residence that all embrace bold theatricality, questions of identity and interrogations of power and belonging."
Season subscriptions are on sale now and range from $40-$114, with special pricing available for members under the age of 35. To purchase a subscription or for more information, visit www.atcweb.org or call the ATC Box Office at 773-409-4125.
ATC remains committed to its partnership with Chicago Inclusion Project, whose work creates inclusive theater experiences that bring together Chicago artists and audiences normally separated by physical ability, gender identity and/or ethnic background. The two companies partner on casting, giving diverse theater artists access to roles they might traditionally have been excluded from. Together with the Chicago Inclusion Project, ATC will continue its commitment to presenting works that boldly reflect the diversity of stories and experiences in America today.
Past world premiere productions at ATC include Stephen Karam's Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning play The Humans and Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer Prize-winning Disgraced, both of which enjoyed acclaimed Broadway runs. In Season 32 ATC produced the regional premiere of Jaclyn Backhaus' Men On Boats, immediately following its Off Broadway run at Playwrights Horizons; reimagined classic, Pulitzer Prize winner Picnic by William Inge; and will present Dan Aibel's world premiere of T., an exploration of the competitive ice skating saga between NANCY KERRIGAN and Tonya Harding, later this month.
AMERICAN THEATER COMPANY'S SEASON 33:
World Premiere
Welcome to Jesus
Written by Janine Nabers
Directed by Will Davis
October 26-December 3, 2017
In fictional Hallelujah, TX, football reigns, and the quarterback is king. Janine Nabers' darkly funny and powerful new play unearths the tyranny of small town life and the power of prejudice to define our fate. Staged in a field of wood chips, about a town in search of some good news, Welcome to Jesus fuses fable and horror in a twenty-first century take on the Southern Gothic tradition.
Chicago premiere
We're Gonna Be Okay
Written by Basil Kreimendahl
Directed by Will Davis
January 25-March 4, 2018
In the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy addressed the nation, "My fellow citizens: let no one doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out...But the greatest danger of all would be to do nothing." Well, Efran and Leena and Mag and Sul are thinking about doing something. Something big. Straight from Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays, Basil Kreimendahl's We're Gonna Be Okay confronts the fears of the American middle class as two families wrestle with macrame, female empowerment and a shared property line.
World Premiere
Diagram of a Paper Airplane
Written by Carlos Murillo
Directed by Bonnie Metzgar
May 3-June 10, 2018
Javier C. is dead, and in his wake are fragments and scraps of his magnum opus mailed mysteriously from New Mexico to his group of ex-friends in New York. Called "an absolutely extraordinary achievement from a writer at the height of his powers" by American Theatre Magazine, Carlos Murillo's Diagram of a Paper Airplane is the first in a trilogy of plays that examine the capacity of friendships to withstand the unimaginable. Director Bonnie Metzgar brings life to a night of mourning and celebration that will leave them wondering if Diagram of a Paper Airplane ever existed at all.
SEASON 33 CORE PROJECTS INCLUDE:
Black Like Me
Adapted and directed by Monty Cole
Based on the book by John Howard Griffin
Kissing
Conceived by Abigail Boucher
Co-created by Abigail Boucher and Carolyn Defrin
With Brock Alter
Dig
By Theodore Germaine
Directed by Gina Marie Hayes
With Avi Roque
TBD Project
(saliva) things that i like about my partner that are not their mouth or genitals
By Jasmine Jordan and Valerie Gallucci
Show Boat
Music by Jerome Kern
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Based on the novel "Show Boat" by Edna Ferber
Directed by Jess McLeod
Join us for a week of experimenting with the size and scope of this beloved musical.
Any of my Enemies
Molly Brennan (Lead Artist)
Diagram of a Paper Airplane
By Carlos Murillo
Directed by Bonnie Metzgar
As part of their process leading up to production, Metzgar and Murillo will receive a CORE pre-production week to explore a key element(s) of the play.
To The Moon
Written by Beth Kander
Artistic collaborators: Allyce Torres, Amanda Long, Arian Thigpen, Sallee Murphy
La Ronde
A reimagining based on the play by Arthur Schnitzler
Directed by Dani Wieder
Choreography by Andy Slavin
FARMED: The Orwell Radio
A song-setting by Trevor Bachman
Inspired by George Orwell's "Animal Farm"
Soot & Linen
SEASON 33 SUBSCRIPTION AND TICKET INFORMATION:
The American Membership $114 (available until Jan. 31, 2018)
Includes reserved seating for each production
Early Bird 3-Ticket Membership $90 (before August 31, 2017)
3-Ticket Membership $105 (Sept. 1, 2017-Jan. 31, 2018)
Under-35 3-Ticket Membership $60 (available until Jan. 31, 2018)
Early Bird 2-Ticket Membership $60 (before August 31, 2017)
2-Ticket Membership $70 (Sept. 1, 2017-Jan. 31, 2018)
Under-35 2-Ticket Membership $40 (available until Jan. 31, 2018)
All Memberships allow you to choose your performance dates upon purchase. To purchase a subscription or for more information, please contact the ATC Box Office at 773-409-4125 or visit www.atcweb.org.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Will Davis is a director and choreographer focused on physically adventurous new work and old plays in new ways. He is also the newly appointed artistic director of American Theater Company(ATC) where he has implemented a new residency program (CORE-Chicago Open Residency Experiment) supporting new ways of making new plays. Recent projects include: Duat by Daniel Alexander Jones for SohoRep. Evita, re-imagined for the Olney Theatre Center, Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus for ATC, Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks, and Playwrights Horizons; Orange Julius by Basil Kreimendahl; Mike Iveson's Sorry Robot for PS122's COIL Festival; and two productions of Colossal by Andrew Hinderaker for Mixed Blood Theater and the Olney Theatre Center, for which he won a Helen Hayes award for outstanding direction. Davis has developed, directed and performed his work with New York Theatre Workshop, Clubbed Thumb, the New Museum, the Olney Theatre Center, the ALLIANCE THEATRE, the Playwright's Realm, the Fusebox Festival, New Harmony Project, the Orchard Project, the Ground Floor Residency at Berkeley Rep, Performance Studies International at Stanford University, and the Kennedy Center. He is an alum of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, the NYTW 2050 Directing Fellowship and the BAX (Brooklyn Art Exchange) artist in residence program. He holds a BFA in Theatre Studies from DePaul University and an MFA in Directing from UT Austin. Upcoming projects include Charm by Philip Dawkins at MCC.
Janine Nabers is a native of Houston, Texas and a 2013 graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellowship at Juilliard and winner of the 2014 Yale Drama Series Prize for her play Serial Black Face. She currently writes for Lifetime's Unreal and Bravo's Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce under Marti Noxon. Her play Annie Bosh is Missing premiered in August 2013 at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Janine won the 2013 NYFA Playwriting fellowship and was the 2013-2014 AETNA Playwriting Fellow at Hartford Stage, a 2012-2013 New York Theatre Workshop Playwriting Fellow, and Page 73's 2011 Playwriting Fellow. Janine is working on commissions from Primary Stages, the Alley Theatre, and Hartford Stage. Her new musical Mrs. Hughes was developed as the 2012 Williamstown Theatre Festival fellowship musical and was part of the 2013 Yale Institute for Musical Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club's 7@7 series, and the Theatreworks New Works Now Festival.
Basil Kreimendahl is a resident playwright at New Dramatists. Their plays have won several awards, including the Rella Lossy Playwright Award and a National Science Award at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Kreimendahl has been commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival's American Revolutions program, and by Actors Theatre of Louisville for Remix 38 (2014 Humana Festival). We're Gonna Be Okay had its world premiere at Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival of New Plays in 2017. Their play Orange Julius was developed at the 2012 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and will have its New York premiere at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, in a co-production with P73. Kreimendahl's plays have also been produced or developed by New York Theatre Workshop, American Theater Company, Victory Gardens Theater, The Lark, La Jolla Playhouse, and LAByrinth Theater Company. They have been a Playwrights' Center Jerome Fellow and a McKnight Fellow, won an Art Meets Activism grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, and will be a visiting writer at Williams College in 2017. Kreimendahl's work has been published by Dramatic Publishing and HowlRound. They received their M.F.A. from the University of Iowa in 2013.
Carlos Murillo is a Chicago-based, internationally produced and award winning playwright, director and educator of Colombian and Puerto Rican descent. He is a recipient of a 2015 Doris Duke Impact Award for his work in the theatre and received a 2016 Mellon Foundation National Playwright Residency Program grant for a three-year residency at Adventure Stage in Chicago. In 2016 he was selected as one of 37 playwrights commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival for their historic American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle. His best known play Dark Play or Stories for Boys premiered at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2007, and has been performed throughout the US, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Lithuania. The play appeared in the anthology New Playwrights: Best New Plays of 2007 (Smith & Kraus). His plays have been seen in New York at Repertorio Español, P73, the NYC Summer Playwrights Festival, En Garde Arts, The Public Theater New Work Now! Festival, and Soho Rep; in Chicago at The Goodman, Steppenwolf, Adventure Stage, Collaboraction, Walkabout Theatre, Theatre Seven and The Theatre School of DePaul University; and in Los Angeles at Theatre @ Boston Court, Circle X and Son of Semele. His plays have been commissioned by The Children's Theatre of Minneapolis, The Goodman, The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, Steppenwolf, Adventure Stage and the University of Iowa International Writing Program, and developed by The Sundance Theatre Lab, The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, New Dramatists and others. His book The Javier Plays, a trilogy of works including Diagram of a Paper Airplane, A Thick Description of Harry Smith and Your Name Will Follow You Home, was published by 53rd State Press and called "an absolutely extraordinary achievement from a writer at the height of his powers" by American Theatre.
Bonnie Metzgar is a Chicago-based playwright, director, dramaturg and producer. In 2015, Metzgar stepped in as interim Artistic Director of American Theater Company after the death of PJ Paparelli. From 2008-2013, Metzgar served as Artistic Director of About Face Theatre. Recent directing credits include Let Me Down Easy by Anna Deavere Smith starring Usman Ally at American Theater Company, The Secretaries by the Five Lesbian Brothers at About Face and Walk Across America for Mother Earth by Taylor Mac for Red Tape as part of the 2015 Garage Rep at Steppenwolf. Metzgar was invited to develop CJ, a new piece co-created with Jesse Morgan Young for ATC's 2016 CORE residency program. Her commission for Sideshow Theater's 2016 Freshness Initiative, Liberty Tree, was given a reading at Victory Gardens last spring. As a member of the Goodman's 2014-15 Playwrights Unit, she wrote 5 More, which was selected for the 2016 Great Plains Theater Conference. Her plays have been finalists for the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Festival, and selected for the Great Plains Theater Conference in Omaha. In 2013-2014, Metzgar was awarded the Carl Djerassi Fellowship in Playwriting at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Previously, Metzgar produced the 365 Festival with Suzan-Lori Parks and was Associate Producer at The Public Theater where she founded Joe's Pub. Metzgar is on the National Advisory Committee for Howlround and has taught at a number of universities including Northwestern, University of Chicago, Purdue, DePaul and Brown.
American Theater Company (ATC) challenges and inspires its community by exploring stories that ask the question, "What does it mean to be an American?" ATC's Ensemble includes Patrick Andrews, Kareem Bandealy, Jaime Castañeda, Kelly O'Sullivan, Tyler Ravelson, and Sadieh Rifai.
American Theater Company is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince, the Shubert Foundation, ArtsWork Fund, Lagunitas Breweing Co, Actors' Equity Foundation,
The Pauls Foundation and Robert & Isabelle Bass Foundation.
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