Will Dunne's LOVE AND DROWNING Extends at 16th Street Theater thru Nov 3

The world premiere of Will Dunne's Love and Drowning has been extended through November 3, 2012 at 16th Street Theater, a program of the North Berwyn Park District. Love and Drowning is the final offering in 16th Street's Season Five 2012: Love, Faith and the Unknown. Post-show dialogues after every Thursday and Friday performances include speakers such as playwright Will Dunne, director Ann Filmer and special guests from Chicago's International Association for Near Death Studies.

Ella and Hank Harding have drowned. Or have they? After a boating accident that left them both clinically dead, the resuscitated couple now find themselves at a strange remote institute where life isn't what it used to be. An ode to Chekhov, Beckett, and Rod Serling, Love and Drowning explores the phenomenon of near-death experience and its impact on people's lives.

Featuring Molly Glynn as Ella (of Steppenwolf's Orange Flower Water), Malcolm Callan (The Beats), Cat Dean (Stage Left's Kingsville), Vincent Lonergan (member of Signal Ensemble Theatre), and Andy Lutz (of Chicago Dramatists' Blizzard '67).

With designs by Associate Artists Kurt Sharp (Scenic), Barry Bennett (Sound) Mac Vaughey (Lights), and Jesse Gaffney (Props). With Crystal Jovae Mazur (Costumes)

Will Dunne is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists where he currently develops plays and teaches workshops. Local productions of his work include: The Ascension of Carlotta at 16th Street Theater, How I Became an Interesting Person at Chicago Dramatists, and Deep Gardens at Second City. His new play The Roper recently received a public staged reading in the Chicago Dramatists Saturday Series. In addition, Mr. Dunne is the author of The Dramatic Writer's Companion: Tools to Develop Characters, Cause Scenes, and Build Stories published by the University of Chicago Press.

His plays Hotel Desperado, Love and Drowning, and How I Became an Interesting Person were each selected for development and presentation at the US National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center. Interesting Person also received a Charles MacArthur Fellowship founded by Helen Hayes and awarded by the O'Neill for comedy. The play was later presented at the Australian National Playwrights Conference in Canberra, New South Wales, and n Croatian translation at The National Theatre of Istria. Hotel Desperado was presented in Russian translation at the Moscow Theatre Union's annual festival of new plays and also was a finalist for The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab.

West coast productions of his plays Eleventh Hour, Between Quakes, The Bridge, and I Married a Werewolf earned four Bay Area Theatre Circle Awards, two DramaLogue Playwriting Awards, and a Best-of-Year mention from the San Francisco Examiner. His toll-taker play The Bridge was selected as a project of the 50-Year Celebration of the Golden Gate Bridge. His plays Moonrise and Good Morning, Romeo were finalists for the Heideman Award at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Mr. Dunne is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Director Ann Filmer just completed her adaptation and direction of Tony Fitzpatrick's American trilogy with NICKEL HISTORY: The Nation of Heat at The Steppenwolf Garage. She directed the premiere of Will Dunne's The Ascension of Carlotta for 16th Street's debut season in 2008. Next up she will direct Anupama Chandrasekhar's Disconnect for Victory Gardens Theater. Ann is the former Producing Director of Chicago Dramatists and founder/Artistic Director of 16th Street Theater.

RUNNING TIME: 2 hours including one intermission. Extended thru November 3, 2012, playing Thursdays & Fridays @ 7:30 PM, Saturdays @ 5:00 & 8:30 PM at 16th Street Theater, 6420 16th Street, Berwyn.

The show features Malcolm Callan, Cat Dean, Molly Glynn, Vincent Lonergan, Andy Lutz and designs by Associate Artists Barry Bennett (Sound), Kurt Sharp (Scenic), Mac Vaughey (Lights), Jesse Gaffney (Props). With Crystal Jovae Mazur (Costumes). Stage managed by Mallory Bass.

To purchase tickets, go online at www.16thstreettheater.org, call (708) 795-6704 or visit in person at North Berwyn Park District, 1619 Wesley Ave., Berwyn. General Admission: $18. Group Tickets $14 for 8+. Student Rush Tickets (limited amount available day of show only): $10.

A program of the North Berwyn Park District, 16th STREET THEATER is Berwyn’s professional equity theater under the leadership of Artistic Director Ann Filmer and Managing Director Eddie Sugarman. Located just 17 minutes from downtown Chicago, 16th Street was recognized by the Chicago Reader as Chicago’s Best Emerging Theater 2009. Just west of Ridgeland, the theater is one mile southwest of the Austin exit off the Eisenhower Expressway/290 and the Austin Blue line. There is free parking in the lot one block west at 16th and Gunderson.

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