the side project will close its historic 15th season with the World Premiere of Whatever, a new play by Robert Tenges that, like his plays Elsewhere and Strangers Knocking, is concerned with struggling adolescents, a niche for which the side project has been praised in the past.
Further, Tenges, a Chicago-based playwright and artist with New York City's
The New Group, has a long-standing history with the side project and Artistic Director Adam Webster, including three past world premieres, starting with 2005's Strangers Knocking, which the Chicago Tribune's
Chris Jones named as one of the 20 best Chicago productions of 2005. In Whatever, running July 9-August 9 at the side project theatre, 1439 W. Jarvis in Rogers Park, two suburban teenagers - one facing an abortion, the other bucking his anger-management medications - try to navigate love, anger, and the bewildering adults who orbit their world.
The cast will include
Grace Melon (Redtwist's I and You) and Aaron Lockman as the two teens and
Josh Odor, Kirsten D'Aurelio, Mike Rice,
Shawna Tucker, and Bryan Breau as the adults. The production team includes Crystal Jovae Mazur (costumes), Becca Jeffords (lights), Stephen Gawrit (sound), Holly McCauley (props), Roxie Kooi (stage manager), and Brian Ruby (production coordinator).
The company's past youth-focused hits include the Midwest premiere of
Adam Rapp's Faster, the world premieres of both Sean Graney's Fourth Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide, Phillip Dawkins' Perfect, and the world premiere of
Daniel Talbott's 2010 Lambda Award Finalist, Slipping, which ran for four months and went to Dublin as part of the Dublin International Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival.
It was in his 2006 review of the side project's premiere of Slipping that TimeOut's Piatt referenced his 2005 review of Tenges' Strangers Knocking to form his above-stated opinion of the side project's singular voice when addressing real-to-life youth drama.
Long-Standing Collaboration:
"I am so thrilled to wrap our 15th season with a brand new play from Robert Tenges, celebrating a decade of collaboration," Webster says. "When I read the first draft of Whatever last year, I committed to it, not only on the basis of how strong that draft was, but also because of the rich and rewarding history between Robert and I. Each occasion has been among my most fulfilling as a director, and as a producer."
Webster went on to describe his relationship with Tenges. "I absolutely adore Robert's writing, but also his ability to adapt in the rehearsal room and continue to hone and craft the best possible version of the play for our space and the company of actors we have assembled" (including past Tenges/Webster collaborators, Kirsten D'Aurelio and
Shawna Tucker).
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