Chance Theater Announces It 2019 OTR New Works Series Lineup

Chance Theater, Anaheim's official resident theater company, is delighted to announce its OTR New Works lineup for 2019. We will be presenting staged readings of Jessica Huang's Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying on March 6th, John Glore's Creep on May 8th, and 2016 Resident Playwright Jenny Connell Davis' End of Shift on October 9th. We will also be doing a LAB Workshop of a new play (which is still being written) by our 2019 Resident Playwright, Jessica Huang from July 18th - 21st. All performances will take place at the Bette Aitken theater arts Center.

This will be Chance Theater's 9th year in a row of producing its On The Radar (OTR) New Works Series, featuring staged readings and a workshop of new plays in development. Chance Theater will also have a new Resident Playwright whose work will be highlighted throughout the year. Previous resident playwrights include Marshall Pailet (whose musical Triassic Parq at the Chance won the Ovation Award for Best Musical), Lauren Yee (who had two major premieres in Southern California theater last year - King of the Yees at Kirk Douglas Theatre, and Cambodian Rock Band at South Coast Repertory), Joanna Garner (whose play, The Orange Garden won the 2016 Keene Prize for Literature and the 2018 Izzy Award), and Nick Jones (two of his plays that were featured in our OTR Series received major world premieres at Lincoln Center and Manhattan Theatre Club). Over the years, the resident playwrights have returned time and again to have their work featured in both the OTR Series (Jenny Connell Davis' recent The Candidate) and the Main Season (Lauren Yee's in a word and Marshall Pailet's Claudio Quest).

Staged Readings

Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 at 7:30pm
on the Cripe Stage at the Bette Aitken theater arts Center

By 2019 Resident Playwright Jessica Huang

Transmission in Advance of the Second Great Dying tells an epic tale of grief and global warming through the intersecting lives of Earth's human and non-human inhabitants in 2045. Katrina and her unborn baby head north in search of snow; Hugo seeks purpose in a world without resources; and after a series of unnatural events, recently widowed Carla is swept into a cosmic relationship with an ageless being that challenges her understanding of time and extinction. Together with a young lynx and a swarm of locusts, their journeys become transmissions of hope and loss against the backdrop of planetary collapse.

Single tickets go on sale January 30, 2019.

Creep
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 7:30pm
on the Cripe Stage at the Bette Aitken theater arts Center

By John Glore

In Creep (adapted from stories by Edgar Allen Poe), a wealthy man has holed up inside his castle with several hundred of his closest friends to escape the plague that devastated the populace on the other side of the castle's stone walls. The moneyed elite can only wait out the devastation, but what better way to do so on this All Hallows Eve than with a costume ball? - and better yet, the celebrants will provide their own entertainment by relating terrifying tales of murder, mayhem and supernatural malice. One by one, the story-tellers do their best to top one another while an Uninvited Guest waits for his turn to curdle their blood with a tale that comes with a deathly surprise at its conclusion. The American master of the poetical macabre provides the stories, accompanied by rock music whose chilling undertow perfectly suits the morbid moods of Mr. Poe.

Single tickets go on sale April 3, 2019.

End of Shift
Wednesday, October 9, 2019 at 7:30pm
on the Cripe Stage at the Bette Aitken theater arts Center

By 2016 Resident Playwright Jenny Connell Davis

It's the end of a long day washing dishes at the Spurwink Country Kitchen, and friends-for-life Jesse, Ben, and Max are on a mission to create a fitting memorial to their fallen hometown hero. But when the prettiest girl in town shows up on their doorstep, everything the boys know about love, life, and loyalty gets called into question.

Single tickets go on sale August 21, 2019.



LAB Workshop

A New Play
July 18-21, 2019
on the Fyda-Mar Stage at the Bette Aitken theater arts Center

By 2019 Resident Playwright Jessica Huang

Jessica is currently writing a new play to be workshopped over a weekend in July on the Fyda-Mar Stage. What makes the LAB Workshops unique from staged readings is that the playwright, director, and actors get more rehearsal time leading up to the first performance, and then go back into rehearsal in between performances to incorporate the feedback they receive from audiences. It's a great way for playwrights to fine tune a new script.

Single tickets go on sale June 6, 2019.

2019 Resident Playwright

Jessica Huang

Jessica is a MacDowell Fellow and a recipient of back-to-back Playwrights' Center Jerome Fellowships (2016-17 & 2017-18). Her work has been developed or produced in Minneapolis by Mu Performing Arts, History Theatre, and Mixed Blood Theatre, nationally by Timeline Theatre Company (Chicago), A-Squared Theatre Workshop (Chicago), Atlantic Theatre Company (NYC), 2nd Generation (NYC), Leviathan Labs (NYC), the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts (D.C.), the Source Festival (D.C.), and internationally by Yellow Earth's Typhoon Festival (London). She is currently developing a play commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club (NYC). Jessica also co-founded Other Tiger Productions, a theatrical Production Company with a mission to pursue multidisciplinary collaborations, intentional inclusivity and a re-examination of traditional theater practices. Her play, The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin, won a Stavis Award in 2018, was featured on the Kilroy's List and was a Susan Smith Blackburn Nominee in 2017. Purple Cloud received a Kilroy's List honorable mention and also received a Susan Smith Blackburn nomination. And Zero-Infinity Flight Path, was a semi-finalist at the Eugene O'Neill New Playwrights Conference.

Jessica's bold and skilled use of language makes her plays highly theatrical, inventive and spectacular, telling stories of mixed-race Asian American women, non-native English speaking immigrants; stories of the political made personal. We are truly thrilled to support the development of her work as an emerging voice in American theater.

The 2019 OTR New Works Series is being sponsored by Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation and Elizabeth George Foundation.

ABOUT CHANCE THEATER

Proud to be one of the leading ensemble-driven theatre companies in Southern California, CHANCE THEATER has received the National Theatre Company grant from American Theatre Wing for "nurturing a community of artists in ways that strengthen and demonstrate the quality, diversity, and dynamism of American theatre." The Chance has won six Ovation Awards, including two for Best Production of a Musical - Intimate Theater for its West Coast premiere of Triassic Parq - The Musical and Southern California premiere of Jerry Springer - The Opera, as well as four LADCC Awards, including the Polly Warfield Award for Outstanding Season. The Anaheim City Council named Chance Theater "the Official Resident Theater Company of Anaheim" in 2014, and Arts Orange County has twice named the Chance as "Outstanding Arts Organization." Known for using bold and personal storytelling to promote dialogue and connection within the Southern California theatrical landscape, the Chance is committed to contributing to a more compassionate, connected and creative community. As a constituent member of Theatre Communications Group, Orange County Theatre Guild, and LA Stage Alliance, Chance Theater continues to bring national attention to the Southern California and Orange County theater scenes.

TICKETS: $15.00

Call (888) 455-4212 or visit www.ChanceTheater.com.

Discounts available for children (ages 4-12), seniors, students, and military.

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