Photo Coverage: Oscar Wilde's LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN Returns to UCLA's William Andrews Clark Memorial Library This Summer

Chalk Repertory Theatre, the Los Angeles-based production company that is a leader "in the growing conversation about the shape of immersive theatre," today announced its upcoming re-mount of Oscar Wilde's LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN at UCLA's William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles. Back by popular demand after sold-out houses last summer, an editorial vote from LA Stage Weekly for a return engagement, and being named LA Weekly's "Pick of the Week" in June 2013, the show will be performed in Chalk's signature, immersive style.

Moving audience members to a different space for each act, director Jennifer Chang makes full use of the library grounds by taking them on a theatrical tour of the breathtaking lawns and courtyards. The audience will attend Lady Windermere's coming-of-age party and intimately follow her careful navigation through waves of gossip as she artfully unravels an intricate web of lies.

Chalk Repertory Theatre is fast-becoming a world leader in shaping immersive theater, along with London's Punchdrunk and New York City's Third Rail Projects, according to Noah Nelson from Bitter Lemons.

This project is a partnership between Chalk Rep and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library's Arts on the Grounds performing arts series. The library has a collection of Oscar Wilde material that has been called the world's best and includes a typed copy of "Lady Windermere's Fan" with Wilde's handwritten notes from 1892, the year this comedy of manners was first produced. For more information about the series, visit www.c1718cs.ucla.edu/artsonthegrounds.

Returning cast Amielynn Abellera, Feodor Chin, Amin El Gamal, Amalia Fite, Allie Jennings, Tess Lina, Teri Reeves, Brian Slaten, Scott Keiji Takeda, George Wyhinny, and Peter Wylie, will be joined by Jacques C. Smith, best known for his role in Broadway's "Rent," as well as productions at the Pasadena Playhouse and The Goodman Theatre, in the the role of Lord Windermere. All five performances will take place at UCLA's William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at 2520 Cimarron St., Los Angeles, CA 90018. Jacques C. Smith, best known for his role in Broadway's "Rent," as well as productions at the Pasadena Playhouse and The Goodman Theatre, will play the role of Lord Windermere.

The multicultural cast features characters that may feel reminiscent of the icons of today's social elite, adding contemporary relevance to the play's questions of status and loyalty. Set and Props Design: Arturo Betanzos; Lighting Design: Rebecca Bonebrake, and Costume Design: Halei Parker.

LA Weekly said of last year's performance, "Apart from providing an atmospheric backdrop for Wilde's epigrammatic assault on late-Victorian bourgeois respectability, director Jennifer Chang's environmental, modern-dress (courtesy of costumer Halei Parker) staging lends an engaging, naturalistic buffer to the brittleness of the play's 19th-century melodramatic tropes while rooting the wealth of its Wildean bon mots in a soil of contemporary psychological truth."

The first performance is a pay-what-you-can preview on Friday, July 25 at 6 pm. Regular performances are scheduled for July 26 and 27, and August 2 and 3 at 6 pm. The running time is 2 hours. All tickets are $25. Gates will open at 5 pm for guests to picnic on the library grounds before the show. Please bring blankets or lawn chairs and food items in non-breakable containers. Free parking is available.

For more information on Chalk Repertory Theatre or its 2014 season, or to purchase tickets, please visit www.chalkrep.com.

About Chalk Repertory Theatre

Chalk Repertory Theatre is dedicated to presenting classical and contemporary plays in unconventional spaces around Los Angeles County. Chalk Rep kicked off in 2009 with a critically-acclaimed season of four plays including the Ovation Award-winning Family Planning. Other past productions include Three Sisters, Twelfth Night, and the West Coast Premiere of Slither at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the West Coast premiere of The Debate over Courtney O'Connell of Columbus, Nebraska by Mat Smart, the 2010 and 2012 FLASH Festival of short plays and three world premiere productions by founding member Ruth McKee including Hell Money, Full Disclosure, and the Garland Nominated Stray. For more information about Chalk Rep or its upcoming season, please visit us online at www.ChalkRep.com.

Photos by Shari Barrett

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