Shattered Globe's FOR PETER PAN ON HER 70TH BIRTHDAY Extends Through 5/27
By: A.A. Cristi May. 02, 2017
The full cast includes Shattered Globe Ensemble Members Doug McDade*, Eileen Niccolai* and Ben Werling* with Kathleen Ruhl, Patrick Thornton and HB Ward.
ANN:
I took off my green tights.
But before I went home, I stayed in the theater for a little while longer.
Where you don't have to grow up.
In this witty, tender, and very personal play from Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award nominee Sarah Ruhl, the longing for the immortality of Neverland confronts the inevitable passage of time. Five siblings - 2 doctors, 3 Republicans and 1 teacher of rhetoric - move from their father's hospital bed to a Jameson-fueled kitchen table wake, and then play out their fantasy and escape towards the "second star to the right and straight on until morning" (J.M. Barrie). In this world of make-believe, now seen through the eyes of these adults, they find wisdom and awaken new magic for the young at heart.
Ruhl's play premiered this season at Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival, transferred to Berkeley Rep last summer, and will be produced at Playwrights Horizons in NYC this fall.
The production team for FOR PETER PAN ON HER 70th BIRTHDAY includes Jack Magaw (scenic design), Sarah Jo White* (costume design), Shelley Strasser Holland* (lighting design), Chris Kriz+ (sound design), Vivian Knouse* (props design), Michael Stanfill (projections design), Steve Peebles* (assistant director), Regina Victor (assistant director), Kelly Claussen (production manager) and Tina Jach (stage manager).
PRODUCTION DETAILS:
Title: FOR PETER PAN ON HER 70th BIRTHDAY
Playwright: Sarah Ruhl
Director: Jessica Thebus
Cast: Doug McDade* (George), Eileen Niccolai* (Wendy) and Kathleen Ruhl (Ann), Patrick Thornton (Michael) HB Ward (John) and Ben Werling* (Jim).
Location: Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave, Chicago
Dates: Friday, April 14 - Saturday, May 27, 2017
Curtain Times: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm; Sundays at 3 pm. Please note: there will be an added performance on Saturday, May 27 at 3 pm.
Touch Tour/Audio Description Performance: Friday, May 5 - 6:30 pm touch tour, 8 pm performance with audio description. $20 tickets available with code "ACCESS."
Tickets: $35 general admission. Discounts: $15 students, $28 seniors, $20 under 30. $15 industry on Thursdays with code "INDUSTRY." Tickets are currently available at www.theaterwit.org, in person at the Theater Wit Box Office or by calling (773) 975-8150. Group discounts are available by contacting groupsales@shatteredglobe.org or by calling (773) 770-0333.
*Denotes Shattered Globe Ensemble Members.
+Denotes Shattered Globe Artistic Associate
About the Artists:
Sarah Ruhl's (Playwright) other plays include The Oldest Boy, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, The Clean House, Passion Play, Dead Man's Cell Phone, Melancholy Play; Eurydice; Orlando, Late: a cowboy song, Dear Elizabeth and Stage Kiss. She has been a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. Her plays have been produced on Broadway at the Lyceum by Lincoln Center Theater, off-Broadway at Playwrights' Horizons, Second Stage, and at Lincoln Center's Mitzi Newhouse Theater. Her plays have been produced regionally all over the country, often with premieres at Yale Repertory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theater, the Goodman Theater and the Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago. Her plays have also been produced internationally and have been translated into over twelve languages. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She has received the Susan Smith Blackburn award, the Whiting award, the Lily Award, a PEN award for mid-career playwrights and the MacArthur "genius" award. Her book of essays 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write was published by Faber and Faber last fall and named a Times notable book of the year. She teaches at the Yale School of Drama, and she lives in Brooklyn with her family. www.SarahRuhlplaywright.com
Jessica Thebus (Director) is a theater artist, director, educator, wife, daughter and mother. She holds a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and is currently Director of the Northwestern MFA Program in Directing for the Stage. She has directed and adapted plays in Chicago and nationally for twenty years, and has deep associations with many Chicago theaters. Among these are Steppenwolf Theater Company, where she directed four large spectacle evenings at Millennium Park, the plays Sex With Strangers by Laura Eason, Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage, Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl, When the Messenger Is Hot by Laura Eason, No Place Like Home devised by the company, Lady Madeline by Mickle Maher, Sonia Flew by MeLinda Lopez, and the Youth Theater program (1998-2001). Northlight Theater is also an artistic home for Jessica where she has directed six plays and where she recently adapted and directed Shining Lives: a Musical which received a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Best New Work. Jessica has also worked often at the Goodman Theatre (most recently directing Buzzer by Tracey Scott Wilson, and previously both The Clean House and the world premiere of Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl), and Lookingglass Theater Company (In The Garden, a Darwinian Love Story by Sarah Gmitter, All Fall Down adapted from Richard Cahan's book and Our Town by Thornton Wilder). Favorite other projects in Chicago include: Richard III at The Gift Theater, The Turn Of The Screw by Jeffrey Hatcher at Writers Theater, SALAO: The Worst Kind Of Unlucky and The Feast (Jeff Award nomination for Best New Work) at Redmoon Theater, LATE: A Cowboy Song by Sarah Ruhl and Abingdon Square by Maria Irene Fornes at the Piven Theater, as well as the Joseph Jefferson Award-winning plays Pulp by Pat Kane and Winesburg, Ohio adapted by Eric Rosen at About Face Theatre. Favorite projects nationally include: As You Like It at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Civil War Christmas by Paula Vogel at The Huntington Theatre, Harriet Jacobs by Lydia Diamond at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, The Oldest Boy by Sarah Ruhl at The Marin Theater Company, as well as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's world premiere of Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter by Julie Marie Myatt, which then moved to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Shattered Globe Theatre (Sandy Shinner, Producing Artistic Director; Doug McDade, Managing Director) was born in a storefront space on Halsted Street in 1991. Since then, SGT has produced more than 60 plays, including nine American and world premieres, and garnered an impressive 42 Jeff Awards and 106 Jeff Award nominations, as well as the acclaim of critics and audiences alike. Shattered Globe is an ensemble driven theater whose mission is to create an intimate, visceral theater experience that challenges the perspective of audience and artist alike through passionate storytelling. Shattered Globe is inspired by the diversity of our city and committed to making the theater available to all audiences. Through initiatives such as the Protégé Program, Shattered Globe creates a space which allows emerging artists to grow and share in the ensemble experience.
FOR PETER PAN ON HER 70th BIRTHDAY by Sarah Ruhl is sponsored by Dan and Claudia Cyganowski and dedicated to the memory of Carol Cyganowski to honor her long-time support of Chicago Theater and women playwrights.
Shattered Globe Theatre is partially supported and funded by generous grants from The Shulman-Rochambeau Charitable Foundation, The James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation, The Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The MacArthur Fund for Arts & Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Illinois Arts Council, The Field Foundation of Illinois, The Shubert Foundation, The Blum-Kovler Family Foundation, and The Robert J. & Loretta W. Cooney Family Foundation.
For more information on Shattered Globe Theatre, please visit www.shatteredglobe.org.
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