BoHo Theatre Presents Icarus 6/24-7/24

BoHo Theatre presents Edwin Sanchez's Icarus, a poetic, character-focused tale about stripping away the artifice of the modern world to discover the beauty within. Icarus runs June 24 through July 24, 2011, at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Avenue, and is directed by BoHo's Artistic Director P. Marston Sullivan, director of BoHo's recent productions of Big River and Playing With Fire, and co-director of BoHo's I Am My Own Wife.

In Sanchez's deeply lyrical and haunting play, a mismatched gathering of strangers has converged on an empty ocean-front beach house, all of them damaged, physically or otherwise, each yearning for something unattainable. The odd MR. Ellis carries with him a satchel he claims is full of dreams; a washed-up movie actress who calls herself "the Gloria" clings desperately to her past; a haunted drifter named Beau conceals his face under a ski mask. At the center of this bizarre quintet is Primitivo, a luminously optimistic young man confined to a wheelchair, who, encouraged by his "disfigured" sister Altagracia, intends to become famous as the first person to swim out into the ocean and touch the rising sun. In this sharp, Godot-like dreamscape, these outcasts must discover what true beauty really means.

"Edwin Sanchez is the genuine item: a true poet of the theater who understands that the most exciting thing that can happen on stage is the collision of cold, hard reality with secret yearnings of the hidden heart." -Chicago Sun Times

Icarus
By Edwin Sanchez
Directed by P. Marston Sullivan
Scenic Design by Sally Weiss
Lighting Design by Diane Fairchild
Costume Design by Erin Wuorenma
Sound Design by Christopher Kriz
Cast: Brenda Arellano, Nicolas Gamboa, Luke Daigle, Tom Chiola, and Heather Townsend

June 24 - July 24, 2011
Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 pm.
Opening Night is Saturday, June 25, at 8:00pm.

Theater Wit
1229 W. Belmont Ave, Chicago
For tickets, call the Theater Wit Box Office at 773-975-8150 or visit www.BoHoTheatre.com
Tickets on sale now
Opening weekend (June 24 - 26) ticket price: $18
Regular run ticket price: $25

BIOS

Edwin Sanchez (Playwright)
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York, Sanchez originally pursued acting, but was offered only stereotypical ethnic roles, like drug dealers and pimps, so he turned instead to writing for the stage. Since graduating from the Yale School of Drama in 1994, Edwin Sanchez has won more fellowships and foundation grants than most playwrights receive in a lifetime, and has received praise for bringing a uniquely Latino voice to the Contemporary Theatre community. He is the recipient of a 1995 Berrilla Kerr Foundation Award, the 1994 Princess Grace Playwriting Award, the 1994 ASCAP Cole Porter Award, the 1993 Barrie Stavis Playwriting Fellowship, the 1993 Eugene O'Neill Scholarship, the 1992 George Pierce Baker Scholarship, the 1991 William Morris Agency Fellowship and a 1989 Artists Fellowship in Playwriting presented by the New York State Arts Council.

Sanchez's plays include: Unmerciful Good Fortune, which premiered as a joint production of Northlight and Victory Gardens Theaters in 1996 and where it won the AT&T Onstage New Play Award and was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work; Barefoot Boy With Shoes On at the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference, and which was then selected to represent the National Playwrights Conference at the Schelykovo Playwrights Seminar in Russia in June 1999; Clean (Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays, nominated by the American Theater Critics Association as Best New Play 1995), produced by Hartford Stage and by the Atlantic Theater in New York; Trafficking In Broken Hearts, at the Atlantic Theater and The Fourth Unity; Floorshow: Doña Sol And Her Trained Dog, at Latino Chicago; and Fatty Tissue, produced by Theater by Design of Chicago. Sánchez is a member of the Dramatists Guild and New Dramatists.

P. Marston Sullivan (Director) has worked for the Marriott Theatre for over seven years in various capacities, including his current position of Artistic Associate, and is proud the be the new Artistic Director of BoHo Theatre this season. Marston earned a BA in Theatre and an MA in Teaching at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and an MFA in Directing at Illinois State University. Recent directing projects include last fall's Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Jeff Award-nominations for Best Production (Musical) and Best Director), I Am My Own Wife (co-director) Jeff Award-nomiation for Best Director), Ghosts, Playing with Fire, and M. Butterfly at BoHo, Black Comedy at Piccolo Theatre, Monster Garden at the Gorilla Tango Theatre, Cry Havoc at Bailiwick, and Metamorphoses at Illinois State University.