Dael Orlandersmith Brings STOOP STORIES To Chicago 9/12-10/11

Dael Orlandersmith takes Chicago audiences on an electrifying journey through the spirit and soul of Harlem in her explosive solo piece Stoop Stories at Goodman Theatre. Hailed a "triumph" (Washington City Paper) in its world premiere at Washington, D.C.'s Studio Theatre this past spring, Stoop Stories comes to Chicago directed by Obie Award-winner Jo Bonney. Orlandersmith transforms with mesmerizing ease into a range of characters-from an elderly Polish Holocaust survivor who has a chance meeting with Billie Holiday; to a poetic young junkie; to a teenage Puerto Rican punk; to a washed-up rock 'n' roll star; to a 70-year-old New Yorker from Harlem heading to the West Village to see Nina Simone. Stoop Stories is performed September 12 - October 11 in the Goodman's Owen Bruner Theatre. Tickets are $10 - $40. A complete performance schedule including dates, times and ticket prices appears at the end of this release. Fifth Third Bank is the Corporate Sponsor Partner for Stoop Stories. The Joyce Foundation provides principal support of Goodman Theatre Artistic Development and Diversity Initiatives.

"Experiencing the buzz Dael's powerful, haunting performance generated in Washington, D.C. while I was in town directing King Lear, I knew that Chicago needed to see Stoop Stories," said Artistic Director Robert Falls. "There is no other living American artist quite like Dael, whose astonishing body of muscular, vivid, lyrical work gives voice to characters whose stories are rarely heard. I am delighted to welcome Dael and her incredible director, my friend Jo Bonney, to the Goodman with this fantastic new play."

In Stoop Stories, Orlandersmith combines theater, poetry, music and performance art in a powerful, sizzling, fierce symphony of the diverse voices that make up her neighborhood-people drawn from her life and from her imagination. "There are a few places where people really pour out their souls: in beauty shops, barber shops, and sitting outside on stoops," said Orlandersmith. "I grew up in Harlem and the South Bronx, and hung out on the Lower East Side and the East Village. In those places you'd hear a lot of different voices and see different communities, backgrounds and races. All of these people unite on the stoop. That's where you find out who they are, as individuals. I wanted to look at that world in this play." The New Yorker has described her work as "passionate and full of insight" and The Washington Post noted, "One cup of Orlandersmith is worth a gallon of what most other monologists serve up."

Dael Orlandersmith first performed Stoop Stories in 2008 at The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival and the Apollo Theatre's Salon Series; Washington, D.C.'s Studio Theatre produced its world premiere in 2009. Her play Monster premiered at New York Theatre Workshop in November 1996. The Gimmick, commissioned by McCarter Theatre, premiered in their Second Stage OnStage series in 1998 and went on to great acclaim at Long Wharf Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop. Yellowman was commissioned by and premiered at McCarter Theatre in a co-production with The Wilma Theater and Long Wharf Theatre. She premiered a new work in collaboration with David Cale at Long Wharf Theatre called The Blue Album in 2007. Orlandersmith is currently writing a new play, Suicide Girlz, commissioned by Atlantic Theatre Company. Her other play, Horsedreams, was developed at New Dramatists and workshopped at New York Stage and Film Company in 2008. Bones was commissioned by Mark Taper Forum, where it will premiere in 2010. Orlandersmith has toured extensively with the Nuyorican Poets Café (Real Live Poetry) throughout the United States, Europe and Australia. Yellowman and a collection of Orlandersmith's earlier works have been published by Vintage Books and Dramatists Play Service. Orlandersmith attended Sundance Institute Theatre Lab for four summers to develop new plays. She is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, The Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, a Guggenheim and The 2005 PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award for a playwright in mid-career. In 2006, Orlandersmith won a Lucille Lortel Foundation Playwrights Fellowship. She won an OBIE Award for Beauty's Daughter, written and performed at The American Place Theatre. Orlandersmith was a Pulitzer Prize Award Finalist and Drama Desk Award Nominee for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Actress in a Play for Yellowman at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2002. She was a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist with The Gimmick in 1999 and won for Yellowman.

Director Jo Bonney's directing credits include Suzan-Lori Parks' Father Comes Home From the Wars at The Public Theater Lab; Michael Weller's Beast at New York Theatre Workshop; Naomi Wallace's Fever Chart at The Public Theater Lab and Hard Weather Boating Party at Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays; Alan Ball's All that I Will Ever Be at New York Theatre Workshop; Eric Bogosian's suburbia, Charles Fuller's A Soldier's Play and Lisa Loomer's Living Out at Second Stage Theatre; Will Power's The Seven at New York Theatre Workshop and La Jolla Playhouse (Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical); Neil LaBute's Fat Pig at MCC Theater and the Geffen Playhouse; Some Girl(s) at MCC Theater; Caryl Churchill's Top Girls at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Christopher Shinn's On the Mountain at Playwrights Horizons; Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics at Arena Stage; Universes' Slanguage at New York Theatre Workshop and Mark Taper Forum; Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July at Signature Theatre Company (Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival); José Rivera's Adoration of the Old Woman at La Jolla Playhouse and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot at The Public Theater; Diana Son's Stop Kiss and Anna Deavere Smith's House Arrest at The Public Theater; Jessica Goldberg's Good Thing at The New Group; John Osborne's Look Back in Anger at Classic Stage Company; Danny Hoch's Some People and Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop in the United States and Britain; and numerous solos Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead; Wake Up and Smell the Coffee and plays by Eric Bogosian in the United States and Britain. Bonney is the recipient of a 1998 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Direction and the editor of Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century (Theatre Communications Group).

Tickets to Stoop Stories ($10 - $40) are currently on sale at GoodmanTheatre.org. Tickets can also be purchased at the box office (170 North Dearborn) or by phone at 312.443.3800. Mezztix are half-price mezzanine tickets available at 12 noon at the box office, and at 10am online (promo code MEZZTIX) day of performance; Mezztix are not available by telephone. 10Tix are $10 mezzanine tickets for students available at 12 noon at the box office, and at 10am online on the day of performance; 10Tix are not available by telephone. Valid student I.D. must be presented when picking up the tickets. Limit four per student with I.D. All tickets are subject to availability and handling fees apply. Discounted Group Tickets for 10 persons or more are available at 312.443.3820.