Goodman Theatre Kicks Off Latino-Focused 2013 New Stages Festival, Now thru 12/22

Now in its 10th year, Goodman Theatre's 2013 New Stages festival features five FREE new plays-two fully staged workshop productions performed in repertory plus three staged readings-in the Owen Theatre, today, December 7 - 22. All five plays celebrate Latino playwrights: The Upstairs Concierge, a contemporary farce about celebrity and baseball by Pulitzer Prize finalist (for The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity) Kristoffer Diaz; and The Solid Sand Below, an examination of the intoxicating nature of war which Martín Zimmerman developed during his time as a member of the Goodman's Playwrights Unit, and which was selected for the 2013 National Playwrights Conference at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. The three staged readings, which complement the two workshop productions over the December 13 - 15 "Industry Weekend," are TBA. Tickets are free, but reservations are required: 312.443.3800, GoodmanTheatre.org or visit the box office (170 N. Dearborn).

"Our New Stages festival has grown exponentially in size, ambition and complexity over the past decade, giving audiences a first look at more than 50 new plays in development. With plays like Teddy Ferrara, Ask Aunt Susan, The Convert and Black n Blue Boys/Broken Men, it's also become an important engine for bringing new work to the Goodman's stages," said Goodman Theatre Director of New Play Development Tanya Palmer, who oversees the theater's New Stages festival, Playwrights Unit and new works commissioning program. "Kristoffer Diaz and Martín Zimmerman are two of the most exciting young playwrights working today, and we're thrilled to build on our longstanding commitment to Latino theater artists."

Approximately one third of the plays developed in the New Stages festival have received full productions at the Goodman or at leading U.S. theaters-Marie Antoinette by David Adjmi, The Color of Desire by Nilo Cruz and Chasing Manet by Tina Howe. Playwrights featured in the festival have included Pulitzer Prize winners Lynn Nottage, Quiara Alegría Hudes and Nilo Cruz, as well as rising stars Christopher Shinn, Tanya Saracho and Thomas Bradshaw. With the expansion of the festival in 2011 to include fully staged workshop productions-an investment in new plays that provides writers with three weeks of rehearsal, design elements and nine public performances-New Stages offers the Goodman the opportunity to collaborate with a new generation of designers, including sound designer and composer Mikhail Fiksel and lighting designer Jesse Klug. Director and former Maggio Fellow Joanie Schultz, who makes her Goodman mainstage debut this season with Venus in Fur, first directed for the Goodman during New Stages.

The Upstairs Concierge

By Kristoffer Diaz |Directed by Eric Ting

Fresh out of grad school, Ella takes on a new job as the upstairs concierge at a hotel that caters to celebrities, and finds that it's hard to keep track of who's in what room, who's famous for doing what and who has a tendency to strip naked. The play examines how new media can make a celebrity out of anyone-and the resulting frenzy, combined with the all-too-human desire to make a quick buck, can result in "farcical" behavior.

Kristoffer Diaz's full-length plays include The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (2011 New York Times Outstanding Playwright recipient, Pulitzer Prize finalist, Lucielle Lortel Award, Obie Award, Drama Desk nominee and Jeff Award winner for Best Production and Best New Work), Welcome to Arroyo's and #therevolution. He is a playwright-in- residence at Teatro Vista; a recipient of the Jerome Fellowship, the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant and the Van Lier Fellowship (New Dramatists); and a former member of the Ars Nova Play Group.

The Solid Sand Below

By Martín Zimmerman | Directed by Jonathan Berry

The Solid Sand Below tracks the radical transformation of Private Julian Flores from decidedly reluctant recruit to enthusiastic and disciplined soldier. Inspired by a news story about a soldier who continued to reenlist because his tour of duty in Iraq had given his life a sense of purpose he'd never experienced before, the play investigates why certain people find meaning in chaos and violence. Beginning with Flores' arrival in Diyala province in 2007 at the height of insurgent violence in Iraq, the play offers us a fascinating window into the experience of combat, capturing the boredom, anxiety and camaraderie that comes from waiting for inevitable danger. In addition to its development at the Goodman, The Solid Sand Below had a reading at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York, and was recently included in the prestigious National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut.

Martín Zimmerman's plays include White Tie Ball, part of the 2013/2014 Season at Teatro Vista where Zimmerman is a newly-named resident playwright; The Making of Modern Folk Hero and Seven Spots on the Sun, which premieres at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park this fall. His work has been produced or developed at The Kennedy Center, The Playwrights' Center, Victory Gardens Theater, ACT (Seattle), Chicago Dramatists, American Theater Company, PlayPenn, Icicle Creek Theatre Festival, the ALLIANCE THEATRE, Primary Stages, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Theatre Row, Borderlands Theater, the Source Festival, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, The Gift Theatre, Red Tape Theatre, The University of Texas at Austin and Duke University. He is a recipient of the Sky Cooper New American Play Prize, the Jerome Fellowship, the Carl Djerassi Playwriting Fellowship, the National New Play Network's Smith Prize and a Core Apprenticeship at The Playwrights' Center.

The Goodman's 2013/2014 Season features 9 productions on its two stages-six in the 856-seat Albert Theatre and three in the 400-seat flexible Owen Theatre, plus the annual New Stages series that includes two additional workshop productions. Still to come in the 2013/2014 Season is Smokefall by Noah Haidle, directed by Anne Kauffman, a world-premiere co-production with South Coast Repertory (October 5 - November 3, 2013 in the Owen); the 36th annual production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, directed by Henry Wishcamper (November 16 - December 29, 2013 in the Albert); the annual New Stages series (December 7 - 22, 2013 in the Owen); the world premiere of Luna Gale by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Robert Falls (January 18 - February 23, 2014 in the Albert); Buzzer by Tracey Scott Wilson, directed by Jessica Thebus (February 8 - March 9, 2014 in the Owen); the Chicago premiere of Venus in Fur by David Ives, directed by Joanie Schultz (March 8 - April 13, 2014 in the Albert); the Chicago premiere of The White Snake written and directed by Mary Zimmerman, based on the classic Chinese fable (May 3 - June 8, 2014 in the Albert); the world-premiere Goodman commission of Ask Aunt Susan by playwright-in-residence Seth Bockley, directed by Henry Wishcamper (May 24 - June 22, 2014 in the Owen); and a major reprisal of Alan Jay Lerner's Brigadoon, directed and choreographed by Rachel Rockwell (June 27 - August 3, 2014 in the Albert).

Goodman Theatre is world renowned for the quality and scope of its artistic programming and its commitment to improving life in the community. Artistic Director Robert Falls' and Executive Director Roche Schulfer's leadership has earned unparalleled artistic distinction and experienced unprecedented success, staging more than 80 world premieres, earning numerous awards for its productions-including the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre (1992) and the Pulitzer Prize for Ruined (2009)-and producing more than 25 new-work commissions. Founded in 1925 and housed in a state-of-the-art two-theater complex in the downtown Chicago Theatre District, the Goodman is Chicago's oldest and largest not-for-profit producing theater. American Airlines is the Exclusive Airline of Goodman Theatre. Ruth Ann M. Gillis is Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Sherry John is President of the Women's Board and Lauren Blair is President of the Scenemakers Board, the Goodman's young professionals auxiliary group.

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