PFP to Stage Jeff Talbott's THE SUBMISSION, 10/12-11/25

Pride Films and Plays will follow up its sold-out Jeff Recommended run of Terrence McNally's Some Men with the Chicago premiere of The Submission by Jeff Talbott, winner of the 2011 Laurent's/Hatcher Award and the Outer Circle's John Gassner Award for Best New Play in 2012. The dynamic new work runs October 12 through November 25 at the Apollo Studio Theatre, 2540 N. Lincoln.

Shaleeha G'ntamobi has written a knock out play about a family in the projects and it's just been accepted into the prestigious Humana Festival. Problem is: Shaleeha is actually a pseudonym for Danny, a young gay white playwright. When he hires Emilie, a black actress to play the "author," one bad decision starts a downward spiral into chaos. The Submission is a fierce and hilarious drama about privilege, obsession, misappropriation and the lies we tell to get what we want.

"The Submission is a raw, unsentimental play about race and gender that exposes the quiet prejudice and intolerance among even our most progressive thinkers. It is both uncomfortable and impossible to not watch." - Associated Press

"Fearless, whip-smart, and hyper-articulate, Talbott's incendiary political comedy-drama asks hard questions about our supposedly post-racial world. . . . The Submission is an important play. It makes you stop and think." - Backstage

The Submission is directed by Jude Hansen, an Artistic Ensemble member of Pride Films and Plays. It plays at the Apollo Studio Theater, 2540 North Lincoln on Sundays at 7:00 and Mondays and Tuesdays at 7:30 from October 12 to November 25th.

o Previews Sunday October 12 at 7:00 and Monday October 13 at 7:30 ($15)

o Press Opening Tuesday, October 14, 7:30 ($25)

o Regular run Sundays at 7:00 and Mondays and Tuesdays at 7:30 ($25)

o Please note there is NO performance on Monday, October 20

o Closing is November 25

o Seniors and Students save $5 per ticket

o Tickets will go on sale September 12 at the box office 773 935 6100 and at Ticketmaster or www.ticketmaster.com

o For more information visit www.pridefilmsandplays.com

Director Jude Hansen, who is currently featured as Michael in PFP's Some Men, is a born and bred Australian. Since moving to the States and completing his MFA, Jude has directed staged readings of Sweetwater and Bison for Pride Films and Plays. He also directed The Tragic Divorce Opera for Ex-Pats theatre ADLIB festival and was the assistant director at Redtwist for the Jeff nominated production of Clybourne Park. Australian directing credits include Bedroom Farce and BOX? for Down-side-Up Theatre, the later which won the Playbox Festival Coordinators Award for directing. For Placenta Theatre he directed Public Displays of Affection, All About You and The Circus of Lust (Winner- Best Director Midsumma Festival Pink Shorts). He is most proud of directing his own reimagined adaptation of John Osborne's seminal work Look Back in Anger also for Placenta Theatre. As a playwright, his works include Public Displays of Affection and Painting Controversials which earned him the Australian National Young Playwrights Award. As an actor, screen credits include a leading role in the award winning Australian film TWO (Best Romance- Australasian International Film Festival, Barossa Valley).

Playwright Jeff Talbott graduated with honors from the Yale School of Drama. The Submission was the inaugural recipient of the Laurents/Hatcher Award in 2011 and was produced Off-Broadway by MCC Theater; it also received the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for New American Play in 2012. The play was a semi-finalist for the 2010 O'Neill Playwrights Conference and it was in the final round of consideration for the 2010 New Play Summit at the Denver Center. His play A Public Education has had recent developmental workshops and readings at Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City and Off-Broadway at TACT. His play All the Stars in the Midnight Sky has had developmental readings Off-Broadway by TACT and MCC. His one-acts For Nate and Molly and Tender both received world premiere productions by the Yale Cabaret. He lives in New York City and is currently writing a new musical with Will Van Dyke.

The Submission had its world premiere Off-Broadway in 2011 directed by Walter Bobbie and starring Jonathan Groff, Will Rogers, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Rutina Wesley.