Sideshow Theatre Stages 9 CIRCLES, Now thru 10/6

Sideshow Theatre Company, in association with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, will open its 2013-14 season with the Chicago premiere of 9 CIRCLES by Bill Cain, directed by Marti Lyons, playing tonight, August 29 - October 6, 2013 at The DCASE Storefront Theater, 66 E. Randolph St. in Chicago. Tickets are currently on sale at www.sideshowtheatre.org. The press opening is Thursday, September 5 at 7:30 pm.

9 CIRCLES features Sideshow Artistic Associate Andy Luther (Sideshow's The Gacy Play) with Andrew Goetten (ATC's The Big Meal) Amanda Powell (UrbanTheatre's Brainpeople) and Jude Roche (The Hypocrites' Coriolanus).

Private Daniel Reeves was never good at anything but being in the army. Now he stands accused of a horrific war crime and has been disowned by the nation that recruited him. As he sits in a cell and awaits his day of judgment, time seems to expand and contract around him, while a surreal progression of lawyers, clergy and his own memories carry him deeper and deeper into his crimes. Can he find any light to guide him out of the darkness, or will the weight of his own sin bind him down? Sideshow returns to its roots - examining Dante's Inferno with a startling and searingly relevant Chicago premiere that provides a razor-sharp look at the search for life in a place that seems made to extinguish it.

"When the company first read 9 Circles aloud, we were transfixed, breathless, blown away," comments Artistic Director Jonathan L. Green. "Bill Cain's script is a spellbinding mix of contemporary language and an ancient, eternal struggle - how does one endure having committed an unbearable sin? We're thrilled to kick off our seventh season with director Marti Lyons at the helm of what promises to be a vital, knock-out Chicago premiere," add Green.

The production team for 9 CIRCLES includes: Courtney O'Neill (scenic designer), Kristin DeiTos (costume designer), Mac Vaughey (lighting designer), Artistic Associate Christopher M. LaPorte (sound designer), Michael Huey (composer), Ryan Milosevich (technical director), Arianna Soloway (properties coordinator), Jeffrey Gardner (dramaturg), Cate Anderson and Brittany Parlor (stage managers) and Benjamin W. Dawson (production manager).

The DCASE Storefront Theater is located at 66 E. Randolph St. in Chicago. Previews: TONIGHT, August 29 at 7:30 pm, Friday, August 30 at 7:30 pm, Saturday, August 31 at 7:30 pm and Wednesday, September 4 at 7:30 pm. Press Performance: Thursday, September 5 at 7:30 pm. Gala Opening: Friday, September 6 at 7:30 pm. Regular run: Friday, September 6 - Sunday, October 6, 2013. Curtain Times: Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 2 pm. Tickets: Previews: $10 in advance or pay-what-you-can at the door. Regular run: $15. Tickets are available at www.sideshowtheatre.org.

About the Playwright: The world premiere of Bill Cain's How to Write a New Book for the Bible took place during the 2011-12 season at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Seattle Repertory Theatre. His previous two plays, Equivocation (which premiered at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and subsequently played at Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage) and 9 Circles (which was recently produced by the D.C. area's Forum Theatre), both received the American Theater Critics' Association/Steinberg Award, the first time ever that an author received the award in consecutive years. Stand-Up Tragedy was awarded best production honors in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. and the Joe A. Callaway Award for its Broadway production. Bill's work for television (including the ABC series Nothing Sacred) has been honored with the George Foster Peabody, Humanitas and Writers' Guild Awards. He is the founder of the Boston Shakespeare Company, where he was Artistic Director for seven seasons, directing most of the Shakespeare canon.

It is the mission of Sideshow Theatre Company to mine The Collective Unconscious of the world we live in with limitless curiosity, drawing inspiration from the familiar stories, memories and images we all share to spark new conversation and bring our audiences together as adventurers in a communal experience of exploration.

From its first production, 2008's Dante Dies!! (and then things get weird), to its Jeff Award-winning productions of Roland Schimmelpfennig's Idomeneus (named one of the best plays of 2012 by Time Out Chicago and the Chicago Sun-Times) and Elizabeth Meriwether's runaway robotic hit Heddatron (part of Steppenwolf's second annual GARAGE REP), Sideshow has consistently produced engaging, transcendent works across Chicago. In 2014, Sideshow will begin a multi-year residency at Victory Gardens in the historic Biograph Theatre.

Sideshow also produces the Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers (CLLAW), a wildly-popular interactive fundraising event that benefits Sideshow Theatre Company and other local charities. CLLAW has been featured in The Washington Post, Time Out Chicago, Penthouse Magazine, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Sun-Times and on WGN Morning News, ABC's Windy City Live and CBS 2 Chicago. For more information about CLLAW, visit www.cllaw.org.

Chicago Cultural Center Presents is an ongoing performing arts series that showcases both emerging and established music, theater, dance and multi-disciplinary artists at the Chicago Cultural Center and other venues. Dedicated to capacity building in the arts, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events hires the artists and provides performance space as well as technical and marketing support.