Strawdog Theatre Company Presents Lauren Yee's IN A WORD This Winter
By: Nora Dominick Jan. 19, 2016
Strawdog Theatre Company and Artistic Director Hank Boland are proud to announce the third main stage production in its 2015 - 2016 season, Lauren Yee's In A Word, February 5 - March 19, directed by Jess McLeod, at Strawdog Theatre Company, 3829 N. Broadway St. Previews are Friday, Feb. 5 and 12, Saturday, Feb. 6 and 13 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 7 and 14 at 4 p.m. and Thursday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. Opening night is Monday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. The regular performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. An industry performance is Monday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. and a fully accessible performance in conjunction with the Access Project at Victory Gardens is Thursday, March 3 at 8 p.m.* Preview tickets are $15, regular run tickets are $28 and on sale now. Subscriptions, group, rush, senior and student discounts are also available. Tickets may be ordered online at strawdog.org or by calling OvationTix toll-free: 866-811-4111.
A gripping and poetic new work from the author of Victory Gardens' acclaimed production Samsara. Fiona (Mary Winn Heider) must sort through what's left of her life and sanity when her son (guest artist Gabe Franken) mysteriously vanishes. The director of The House Theatre of Chicago's hit Season on the Line, Jess McLeod, makes her Strawdog debut directing this production with Ensemble Member John Ferrick as "Guy."
In A Word is a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. The National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays. The Network strives to pioneer, implement, and disseminate ideas and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and playwrights.
The production team also includes Strawdog Company Ensemble Members John Kelly, lighting designer; Heath Hays, sound designer; with guest artists Izumi Inaba, costume designer; Jamie Karas, properties designer; Emmaline Keddy-Hector, production manager; Melanie Kulas, stage manager; Jacob Palmer, technical director; Cameron Petti, master electrician; Casey Schissler, assistant stage manager; Abhi Shrestha, assistant director and Sarah JHP Watkins, scenic designer.
*FULLY ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCE
Strawdog Theatre Company continues its partnership with the Access Project at Victory Gardens to present In A Word at Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, in the Prince Charitable Trust Rehearsal Room, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Thursday, March 3 at 8 p.m., with a touch tour at 6:45 p.m. The performance is fully wheelchair accessible with audio description and open captioning.
ABOUT LAUREN YEE, PLAYWRIGHT
Lauren Yee is a playwright born and raised in San Francisco. She received her bachelor's degree from Yale University, and her MFA in playwriting from UCSD, where she studied under Naomi Iizuka. She was a Dramatists Guild fellow, a She has been a finalist for the Jerome Fellowship, the PONY Fellowship, the Princess Grace Award, the Sundance Theatre Lab, and the Wasserstein Prize. Her play Samsara has been a nominee for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the L. Arnold Weissberger Award. She is MacDowell fellow, a MAP Fund grantee, a member of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group, a Time Warner Fellow at the Women's Project Playwrights Lab, the Shank playwright-in-residence at Second Stage Theatre, and the Page One resident playwright at Playwrights Realm.
Yee's full-length work has been produced throughout the United States. Her play The Hatmaker's Wife was an Outer Critics Circle nominee for the John Gassner Award for best play by a new American playwright. Ching Chong Chinaman was picked as a top 10 play of the year by City Pages and the East Bay Express, and Crevice was a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nominee for Best Play. Other honors include three Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival playwriting awards, Kumu Kahua Theatre's Pacific Rim Prize, and writing fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, the El Gouna Writers' Residency, the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, and the New York Mills Cultural Center. She has also received funding from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, Theatre Bay Area, and UCSD's Institute for International, Comparative, and Area Studies, as well as an award from PlayGround's New Play Production Fund.
ABOUT JESS MCLEOD, DIRECTOR
Recent Chicago credits for McLeod include Blu Rhythm (Lyric Unlimited/Lyric Opera), Shawn Pfautsch's Season on the Line (The House Theatre of Chicago); Babes In Arms (Porchlight Music Theatre "Porchlight Revisits.. series); Kevin Coval's L-vis Live! (Victory Gardens); Emily Schwartz's Funeral Wedding: The Alvin Play (Strange Tree Group); Bathsheba Doran's Kin (Griffin Theatre); Venus (Steppenwolf Next Up!); The Wedding Singer (Haven Theatre); The 48-Hour Musicals: Encore!, The Pajama Game, and Chris Miller & Nathan Tysen's Fugitive Songs (The Music Theatre Company). As well as workshops with Goodman Theatre, American Theater Company, Steep Theatre, American Music Theatre Project. McLeod has served as the assistant/associate director with Gary Griffin (Dallas Theater Center, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, City Center Encores!), Anna D. Shapiro (Steppenwolf) and Michael Rohd (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). She was the co-artistic director of The Music Theatre Company (2014-15); director of programming with The New York Musical Theatre Festival (2005-08) and has an MFA. from Northwestern University. She is currently also working on Samantha Beach and Diana Lawrence's Mill Girls.
ABOUT STRAWDOG THEATRE COMPANY
Since its founding in 1988, Strawdog Theatre Company has offered Chicagoland the premiere storefront theatre experience and garnered numerous Non-Equity Jeff Awards with its commitment to ensemble acting and an immersive design approach. The celebrated Company develops new work, re-imagines the classics, melds music with theatre, asks provocative questions and delivers their audience the unexpected
Strawdog Theatre Company and Artistic Director Hank Boland are proud to announce the third main stage production in its 2015 - 2016 season, Lauren Yee's In A Word, February 5 - March 19, directed by Jess McLeod, at Strawdog Theatre Company, 3829 N. Broadway St. Previews are Friday, Feb. 5 and 12, Saturday, Feb. 6 and 13 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 7 and 14 at 4 p.m. and Thursday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. Opening night is Monday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. The regular performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. An industry performance is Monday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. and a fully accessible performance in conjunction with the Access Project at Victory Gardens is Thursday, March 3 at 8 p.m.* Preview tickets are $15, regular run tickets are $28 and on sale now. Subscriptions, group, rush, senior and student discounts are also available. Tickets may be ordered online at strawdog.org or by calling OvationTix toll-free: 866-811-4111.
RUSH TICKETS
Strawdog Theatre Company offers six tickets at a 50% discount one hour before every production. The rush ticket must be purchased in person, exclusively at the Strawdog Box Office. Limit of two tickets per person, not applicable with other discounts, offers or on previously purchased tickets, first come, first served.
The neighborhood has limited paid parking and is easily accessible by public transportation (via the Red Line Sheridan stop, plus 36-Broadway, 80-Irving Park, and 151-Sheridan buses).
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