The Gift Theatre Sets 2017 Season

During Saturday's Season Release Bash at Fischman Liquors and Tavern, co-founder and artistic director Michael Patrick Thornton proudly announced The Gift Theatre's 2017 season of three world premieres by women playwrights. The all-new season kicks off in February with the debuts of Mona Mansour's war-torn drama Unseen, Claire Kiechel's futuristic Pilgrims and Janine Nabers' time-hopping love story A Swell in the Ground.

"The Gift's season is dedicated to epic intimacy which explores the question: Who Have We Become?" said Thornton. "From a pioneering spacecraft to explosive Istanbul to intimate spaces in New York, our 2017 season is about wounded lovers trying their best to recover from trauma. I'm ecstatic that this will be our first season comprised entirely of world premieres by women playwrights."

The Gift Theatre also announces funding for 4802-the new play research and development wing of The Gift-is complete. In 4802, artists/artistic teams will be given residencies in the Gift Theatre's storefront, providing dedicated tailor-made time, space, and support for their work. Applications for 4802 will be live at thegifttheatre.org on September 1, 2016.

"4802 exists for one purpose: to nurture the creation of vital works of theater that explore and explode what is possible in a storefront space," 4802 co-director Andrew Hinderaker said. "We want to nurture the development of theater pieces that celebrate the strengths of storefronts while dreaming the boundaries of our form bigger. Plays that draw on the unique resources and talents of The Gift Theatre, while furthering the growth of our own company and ensemble. Plays that kick the door open to populations all too often left out in the cold. Plays that make the Chicago storefront-and The Gift Theatre-a center for vital new American plays."

As usual, The Gift's year begins in January with TEN (Jan. 5-8, Jan. 12-15), the theater's annual celebration of world premiere ten-minute pieces by The Gift and guests, curated by Thornton and associate artistic director Paul D'Addario.

THE GIFT THEATRE'S 2017 SEASON:

February 10-April 19, 2017

UNSEEN, written by Mona Mansour, directed by ensemble member Maureen Payne Hahner

Conflict photographer Mia wakes up in the Istanbul apartment of her on-again, off-again girlfriend after being found unconscious at the scene of a massacre she was photographing. Mia can't even remember being there, but she wired photos of the site hours before being found. The two women resume their volatile push-pull when Mia's well-meaning Californian mother arrives from the United States, trying to help unravel the mystery of what happened to her daughter.

June 2-July 30, 2017

PILGRIMS, written by Claire Kiechel,

directed by ensemble member Michael Patrick Thornton & guest artist Jessica Thebus

On a spacecraft on its way to colonize a newly discovered planet, a soldier and a young girl live together in one of the ship's cabins with only an outdated robot and each other for company. When they are quarantined in their close quarters due to a potential outbreak, they're forced to explore their own traumatic pasts in a dying society through risqué role playing and dangerous games. PILGRIMS was most recently honored by inclusion in the Kilroy's List.

October 13-December 10, 2017

A SWELL IN THE GROUND, written by Janine Nabers, directed by guest artist Chika Ike

In intimate rooms throughout New York, four friends from college fight through 17 years of love affairs, shattered dreams and compromised lives. Flipping back and forth through time like a photobook, this play-whose title is from a line of Emily Dickinson poetry-

is equally breathtaking and heartbreakingly spare as Olivia, Nate, Abagail, and Charles try to reconcile the lives they imagined with the lives they live.

The Gift Season Subscriptions, including admission to the two remaining plays of 2017, The Grapes of Wrath and A Life Extra Ordinary, are available by calling The Gift Box Office at 773-283-7071.

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