The New Colony Presents The World Premiere of MERGE

Atari! Pong! Space Invaders! The New Colony will conclude its 2016 Season with the world premiere comedy MERGE, a fast-paced, heartfelt and uproarious journey inside the burgeoning 1970s video game industry. Written by Spenser Davis and directed by Co-Artistic Director Andrew Hobgood, MERGE will play October 8 - November 13, 2016 at The New Colony's resident home, The Den Theatre's Upstairs Main Stage, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets go on sale Monday, August 22 at www.thenewcolony.org.

MERGE features Will Cavedo, Fin Coe, Jeffery Owen Freelon, Jr., Daria Harper, Evan Linder (10/28 - 11/13), Wes Needham, Michael Peters, Kristi Parker-Barnhart, Lindsey Pearlman, Victoria Perez, Esteban Reyna, Robert Salazar, Omer Abbas Salem (10/8 -10/27), Evan Sesek, Stephanie Shum, Kevin Stangler and David Weiss.

In 1976, Atari was the fastest growing company in the history of the United States, an arcade manufacturer with a workplace fueled by pot smoking, jacuzzi parties and nobody wearing socks. When they have to sell themselves to Warner Bros. to stay afloat, they quickly realize that corporate cash comes with baggage, as they lose a piece of the identity that made them who they were in the first place. And what's worse... they have to start wearing socks. MERGE is the story of a small band of programmers who stand up and fight back against the very company that saved them from bankruptcy, in a battle that threatens to crash an entire industry.

"It is always our hope that playwrights in The New Colony's Writers' Room will submit a script that we want to develop further through our staged readings series at The Den," comments Co-Artistic Director Evan Linder. "Merge was the rare instance of a story flying off the page with such ferocity that Andrew and I needed to get our ensemble in the room immediately. This story is now and this story is us. Spenser Davis' hilarious and insightful script will welcome onstage the largest cast The New Colony has assembled since our first season and we could not be prouder that the script began its development in the first year of our newest education program."

The production team for MERGE includes: John Wilson (scenic design), Nathan R. Rohrer (costume design), John Kelly (lighting design), Steve Labedz (sound design), Paul Deziel (projections design), Ben Zeman (projections assistant), Will Cavedo (violence), Ryan Oliveira (dramaturg) Patriac Coakley (assistant director), Garth Moritz (production manager), Liam Fitzgerald (technical director), Zoe Benditt (stage manager) and Kira Gaudynski (assistant stage manager),

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