16th Street Theater Season 2018 Announced

16th Street Theater announces their Season Eleven 2018: Heroes featuring five thrilling plays about combat and those who wield weapons by authors Kathleen Cahill and Sean Christopher Lewis, and Chicago writers Ike Holter, Aline Lathrop, and J. Joseph Cox. Who are protected and served, and what are the consequences? When violence surrounds, how does one learn to speak another language?

We open our eleventh season with three female soldiers in the combat zone in the Midwest premiere of Kathleen Cahill's HARBUR GATE (Jan 11 - Feb 17, 2018) directed by Ann Filmer. Next we bring Ike Holter's stunning Jeff-nominated thriller THE WOLF AT THE END OF THE BLOCK to 16th Street March 29 - May 5, 2018 in a new production directed by Lili-Anne Brown. In summer 2018 the Merchild team of writer Aline Lathrop and director Ann Filmer return to present the world premiere of Lathrop's THE HERO'S WIFE July 12 - Aug 18, 2018. In fall 2018 two brothers, one territory and an escaped koala create comedic drama in a world premiere directed by Josh Sobel of KOALAS by J. Joseph Cox. A one-night reading of Sean Christopher Lewis' BLACK AND BLUE continues the popular Pop Up Series instituted during 16th Street's 10th Anniversary Season. In these plays, these heroes aim high, and like everyone else, they don't always get it right.

Each play features characters who are soldiers, marines or police officers. With current American leadership inspiring violence and hatred, and in a time when distrust dangerously grows, it feels urgent to try to understand those with whom we may not identify: those whose day to day involves separating out "bad guys" from the "good guys" and carrying out the law of the land while wearing a uniform. "These are all parts of our real world I understand the least," Filmer states. "While stories of men and women in combat abound, 16th Street has chosen playwrights who seek the unexpected story with atypical players." This is for those whose jobs are to protect the rest of us. As we all hold out for a hero...
SEASON ELEVEN 2018: HEROES
SEASON ELEVEN 2018: HEROES

HARBUR GATE
by Kathleen Cahill

Directed by Ann Filmer
Jan 11 - Feb 17, 2018
Three female soldiers in the combat zone, a Purple Heart, a terrible secret, and the transformative power of art. Harbur Gate consists of three interconnected plays linked by an incident involving a convoy on the road from Harbur Gate, a U.S. military base on the Turkish/Iraqi border to Mosul during the Iraq War. "Orpheus" is set in 2005 as two Army medics are about to receive Purple Hearts for being wounded in battle. The title piece is set in Iraq where two marines engage in a battle of the sexes while in a truck convoy. In "Veteran in a New Field" a veteran suffering from PTSD finds comfort when she meets a blind painter in the park. Supported in part by The Saints.

BLACK AND BLUE
by Sean Christopher Lewis
March 2018 - one night only at alternate location - date and location TBA!
Ten years ago Charlie was a cop on a beat and Marcus was a suspect in the Fuller Park section of Chicago. Their lives have gone in different directions, but questions remain. Now, Charlie's sister Charlotte is looking into the case, hoping to understand what really happened in order to avoid repeating her brother's mistakes when she becomes a police officer herself.

THE WOLF AT THE END OF THE BLOCK
by Ike Holter Directed by Lili-Anne Brown
March 29 - May 5, 2018
Chicago. Fall. One night, a boarded up bar on the dark side of the block becomes a terrifying crime scene. In the next 48 hours, the neighborhood digs deep into escalating mystery, working against time to separate fact from fiction. But as the clock ticks down, the clues spiral into a razor sharp jigsaw, and what began as a simple mystery quickly twists into a personal, pointed and political thriller. By one of Chicago's most exciting playwrights, WOLF comes to 16th Street after its highly acclaimed, Jeff-nominated world premiere at Teatro Vista.

THE HERO'S WIFE
by Aline Lathrop

Directed by Ann Filmer
July 12 - Aug 18, 2018
Cameron beats Karyssa during the night, but doesn't remember it in the morning. She doesn't tell him, believing his night terrors may provide her a window into her new husband who just retired from the Navy SEALs. During the day, they negotiate dinner plans, career ambitions, gun safety, and video games, as he attempts to craft a post-special ops identity, while guarding his secrets. At night, he is more available yet more dangerous, affording her opportunities to know him if she will put herself at risk. By the author of Merchild.

KOALAS
by J. Joseph Cox

Directed by Josh Sobel
Sep 20 - Oct 27, 2018
The only thing more territorial than the escaped koala living in Ray Slinger's backyard is Ray himself. His sense of protectionism goes into overdrive when Natalie/Nate, his gender-nonconforming child, pops in for a stay and his unemployed brother shows up on his doorstep. While his visitation rights slip away, his brother and neighbor take a stand while Ray meticulously cleans his gun. Haunted by memories of hunting with his father and being driven crazy by a singing koala, can this twentieth-century veteran survive the dawning of the twenty-first?
THE PLAYWRIGHTS

KATHLEEN CAHILL'S awards include the Jane Chambers Playwrighting Award, two Connecticut Commission on the Arts Playwrighting Awards, a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Award, a Rockefeller Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts New American Works Grant, three Edgerton Foundation Awards and a Drama
League Award. Her play Charm was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; her play The Persian Quarter was nominated for a Steinberg Award.(Both published by Dramatic Publishing.) Her produced musicals include Friendship of the Sea(North Shore Music Theatre) Dakota Sky;(Olney Theatre) an opera, Clara, two opera/cabarets, A Tale of Two Cities: Paris and Berlin in the Twenties (Maryland Center for the PerformingArts), a comic opera cabaret, Fatal Song (most recently Utah Opera) and Perdida, the Winter's Tale set in Mexico.(most recently Catholic University, DC and upcoming at the Grand Theatre, Salt Lake City. Published by Dramatic Publishing.) Her plays include the comedy, Course 86B in the Catalogue (Salt Lake Acting Company) The Still Time (Georgia Rep/ Porchlight Theatre, Chicago) the comedy, Women Who Love Science Too Much (Porchlight Theatre and NPR Radio) Joy Forever (Cleveland Public, Firehouse Theatre, Massachusetts) Charm ( National New Play Network Festival, Salt Lake Acting Company premiere, Kitchen Dog Theatre, Dallas; Orlando Shakespeare; Taffety Punk, Washington D.C. among others) The Persian Quarter ( Salt Lake Acting Company, Merrimack Rep.). A new play/dance/romance, Silent Dancer , is being developed by the Salt Lake Acting Company and Balet West.. She wrote the screenplay for the independent feature, Downtown Express. She is Playwright-in-Residence at the Salt Lake Acting Company.

Ike Holter is a 2017 winner of the Windham-Campbell Prize, one of the highest awards for playwriting in the world. Holter is a resident playwright at Victory Gardens Theater, and his work has been workshopped at The Kennedy Center, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and The Playwrights' Center. His work has been produced at the Steppenwolf Garage, The Philadelphia Theater Company, Off Broadway at Barrow Street and Cherry Lane, The Lily Tomlin Center in L.A, True Colors in Atlanta, Water Tower Theater in Dallas, 3oaks in Michigan, and Jackalope, Teatro Vista, A Red Orchid , and The Inconvenience in Chicago. He is the artistic director of The Roustabouts and is a regular performer at Salonathon and The Paper Machete.

Aline Lathrop'S plays have been produced or developed at numerous theaters in Chicago and across the country. Her Jeff-recommended play, Merchild, was produced by 16th Street Theater, where she was also the Playwright in Residence, in 2015. Christmas at the Staples Center was commissioned and produced by Step Up Productions. Bordello (a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nominee), received its world premiere at Chicago Dramatists, as did Feast (one of the "Top 5 Best New Plays," New City Magazine; First Prize, New Plays Festival, Centre Stage - South Carolina). Toyota Tercel and Purity Ball received workshop productions with Artistic Home's Cut to the Chase Series. A Piece of Bone received its Jeff-recommended world premiere at Circle Theatre of Forest Park. ...And Eat It Too has been developed at American Theatre Company, Chicago Dramatists, and Stage Left Theatre Company, and was a finalist for the Blue Ink Award, First Flight Festival, Finding Voice Award, the LArk Theatre Company's Playwrights' Week, and the Ashland New Plays Festival, as well as a semi-finalist for the Playwrights First and Princess Grace Awards. Ms. Lathrop has also developed plays at Abingdon Theatre Company, Boarshead Theatre, Centre Stage-South Carolina, the Chicago Cultural Center, Columbia College, Northwestern University, Route 66, and Theatre Seven. Her work has been published in Audition Arsenal for Women in Their 30's, and Audition Arsenal for Men in Their 20's, Smith & Krauss. She is the recipient of an Illinois Arts Council fellowship and a Dr. Donahue Tremaine grant. The playwright is a graduate of the Northwestern University Theatre Department, a member of the Dramatists Guild, and a Chicago Dramatists Resident Playwright Alumna.

J. JOSEPH COX is a Chicago based playwright. His full-length plays include Koalas (a finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Princess Grace Award, and Playwrights First Award), St. Paulie's Delight (National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist and Dayton Playhouse FutureFest Finalist), and Thirst. His work has been produced and developed by The Blank Theatre, Gorilla Tango, Chicago Dramatists, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Portland Stage Company, Something Marvelous Festival, Great Plains Theatre Conference, and The Artistic Home among others. He is a graduate of Lawrence University and the Writing Program at Second City Chicago. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America

SEAN Christopher Lewis is the co-creator and writer of the comic books SAINTS and THE FEW, both published by Image Comics, with SAINTS recently optioned for television by Grandview/Automatik. He can be heard as a commentator on NPR'S THIS AMERICAN LIFE and he serves simultaneously as the Artistic Director of Working Group Theatre, a nationally touring devised company, and Riverside Theatre, a member of the National New Play Network.

Read more at http://seanchristopherlewis.com/

THE DIRECTORS

Lili-Anne Brown (Director The Wolf at the End of the Block),a native Chicagoan, works as a director, actor and educator, both locally and regionally. She is the former Artistic Director of Bailiwick Chicago, where she directed Michael John LaChiusa's See What I Wanna See (Steppenwolf Theatre Garage Rep), the critically acclaimed Chicago premiere of Passing Strange (BTA Award for Best Director of a Musical, Jeff Award nomination for Best Director of a Musical), the world premiere of Princess Mary Demands Your Attention by Aaron Holland, and the Chicago premiere of the Ahrens & Flaherty musical Dessa Rose, for which she received the Joseph Jefferson Award. Other directing credits include: Lottery Day by Ike Holter (Goodman Theatre, New Stages Festival), Marie Christine (Boho Theatre), Peter and the Starcatcher (Metropolis Performing Arts),The Wiz (Kokandy Productions), Xanadu (American Theatre Company), Jabari Dreams of Freedom by Nambi Kelley (Chicago Children's Theatre), the national non-Equity tour of Jesus Snatched My Edges; American Idiot at Northwestern University; On the Boards and Hearts of Darkness at Roosevelt University; and Little Shop of Horrors, Hairspray, Unnecessary Farce, Cabaret, Sweet Charity, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, at Timber Lake Playhouse. She is a member of Actors' Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA, an associate of SDC, and a graduate of Northwestern University.

Ann Filmer (Director Harbur Gate and The Hero's Wife) is founder and Artistic Director of 16th Street where she has developed and produced 51 new plays in ten seasons including directing the Jeff Nominated Yasmina's Necklace by Rohina Malik (coming to Goodman Theatre this fall), Blizzard '67 and co-directing Into the Beautiful North. Filmer also directs around Chicago, most notably The Clean House (Remy Bumppo), Disconnect (Victory Gardens), Chicago Boys (Goodman Theatre), Eric LaRue (A Red Orchid), Botanic Garden (Citadel), House of Blue Leaves (Shattered Globe) and the upcoming A Charlie Brown Christmas (Emerald City at Broadway in Chicago). Her adaptation and direction of Tony Fitzpatrick's American tetralogy gained critical acclaim for all four of its productions at Steppenwolf Garage including Stations Lost which also played The Boiler in Brooklyn and Brown University.

JOSH SOBEL (Director Koalas) is a Chicago-based director and Artistic Director of Haven Theatre Company. Recent credits include We're Gonna Die at Haven, Bobbie Clearly at Steep, The Long Christmas Ride Home and Hunting of the Snark (also Edinburgh Fringe) at Strawdog, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead at Metropolis and The Importance of Being Earnest featuring Lisa Tejero at Iowa Summer Rep, University of Iowa. Additional credits include work at Chicago Dramatists, Red Orchid, Victory Gardens, Sketchbook, The Ruckus, Greenhouse Theater Center, Abbie-Fest and New Leaf. From 2010-2013 Josh served as Associate Director of the National Theater Institute summer "Theatermakers" program, at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Recipient, Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC) Observership, Hamlet at Writers' Theatre. Associate member, SDC.