A Red Orchid Extends TRAITOR Due To Overwhelming Demand

A Red Orchid Theatre announces the extension of Traitor, an adaptation of Heinrich Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, written by Ensemble Member Brett Neveu and directed by Ensemble Member Michael Shannon, due to overwhelming demand. The production features Ensemble Members Dado, Kirsten Fitzgerald, Larry Grimm, Guy Van Swearingen and Natalie West, with Jacob Alexander, Mary Jo Bolduc, Missi Davis, Kristin Ellis, Nation Henrickson, Frank Nall and Steve Walker, featuring lighting design by Ensemble Member Mike Durst. Traitor will add Wednesday evening performances in February and now runs through March 4, 2018. 2018 at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells. Tickets for the extension are on sale now.

In this world premiere adaptation of Heinrich Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, a small, North Chicago suburb finds the town's restart button with an investment in a newly opened charter school. After issues with the school grounds are discovered by its head of sciences, Dr. Stock, a quest to inform and correct is met with support. But suspicion and rancor mount as truths bubble to the surface. A play that mirrors our vital, absurd and often hilarious political times.

The creative team includes John Musial (scenic design), Christine Pascual (costume design), Ensemble Member Mike Durst (lighting design), Brando Triantafilou (sound design) and Christa Van Baale (stage manager). The assistant director is Kyle Stoffers.

About the Artists

Brett Neveu (Playwright) Upcoming and recent theatre productions include To Catch a Fish with Timeline Theatre (Chicago) and Her America with The Greenhouse Theatre (Chicago). Film/TV productions include the short Convo with Breakwall Pictures and the feature The Earl with Intermission Productions. Past work includes productions with 59e59 Theatre in New York; The Royal Court Theatre and The Royal Shakespeare Company in London; The Goodman Theatre, Writers Theatre, The House Theatre, The Inconvenience, TimeLine Theatre Company, A Red Orchid Theatre and American Theatre Company in Chicago. A Sundance Institute Ucross Fellow, Brett is also a recipient of the Marquee Award from Chicago Dramatists, the Ofner Prize for New Work, the Emerging Artist Award from The League of Chicago Theatres, and an After Dark Award for Outstanding Musical (Old Town). He is a resident-alum of Chicago Dramatists, a proud ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre, a founding member of the playwright collective MC-10, an alumni member of TimeLine Theatre Company's Writers Collective and Center Theatre Group's Playwrights' Workshop in Los Angeles. Brett has been commissioned by The Royal Court Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Goodman Theatre, House Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, Writers Theatre, Strawdog Theatre, Northlight Theatre and has several of his plays published through Broadway Play Publishing, Dramatic Publishing and Nick Hern Publishing. Brett has taught writing at DePaul University, Second City Training Center and currently teaches writing for the screen and stage at Northwestern University.

Michael Shannon (Director) is a founding member of A Red Orchid Theatre. He has been a part of A Red Orchid since The Connection in 1993, for which he designed the poster and wrote the director's note in the program. His most recent performance here was in Brett Neveu's world premiere of Pilgrim's Progress. Other AROT performances include Simpatico (Jeff Award), Mistakes Were Made, Gagarin Way, Mr. Kolpert, BUG, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, The Killer, The Persecution of Arnold Petch, Canus Lunis Balloonis, Victims of Duty, and Drinking in America. He also made his directorial debut at A Red Orchid with Hunger and Thirst. Elsewhere around Chicago, he has worked at Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Northlight, Famous Door (RIP), and the Next Lab, birthplace of Killer Joe, in which he originated the role of Chris Smith and performed it a gillion times all over God's green earth. Mike currently lives in NYC where he was recently nominated for a Tony Award for his appearance on Broadway in A Long Day's Journey Into Night, alongside Jessica Lange and Gabriel Byrne. He also appeared in Ionesco's The Killer with Theatre for a New Audience and made his Broadway debut in Grace at the Cort Theatre. He also played Astrov in Annie Baker's adaptation of Uncle Vanya at Soho Rep, directed by Sam Gold. Film credits include Groundhog Day, Chicago Cab, The Ride, Jesus' Son, Cecil B. Demented, Tigerland, Pearl Harbor, 8 Mile, Bad Boys II, Kangaroo Jack, Grand Theft Parsons, The Missing Person, Zamboni Man, Revolutionary Road (Oscar Nomination), My Son My Son What Have Ye Done?, Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, Mud, Machine Gun Preacher, Premium Rush, The Iceman, Man of Steel, 99 Homes and Free Held, Elvis & Nixon, Loving, Nocturnal Animals (Oscar Nomination), 12 Strong, & The Shape of Water. On TV, he played Nelson Van Alden on HBO's Boardwalk Empire. He will also appear in the remount of Ionesco's Victim's of Duty in Summer 2018.

Jacob Alexander (Eric Rhyde) His first production with AROT was A Night Out that was part of the Red Orchid incubator series. Jacob has worked with theatres such as Shattered Globe, Strawdog Theatre, and Trap Door Theatre. TV credits include HBO's Girls and CBS's Elementary.

Mary Jo Bolduc (Fran Wysocki) Chicago: Lost Geneva Projects, Signal Ensemble, WildClaw, Lifeline, Strawdog, RBP, Mary Arrchie, Trapdoor, Timeline, Jackalope, Second City National Touring Co., ComedySportz, and soon at The Factory Theatre (March 2018). Some credits: Penelopiad, Plainsong, Shadow Over Innsmouth, Marat/Sade, MUD People, The (edward) Hopper Project, Amerikafka, The Shadow (Jeff nominated - Best Supporting Actress), and many improvised performances.

DADO (Karla Kihl-Stock) is an ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre. Earlier this year she directed Simpatico by Sam Shepard at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. Recent AROT productions are The Room by Harold Pinter, The Mutilated by Tennessee Williams and Red Handed Otter by Ethan Lipton. Dado appeared a few years back on AROT's stage in Abbie Spallen's Strandline, directed by JR Sullivan, and she also appeared here in an incubator, Celebration, (by Harold Pinter) which was a musical experiment with percussion ensemble Beyond This Point, which she also directed. Last spring dado acted in Theatre Wit's Chicago premiere of Ann Washburn's 10 out of 12. She is the recipient of the 2017 Edes Prize, and will collaborate with Facility Theatre in the staging of David Lang's Pulitzer Prize winning "little match girl passion" which will be installed next spring into a vacant middle school cafeteria in Wicker Park. caKe is a loosely organized performance entity that dado uses so that she can act or direct in pretty much anything that has cake in it. She also likes to talk about cake, but she doesn't like to eat it very much. She holds an MFA in visual art from University of Chicago.

Missi Davis (Molly Stock) is a founding member and Executive Director of The Inconvenience, and an actor, producer and puppeteer. Inconvenience acting credits include B-Side Studio (Ike Holter + Evan Linder); The Citizens Anthology (Kristina Ray Colon + others). Inconvenience producing credits include The Fly Honey Show (Erin Kilmurray); Hit the Wall (Ike Holter); and countless collaborative events from workshops to outdoor festivals. Other acting credits include The Butcher of Baraboo (A Red Orchid Theatre); Breach (Dog&Pony Theatre Co.), Luther (Steep Theatre), and The Cabinet (Redmoon), which toured Brazil; and work with Blair Thomas & Co. She served as Company and Production Manager for Manual Cinema's 2014 fall tour of Ada/Ava, traveling to the Tehran Mobarak International Puppetry Festival in Iran. Missi graduated from The Theatre School at DePaul University.

Kristin E. Ellis (Madison Bills) was recently seen in AROT's remount of Simpatico (McCarter Theatre). Past credits include Paradise Blue (Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best Featured Actress, TimeLine Theatre), What I Learned in Paris (Black Theatre Alliance Award nomination for Best Featured Actress, Congo Square Theatre), The Inside (Black Excellence Award nomination for Best Theatre Actress, MPAACT Theatre). The National Black Theatre, Theatre Wit, Steppenwolf Garage Rep, Griffin Theatre, and Collaboraction Theatre. Kristin's work in independent films has premiered vastly in Chicago film festivals and the Bronzelens Film Festival (Atlanta). Kristin received her BFA in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University. Currently, Kristin can be seen in the short film "Side Effects" airing on Amazon Prime and Xfinity: Streampix. Kristin is represented by Stewart Talent Chicago..

Kirsten Fitzgerald (Patty Stock) is a member of the Artistic Ensemble at A Red Orchid Theatre and the Artistic Director since 2008. Traitor marks her fourth world premiere with Brett Neveu. Over the last few years she's been fortunate enough to originate roles in the world premieres of Pilgrim's Progress by Brett Neveu (AROT), Appropriate by Brandon Jacob Jenkins (Victory Gardens Theatre) as well as Tracy Letts' Mary Page Marlow and Bruce Norris' The Qualms (Steppenwolf Theatre) among others. Other credits include work with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Goodman, Shattered Globe, Remy Bumppo, Plasticene, Prop, Next, Famous Door, Defiant Theatre and more. Television credits include The Exorcist, Sirens, Chicago Med, Chicago Justice, Chicago Fire, Underemployed and ER.

Lawrence Grimm (Walter Hove) Favorite and most recent at A Red Orchid: 3C, Trevor (Jeff Nomination), Solstice, In a Garden, Pumpgirl, Abigail's Party, The Meek, The Physicists, Mr. Kolpert, Caine-Mutiny Court Martial, In the Solitude of Cotton Fields, and Born Guilty. Selected credits: The Heavens Are Hung in Black as Abraham Lincoln (Shattered Globe), King Charles III and The Tempest (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), 2666 (Goodman Theatre), My Name is Asher Lev (Timeline Theatre), In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play (Victory Gardens), Maple and Vine, Welcome Home Jenny Sutter (Next Theatre), Orlando (Court Theatre), King Lear, Two by Pinter (Piven Theater Workshop),The Glass Menagerie (Raven Theatre - Jeff Award), The Brothers Karamazov, 1984, The Naked King (Lookingglass), I Never Sang for My Father, Wolf Lullaby (Steppenwolf). Film: Welcome to Me, Perfect Manhattan, Cicero in Winter, Captive State. Television: Chicago PD, Chicago Med.

NATION HENRIKSON (Randal Stock) spent most of his early childhood playing the role of Batman in his own personal production. At the age of eight he thought it worthwhile to expand his repertoire and enrolled in local acting classes where he participated in several brightly-colored and overcrowded stage productions. In short order he changed course and was murdered on stage and later returned to haunt the Chicago Opera Theatre in Medea and Teseo. When his parents transplanted him out to the burbs, he did what theatre kids do in the burbs: lots of musical theatre. Now that he is 15 and can independently catch a train and an Uber, he decided to go with his heart and pursue non-musical theatre in his favorite city.

Frank Nall (Howard Kihl) returns to A Red Orchid where he last appeared in Gagarin's Way. Recent credits include Mr. Candy at Windy City Playhouse for the Chicago debut of King Liz. Before that he was the diabolical Xavier Cassidy in Artistic Home's Bog of Cats. He just finished filming a feature film titled Popper Baxton's Evil Stew in October and eagerly awaits it's release. He also works as a para at Cumberland elementary school in Des Plaines that feeds his soul in ways he never imagined. He has an MFA from the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana.

Guy Van Swearingen (Dr. Tom Stock) is founding Artistic Director and Ensemble Member of A Red Orchid Theatre where he has appeared in over a dozen productions, including The Nether, Red Handed Otter, The Sea Horse (Jeff Nomination), Simpatico (Jeff Nomination) and the World Premiere of The Opponent (which was also produced at 59E59 in NYC). Regional credits include Simpatico at the McCarter Theatre, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window at The Goodman Theatre, the World Premiere of Taking Care and a revival of The Time of Your Life at Steppenwolf (which transferred to Seattle Rep and A.C.T.) and Eleven Rooms of Proust (a Lookingglass/About Face/Goodman Theatre collaboration). Other local theatres he's appeared with include Defiant, Plasticene, Famous Door and Mary Arrchie. Film credits include Captive State (2018 release), The Dilemma, The Merry Gentleman, Take Shelter, Public Enemies, The Weatherman, Ali, Janie Jones and The Unborn. TV credits include Chicago Fire (NBC), Boss (STARZ), Sirens (USA), Detroit 1-8-7 (ABC), Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (TNT), The Beast (A&E), Turks and Early Edition (CBS).

Stephen Walker (Bill Strand) returns to A Red Orchid Theatre. He was previously seen here in Harold Pinter's The Hot House and Celebration, as well as The Silence That Follows (Facility/ c A k e). He was nominated for a Jeff Award for his performance as Teach in American Buffalo at Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. Recent Chicago credits include 10 out of 12 (Theater Wit), Black River Falls (Curious), The White Road (ITC) and The Coward (Stage Left). He is a former Artistic Director of the Factory Theater where he directed among many other plays Eagle Hills, Eagle Ridge, Eagle Landing by Brett Neveu. Film/ TV credits include Chicago Fire, the upcoming Widows (dir. Steve McQueen) and Stir of Echoes. He is represented by Paonessa Talent Agency.

Natalie West is an ensemble member at A Red Orchid Theatre where she last appeared in Evening At The Talk House. Other AROT productions include The Mutilated, Strandline, Mud Blue Sky, The Butcher of Baraboo and Abigail's Party. Over the years she has appeared in shows at The Goodman, Steppenwolf, Northlight and others. She is a former ensemble member of Remains Theatre. Natalie was a regular on the television show Roseanne as Crystal. Natalie is a recipient of three Jeff Awards for supporting actress for The Butcher of Baraboo, Abigail's Party at A Red Orchid and Life and Limb at Wisdom Bridge. She holds a MSW from Loyola University Chicago, a BA in Theatre at Indiana University and she attended Webber Douglas Academy in London.

To post a comment, you must register and login.