Artemisia Announces Fall Festival 2018

Artemisia launches its 2018-19 Theatre Season with six ground breaking and all-new feminist plays featured in Fall Festival 2018. This year's playwrights were chosen after a dedicated search by Artemisia's Artistic Staff and their remarkable new works are not to be missed! Each play is staged only once by Chicago's excellent pool of talent. From this unique lineup, one play will be chosen by Artistic Director, Julie Proudfoot, whose dedicated development process with the playwright will be shared directly with Artemisia's audience and lead to the play's exciting premiere production in Chicago. This year's festival follows diverse and fascinating female characters, all on a journey of empowerment.

Artemisia Fall Festival 2018 opens with SCRATCHING THE SURFACE, by Charly Evon Simpson, on Monday, September 24th, followed by WITCH CAMP, by J. Thalia Cunningham, on Tuesday, September 25th, and CASH COWS, by Anthony Fiorentino, on Wednesday, September 27th. THINGS THAT ARE ROUND, by Callie Kimball, kicks off the second week of the festival on Monday, October 1st, followed by MINE & YOURS, by Carolyn Kras, on Tuesday, October 2nd, and EVERY WAITING HEART, by Lauren Ferebee, on October 3rd, which closes the festival. Special events at the festival include fascinating audience discussions and a closing night party and all performances are at The Edge Theater at 7:30 pm. Tickets go on sale August 1st! For more information about Artemisia Fall Festival 2018, go to ARTEMISIATHEATRE.ORG or call 312-725-3780.

Charly Evon Simpson is a playwright and performer from New York City. Her plays include Jump, Scratching the Surface, Hottentotted, While We Wait, and more. Her work has been seen and/or developed with NNPN at its Kennedy Center MFA Playwright's Workshop, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Ars Nova, The Flea, and others. She's a member of 17/18 Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers' Group, The Amoralists' 2018-19 'Wright Club, and is The Pack's current playwright-in-residence. Charly holds a Bachelor of Arts from Brown and Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College.

"I was so excited to hear that Scratching the Surface would be included in Artemisia's Fall Festival. I can't wait to share this play with a new audience in Chicago and for the opportunity to possibly work with Artemisia on the development of this piece!"

J. Thalia Cunningham is a playwright, travel writer, and photographer. Her plays have been commissioned, produced, and developed in United States and internationally. She has been published by Smith & Kraus and Applause. She is a proud member of: Actors Studio; League of Professional Theatre Women; The WorkShop Theater Company. J. Thalia holds a Bachelor of Arts from Johns Hopkins University has traveled to 120 countries, and has written for national travel publications.

"I am honored that Witch Camp was selected as one of the plays for Artemisia Theatre's Fall Festival. At this particular moment in our history, when both women's issues and racial issues have moved to the forefront of American social consciousness, I am grateful that Artemisia Theatre champions the vehicle of theatre as a means of engaging and encouraging us to explore these matters."

Tony Fiorentino is a Chicago-based playwright whose plays have been produced at the Athenaeum Theatre, Stage 773, Prop Theatre, the American Theatre of Actors, the Actors' Theatre of Santa Cruz, and the Attic Playhouse. His plays "All My Love" and "The Feast" have been nominated for the Jeff Award for Best New Play. He is an affiliated artist with the National New Play Network. He was a finalist for the Stanley Drama Award in 2011, and a Semi-finalist for Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center National Playwright's Conference (2008).

"I am delighted and honored to have my play presented as part of Artemisia's 2018 Fall Festival. I have wanted to work with Artemisia since I first attended its fall festival as an audience member, and am thrilled for the opportunity to be a part of its important mission of using the power of drama to empower women."

Callie Kimball is a MacDowell Fellow, a two-time winner of the Rita & Burton Goldberg Award, a finalist for the O'Neill, a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award, and a four-time nominee for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. Her plays have appeared in NY, Chicago, LA, and DC, at the Kennedy Center, Portland Stage Company, Lark Play Development Center, Dramatic Repertory Company, Halcyon Theatre, Stoneham Theatre, Echo Theatre, The Brick Theater, Project Y Theatre, Team Awesome Robot, Washington Shakespeare Company, Mad Horse Theatre, and more. She is currently writing a commission for ShadowCatcher Productions inspired by the letters of her grandparents during World War II. Things That Are Round will have its world premiere this November at Rep Stage. Plays include: Sofonisba (Clauder Gold Prize Winner, Kilroys' List), Rush, Alligator Road, Dreams of the Penny Gods.

"I'm thrilled to have my play 'Things That Are Round' chosen for this year's festival. The play departs in style and tone from last year's 'Rush,' yet it dovetails neatly with Artemisia's mission. I am so thankful to Julie and everyone at Artemisia for the work they do in highlighting plays that don't hew to traditional storytelling narratives. Their mission and work are breaking down stereotypes and offering audiences unique and original voices."

Carolyn Kras is an LA-based playwright from Chicago. She was Playwright in Residence at Selladoor Worldwide through the support of the Fulbright LUSK Award to the United Kingdom. Her play The Subject has had 20 readings, including a United Nations Orange Day Reading in London. Carolyn is the recipient of the Visionary Playwright Award, Hamptons International Film Festival Screenwriters' Lab selection, Alfred P. Sloan Screenwriting Award, Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar selection, Disquiet International Short Play Award, and Plume &Pellicule Award. Her plays have been developed and or produced at The Blank Theatre, The Road Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Stage Left Theatre, Centenary Stage Company, Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, 20% Theatre Company Chicago, Williams Street Rep, Theater Masters, Found Stages, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She is a member of The Playwrights Union LA and holds a Masters of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University.

"I love Artemisia Theatre's mission to support stories with women at the center and feel honored to bring Mine & Yours to the Fall Festival. Mine & Yours is a play close to my heart, and I'm delighted to share this Chicago story with Chicago audiences."

Lauren's plays have been praised as "exquisite" (Applause, Applause) and "a fine balance between laugh-out-loud absurdity and gut-wrenching human drama" (DC Metro Theater Arts). Her play The Meeting was recently a national finalist for the Kennedy Center's Gary Garrison 10-Minute Play Award. Previous plays include The Reckless Season (finalist, 2016 Princess Grace Award, semi-finalist, 2014 Shakespeare's Sister Fellowship), and Sexual Geography (finalist, 2015 Reva Shiner Comedy Award). Smith & Kraus will publish four monologues from The Reckless Season in the 2018 Best Stage Monologues series. She was a nominee for the 2016 USA Fellowship in theatre. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from NYU/Tisch.

"It means so much to me to be working with a theatre that privileges the complex and intricate narratives of women's lives. It is especially meaningful for this play, which looks at different generations of women and what strength has meant to them. I am proud to be working with a theatre whose namesake was one of the greatest women artists of all time, a theatre whose work carries her legacy into our shared future."

Artemisia is Chicago's premiere theatre for the development and production of remarkable new feminist plays. Artemisia gives playwrights career-altering opportunities andengages the audience directly in the development of groundbreaking feminist theatre that culminates in a one-of-a-kind production in Chicago.

Get involved with a remarkable feminist theatre, dedicated to bettering the Chicago community by empowering women and girls. Partnering with Artemisia gives your business unique press, media and marketing opportunities, direct contact with our audience and talent, and the chance to become part of a powerful movement - #ThePresentIsFemale. For sponsorship opportunities contact Artemisia Artistic Director Julie Proudfoot at artemisiatheatre@gmail.com.

"Artemisia honors a long tradition of resistance through storytelling and empowerment through representation. Chicago is blessed to have this Vital Theatre Company in our midst." Jamil Khoury, Founding Artistic Director, Silk Road Rising