Cast Announced For Connective Theatre Company's MORNING IN AMERICA

For this original production, Connective Theatre Company ensemble member Taylor McWilliams-Woods asked Americans from across the political spectrum how they define America and why we should-or should not-fight for it. She shaped responses from thirty of those interviews into MORNING IN AMERICA, a piece that combines the structure of Eve Ensler's THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES as well as Moises Kauffman's THE LARAMIE PROJECT in order to tell the stories of real Americans and to share their perspectives on the current state of the country and their hopes for its future. The goal: to use theatre as a medium through which audience members may begin to open up a dialogue "across the aisle," listen to each other, and be more empathetic to those with political views and beliefs that differ from their own.

The thirty Americans whose words are included in the script will be played by Grace - Kayla Higbee (Grace), Kade Cox (Logan), Dani Pike (Delaney), Daniela Martinez (Noah), Cian Evans-Grayson (Cian), and Lucas Matteson (Tanner). The press opening will be Friday, March 13 at 7:30 pm.

MORNING IN AMERICA is produced in partnership with IL Vote at Home, a grassroots group dedicated to increasing voter turnout by educating Illinois voters about voting at home by mail.

McWilliams-Woods, who also serves as director for the piece, explains her inspiration for developing MORNING IN AMERCA. "After the 2016 election, I was completely taken aback by the results. I felt oblivious to the beliefs of my fellow Americans. I felt naive and disconnected from a country I thought I knew. I took it upon myself to ask family, friends, and strangers what their political beliefs were, where these beliefs came from, and how that informed their identity as Americans in hopes of better understanding the general population's ideology as well as my own. It is from these conversations that the script was born."

The conversations started with one central question: "Is there a topic you feel passionately about that you think the country needs to address?" and grew from there. McWilliams-Woods found her subjects in various ways, from walking up to strangers in coffee shops to contacting various partisan organizations to casting a net via family and friends. Her main goal was to make sure the people interviewed were diverse in as many ways as possible. In all, 30 interviews made it into the script, sometimes as simple lines or phrases, sometimes as full monologues. Together, the voices in MORNING IN AMERICA ask us to think about how we define America and why we should-or should not-fight for it.

MORNING IN AMERICA will be performed March 12-29, 2020 at Nox Arca Theatre, 4001 N Ravenswood Ave #405, Chicago, IL 60613.Tickets: $15 online and $20 at the door,. Tickets will be available soon at www.connectivetheatrecompany.com

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