Cast Announced for City Lit's PROMETHEUS BOUND

Full cast and crew have been announced for City Lit's world premiere translation of Aeschylus's theatrically boldest tragedy, PROMETHEUS BOUND, which will begin previews April 27, 2018 and open to the press on Sunday, May 6. This new translation was commissioned by City Lit from Nicholas Rudall, Founding Artistic Director of Court Theater and internationally acclaimed award-winning translator of Greek drama.

In this classic Greek tragedy, the titan Prometheus, friend of humankind, is chained-and fastened with a spike through his chest - to a mountain as punishment for instilling in the human race the capacity for hope, thereby spoiling Zeus's plan to wipe out the human race and replace it with something better. Prometheus's parade of visitors includes gods, sea nymphs, and Io - a woman whom Zeus has turned into a cow.

In McCabe and Rudall's vision of the classic - a play they've discussed for over twenty years - only Prometheus and Io are to be played by human actors. City Lit Producing Artistic Director Terry McCabe announced the cast of actors and puppeteers today. Mark Pracht, who was seen most recently at City Lit in last fall's DEIRDRE OF THE SORROWS and also performed the lead role of Frank in The Artistic Home's production of THE SCHOOL FOR LIES last summer, will play Prometheus. Kat Evans, who played Grace Harkaway in City Lit's 2017 LONDON ASSURANCE, will play Io.

The play's other characters - all supernatural beings without meaningful connections to the human race - will be portrayed by life-sized puppets so that their physical appearances are not limited by the human form. The puppeteers behind the puppets created by Tiffany Lange and Cynthia VonOrthal of VonOrthal puppets will be Nate Buursma, Antora Delong, Linsey Falls, Sarah Franzel, and Maddy Low. The male puppets will be voiced by Charles Schoenherr. The Greek chorus voices will be Casey Daniel, Lara Dohner, Jenna Fawcett, Sahara Glasener-Boles, Krista Mitchell, and Justine Raczy.

The design team for PROMETHEUS BOUND will also include Jeremy Hollis (scenic design), Liz Cooper (lighting design), LaVisa Angela Williams (costume design), Jeremiah Barr (properties design), Hazel Marie Flowers McCabe (production manager). The production will also feature an original score by Chicago composer (and City Lit regular) Kingsley Day.

"PROMETHEUS BOUND is a work of challenging beauty," Rudall said, "and City Lit is a perfect place to explore its lyricism and its politics." PROMETHEUS BOUND will run from April 27-June 10, 2018.