Found Objects Theatre Presents MASCOT at Den Theatre, Now thru 5/26

Found Objects Theatre Group presents its production of Mascot this spring at Chicago's Den Theatre at 1333 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago. Mascot is written by Chris Bower, directed by Kevlyn Hayesand performed by Matt Test.

In Mascot, a man, comically estranged from his family has something more important to worry

about: a restraining order keeping him from his son's high school football games. As he attempts increasingly grandiose and absurd ways to see his son play without being caught, he must confront the series of events that led to his banishment. Mascot is a humorous tragedy consumed with rage, blackmail, disguises, wet grass and whispers.

Playwright Chris Bower graduated from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and has an MFA in Writing program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His plays include Promises to Keep: The Poems of Robert F. Kennedy (Found Objects Theatre Group), The Siberian Mouth (Bruised Orange Theatre), When You're Dead (Tympanic Theatre), Little Boy Needs Ride (The Magpies), Notes to Molly (Rhinoceros Theatre Festival), Birthday Boy (Curious Theatre Branch) among many others. Bowers' fiction and poetry has appeared in Annalemma, Another Chicago Magazine and the 2nd Hand. He founded and hosts the Ray's Tap Reading Series.

Director Kevlyn Hayes graduated from Northern Illinous University with a BFA in acting. She also studied at the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia and the Actor's Movement Studio in New York City. She serves as Artistic Director of Found Object's Theatre Group. Since helping found the company in 2007, she has directed many of FOTG's productions, including Teatime at Golgotha, Torvald and I, An Increasingly Uncordial Invitation, Histories Minor and Shuttlecock'd. This past year, Hayes participated in Director's Lab Chicago, a symposium of local and international directors.

Matt Test is a writer, musician and actor. He has written, composed and performed with Curious Theatre Branch, where he is a company member, the Ruckus Theatre, American Theater Company, Lifeline Theatre, Prop THTR, Found Objects Theatre Group, and many others. He plays in the bands ElvisBride and The Crooked Mouth and is a regular literary contributor to the Ray's Tap Reading Series.

Mascot is performed at The Den Theatre from tonight, May 3-26, 2013 on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30pm and Sundays performances at 3pm. The press opening is Saturday, May 4. Tickets are $15. Tickets can be purchased online at www.brownpapertickets.com. Reservations can be made by calling 773-800-9479 or by e-mailing foundobjectstheatrechicago@gmail.com.

Originally founded by graduates of the NIU theatre department in 2007, Found Objects Theatre Group is a collective of fringe theatre artists dedicated to creating new work that uses the absurdities of language, literature and history in the name of humor and pathos. In grand tradition of such Fringe stalwarts Theatre Oobleck and the Curious Theatre Branch, FOTG strives to produce affordable, experimental, and wildly entertaining material. We have produced plays at and for the New York Fringe Festival, Prop Thtr, Acme Arts, Rhinoceros Theatre Festival, and New Orleans' Voodoo Mystere Theatre.