Greasy Joan Co Presents Weekend of Free Play Readings 8/16

Greasy Joan & Co. launches its 13th season of producing innovative productions of classic plays with the first annual CUTTING EDGE CLASSICS SERIES, a weekend of FREE new play readings commissioned by Greasy Joan, playing at various Chicago venues on August 16 & 17, 2008.
 
Saturday, August 16th at 2 p.m.
Anthrax: A Contemporary Mash-up of Phaedra and Dr. Faustus
By Ann Marie Healy
Directed by Artistic Director Julieanne Ehre
Woman Made Gallery, 685 N. Milwaukee Ave.
 
An update of the Faustian myth placed in contemporary academia.  Ann Marie Healy's work has been developed at the Sundance Institute, the Actor's Theatre of Louisville and LABrynth Theatre in New York.
 
Saturday, August 16th at 6 p.m.
Orestes/West
By Peter A. Campbell
Directed by Meghan Beals McCarthy
Adapted from a number of Greek tragedies and the Taneyev opera of The Oresteia
Juicy Wine Co., 694 N. Milwaukee Ave.
 
The final in a trilogy of plays based on Greek mythology.   Peter Campbell lives in New York, his plays have been presented at the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre (Richard Foreman, Artistic Director).
 
Sunday, August 17th at 2 p.m.
Lady into Fox
By Joe Meno
Adapted from the novel by David Garnett
Directed by Associate Artistic Director Libby Ford
The Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Ave.
 
An absurd, magical piece in which a husband finds his wife suddenly transformed into a fox.  Joe Meno's novel The Boy Detective Fails was named a Best Book of 2006 by the Chicago Tribune, Kirkus and Booklist.
 
Commissioned in 2007, these plays represent the freshest work of a promising group of writers whose work has been seen at the Sundance Institute, Ontological Hysteric Theater, LAByrinth Theatre, the Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Chicago's own House Theatre.  These exciting authors explore inventive, magical landscapes of classic literature with an eye towards the world we live in today.
 
Admission to all reading is FREE.  For information and reservations, call (312) 458-0718 or go to www.greasyjoan.org.

Greasy Joan & Co. re-imagines classic plays for the contemporary stage.  Their premiere adaptations and translations present fresh, innovative stagings of the classics. With a strong commitment to symbolic design, Greasy Joan productions create visually compelling theater.  They engage Chicago audiences in the greatness of the past through the imaginative interpretations of the present.  Founded in 1995 by a group of graduates from Harvard University's American Repertory Theater training program, Greasy Joan & Co. has received 13 Joseph Jefferson "Jeff" awards and nominations to date.