International Voices Project to Kick Off 2015 Readings Series Next Month

International Voices Project (IVP) is proud to present the sixth season of play readings by playwrights from around the world. The series is presented in collaboration with consulates and cultural institutions throughout Chicago. The 2015 engagement's represented countries include India, Canada, Sweden, Cuba, Syria, Norway, Poland and Chile. The readings take place at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, McVeigh Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave, February 15 - March 2 on Sunday - Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. A reception follows each evening's readings. The International Voices Project is the largest event of its kind in the country and introduces Chicago audiences to some of the most exciting voices on the international theater scene. Performances are free to the public and reservations are requested. For more information about IVP, or to reserve your seat, visit IVPChicago.org or call 773.250.7055.

Presented in collaboration with each country's consulate general and/or cultural institution, the International Voices Project celebrates the voices of international playwrights with eight premiere concert-style readings. A professional cast performs each play to allow audience members' imaginations create the world of the play. After each reading, there will be a post-performance discussion with the cast and audience, followed by a reception.

READINGS SCHEDULE:

Sunday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m.: From India, IVP presents Gopal Sharman's The Ramayana, presented in collaboration with Rasaka Theatre, and directed by Anish Jethmalani.

Rama, the prince of Ayodha, is exiled to the forest, but after many adventures he discovers that his wife has been abducted by Ravana, the king of demons, and Rama needs the help of Hanuman and his army of monkeys to rescue her.

Monday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m.: From Canada, IVP presents Daniel MacIvor's Best Brothers, presented in collaboration with the Consulate General of Canada, and directed by Patrizia Acerra.

A bittersweet comedy from one of Canada's most beloved playwrights that explores the many ways in which we grieve and the love we find in unexpected places. Bunny Best has met her unfortunate end after a mishap at a Gay Days parade. Now her two sons, Kyle and Hamilton, have the task of arranging her funeral and caring for her most beloved companion, a troublesome Italian greyhound named Enzo. In the bustle of obituary-writing, eulogy-giving, and dog-sitting, sibling rivalry quickly reaches its peak and years of buried contentions surface.

Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m.: From Sweden, IVP presents Jonas Hassen Khemiri's We Are a Hundred, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles, and directed by Anna C. Bahow.

In Khemiri's third play we meet a trio of women: A young revolutionary, a middle-aged comfort junkie and an old truth seeker. Three persons who,in their fight to define themselves, realize that they are the same person. Join Jonas Hassen Khemiri's unpredictable world where everyone fights to define the meaning of the word "we."

Sunday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m.: From Cuba, IVP presents Laura Liz Gil Echenique's The Walruses, translated by Yael Prizant, presented in collaboration with Vitalist Theatre, and directed by Kelly Lynn Hogan.

The essential desire to share genuine intimacy compels lovers to stumble toward one another in an eternal dance as basic as breathing, revealing that we can be as authentic as the rest of the creatures of the earth, who have much to teach us, if only we could listen.

Monday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. : From Syria, IVP presents Mohammad al-Attar's A Chance Encounter, translated by Clem Naylor, and directed by Fouad Teymour.

Glimpse the human side of the current Syrian conflict through the unique artistic voice of this playwright, drama practitioner, and commentator who has been chronicling the rapid transformations taking place in his homeland since 2011. In Al-Attar's short play A Chance Encounter, a simple interaction on a Beirut street corner draws us into a mire of Syrian politics and alliances.

Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m.: From Norway, IVP presents Arne Lygre's Nothing of Me, translated by May-Brit Akerholt, in collaboration with Akvavit Theatre, and directed by Breahan Pautsch.

The new play is the story of a passion gradually convulsed by visiting ghosts from the past, and by the risk at which the characters are from one another. In a playful style Arne Lygre delves into the bond of love, its force and its dead-ends, using ruthlessly telltale dialogue. The play warns us of the danger we're at of imprisoning others within our expectations, through the very love we feel for them.

Sunday, March 1 at 7 p.m.: From Poland, IVP presents Dorota Maslowska's No Matter How Hard We Try, translated by Artur Zapalowski, in collaboration with Trap Door Theatre, and directed by Max Truax.

No Matter How Hard We Tried is literary phenomenon Dorota Mas?owska's hilarious and devastating portrait of a schizophrenic post-communist Polish society divided against itself, buried under the weight of history, and torn between national pride and shame. With wildly inventive language and razor-sharp humor the play captures Poland's contemporary moment bringing together nouveau-riche media celebrities, the abject poor, phony artists, and disaffected youth all struggling to stay afloat in a toxic stew of commercialism, intergenerational confusion, Catholic nationalism, and idealized visions of Poland's tragic past.

Monday, March 2 at 7 p.m.: From Chile, IVP presents Trinidad Gonzalez's The Reunion, translated by Alexandra Ripp,and directed by John Green.

When Spanish royalty imprisoned Christopher Columbus for abusing his power in the Indies, the explorer begged an audience with Queen Isabella to explain himself and plead for absolution. La Reunión, an intense single-act play, revisits this historic event to imagine a conversation between Columbus and Isabella, in the hour before the queen's death in 1504. This steely vivisection of history and personal responsibilities takes place in the privacy of the queen's chambers. In a probing dialogue, they duel about the power of the church and the oligarchy, class struggle, and the vindication of indigenous people, all the while accusing each other of greed and false morality. Stripped of props and design, the bare stage focuses the audience's attention on two people whose actions changed the world-with only a massive round table, and their heated words, between them.

International Voices Project (IVP) is proud to present the sixth season of play readings by playwrights from around the world. The series is presented in collaboration with consulates and cultural institutions throughout Chicago. The 2015 engagement's represented countries include India, Canada, Sweden, Cuba, Syria, Norway, Poland and Chile. The readings take place at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, McVeigh Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave, February 15 - March 2 on Sunday -- Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. A reception follows each evening's readings. The International Voices Project is the largest event of its kind in the country and introduces Chicago audiences to some of the most exciting voices on the international theater scene. Performances are free to the public and reservations are requested. For more information about IVP, or to reserve your seat, visit IVPChicago.org or call 773.250.7055.

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