Interrobang Theatre Project Announces 2015-16 'Unnatural Disasters' Season

Interrobang Theatre Project, under the co-artistic direction of James Yost and Georgette Verdin, is excited to announce Season 6: "Unnatural Disasters," featuring three plays that investigate how individuals and communities navigate their way through the chaos and absurdity of worlds turned upside-down, when everything and nothing is familiar.

The 2015/16 season launches this fall with the Midwest premiere of KATRINA: MOTHER-IN-LAW OF 'EM ALL by Rob Florence, directed by Co-Artistic Georgette Verdin, marking the tenth anniversary of the deadly hurricane that struck the U.S. Gulf coast. Next winter, the attacks of 9-11 set the backdrop for RECENT TRAGIC EVENTS by Craig Wright, also directed by Verdin. The season concludes next spring with the Midwest premiere of the psychological drama THE NORTH POOL by Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph, directed by Co-Artistic Director James Yost.

Interrobang is also pleased to announce a new Pre-Professional Program for Chicago youth, in collaboration with the Athenaeum Theatre, one of Chicago's premier destinations for emerging artists of all ages. Students will experience a professional production process culminating in a weekend of performances at the Athenaeum Theatre February 11 - 14, 2016. The selected production (to be announced) will explore adolescent issues that tie into ITP's season theme of "Unnatural Disasters." The Program will also include a series of workshops taught by guest artists in areas including acting, movement and stagecraft. Additional information on the Pre-Professional Program will be available shortly at www.interrobangtheatreproject.org.

Interrobang Theatre Project's 2015/16 Season will be staged at both The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. and The Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at www.interrobangtheatreproject.org.

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Interrobang Theatre Project Sixth Season Includes:

September 6 - October 5, 2015

KATRINA: MOTHER-IN-LAW OF 'EM ALL - Midwest Premiere!

By Rob Florence, Directed by Co-Artistic Director Georgette Verdin

The Den Theatre Mainstage, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

KATRINA: MOTHER-IN-LAW OF 'EM ALL is set in the famous Mother-in-Law Lounge, located in New Orleans' Tremé neighborhood. It follows six individuals as they recount their true, harrowing and yet somehow hopeful stories about surviving one of the worst disasters in U.S. history. Both humorous and poignant - this this piece reaches beyond New Orleans, beyond Hurricane Katrina, and taps into our primordial need as humans to survive even under the worst of conditions.

March 13 - April 10, 2016

RECENT TRAGIC EVENTS

By Craig Wright, Directed by Co-Artistic Director Georgette Verdin

The Athenaeum Theatre (Studio 2), 2936 N. Southport Ave., Chicago

It is September 12, 2001 and Waverly, a young advertising executive, has been set up on a blind date amidst the news of the September 11 attacks. She quickly becomes unnervingly preoccupied when she discovers that her twin sister, Wendy - a student in New York - has yet to be accounted for. As the evening unfolds, Waverly and her blind date, Andrew, an airport bookstore manager, realize that they are connected by a succession of bizarre coincidences. Emmy Award-winning playwright, Craig Wright explores chance, tragedy and coincidence.

May 29 - June 26, 2016

THE NORTH POOL - Midwest Premiere!

By Rajiv Joseph, Directed by Co-Artistic Director James Yost

The Athenaeum Theatre (Studio 2), 2936 N. Southport Ave., Chicago

Khadim has no idea why he's been called into the Vice Principal's office at Sheffield High. At first, Vice Principal Danielson is cagey, using a minor violation to keep the boy at school for detention. It doesn't take long for tensions to mount around a crime that Khadim may (or may not) have committed. The truth is ever-shifting in what amounts to a game of cat-and-mouse from Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph. As the clock winds down on the last hours of the semester, both Danielson and Khadim must carefully maneuver hauntingly unexpected revelations. THE NORTH POOL is a psychological drama that explores the complexities of racial and cultural profiling and personal accountability.

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About the Playwrights:

Rob Florence (Katrina: Mother-in-Law of 'Em All) Different versions of Katrina have been performed from New York to Los Angeles to Louisiana since 2006, including a staged reading at the Culture Project's IMPACT Arts Festival; the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival which won several awards and resulted in the first published Hurricane Katrina play; the New York International Fringe Festival (Soho Playhouse & Lucille Lortell Theatre); Hollywood Fringe Festival and The Fountain Theatre. Florence holds an MFA with distinction in playwriting from the University of New Orleans and is the Dramatists Guild's Gulf Coast Regional Rep.

Craig Wright's (Recent Tragic Events) recent productions include Mistakes Were Made at A Red Orchid Theatre, Hartford Stage and the Barrow Street Theater; Blind at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre; The Gray Sisters at Third Rail Rep; The Unseen at Actors Theater of Louisville and upcoming at Stages Rep with Lady, which was commissioned by and received its world premiere from the Northlight Theatre and was subsequently produced at Rattlestick and across the country; Orange Flower Water, produced at Steppenwolf Theatre.

Rajiv Joseph's (The North Pool) Broadway play, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama, and also awarded a grant for Outstanding New American Play by the National Endowment for the Arts. Joseph's New York productions include Gruesome Playground Injuries, Second Stage Theatre, 2011; Animals Out of Paper, Second Stage Theatre, summer 2008; The Leopard and the Fox (adaptation), Alter Ego, fall 2007; Huck & Holden, Cherry Lane Theatre, 2006; All This Intimacy, Second Stage Theatre, 2006. World premieres of new plays this year, include The North Pool at Theatre Works in Palo Alto; The Lake Effect at Crossroads Theatre in New Jersey; and The Medusa Body at the Alley Theatre. He received his BA in Creative Writing from Miami University and his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal.

About the Directors:

Georgette Verdin (Katrina: Mother-in-Law of 'Em All and Recent Tragic Events) is Co-Artistic Director of Interrobang Theatre Company. She served as assistant director for for ITP's fifth season, which included Caryl Churchill's Owners and Paul Down Calaizzo's Really Really. In addition to working with Interrobang and being a freelance director, she's also the founding theatre teacher at Polaris Charter Academy, an Expeditionary Learning School in West Humboldt Park. Selected directing/devised credits include: Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Burn of 1871, Chasing Freedom, People Get Ready and Wiley and the Hairy Man. Upcoming projects include: a devised piece for the LezPlay Salon series through Pride Film and Plays. Georgette holds a Master's in Directing from Roosevelt University and a BA in Theatre Performance from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La.

James Yost (The North Pool) is Co-Artistic Director of Interrobang Theatre Company. With BareBones Theatre Group (Charlotte, NC) for which he served as artistic director for 12 years, Yost has staged over 50 plays and won several awards including "Theatre Person of the Year" in 2001. Selected credits include: Mr. Marmalade, Psycho Beach Party and Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical, The Graduate, The Play About the Baby, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Drift, Ugly Art, bash; the latter-day plays, Squirrels, The Wizard of Oz, Lend Me A Tenor, True West, The Pitchfork Disney,and Noises Off. Yost has produced several new play festivals and was the co-producer of Charlotte's City Stage Summer Play Festival. For Interrobang Yost has directed Orange Flower Water, Ibsen is Dea, and last season's critically-acclaimed Midwest premiere of Really Really. Yost teaches acting, directing, production design and film at the high school and collegiate levels. He is published in Teaching Theatre Journal, a publication of Dramatics Magazine.

About Interrobang Theatre Project - Now in its sixth season, Interrobang Theatre Project, under the artistic leadership of founder Jeffry Stanton and James Yost, has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a "company to watch" and by Time Out Chicago as "one of Chicago's most promising young theatre companies." Productions have included the world premiere of Ibsen is Dead by Calamity West; the Midwest premiere of The Argument by Gregory Moss; the Jeff Award Recommended The Pitchfork Disney, Terminus and Orange Flower Water; Speaking in Tongues, Here Lies Henry, and the critically-acclaimed Hot 'N' Throbbing which Time Out Chicago's 5-star review called a "scintillating revival" and Newcity Stage exclaimed, "Interrobang Theatre Project, guns ablaze, dives headfirst into the play's challenging themes, and offers a rare production in which every element onstage is as robust and capable as every other."

What's an interrobang? An interrobang is the combination of a question mark and an exclamation point, joining the Latin for "question" (interro) with a proofreading term for "exclamation" (bang). Through the plays we produce, Interrobang Theatre Project aims to pose worthwhile and exciting questions which challenge our understanding and assumptions of who we are and the world in which we live. With our audience, we are changing our world one play at a time.

For more information, visit www.interrobangtheatreproject.org.