Jackalope Theatre Announces 2018-19 Season

Jackalope Theatre Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Gus Menary and Managing Director Nora Leahy, announces its 2018/19 season. The company's 11th season features two world-premiere productions and a Midwest-Premiere. The season begins with the world premiere of In The Canyon by Jackalope Theatre company member Calamity West, directed by Elly Green, then continues with the midwest premiere of Dutch Masters by Greg Keller, directed by Wardell Julius Clark, and concludes with the world premiere of Life On Paper by Kenneth Lin, directed by Jackalope Artistic Director, Gus Menary.

All three of Jackalope's mainstage productions, as well as their latest collaboration with The Yard, a Chicago youth-driven theatre company, will take place in the fully heated and air-conditioned theater space within Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N Broadway

In addition to these mainstage season at Broadway Armory Park, Jackalope will present a fully curated season of work in The Frontier, 1106 W Thorndale. Slated for The Frontier during the 2018/19 Season is a the Circle Up! Reading Series in collaboration with The Chicago Inclusion Project, the launch of Jackalope's GroundWorks Series for new work, and The 10th Annual Living Newspapers Festival.

"Jackalope's 11th season reaffirms our commitment to new work by collaborating with some of the most exciting playwrights working today on American issues that affect us in the here and now.," says Artistic Director Gus Menary. "Each of these plays, whether their setting is the past, present, or future, has an immediacy that speaks to our identity as Americans, with the exhilaration and creativity they've come to expect from a Jackalope show. We're also thrilled to announce new Jackalope programming in The Frontier. Between the continuation of the Circle Up! Reading Series in conjunction with the Chicago Inclusion Project, the launch of Jackalope's GroundWorks Series of staged workshops, and the presentation of Jackalope's commissioned production of Calamity West's In The Canyon, Jackalope can finally say it produces and supports new work at every stage of development. Collaboration has been central to our work of the past couple years, and Jackalope is proud to continue our mission to present works that redefine the American identity. Welcome to Jackalope's 11th season."

The 2018/19 Season Pass is available for purchase via www.jackalopetheatre.org, which gives patrons access to the Mainstage Season in Broadway Armory Park, discounted access to the lineup of programming in The Frontier, and invitations to opening nights and special events.

JACKALOPE SEASON 11: UP-CLOSE

In Broadway Armory Park

IN THE CANYON

World Premiere

By Calamity West

Directed by Elly Green

October 23 - November 25, 2018 | Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway

Press Night: Tuesday, October 23 at 8pm

In The Canyon is a new American saga by Calamity West spanning from 2007 to 2067. In an exploration on the present attack on abortion, a time in which Roe v. Wade is overturned, this world-premiere imagines a broken society rapidly declining into a future world set in the rocks and walls of a canyon, where a story of resistance is birthed.

Calamity West Bio: Calamity West is a Chicago-based, award-winning, Kilroys-cited playwright. Most recently Calamity's work was seen at Steep Theatre Company with the world-premiere of her play HINTER in the winter of 2018. In January 2018 her play ENGINES AND INSTRUMENTS OF FLIGHT: A FANTASIA IN THREE ACTS, originally commissioned at The Goodman Theatre, had its first New York reading at The Roundabout where it continues to be developed. Another of her plays, GREETINGS FROM MOSCOW! A LOVE STORY, is currently in development at TimeLine Theatre Company's Playwrights Collective. Additional plays by Calamity West include: GIVE IT ALL BACK (2016, Kilroy-cited); ROLLING (2016); IBSEN IS DEAD (2014); THE PEACOCK (2013, Kilroys honorable mention); THE GACY PLAY (2012); and COMMON HATRED (2012). In 2014 Calamity was recipient of the 3Arts Award. She teaches playwriting at the University of Chicago and Webster University. Calamity is a company member of Jackalope Theatre, an artistic associate at Sideshow Theatre Company, and is represented by The Gersh Agency.

DUTCH MASTERS

Midwest Premiere

By Greg Keller

Directed by Wardell Julius Clark

March 5 - April 6, 2019 | Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway

Press Night: Tuesday, March 5 at 8:00pm

New York City, 1992. Summer. In NYC's hazy pre-Giuliani, pre-cellphone, pre-Metrocard days, a black kid and a white kid meet in a chance encounter on an uptown D train, chatting hoops, hip hop, and history. Over the course of one afternoon, fear, guilt, and longing allow one kid to take the other to a place neither even imagined possible.

Greg Keller's plays have been performed at Cherry Lane Theatre, Williamstown Theater Festival, LAByrinth Theater Company, Berkshire Theater Festival, Rogue Machine in LA, and Azuka Theater in Philadelphia. He was a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwrighting Fellow at The Juilliard School, where he recieved the Lecomte du Nouy prize. Greg has acted extensively On and Off Broadway, mostly originating roles in new plays.

LIFE ON PAPER

World Premiere

By Kenneth Lin

Directed by Gus Menary

May 21 - June 22, 2019 | Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway

Press Night: Tuesday, May 21 at 8pm

After his proof for the Riemanm Hypothesis (one of the world's last great math puzzles) disastrously flames out, Mitch Bloom, a brilliant mathematician finds himself working as a consultant using complex algorithms to set the value of human lives in wrongful death cases. His knack for devaluing lives has made him the darling of the insurance companies, but what will he do when the wrongful death of a billionaire philanthropist crosses his desk, and the future of a small town hangs in the balance?

Kenneth Lin's plays Warrior Class, Pancakes, Pancakes!, Po Boy Tango, said Saïd, Agency*, Genius in Love, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn w. music by Stew and The Lynching of a White Man In Rural, CA have been performed throughout the world. He is a member of the theater/music/film collective New Neighborhood. Current commissions: Kleptocracy (Live Wire Theatrical), Farewell My Concubine w. composer Jason Robert Brown (Cinemation, Inc.) and Monopoly (Arena Stage). Television: House of Cards (Netflix, Emmy nomination, best dramatic series), Warrior (HBO/Cinemax), and Sweetbitter (Starz). Awards/Honors: Winner Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition, Princess Grace Award, L. Arnold Weissberger Award, Cole Porter Prize, Edgerton New Play Prize, Fulbright Scholarship

ARTISTIC COLLABORATION WITH THE YARD

Summer, 2019 | Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway

Jackalope Theatre is proud to continue their Artistic Alliance with Senn Arts and The Yard. Theatre relevant to young people; performed by young people, The Yard is a collective of Chicago area theatre students who have formed artistic alliances with professional theatre companies throughout Chicago. Through this partnership, Jackalope provides a professional environment and mentorship to the developing theatre artists.

In The Frontier

THE GROUNDWORKS SERIES

The Frontier, 1106 W. Thorndale

The Groundworks Series is Jackalope's newest initiative to cultivate bold new theatre in Chicago. A series of staged workshop productions that get new works on their feet for the first time.

Girl with Gun

by Nora Leahy

October 4th-7th, 2018

Armonica's (which was Cassavette's), The Secret Gem of the Southwest Side

by Nate Whelden

December 14th-17th, 2018

Enough to Let the Light In

by Paloma Nozicka

&

The Itinerant

by Kaiser Ahmed

(one-act double bill)

May 3rd-5th, 2019

THE CIRCLE UP! READING SERIES

In conjunction with The Chicago Inclusion Project

The Frontier, 1106 W. Thorndale

CIRCLE UP! is dedicated to amplifying diverse stories of scope and providing safe harbor for evolving work. Each reading includes a post-show discussion, encouraging our audience to share and engage with the play over drinks and light fare.

cullud wattah

by Erika Dickerson

October 15th, 2018

Exotic Animals

by Emma Stanton

February 25th, 2019

Wolves Eat Elk

by MJ Kaufman

May 13th, 2019

THE 10th ANNUAL LIVING NEWSPAPERS FESTIVAL

6 new short plays based on current American Newspaper Articles

August 23 - 27, 2019 | The Frontier, 1106 W. Thorndale

In homage to the 1930's Living Newspapers of the Federal Theatre Project, Jackalope assembles an exciting group of Chicago playwrights, directors, and actors to dramatize stories ripped from recent newspaper headlines.

For more information, visit www.jackalopetheatre.org

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