Lookingglass Theatre Presents ETHAN FROME

Lookingglass Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of Ethan Frome, adapted from Edith Wharton's novel and directed by Laura Eason. The production runs February 23 - April 17, 2011 at Lookingglass Theatre Company, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. The press opening is Saturday, March 5, at 7:30 p.m.

Fervent desire burns just beneath the surface of a snowy New England farm. Stoic farmer Ethan Frome trudges through a joyless marriage with his ailing wife, Zena, until they hire her young cousin to tend to the house. Her vibrant spirit awakens a passion in Ethan that neither of them dare acknowledge. This classic, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Age of Innocence, is a deeply poetic story about the staggering beauty of true love and the desolation of the unalterable life choices we make. Award-winning Ensemble Member Laura Eason (Around the World in 80 Days) directs this new, smoldering adaptation.

"Laura's adaptation of Edith Wharton's gorgeous American classic is spellbinding; she and her design team have put together a truly beautiful and spare winter landscape and soundscape against which the haunting story is told. Her adaptation explores the act of storytelling, and how that act of conjuring, of creating and inhabiting someone else's world, expands our own capacity for compassion and empathy," says Artistic Director Andrew White. "It's just a thrill to have Laura back in the director's chair, and since it's her adaptation, we get the added benefit that she's in the room as playwright, as well."

Ethan Frome features company members Philip R Smith, Andrew White, Louise Lamson and Lisa Tejero, with Erik Lochtefeld.

Designers include Daniel Ostling, scenic; Mara Blumenfeld, costume; Christine Binder, lighting; Kevin O'Donnell, composition; Rick Sims, sound design; and William Anderson, properties.

About the Artists

Laura Eason (Director/Adaptor/Ensemble Member) is a long-time ensemble member of Lookingglass where she has served as a writer, director, actor, and, for six years, artistic director. Previous productions at Lookingglass as a writer, co-writer, and/or director include Around the World in 80 Days, In the Eye of the Beholder, 28, They All Fall Down, The Old Curiosity Shop, and Fedra, among others. Current/upcoming productions as a playwright include Sex with Strangers (Steppenwolf, currently running through 5/15/11) and Mr. Smitten (Humana Festival). Other produced plays include When the Messenger is Hot (Steppenwolf; 59E59, NYC; Theatre Schmeater, Seattle), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Hartford Stage, Peoples Light, PA), Huck Finn and A Tale of Two Cities, (Steppenwolf), Rewind (Side Project, Chicago), Area of Rescue (Andhow Theatre, NYC), and The Coast of Chicago (Walkabout, Chicago) among others. Her plays have also been produced by Baltimore Centerstage; Kansas City Rep; Touchstone Theatre, PA; Women's Project, NYC; American Theatre Company, Chicago; W.E.T., NYC; Theatre Seven, Chicago; City Theatre, Miami, Vital Theatre, NYC, among others. Her work is published by Smith and Kraus, Playscripts, and Broadway Play Publishing. In New York, she is an Affiliated Artist of New Georges and an alumna of the Women's Project Lab. Laura is a graduate of the Performance Studies Department of Northwestern University and has received two Joseph Jefferson Awards for new work and adaptation. Originally from Chicago, she lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Louise Lamson (Mattie Silver/Artistic Associate) Lookingglass credits include The Idiot, Metamorphoses, Hard Times, The Secret in the Wings, Manuscript Found in Saragossa, The Wooden Breeks, Icarus (at the Getty Villa, L.A.), The Brothers Karamazov, Our Town, and The Arabian Nights. Some Chicago credits include About Face Theatre's Bash (After Dark award and Jeff nomination), The Odyssey (Goodman), and The Adventures of Herculina (Next Theatre). New York credits include Metamorphoses (Second Stage and Broadway) and The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (Second Stage).

Erik Lochtefeld (Harmon Brand and Others) Last appeared on the Lookingglass stage as an understudy for Doc Gibbs in Our Town. Other Lookingglass appearances include Metamorphoses and The Eleven Rooms of Proust. Recent Chicago credits include Maximilian in Mary Zimmerman's production of Candide at the Goodman as well as work with About Face, The Court and Chicago Shakespeare. New York credits include Metamorphoses on and off-Broadway, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci at Second Stage, But I'm a Cheerleader at NYMF, and Powerhouse at the NY Fringe Festival. Regional credits include work with The Shakespeare Theatre, Hartford Stage, The Intiman, Huntington Theatre, Baltimore Centerstage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, The McCarter, Cal Shakes, Two River Theatre, Yale Rep, Mark Taper Forum and Williamstown. Television credits include All My Children, Third Watch and Law & Order. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and is married to ensemble member Laura Eason.

Philip R. Smith (Ethan Frome/Producing Artistic Director/Ensemble Member) most recently appeared as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird at Steppenwolf. His most recent Lookingglass credits include Will in Trust and Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov. Other recent credits include Rev. Parris in The Crucible at Steppenwolf, Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days at Baltimore's Centerstage, and Tinker Bosch in The Wooden Breeks and Creon in Hillbilly Antigone, both with Lookingglass. Regional credits include work at the McCarter Theatre, Seattle Rep, the Arden Theatre, BAM (NYC), and The Actors Gang (LA). Further Lookingglass credits include Metamorphoses, The Idiot, The Vanishing Twin, and Up Against it. TV and film credits include Friends, Chicago Hope, Early Edition, Kissing a Fool, Since You've Been Gone, High Fidelity, Prison Break, The Express and the upcoming Ron Howard film, The Dilemma. As Producing Artistic Director, he leads Lookingglass casting and is the primary artistic liaison to the marketing and production departments.

Lisa Tejero (Zenobia Frome/Artistic Associate) most recently was in A Christmas Carol at the Goodman Theatre. She is happy to be back on the Lookingglass boards which she last tread as Enone in last season's Fedra, and before that as Queen Hera in Argonautika. Other Lookingglass shows include The Old Curiosity Shop, 1984, S/M and Metamorphses, in which she had the honor to be in its Broadway run. Locally she has recently appeared in Ghostwritten at the Goodman and Kafka on the Shore at Steppenwolf. She has also worked with Victory Gardens, Court, Northlight and regionally at Berkeley, Kansas City, Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston, Milwaukee, DC, Cincinatti, Princeton, and St. Louis (from where she originally hails).

Andrew White (Henry Morton/Artistic Director/Ensemble Member) has appeared in more than thirty Lookingglass productions, most recently in The Arabian Nights. He has taught in various Lookingglass Education and Community programs and residencies, and recently co-founded a new company, Mosaic Experience, which uses an arts-based approach to dialogue about diversity. He is currently writing a new play about the Eastland disaster of 1915. His family in Evanston includes one wife, Shari, and two children, Julia and Asher.

Ethan Frome -Dates, Times and Ticket Information

Tickets are available online, www.lookingglasstheatre.org; by phone, (312) 337-0665; or at the Lookingglass Theatre box office, located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. For more information and box office hours, visit www.lookingglasstheatre.org.

Previews of Ethan Frome are February 23-March 4, 2011. The press opening is Saturday, March 5, 2011, at 7:30 p.m. The production runs through April 17, 2011. Tickets are $20-$62. Target Saturday Matinees offer a limited number of buy one, get one free tickets which are available to all 3:00 p.m. Saturday matinees. This program is made possible with the generous support of Target, working with Lookingglass to make the arts accessible to all. A limited number of student tickets are available the day of the show for $20 with valid student ID. (See FACT SHEET for full performance schedule.)

Lookingglass Theatre is located in the heart of the Magnificent Mile shopping district inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson. Discounted parking is available for Lookingglass patrons at both the nearby John Hancock Center and Olympia Centre Self Park (161 E. Chicago Ave.). To purchase tickets, call the Lookingglass Theatre box office at (312) 337-0665 or visit lookingglasstheatre.org.