Mary-Arrchie Theatre Opens Kenneth Brown's THE BRIG Tonight

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co presents the Chicago premiere of The Brig by Kenneth Brown, directed by Jennifer Markowitz.

The Brig opens tonight, April 18th 2013. Performances are Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 7 PM. Tickets are $25. Student, Senior Citizen and Veteran discounts are available. Previews are April 16 and 17 at 8 p.m. (Preview tickets $10.) Parking is available at the Mobil gas station across from the theater for a fee determined by Mobil Gas. Tickets are available on Ticketweb. For more information on the company and to purchase tickets visit www.maryarrchie.com.

The Brig is an intensive expression of one day in a military prison-a "brig"- in 1957 Okinawa. Written by Marine veteran Kenneth H. Brown who served there for thirty days. This production is a realistic period piece with contemporary relevance as it explores questions regarding the notion of masculinity, the body and its limits. What happens to men under pressure? Or when they are humiliated? Do they form bonds? Do they create enemies? Do they fight? Or do they surrender their bodies to the machine?

Given an innovative environmental staging that invites the audience into the world of the Marine prison, this production is highly physical and challenging-both for the 15 actors recreating a relentless brutality, and for viewers, who will come to question what it means to be part of a successful military unit, and to be an individual stripped to his essence.

First performed by The Living Theatre in 1963, The Brig received an Obie Award for the 2007 remount.

This Chicago premiere of The Brig marks director Jennifer Markowitz's celebrated return to Chicago from England, where her credits included: Our Town: Act III (Thornton Wilder), Spring Awakening (Frank Wedikind), Crave (Sarah Kane), A Dream Play (August Strindberg), Far Away (Caryl Churchill) and STRAY, a roaming trilogy of short plays: Victoria Station (Harold Pinter), The Wayfarer (Valerii Bryusov), and Fewer Emergencies (Martin Crimp). Markowitz is best known in Chicago as the original director of Will Kern's Hellcab which had a nine-year run at Famous Door Theatre. She helmed award-winning productions of Hellcab in Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Dublin and Israel. She won accolades for her 1994 production of Never Come Morning with Prop THTR, including a Joseph Jefferson Citation for best director.

Cast: Chris Brickhouse, Charles Glenn, Jacob Alexander, Mark Madison, Adam Soule, Alex Seeley, Joel Reitsma, Mike Newquist, Connor McNamara, Ryan McDaniel, Nick Mikula, Eric Lindhal, Alex Levin, G. Riley Mills, Aaron Norman

Production Team: Zoe Claster (assistant director), Anna Rose Ii-Epstein (production assistant), Tyler Garlock (lighting design), Jimmy Jagos (set design), Jo Borja Mills (graphic design), Mary Patchell (stage management), Arianna Soloway (prop design), Stefin Steberl (costume design).

The show runs tonight, April 18th, 2013 until May 26, 2013, performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 8PM and Sundays at 7PM at Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan.