Mortar Theatre Company to Present BOMBS, BABES AND BINGO, 5/20-6/17

 

 

Bombs, Babes and Bingo is a play that deals with a war, the fallibility of memory, the division of family and the struggle by a scientist to make sense of his life and work after a traumatic brain injury. Dennis (Richard Perez) is the scientist, father and bomb maker. His wife (Stephanie Stroud*) keeps busy enrolled in Clown College and his daughter (Cruz Gonzalez) walks among the destruction her father's designs have caused searching for meaning. Bookended by two fixed scenes, the additional scenes' order is determined by a random pull of a bingo ball from the Bingo Girl (Megan Tabaque), creating a myriad of possibilities of story, character and comedy that plays out differently each performance. As Dennis' broken synapses fire and misfire in hope of making any connection, the pull of the bingo ball randomly summons forth his memories. Neither the audience nor the cast knows the order until the moment the bingo ball number is called. As a result, each performance of Bombs, Babes and Bingo is unique to that audience with 3,628,800 possible outcomes.

 

Bombs, Babes and Bingo was previously workshopped with the Artist's Laboratory Theatre in Fayetteville, AR, where it traveled to the New Orleans Fringe Festival. The script was also a Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission finalist and a P73 Playwriting Fellowship semi­finalist.

 

Additional cast, production and artistic team includes Erica Hernandez (understudy), Tracy Atteberry (magic consultant); Henry Behel (co-technical director); Dana Lynn Formby* (dramaturg); Derek Garza* (co-technical director); Rachel Haile (dialect coach); Heath Hays (original music and sound design); John Kelly (lighting design); Robert S. Kuhn* (co-scenic/costume design); Kate Masiak (stage manager); Jeff Shields (properties design); Michelle Underwood* (co-scenic/projection design).

*Indicates Mortar Theatre Company member.

 

ABOUT MERRI BIECHLER, playwright

Merri Biechler's plays include Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver (finalist, Princess Grace Award; winner, Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award; finalist, Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition; participant, WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory); Occupation (semi-finalist, P73 Playwriting Fellowship; finalist, Perishable Theatre's International Women's Playwriting Festival); and Real Girls Can't Win! (nominee, Stavis Playwriting Award and David Mark Cohen Playwriting Award). Biechler received her MFA in playwriting from Ohio University.

 

Biechler attended the Professional Actor Training Program at North Carolina School of the Arts, and studied acting with Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse and at his private home on the island of Bequia, West Indies. NY theater credits include: Tony 'n Tina's Wedding (Off-Broadway), Pathological Venus (EST), and more than a dozen original works with The Edge Theatre. Film and TV credits include: He Said, She Said, The Thing Called Love, Man of the Year, Trailerpark, E.R., Judging Amy, and Murphy Brown.

 

ABOUT RACHEL EDWARDS HARVITH, director

Rachel Edward Harvith has worked as a director, actor, literary manager and dramaturg. In past seasons, she directed I Am Montana and Under America for Mortar. Other Chicago-area directing credits include Our Kind of Violence (Stage Left, LeapFest), The Body Snatcher and The Blue Hotel (City Lit Theater Company, Art of Adaptation Festival), Historic Election (American Theatre Company, Silver Project), Chiaroscuro: A Study in Shadow (Bailiwick Repertory) and Moonlight and Magnolias (Riverfront Theatre), as well as numerous staged readings and workshops with such companies as Chicago Dramatists, American Blues Theatre, Teatro Luna and Bailiwick Chicago. Outside of Chicago, Harvith has directed for Iowa Summer Rep, Syracuse Stage, Hedgerow Theatre and Dreamwell Theatre, among others; she has also served as an interim literary manager for Long Wharf Theatre and Syracuse Stage. A company member of Mortar Theatre Company and an associate artist at Chicago Dramatists, Harvith has a BA in Theatre from Grinnell College and an MFA in Directing from the University of Iowa.

 

ABOUT MORTAR THEATRE COMPANY

Mortar Theatre Company engages community dialogue by lifting up and exploring stories of everyday heroes who shape society. As a collaborative group of actors, directors, designers and playwrights, Mortar is committed to making socially conscious theatre and championing new works.

 

Bombs, Babes and Bingo is the final production of Mortar's third season, which opened in August at the DCA Storefront Theater with the world premiere of Corazón de Manzana by Dana Lynn Formby.

 

Mortar Theatre Company's Bombs, Babes and Bingo runs at the mainstage of the newly renamed Luna Central, formerly Live Bait Theatre, 3914 NortH Clark Street, May 20 – June 17. Previews are Sunday, May 20 at 3 p.m. and Wednesday, May 23 at 7:30 p.m. Opening/Press night is Thursday, May 24 at 7:30 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Ticket prices are $15 for previews and $20 for the performance run and may be purchased at MortarTheatreCompany.org or at the Luna Central box office at 773.819.5862.