New Novel Series Will Celebrate the Chicago Storefront Theatre Scene

On March 22, 2024 Polarity Ensemble Books will release the second in a trilogy of novels by Richard Engling celebrating the Chicago storefront theatre scene. Romeo and Juliet Keep Their Eyes on the Prize is a work of comedic fiction informed by Engling's years as an artistic director in one of Chicago's small nonprofit theatres.

About the Book

In Engling's first novel of this series, Give My Regards to Nowhere, Dwayne Finnegan directed an ill-fated though brilliant production of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. Despite his best efforts, it failed to win him a prestigious fellowship in New York City. Now Dwayne has another crack at the big time. To impress the artistic director of Chicago's Goodman Theatre, his Romeo and Juliet must shine. However, Dwayne shares rehearsal space with a psychedelic drug cult that believes Dwayne's production is evil. The cult sabotages him. His actors rebel. His publicist gets entangled with a loan shark. Bones are broken, the production drops into chaos, Dwayne's marriage hangs by a thread, but despite it all, the show must go on.

“The onset of the pandemic really allowed me to dive into writing these Dwayne Finnegan novels,” Engling said. “They became a celebration of what we were missing with all the theatres closed down. Now I'm hoping that reading these books will whet everyone's appetite to get back into the theatre seats and onto the stages again. But for me, I'm still focused on writing the books. I've already started on the third of the Dwayne Finnegan series.”

About the Author

Richard Engling's writing career began in high school when his coffee shop theatre group needed material to perform, and he was elected to write it. He's spent a lifetime writing and performing, paying his bills as a teacher, truck driver, and copywriter, while performing as an actor, drummer in a jazz quartet, and director. He founded Polarity Ensemble Theatre in Chicago in 2004 and served as its Artistic Director for twelve long and confusing years. His dystopian detective thriller, Body Mortgage, was published by Penguin Books USA and Headline UK and has been rereleased in a revised version by Polarity Ensemble Books. His novel, Visions Of Anna, and play, Anna in the Afterlife, appeared in 2014 as part of the ambitious Afterlife Trilogy. His first Dwayne Finnegan novel, Give My Regards to Nowhere, appeared last year. His plays have been produced in the US and England, and he continues to work as an actor, playwright, and novelist.

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