Northlight Theatre Brings CHAPATTI to Galway Arts Festival, July 2014; Debuts in Chicago, Now thru April 13

Chicago-Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, announces a forthcoming artistic exchange with Ireland through the co-production of Chapatti, a new work developed through Northlight's Interplay program. The co-production of Chapatti will premiere at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie, today, March 7-April 13, 2014, and will open at the Galway Arts Festival in July 2014. Chapatti, by acclaimed Irish playwright Christian O' Reilly, will be directed by Artistic Director BJ Jones and will feature John Mahoney and Penny Slusher.

"This co-production between Northlight Theatre and Galway Arts Festival is the result of three successful Northlight transfer productions in the past five years to Ireland's most prestigious festival," according to Tim Evans, Northlight's Executive Director. "Created by Irish and American artists, Chapatti initiates a new producing partnership allowing us both to present this unique play and potentially others in Chicago, Galway and beyond."

Galway Arts Festival Artistic Director Paul Fahy adds, "Galway Arts Festival and Northlight Theatre have enjoyed a highly successful partnership since the Festival presented Larry Gelbart and Craig Wright's Better Late and Bruce Graham's The Outgoing Tide, both starring John Mahoney, and Graham's most recent play Stella & Lou in July 2013 starring Penny Slusher. Our audiences have enthusiastically embraced American playwrights and productions over the years and this forthcoming co-production of Christian O'Reilly's Chapatti is a very natural progression following many years of creative collaboration and exchange between Galway and Chicago artists."

Chapatti is supported by a $15,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation International Connections Fund. The grant, one of 18 awarded to non-profit arts and culture organizations around Chicago, will help to support this new co-production between Chicago and Ireland. A grant from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust will directly support Interplay, Northlight Theatre's new work development program. Edgerton Foundation for New American Plays Award will fund an extended rehearsal period for the entire creative team, including the playwright. The production is also receiving support from the Consulate General of Ireland Chicago.

The MacArthur Foundation awards more than $9 million annually to more than 200 arts and culture groups in Chicago and the region as an expression of its civic commitment to the place where the Foundation has its headquarters and where John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur made their home. The grants provided through MacArthur's International Connections Fund, which aims to help Chicago nonprofit arts and culture groups advance their work by collaborating with peer organizations abroad, will connect this year's recipients to arts organizations in 16 countries worldwide.

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust's primary mission is to support and promote the American theater as a vital part of our culture by nurturing American Playwrights, encouraging the development and production of new American plays, and by providing significant support to theater companies across the country. Since its inception, the Trust has given in excess of $70 million to more than one hundred not-for-profit theater organizations.

Edgerton Foundation for New American Plays Award launched nationally in 2007 and since then has awarded grants to non-profit theatres for more than 150 new plays to date. Directed by Dr. Brad Edgerton, The Edgerton Foundation gives new plays in development grant funding for an extended rehearsal period for the entire creative team, including the playwrights.

Chapatti is a product of Northlight's Interplay program, which has developed 29 plays since its 2006 inception. Through an extensive creative process that includes commissioning, workshopping new works and carrying out a series of readings for Northlight audiences, 25 of the plays (86%) developed in Interplay have gone on to full productions, an extraordinary accomplishment demonstrating Northlight as a vital home for new theatrical work.

In Chapatti, romance is a distant memory for two lonely animal-lovers living in Dublin. When forlorn Dan and his dog Chapatti cross paths with amiable Betty and her nineteen cats, an unexpected spark begins a warm and gentle story about two people re-discovering the importance of human companionship.

Chapatti by Christian O'Reilly. Performance dates: Previews: March 7-13, 2014; Press opening: Friday, March 14, 2014; Regular run: March 15 - April 13, 2014. Schedule: Tuesdays: 7:30pm (except March 18, 25 and April 8); Wednesdays: 1:00pm (except March 26) and 7:30pm (except April 2); Thursdays: 7:30pm; Fridays: 8:00pm (except Opening on March 14 at 7:30pm); Saturdays: 2:30pm (except March 8) and 8:00pm; and Sundays: 2:30pm and 7:00pm (except March 16, 23 and April 13)

All performances play Northlight Theatre, located at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd, Skokie. Tickets: Previews: $25-$54. Regular run: $25-$75. Student tickets are $15, any performance (subject to availability). Box Office: The Box Office is located at 9501 Skokie Blvd, Skokie. Call 847.673.6300 or visit northlight.org.

Founded in 1978 Galway Arts Festival is one of Europe's leading international arts festivals and one of Ireland's annual flagship cultural events. The Festival celebrates the very best of the performing and visual arts from Ireland and around the world.

Galway Arts Festival has presented many leading international theatre and dance companies including The National Theatre of Great Britain, Royal Court Theatre, Michael Clark Dance Company; Hofesh Shechter Dance Company and the National Theatre of Scotland, (UK); Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Stephen Petronio Dance Company, New York Theatre Workshop and Hubbard Street Dance (USA); Canada's Robert Lepage; Australia's Circa, and works regularly with leading Irish companies including Galway's Druid Theatre Company.

Following a highly successful run in Galway in July 2011 the Festival's production (with Landmark Productions) of Misterman by Enda Walsh and starring Cillian Murphy (Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards, Drama Desk Award, New York) toured to St. Ann's Warehouse in New York to London's National Theatre in 2011 and 2012. Galway Arts Festival's multi award-winning production of Trad by Mark Doherty was presented at the 2008 Perth International Arts Festival, Australia, having previously enjoyed runs in Edinburgh, Adelaide and London. Galway Arts Festival's has also co-produced with The Abbey Theatre, Ireland's National Theatre with Michael Healey's The Drawer Boy (Irish Times Irish Theatre Award).

In recent years the Festival has presented the work of seminal artists across the artforms including Joni Mitchell, Bill Viola, Henri Matisse, Georg Grosz, Josef Albers, David Byrne, T Bone Burnett, Glen Hansard, Sir Peter Hall, Cormac McCarthy, David Hockney, Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass amongst many others. A major exhibition, The Road, by artist Hughie O'Donoghue, curated by the Festival, recently toured to the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague.

Galway Arts Festival and The Emergency Room's production of Riverrun (adapated from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake) which premiered at the Festival last year toured to Dublin Theatre Festival in October 2013 and is due to open at The National Theatre London in March. Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, Sadler's Wells London, Galway Arts Festival, Movimentos Festival, (Wolfburgh, Germany), Melbourne Festival and Brisbane Festival co-production of The Rite of Spring and Petrushka toured to Australia to the Brisbane Festival and the Melbourne Festival, October 2013.

Galway Arts Festival's principal funding agents are The Arts Council of Ireland and Fáilte Ireland with the Festival's Leadership Partner Programme supported by National University of Ireland Galway, Ulster Bank and Absolut.

The Festival's key executive staff is Artistic Director Paul Fahy and Chief Executive John Crumlish, together with Gerry Cleary, Financial Controller and Elizabeth Duffy, Festival Administrator.

Galway Arts Festival Board of Directors: Bernadette Mullarkey (Chair), Padraic Brennan, John Grealish, Gary Joyce, Maccon Keane and Maria Mahon.

Northlight Theatre aspires to promote change of perspective and encourage compassion by exploring the depth of our humanity across a bold spectrum of theatrical experiences, reflecting our community to the world and the world to our community.

Now in its 39th season, the organization has mounted nearly 200 productions, including over 40 world premieres. Northlight has earned 151 Joseph Jefferson Award nominations and 28 Awards. As one of the area's premier theatre companies, Northlight is a regional magnet for critical and professional acclaim, as well as talent of the highest quality.

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