Northlight Theatre to Open 2023-2024 Season With BIRTHDAY CANDLES Chicago Area Premiere

Northlight Theatre will open its 2023–2024 season with the Chicagoland premiere of Birthday Candles by Noah Haidle, directed by Jessica Thebus.  The production runs September 7 – October 8, 2023, at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie. 

Ernestine Ashworth spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her insignificance in the universe. Soon enough, it’s her 18th birthday. Even sooner, her 41st. Her 70th. Her 101st. Five generations, an infinity of dreams, and one cake baked over a century. This poignant and funny play takes its audience through the highlights, heartbreaks and extraordinary moments that make up one woman’s ordinary life.

BJ Jones comments, “Noah Haidle is a poetic playwright whose work celebrates the human condition through moving and joyous theatricality. The simplest events can make me erupt in laughter or reduce me to tears. I tend now to lean towards the sublime and subtle moments, and I try to slow things down in order to savor the moment. I think that’s what attracted me to Birthday Candles, and why Jessica Thebus felt like the right director for the piece. Our cast, headed by Kate Fry, are as sensitive and nuanced as one could hope for. There is a fine line between sentiment and sentimentality, and this cast, this director, and this playwright, are perfectly mindful of that balance.”

The cast includes Kate Fry (Ernestine Ashworth), Cyd Blakewell (Alice/Madeline/Ernie), Chike Johnson (Matt), Samuel B. Jackson(Billy/John), Corrbette Pasko (Joan/Alex/Beth), and Timothy Edward Kane (Kenneth).

The creative team is Sotirios Livaditis (Set Design), Rachel Anne Healy (Costume Design), JR Lederle (Light Design), Andre Pluess(Sound Design), and Bren Coombs (Props Design). Rita Vreeland is the Stage Manager.

About the Artists 

Jessica Thebus (Director) is a director of theater and an educator based in Chicago. Past Northlight credits include Into the Breeches!,The Book of Will, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Shining Lives: A Musical, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Inherit the Wind and Red Herring. At Steppenwolf, she has directed Sex with Strangers, Intimate Apparel, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, No Place Like Home, When the Messenger is Hot (also at 59 E 59th in NYC) and Sonia Flew. Other favorite projects: Richard III (Gift), In the Garden by Sarah Gmitter (Lookingglass), Buzzer by Tracy Scott Wilson (Goodman), Welcome Home Jenny Sutter (Next), As You Like It (Oregon Shakespeare), The Feast: an intimate Tempest (Chicago Shakespeare with Redmoon). She is Director of the Graduate Directing Program at Northwestern University.

Noah Haidle (Playwright) is a playwright and screenwriter whose work has been produced off-Broadway, regionally, and around the world. His most recent play, Everything Beautiful, premiered last October at Munich’s Residenz Theater, and he is currently the playwright in residence of the National Theater of Mannheim, a position first held by Friedrich Schiller. His plays are published by Methuen in London, Suhrkamp in Berlin, Nordiska in Copenhagen, and in New York by Dramatists Play Service and Overlook Press. He was a proud resident of Detroit for four years before moving to Los Angeles with his wife and pet bunnies to write on Showtime’s upcoming series Kidding, starring Jim Carrey and directed by Michel Gondry, and to develop a series set in Detroit for HBO. Haidle is a graduate of Princeton University and The Juilliard School, where he was a three-time winner of Lincoln Center’s Le Compte du Nuoy award.

Kate Fry (Ernestine Ashworth) returns to Northlight, where she performed in The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Outside Mullingar, and The Miser. Other Chicago credits include The Winter’s Tale, Ah, Wilderness! (Goodman); The Belle of Amherst, Electra, The Hard Problem and others (Court); Marjorie Prime, Hedda Gabler, The Letters, A Minister’s Wife, Oh Coward! (Writers) as well as productions with Victory Gardens, Chicago Shakespeare, Apple Tree Theatre, and Marriott Theatre. She has also worked with Center Theatre Group in LA, McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and Lincoln Center. TV credits include episodes on Empire (Fox),Boss (Starz), Chicago PD (NBC), and Proven Innocent (Fox). She is the recipient of four Joseph Jefferson awards, the local Sarah Siddons award, the After Dark award, and Chicago Magazine’s actress of the year.

Cyd Blakewell (Alice/Madeline/Ernie) is thrilled to make her Northlight debut. Cyd is an ensemble member of The Gift Theatre. Gift Credits: The Locusts, Pillowman, Doubt, A Life Extra Ordinary, Good For OCo, Body + Blood, Broadsword, Mine and TEN. Other Chicago credits: The Snare (Jackalope); Balm In Gilead and Port (Griffin); Buddy Cop 2, breaks & bikes and Milk Milk Lemonade (Pavement Group); Sweet Confinement and Ivanov (SiNNERMAN Ensemble); Orange Flower Water (Interrobang); Lies & Liars and Mimesophobia(Theatre Seven); Rewind (The Side Project). She just wrapped on a short film called Fairground and can also be seen in Jeri’s Grille. Cyd got her BFA from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX, and is a graduate of the School at Steppenwolf.

Chike Johnson (Matt) most recently appeared in Remy Bumppo’s world premiere production of Galileo’s Daughter. Chike is also a company member of Remy Bumppo Theatre. Some of Chike’s Chicago credits: The world premiere of When Harry Met Rehab(Greenhouse Theater Center); Toni Stone, Meet Vera Stark (The Goodman Theater); Sizwe Banzi is Dead (Court Theatre); The Crucible,The Unmentionables, and Huck Finn (Steppenwolf Theatre Company). He also appeared on stages around the country including Spring Green, Hamlet, A Raisin In the Sun, Improbable Fiction (American Players Theatre); Amen Corner (Shakespeare Theatre Company). His New York Credits include Broadway productions: A Time To Kill and Manhattan Theatre Club’s Wit. Off-Broadway productions include:Runboyrun, Lost In The Stars in New York City Center’s Encores! and Ruined, a co-production by the Manhattan Theatre Club and The Goodman Theatre. Other regional credits include A Raisin in the Sun at Milwaukee Rep Theater, a revival of The Unmentionables at Yale Repertory Theatre; Lincoln in Topdog/Underdog at Renaissance Theaterworks; Duke of Cornwall in King Lear at Milwaukee Repertory Theater; Cephus Miles in Home at In Tandem Theatre; Willie in Master Harold and the boys at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre; and Martin Luther King, Jr. in Smoldering Fires at First Stage Children’s Theater. Some of Mr. Johnson’s film credits include Friends with Benefits,Sleepwalk with Me, The Machinist and his television credits include Law & Order, Girls, Veep, Prison Break and much more.

Samuel B. Jackson (Billy/John) is excited to be making his Northlight debut. Credits include Choir Boy (Jeff Award—Best Ensemble),Chlorine Sky (Steppenwolf Theatre); Reasons: A Tribute to Earth, Wind, and Fire (Black Ensemble Theatre). Education: BA, University of Notre Dame; The School at Steppenwolf.

Corrbette Pasko (Joan/Alex/Beth) is from Chicago but lives in California. She’s worked with Chicago storefront theaters for decades and is beyond grateful to be with Northlight for the first time. She’s been on Chicago Med, PD, and Fire, and is the producer/host of Write Club Chicago, a monthly live lit show that is “literature as bloodsport.” She is the creator of GenX Update as @corrbette, and can be heard on podcasts like Unwell, Northwoods Baseball Sleep Radio, and on your phone as a helpful robot. You can see her with her writing partner, Sara Sevigny, in “Corri and Sara Are Famous” on YouTube.

Timothy Edward Kane (Kenneth) is pleased to return to Northlight, having previously appeared in Faceless, Lost in Yonkers, The Miserand She Stoops to Conquer. Other Chicago credits include work with Court Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Writers Theatre, Rivendell, TimeLine, Goodman, Steppenwolf. Regional credits: The Mark Taper Forum, Notre Dame Shakespeare, Peninsula Players, and the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. TV: Chicago P.D. (NBC), Chicago Fire (NBC), and Empire (FOX). Awards: Jeff Award, AfterDark, Chicago Magazine. Kane is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Loyola University Chicago.

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