Polarity Ensemble Theatre Announces 2011-12 Season

For its seventh season, Polarity Ensemble Theatre will further increase its significant commitment to the development of new work with its World Premiere of Kabulitis and its sixth annual Dionysos Cup Festival of New Plays, as well as local and regional premieres of new adaptations of literary classics.

The season opener will be the World Premiere of Kabulitis, a drama depicting an older American woman wrestling with the haunting memories of her life in mid-twentieth century Afghanistan. Polarity Ensemble Artistic Director Richard Engling says, "We fell in love with the play when it was included in and ultimately won our 2010 Dionysos Cup. We were so determined to see Kabulitis get a full staging that we expanded our season from two to three fully-staged productions to make a place for it, even though it has few roles for our ensemble members." To help cast the drama's Afghani roles and ensure an authentic South Asian sensibility, Polarity Ensemble is working in association with Chicago's Rasaka Theatre Company for this production.

Kabulitis will be followed by premieres of two epic adaptations that will provide many meaty roles for Polarity's ensemble members. In November and December, Polarity will stage the Chicago premiere of poet Robert Bly's translation of Henrik Ibsen's classic but seldom-performed Peer Gynt at the DCA Storefront Theatre on Randolph Street in Chicago's downtown Theatre District. Jeremy Wechsler is directing Bly's version of Peer Gynt in such a way to transform Ibsen's Norwegian fable into a 150-year whirlwind tour of the American psyche. The Midwest Premiere of David Hammond's stage adaptation of Henry Fielding's satiric novel of 18th Century English social and sexual mores, Tom Jones, will be presented in March/April 2012, just before the 2012 Dionysos Cup Festival in May.

Kabulitis
by Keith Anwar
A World Premiere Drama
presented in association with
Rasaka Theatre Company
Directed by Lavina Jadhwani
September 20 - October 30, 2011
Performances at Josephinum Academy, 1500 N. Bell St., Chicago

Kabulitis was inspired by the religious extremism and polticial oppression suffered in Afghanistan by the parents of the late playwright Keith Anwar, a Chicagoan who died of liver cancer just months after his play won Polarity's 2010 Dionysos Cup. Anwar's father was an Afghan native who with his American wife took part in an ill-fated attempt to promote modern thinking in mid-20th Century Afghanistan. Kabulitis will be directed by Lavina Jadhwani, Artistic Director of Rasaka Theatre Company, an ensemble dedicated to providing a platform for the artistic expression of South Asian artists. The script was revised by Anwar shortly before his death at age 58, in July 2010.

Performances and Ticket Prices:
Previews Tues. Sept. 20 and Weds. Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. All seats $10.00
Press Opening Thurs., Sept. 21, 8 PM. General Admission $19.00, Students with valid ID, $10.00
Gala Opening Night Fri. Sept, 22 at 8 PM. All seats $35.00.
Regular Run September 23 - October 30, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, Sundays at 3 PM. General Admission $19.00, Senior discount tickets (age 65 and older) are $15, Students with valid ID, $10.00.

Peer Gynt
by Henrik Ibsen
Translated by Robert Bly
Directed by Jeremy Wechsler
November 15 - December 18, 2011
Performances at DCA Storefront Theatre,
66 East Randolph St.

The wild, globe-trotting adventurer Peer Gynt barrels across the stage in the Chicago premiere of Robert Bly's high-energy translation of this seldom-performed Ibsen classic. In this adaptation, unencumbered by morals or a sense of responsibility, Peer's mythic journey is envisioned as that of America itself, from scrappy trickster to imperial power and beyond. The rustic settings and live music reminiscent of 19th and 20th Century Americana accompany Peer on a 150-year tour of the American psyche, directed by Jeremy Wechsler of Theatre Wit.

Performances and Ticket Prices:
Previews Tues., Nov. 15, Weds., Nov. 16, Thurs., Nov. 17 @ 7:30 PM. All seats $10.00.
Press Opening Friday, Nov. 18, 7:30 PM.
Regular Run November 19 - December 18. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Sundays at 3 PM. (No performance Thanksgiving Day, Thursday November 24).
Ticket prices for press opening and regular run performances: General Admission $20.00, Students with valid ID and Seniors 65+ $15.00, Military and Mosaic $16.00, ADA Accessible half-price seats $10.00.

Tom Jones
Adapted by David Hammond
from the novel by Henry Fielding
A Midwest Premiere
Directed by Maggie Speer
March 20-April 29, 2012
Performances at Josephinum Academy, 1500 N. Bell St., Chicago

In 18th Century England, a bastard child is found on the estate of a wealthy land baron. The gentleman raises the boy, but the societal limitations on a person of illegitimate birth ensure that nothing - neither love, employment, nor legal justice - will be acquired easily for him. Henry Fielding's massive 1749 comic novel is a natural for dramatic interpretation. Polarity's Managing Director Maggie Speer will direct and bring the sweep and energy of Fielding's hilariously picaresque novel onto the stage.

Performances and Ticket Prices:
Previews Tues. Mar. 20 and Weds. Mar. 21 at 8 p.m. All seats $10.00
Press Opening Thurs., Mar. 22, 8 PM. General Admission $19.00, Students with valid ID, $10.00
Gala Opening Night Fri. Mar. 23 at 8 PM. All seats $35.00.
Regular Run Mar. 24 - Apr. 29. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, Sundays at 3 PM. General Admission $19.00, Senior discount tickets (age 65 and older) are $15, Students with valid ID, $10.00

The Dionysos Cup
A Festival of Four New Plays
May 10 - May 20, 2012

This Annual Festival, which will celebrate its sixth year in 2012, is a developmental collaboration among the playwright, a director and dramaturg, a strong cast of capable actors and the Polarity audience community. Each selected script is chosen by a reading committee closely examining dozens of submissions from an open call to Chicago metropolitan-area playwrights. The staged readings will be followed by open discussions that will provide the playwrights with feedback.

Performances and Ticket Prices:
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 PM, Sundays at 3 PM
Individual Performance tickets - $5.00
Dionysos Cup Pass - offering unlimited entrance to any or all 8 performances - $10.00

TICKET INFORMATION:
Season tickets are available, and are priced at $50 per person for the three plays plus a Dionysos Cup Festival Pass - good for admission to any or all of the Festival's eight performances. A special Gala Night season subscription - providing a seat for each of the three plays' opening nights plus the Dionysos Cup Festival Pass - is available for $80 per person. Details on ticketing and ordering procedures can be found at the Polarity Ensemble Theatre web site, www.petheatre.com.

About Polarity Ensemble Theatre
Polarity Ensemble Theatre is a professionally diverse group of artists who strive to advance the state of Chicago theater for both local and international audiences by developing new works and bringing new life to the classics through live performance, workshops, and publishing. The ensemble members are Kim Boler, David Chrzanowski , Jonas David Grey, Hilary Holbrook, Charley Jordan, Ann Keen, Devorah Eizikovic Richards and Eric Damon Smith. Associates are Bryan Breau, Darren Callahan, Lauren Cerkiewicz, Jason Epperson, David Fehr, Travis Gauchay, Heath Hays, Andréa Morales, Laura Sturm and Michael Welles." Staff includes Artistic Director Richard Engling, Chairman of the Board Mark Mathyer, Managing Director Maggie Speer, Co-Founder and board member Ann Keen, Co-Founder and Publisher Irv Gorman, Board Member and Resident Technical Director Charles C. Palia, and Marketing Manager John Olson.

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