Polarity's ADRIFT Adds 2nd Post-Show Talk with PTSD Expert, 8/16

Polarity Ensemble Theatre in association with Azusa Productions presents ADRIFT, a new play by David Alex, directed by Maggie Speer, playing now through August 26, 2012, at the Greenhouse Theater Center Upstairs Studio, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. ADRIFT features James Eldrenkamp, Colin Henry Fewell, Gary Murphy and Eric Ryan Swanson.

Due to the positive response from his first appearance, Dr. John Mundt will return for a second post show discussion regarding Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following the performance on Thursday, August 16 at 7:30 pm. Mundt, a staff psychologist at Chicago’s Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, will again focus on a range of issues and problems impacting returning veterans.

Isaac Abbas, a devoted and loving son, wanders in search of an answer, “How can I forgive myself for the choice I made?” We see Isaac’s reverence as a child, flippancy as a teen and sincere compassion as an adult. The memory of his father, Jack, a Naval Officer who suffered from post-traumatic stress, continues to haunt him. As a high school teacher, Isaac attempts to help his student, Tom, reconcile with his father who also serves as Isaac’s principal. Fathers and sons grow and learn from each other as they confront and make decisions concerning definitions of truth, loyalty, honor and accountability. Do our life experiences determine their definitions or does our definition of them direct our life?

David Alex has received three Grant Awards from the Illinois Arts Council in Recognition in Playwriting (including Adrift) and a Grant from the Pilgrim Foundation. His full-length works include By the Rivers of Babylon, Corpus Delicti, Endangered, Ends, Eroica, Heart of the Sufferer, Onto Infinity, The Humble Constant, The Lutwidge Canvass, The Second-Oldest Profession and The Tinker Wins, in addition to 17 one-act plays. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and former Secretary of the Chicago Alliance for Playwrights and the Illinois Theatre Association. For additional information, visit www.davidalex.net.

Maggie Speer is Artistic Director of Azusa Productions, where she previously produced David Alex’s Onto Infinity and most recently directed Michael Alessandro’s adaptation of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Other Azusa directing credits include Sam Shepard’s Chicago and Icarus’s Mother (co-director), Fool For Love, Killer’s Head, La Turista, The Unseen Hand (co-director), A Lie Of The Mind (co-director), Jesse & The Bandit Queen (co-director) and both the original and the reprise of Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (co-director). Maggie is also currently the Managing Director of Polarity Ensemble Theatre where she recently directed David Hammond’s adaptation of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones and, as part of Polarity’s 2011 Dionysos Cup Festival, Richard Engling’s play Absolution. She also served as Artistic Director of Waukegan’s Bowen Park Theatre, where, in addition to presenting great classics of the theatre, she proudly brought new work of Chicago playwrights to the North Shore. For ten years, Maggie taught theatre classes at Lake Forest College where her favorite class remains “Shakespeare to Tarantino: why violence endures and flourishes in theatre, film and literature.”

The production team for ADRIFT includes: Dennis Mae (scenic design), Staci Weigum (costume design), Jake Bray (lighting design), Jenna Moran (sound design) and Zoe Claster (stage manager).

For a look at the production, click HERE for more photos on BroadwayWorld.

ADRIFT plays now through Sunday, August 26, 2012, Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 2:30 pm. Tickets are $20; $12 students, seniors & industry. Call the Greenhouse Theater Center Box Office at (773) 404-7336 or go online at www.greenhousetheater.org.

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. When we work with local writers, we bring them into the circle of the ensemble and the community to assist them with a multilayer process to bring their scripts to full maturity. As an ensemble, we are a collective of actors, writers, directors and designers working to deepen our connections as artists, as interpreters of story, and as servants of our audience.

Azusa Productions was founded in 1996 as a freewheeling ensemble—in our 15 year existence we have continued to strive to create and maintain the theatre as place of recognition, exploration, revelation and celebration, to be shared by both audiences and artists alike. We present stories about everything from A to Z in the USA and beyond and we are also committed to creating opportunities for emerging and early career theatre artists. Azusa is best known for its popular and critically acclaimed productions of many of the works of Sam Shepard and adaptations of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.

Photo credit: Johnny Knight