Profiles Theatre Announces Schedule Changes for Behanding in Spokane

Profiles Theatre announces new dates for the run of A Behanding in Spokane by Martin McDonagh, directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Rick Snyder. Please note changes in the previously announced dates: Previews are October 16-20, 2011 with the press opening on Friday, October 21 at 8pm. The production runs though December 4, 2011 at Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway in Chicago.

A Behanding in Spokane, McDonagh's first play set in America, received its world premiere on Broadway in 2010 starring Christopher Walken as Carmichael. For the Broadway version, the age of the character was changed to match the age of the actor, now in his middle 60s. Profiles' production returns the character to McDonagh's originally intended age, featuring Profiles ensemble member Darrell W. Cox in the role.

Profiles Theatre rescheduled A Behanding in Spokane as Darrell W. Cox recovers from two emergency surgeries for a detached retina.

Profiles will open its second show of the 2011-2012 season, the World premiere of Assisted Living by Deirdre O'Connor, at the company's alternative venue The Second Stage, 3408 N. Sheffield. Previews for Assisted Living are November 4 - November 9 with the press opening on November 10, 2011. The production runs through December 18, 2011. Directed by Profiles Artistic Director Joe Jahraus, the production features guest artists Sean Bradley, Shannon Hollander and Stacy Stoltz.

About Behanding in Spokane
In this darkly comical new work from the acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Martin McDonagh, the mysterious gun-toting Carmichael has been searching for his missing left hand for decades. Enter two bickering lovebirds with a hand to sell, and a hotel clerk with an aversion to gunfire, and soon life and death are up for grabs. A Behanding in Spokane turns over American daily existence, exposing the obsessions, prejudices, madness, horrors, and above all, the absurdities that crawl beneath it.

McDonagh also wrote the award-winning plays The Pillowman (Tony nominee, Best Play 2005 and Olivier Award Winner 2004), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Olivier Award Winner 2003), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Tony nominee, Best Play 1998) and The Lonesome West (Tony nominee, Best Play 1999). His 2006 film Six Shooter won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short and the full-length feature In Bruges received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

"For me, McDonagh plays are often about thinking the unthinkable, saying the unsayable, and presenting the impossible," says director Rick Snyder. "In our politically correct society, there is a strange relief in being able to do this. This play is totally outrageous and hysterically funny."

Rick Snyder returns to Profiles following his long running hits, reasons to be pretty by Neil LaBute and Killer Joe by Tracy Letts. The cast of A Behanding in Spokane features Profiles ensemble members Eric Burgher (Jailbait, Kid Sister) and Darrell W. Cox (Fifty Words, reasons to be pretty) along with guest artists Sara Greenfield (The Good and Faithful Servant with AstonRep Theatre) and Levenix Riddle (Girl With Sun in Her Eyes with Pine Box Theater).

The designers are Thad Hallstein (set), David Ferguson (lights), Jeffrey Levin (sound and original music), Joelle Beranek (costumes) and the stage manager is Jordan Muller.

A Behanding in Spokane is the first production of Profiles Theatre's 23rd season. The season also includes the World premiere of Assisted Living by Deirdre O'Connor and the Midwest premieres of Bachelorette by Leslye Headland and The Break of Noon by Neil LaBute.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Martin McDonagh (Playwright) has no formal training, but a sheaf of plays he wrote during one long stretch back in 1994 turned him into one of the most celebrated new English-language dramatists of his generation. Nearly all of McDonagh's plays are set in Ireland, and draw heavily from Irish idiom and culture in their skewering of once-sacrosanct literary and political ideals. He was awarded the Critics Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright in 1996. Separated into two trilogies, McDonagh's first six plays are located in and around County Galway where he spent his holidays as a child. The first is set in Leenane, a small village on the west coast of Ireland, and consists of The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996), A Skull in Connemara (1997) and The Lonesome West (1997). His second trilogy, scattered across a trio of islands just off the coast of County Galway, consists of The Cripple of Inishmaan (1997), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001) and The Banshees of Inisheer (which was never published, as McDonagh insisted it "isn't any good"). His first non-Irish play, The Pillowman, set in a fictitious totalitarian state, premiered at The National Theatre in 2003, having been presented in a rehearsed reading in Galway in 1997. He has also penned two prize-winning radio plays, including The Tale of the Wolf and the Woodcutter. Recently, McDonagh has focused on film, his first passion. Following the success of Six Shooter in 2006, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film, McDonagh wrote and directed his first full-length feature, In Bruges (2008), for which he received the BAFTA Award for Original Screenplay and a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination. A Behanding in Spokane premiered in New York in 2010, where lead actor Christopher Walken was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance. McDonagh is currently working on a new stage musical with composer Tom Waits and director Robert Wilson.

Rick Snyder (Director) is a Steppenwolf ensemble member. He returns to Profiles after directing their hit productions of reasons to be pretty and the award-winning Killer Joe (2010 Jeff Awards for Outstanding Production, Director and Actor). Other recent directing credits include God of Carnage, Oleanna and Speed-the-Plow at American Theatre Company Mauritius at Northlight Theatre, The Lion in Winter at Writers' Theatre, Aristocrats at Strawdog Theatre, St. Scarlet at ATC, Bus Stop at Writers' Theatre and The Actor, Jolly and The Disappearance of the Jews at the Goodman Theatre. His directing credits at Steppenwolf include Art, Betrayal, Last of the Boys, Tavern Story, Things Being What They Are, Orange Flower Water (which traveled to the Galway Arts Festival), and The Fall to Earth. As an actor, Rick recently appeared in August: Osage County, The Unmentionables, Man From Nebraska and I Never Sang For My Father at Steppenwolf. Some of his other Steppenwolf credits include Wedding Band, Time of Your Life, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in London and on Broadway, Sideman in Galway, Ireland, David Copperfield, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Slaughterhouse Five, Molly Sweeney, Picasso at the Lapine Agile, the Tony Award-winning Grapes of Wrath, The Road to Nirvana, and A Walk in the Woods. He has appeared at the Goodman Theatre in As You Like It, Down the Shore and as Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. At Northlight Theatre he appeared in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Rear Column. Television credits include Crime Story, First Steps, Lady Blue, Legacy of Lies, The Woman Who Loved Elvis, Overexposed, and guest starring roles on Early Edition, Profiler, Chicago Hope, Angel Street, The Untouchables, Missing Persons and Mind of the Married Man. Rick has appeared in the films Meet the Applegates, The Tuskegee Airmen, Alien Nation Millenium, The Net starring Sandra Bullock, Whiteboys, The Human Stain, Soul Survivors and as agent Frank Burrows in U.S. Marshals. Rick has taught acting classes at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, as well as advanced acting class at Northwestern University and DePaul. He currently teaches Directing 1 at Columbia College in Chicago. Rick has been a member of the Steppenwolf ensemble since 1983, and an instructor for The School at Steppenwolf and Associate Artist at Steppenwolf for the last eleven years.

ERIC BURGHER (Mervyn) was most recently seen in the World premiere of A Beautiful Spell by Greg Kalleres with Rare Terra Theatre at the Royal George. Eric's most recent Profiles credits were as Robert In Profiles' Midwest premiere of Jailbait by Deirdre O'Connor, Babe in Profiles' World premiere of Kid Sister by Will Kern and Jared in Profiles' Midwest premiere of Body Awareness by Annie Baker. Prior to that, he appeared in the World premiere of Graceland by Ellen Fairey, U.S. premiere of The Wonderful World of Dissocia by Anthony Neilson, and Profiles' first full Chicago production of Men of Tortuga. Eric has also appeared in This is How it Goes by Neil LaBute and "Land of the Dead" as part of Profiles' Midwest premiere of LaBute shorts,Things We Said Today, as well as the Midwest premiere of Fat Pig by Neil LaBute. Eric received an After Dark Award for Outstanding Ensemble in "Bench Seat" as part of Profiles' Midwest premiere ofautobahn. He was also seen at Profiles in The Glory of Living, The Radiant Abyss, and Noise. Eric is a graduate of Columbia College, where he is now on the adjunct faculty.

DARRELL W. COX (Carmichael) was most recently seen in Profiles' Midwest premiere of Fifty Words by Michael Weller, as well as appearing as Greg in Profiles' Chicago premiere of reasons to be pretty by Neil LaBute. Prior to that, he was seen as Bobby Gould in Speed the Plow and John in Oleanna, as part of the Mamet Repertory at American Theatre Company. Darrell received his fourth Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role for his performance as Joe Cooper in Profiles production of Killer Joe by Tracy Letts. Other recent Profiles' credits include the World premiere of Kid Sister by Will Kern and the Midwest premiere of The Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute. Darrell has appeared at Steppenwolf in the World premiere of Men of Tortuga (where he originated the role of Taggart), the Midwest premiere of Orange Flower Water (which traveled to the Galway Arts Festival), and the World premiere of Wendall Greene. He has also been seen at the Goodman in The Shawl and Home as part of the David Mamet Festival, the Chicago premiere of The People's Temple at American Theatre Company as Jim Jones, and the World premiere of Martin Furey's Shot at TimeLine, among others. He has won four Joseph Jefferson Awards for Principal Actor for his work in Profiles' productions of Killer Joe, Blackbird, Some Voices, and Eye of God. In addition, he has received two After Dark Awards for Outstanding Performance for Profiles' productions of Popcorn, and Carnal Knowledge.

SARA GREENFIELD (Marilyn) returns to Profiles where she recently understudied the role of Stephanie in the Midwest premiere of reasons to be pretty. Her previous credits include The Good and Faithful Servant and Erpingham Camp with AstonRep Theatre, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Lucky Stiff with Stage Center Theatre, Merge with the Women's Theatre Alliance, and Voice of Zero in the U.S. premiere of Zero with Oracle Theatre. She has appeared in commercials for AIU as well as in the award-winning scholastic video Solar-tastic. Sara received her BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Michigan and has studied with the Moscow Art Theatre as well as the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

LEVINIX RIDDLE (Toby) makes his Profiles debut with A Behanding in Spokane. Levenix, born and raised in Chicago, studied engineering until attending The Theatre School at DePaul to study acting. Past Theatre School credits include A Raisin in the Sun, A View from the Bridge, Puss in Boots, The Underpants, The Nina Variations and Holes, among others. He most recently appeared in A Girl With Sun in her Eyes with Pine Box Theater Company. Levenix also loves jazz and the blues and is currently learning to play piano.

Tickets for A Behanding in Spokane are $35 for Thursdays, $40 for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are available by phone, (773) 549-1815, or online, www.profilestheatre.org. Performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Saturdays at 5:00 and 8:00 pm, Sundays at 7:00 p.m.