Raven Theatre Sets Cast, Creative Team for Chicago Premiere of DIVIDING THE ESTATE

Raven Theatre's production of Dividing the Estate, by the Pulitzer Prize and two-time Academy award winning playwright Horton Foote, will feature a cast of 13 actors from many of Chicago's most celebrated theater companies, according to Michael Menendian, Raven's co-Artistic Director. Foote's comedy-drama, which focuses on the feuds and disputes among members of a wealthy Texas family whose fortunes have declined, was his last new play to be presented on Broadway. That 2008 production was nominated for Tony Awards for Best Original Play and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play (Hallie Foote). Raven Theatre, who produced Foote's The Trip to Bountiful in 2013, will be the first company to bring this acclaimed script to a Chicago stage. Raven associate artistic director Cody Estle (Raven's Brighton Beach Memoirs and Vieux Carré, The Artistic Home's Watch on the Rhine, Mary-Arrchie's Uncle Bob) will direct.

Playing Stella, the matriarch of the play's Gordon family, will be Marssie Mencotti, whose work in Stage Left's A Day in the Death of Joe Egg earlier this year was warmly received and who's known for her roles at The Gift, Redtwist and many other companies. Playing Stella's alcoholic son Lewis will be Ron Wells, a Jeff Award winner for A Prayer for My Daughter at Mary-Arrchie. Her daughters Mary Jo and Lucille will be played by Raven co-Artistic Director JoAnn Montemurro (most recently in Raven's Vieux Carré) and Millicent Hurley Spencer, recipient of stellar reviews for her leading role in Raven's The Trip to Bountiful last season and veteran of productions by Eclipse, Mary-Arrchie and many others. Mary Jo's husband, Bob, will be played by Chicago actor and playwright Jon Steinhagen, who as an actor is known for his many leading roles at Signal Ensemble and Circle Theatre, as well as Raven.

Members of the Gordon family's younger generation will include Tim Martin (Griffin's Men Should Weep, Writers' Isaac's Eye and Jackalope's The Peacock) as Lucille's son, simply named "Son"; Eliza Stoughton (Remy Bumppo's Both Your Houses, TimeLine's The Farnsworth Invention and Raven's Vieux Carré) will play Son's fiancée Pauline, and Kathryn Acosta (Artistic Home, Northlight Theatre) and Angela Sandall (Waltzing Mechanics' El Stories) will play Mary Jo's daughters Emily and Sissie. Employees of the Gordon estate will be played by J.J. McCormick (Steep's Of Mice and Men, Pegasus Players' Jitney, Raven's 12 Angry Men) as the housekeeper Doug, Shariba Rivers (El Stories) as the cook Mildred, and BrittneyLove Smith (Eclipse's Ruined, ATC's Agnes of God and Doubt) as the working college student Cathleen. Hillary Horvath (Chicago Shakespeare) will play Lewis's girlfriend Irene.

The ornate family manse of the Gordon family will be created by set designer Jeffrey D. Kmiec (Northlight's The Commons of Pensacola, The Artistic Home's Watch on the Rhine) with lighting design by Kurt Ottinger (Raven's The Playboy of the Western World) and properties design by Julia Carusillo. Kate Murphy (Raven's The Trip to Bountiful, Griffin's Men Should Weep) is designing costumes suitable for these "everything is bigger in Texas" Texans. Christopher M. LaPorte (Sideshow Theatre Company, Victory Gardens) is sound designer. Tara Malpass will be Stage Manager and Jacqueline Wills will be Assistant Director.

Previews will be January 27 - February 1, 2015, with the press opening Monday, February 2, 2015.The regular run will be February 5 - March 28, 2015. Tickets are on sale now at www.raventheatre.com or by calling 773-338-2177.

Raven Theatre is located at 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago. There are a limited number of free parking spaces available in the parking lot adjacent to the theatre, and free on-street parking is available nearby.

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