Refracted Theatre Company Reveals 2024 Season

Refracted Theatre Company has announced its 2024 season, featuring the Chicago premiere of Laura Winters' dark comedy CORONATION, directed by Co-Artistic Director Tova Wolff; and "Role Call Revamped," a continuation and evolution of the free, community-centered, reading and discussion series Refracted premiered last season.

"2023 was an exceptional year for Refracted. We set a new standard of excellence for ourselves and in 2024 we plan to do what we do best, exceed all expectations. Season 5 will be a year of growth for Refracted. We are bringing on a suite of young producers who share our values as an organization and are helping us set the stage for another year of programming that serves the arts by serving the artists. This year, Role Call is on the move. Now a pop-up event, Role Call will visit new neighborhoods and engage communities across Chicago. And then there's CORONATION. A collaboration years in the making, this political-satire is ripe for an election year, as we trade in democracy for dynasty and all hail the Queen of America." - Tova Wolff

Refracted Theatre Company's 2024 Season includes:

Role Call

On the move - Visiting neighborhoods and engaging communities across Chicago

Presented quarterly, beginning March/April, 2024

Refracted is proud to present Role Call Revamped, a free program that casts the community in deeply Refracted plays. Members of the community will take part in the reading of known, unknown and classic plays. Following the communal reading, Refracted will facilitate guided discourse about the work as a means of deepening our understanding of the thematic underpinnings of the play. Role Call will take place quarterly in locations around Chicago, giving participants a chance to attend in their own neighborhood and explore new neighborhoods in their city.

Fall, 2024

CORONATION - Chicago Premiere!

By Laura Winters

Directed by Co-Artistic Director Tova Wolff

After another female candidate loses the 2040 presidential election, three passionate but disillusioned women dream up a 4th branch of government - a monarchy to be run by only the Queen of America. This 3-act femme-futurist, political satire features a gas mask fashion show, a ball gown made out of blue jeans, and a walking, talking, plotting Siri. CORONATION will have you doubled over in laughter and trembling with fear. The play positions female autonomy against the power and prestige of artificial intelligence, as it asks eerily topical questions like: can we work within a system that was never meant to work for us? When it comes to the government, AI, and the public, who works for whom?

Says playwright, Laura Winters, "CORONATION was a fun, self-imposed writing challenge. I wanted to write a political play while bringing one of my favorite genres (scifi) to the stage. I started writing this play in 2018, but I wanted to make sure the play didn't feel stuck to our current political environment, so I put the play in three distinct times in the future."

For upcoming announcements and ticket information, visit refractedco.com or follow @refractedco.

About the Artists

Laura Winters (Playwright, CORONATION) is a playwright/screenwriter working in NYC/LA. Her play ALL OF ME will have an off-Broadway premiere with The New Group this spring. ALL OF ME was also a winner of the Burman New Play Prize and had its world premiere at Barrington Stage Company last fall. Acknowledgements for ALL OF ME include a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nomination, Relentless Award Honorable Mention, Drama League Next Stage Residency, Princess Grace Award Semi-Finalist. Her other plays include EMERSON LOSES HER "MIAND" (Powers New Voices Festival at The Old Globe, semi-finalist at the National Playwrights Conference, Semi-Finalist in The Bechdel Test Festival), CORONATION (finalist for National Playwrights Conference), GONZO (Burman New Play Award Semi-Finalist, Rough Draft Festival), and SPACE MISSION #5379: SAVING RACHEL, NEVADA (East Valley Children's Theatre world premiere, winner of Arizona Theatre Excellence Award). BA Northwestern University. CAA/Anonymous Content @LauraWinters12 www.laura-winters.com

Tova Wolff (Director, CORONATION) is a director and producer based in Chicago. Her recent directing credits include A Play About David Mamet Writing a Play About Harvey Weinstein (Refracted Theatre Company), I Couldn't Tell You Why (Refracted Theatre Company), Clearing House (The Swell), Contrition: A Long Voicemail (The Swell), The King's Speech (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre & National Tour, Associate Director), Monica: This Play Is Not About Monica Lewinsky (59E59 Theaters & Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019), Security (Secret Theatre), A Bad Night (The Frontier), Fade (Victory Gardens, Associate Director), For the Loyal (Interrobang Theatre Project, Associate Director), Still Rising (The Tank), Pam's Key (Gallery Players) and Bachelorette (Walkerspace at Soho Rep.). In 2016 ,Tova won Best Director for her production of Between Men at the Midtown International Theatre Festival. She was a 2017/2018 Directing Fellow at Victory Gardens Theater and a 2017 participant in the Director's Lab Chicago. She is a co-founder and Artistic Director of Refracted Theatre Company. Tova received her BA from Northwestern University. www.tovawolff.com.

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