Shakespeare, Brecht and More Featured in Promethean Theatre Ensemble's 2012-13 Season

Shakespeare, Brecht, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will be featured in Promethean Theatre Ensemble's upcoming season as they present Black Magic: An Evening of Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht's classic The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and A Study in Scarlet, an original adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes mystery.

Black Magic: An Evening of Shakespeare, will return PTE to The Red Lion Lincoln Square for an intimate evening of scenes and speeches featuring the Bard's ghosts, murderers and practitioners of black magic. PTE has been presenting their Evening of Shakespeare series for all six seasons of the company's history, and offers up Shakespeare in a laid-back pub environment at one of Lincoln Square's most popular establishments. Just in time for Halloween, the show will run three days only, tonight, October 30-31 and November 1, 2012, with two performances at 7pm and 9pm each night. Artistic Director Beth Wolf will adapt and direct the presentation, which will be free to the public (donations suggested) at The Red Lion Lincoln Square, 4749 N Rockwell Street, Chicago IL.

The Caucasian Chalk Circle will be directed by artistic associate Ed Rutherford, the adaptor and director of The Last Unicorn for PTE in 2010. When a servant girl becomes the less-than-willing guardian to the infant of her wealthy mistress during a revolution, great consequences hang upon her smallest choices. Bertolt Brecht spun a tale of a long-ago and faraway land where the Haves lorded it over the Have-nots, and justice seemed reserved only for the rich. Promethean will bridge the gap between an old tale and the modern world using music, movement, and the Story Theatre aesthetic that has its birthplace in Chicago. The Caucasian Chalk Circle will run January 7 through February 10, 2013,at City Lit Theater, 1020 W Bryn Mawr, Chicago IL.

A Study in Scarlet will be Promethean's entry into the burgeoning and popular assortment of Sherlock Holmes adaptations. Paul Edwards, who has brought other novels to the stage such as The Body Snatchers and We Have Always Lived in the Castle will adapt and direct. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story, published in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887, introduces the "consulting detective" and his sidekick to each other, and to an adoring readership that is still very much alive today. Holmes and Watson pursue a mysterious murderer who likes to write in blood, on the wall above his victims, the word "Rache"--German for "revenge." A Study in Scarlett will run April 29 through June 2, 2013, in the second floor studio at The Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave., Chicago IL.

Since the inaugural production of Christopher Durang's Beyond Therapy in 2006, Promethean Theatre Ensemble has collaborated to create theatre that fuses simplicity of design with intelligent, passionate storytelling. With the support of its dedicated ensemble, Promethean has gone on to produce Our Country's Good, The Light of Love, Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Illusion, Measure for Measure, The Last Unicorn, The Fantasticks, Spring Awakening, Kennedy's Children, Bury the Dead, Seascape with Sharks and Dancer, Henry V, and their popular Evening of Shakespeare series. The company has also collaborated with the Chicago and Evanston Public Libraries to offer theatre education to teens.

For more information, visit www.prometheantheatre.org.