Steppenwolf's Visiting Companies Initiative Announces Three Productions For Ten Week Rotaing Run Beginning 2/2010

Steppenwolf's Visiting Companies Initiative is pleased to announce three productions by Dog & Pony Theatre Company, Pavement Group and Thirteen Pocket to be presented in rotating repertory for a ten-week run beginning February 2010 in Steppenwolf's Merle Reskin Garage Theatre, 1624 N. Halsted.

"We are thrilled to welcome these three innovative Chicago theatre companies to produce in a new rotating repertory model under the Visiting Company Initiative," comments Artistic Director Martha Lavey. "In response to the current challenges facing emerging theatre companies, we are happy to be handing over Steppenwolf's Garage Theatre as a collaborative space for their work. We also look forward to being in conversation with these emerging artists and their audiences next season as the productions at Steppenwolf, including those of these companies in residence, explore the power of belief and its ability to illuminate what's authentic in our lives," adds Lavey.

Dog & Pony Theatre Company presents
The Twins Would Like To Say
a new play written and directed by Seth Bockley and Devon de Mayo

A promenade performance that breathes life into the extraordinary true story of identical twins June and Jennifer Gibbons. The young girls made a secret and powerful pact that went unbroken for over 20 years: speak to no adult, decide everything together, do everything in unison. But in the privacy of their room, the girls' fantasy life blossomed as they wrote hyper-kinetic novels of teenage lust and rebellion.

Pavement Group presents
punkplay
by Gregory Moss, directed by David Perez

A sonic mix-tape frames the story of two boys stuck in suburban 80's adolescence. When Duck and Mickey discover punk roc, it's like nothing they've ever heard: it's fast, it's hot and it's angry. The boys find punk in all its righteous fury a self-defining belief system in a world where everyone thinks, looks and talks the same.

Thirteen Pocket presents
Adore
written and directed by Stephen Louis Grush

Two desperate men find each other over the internet, beginning a complex and strange relationship until finally they meet... both fulfilling each other's ultimate fantasies. Based on the disturbing true events that made headlines, Adore explores how self-loathing leads these two men through a sexual underworld of fetish chat rooms and cannibalism, as they search for a kind of love incomprehensible to the rest of society.

Founded in 2002, Dog & Pony Theatre Company is committed to producing vital works by new and emerging playwrights whose use of language and convention are daring and highly imaginative. As an eclectic collective of artists with backgrounds in theatre, public broadcasting, political activism and religious studies, Dog & Pony is particularly drawn to work with social and cultural relevance. Krissy Vanderwarker, Artistic Director. www.dogandponychicago.org.

Pavement Group commits itself to providing dynamic performance opportunities for the next generation of theatre artists, arts managers and audiences. We dedicate ourselves to new plays. Pavement Group endeavors to make contact with an audience previously unspoken to. The company strives to lay the foundation-both pragmatic and institutional-that fosters fresh plays and makes contact with new audiences. Through development, dramaturgy, and the pairing of playwrights and directors, Pavement Group provides the artistic and practical atmosphere needed for great plays to reach fruition. David Perez, Aristic Director. www.pavementgroup.org.

Thirteen Pocket is a vehicle for the development and offering of original works. We will explore all mediums of artistic communication in the pursuit of a more specific and individual connection with as many members of our community as possible. With this endeavor, we plan to investigate the necessity of all art forms and their ability to evoke change. Our want is to assault apathy with a deep conviction, and to ignite in those around us the need for action. Stephen Louis Grush, Artistic Director. www.thirteenpocket.com.

Steppenwolf's Visiting Companies Initiative provides the opportunity for other theater companies to present work in all three of Steppenwolf's theaters. These residencies are supported by the artists and staff at Steppenwolf and help create relationships with visiting companies, enriching the artistic dialogue among its artists and audiences.

Support for this project comes through the "Leading for the Future Initiative," a program of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Committed to the principle of ensemble performance through the collaboration of a company of actors, directors and playwrights, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's mission is to advance the vitality and diversity of American theater by nurturing artists, encouraging repeatable creative relationships and contributing new works to the national canon. The company, formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, is dedicated to perpetuating an ethic of mutual respect and the development of artists through on-going group work. Steppenwolf has grown into an internationally renowned company of 42 artists whose talents include acting, directing, playwriting and textual adaptation. For additional information, visit www.steppenwolf.org.

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