THE BLACK SLOT to Launch AstonRep Theatre Company's 2016-17 Season

AstonRep Theatre Company is pleased to announce its full 2016-17 Season, kicking off this fall with its first-ever world premiere - THE BLACK SLOT, Warren Hoffman's hilarious and biting satire about racial politics in the American regional theater, directed by Associate Artistic Director Derek Bertelsen.

Next winter, AstonRep presents ELEEMOSYNARY, Lee Blessing's poignant portrait of three women, co-directed by by Associate Artistic Director Derek Bertelsen and Company Member Jeremiah Barr.

The season concludes next spring with the Tony-nominated drama TIME STANDS STILL by Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Marguiles.

THE BLACK SLOT and TIME STAND STILL will be staged at AstonRep's artistic home, The Raven Theatre (West Stage), 6157 N. Clark St. in Chicago. The venue for ELEEMOSYNARY is TBD.

The 2016-17 season also includes AstonRep's 7th ANNUAL WRITERS' SERIES, a festival of workshops from talented local and regional writers in November 2016 at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago.

Tickets for all productions will go on sale at a later date. For additional information, visit www.astonrep.com.

---

AstonRep Theatre Company's 2016-17 Season:

September 1 - October 2, 2016

THE BLACK SLOT - World Premiere!

By Warren Hoffman

Directed by Associate Artistic Director Derek Bertelsen

at The Raven Theatre (West Stage), 6157 N. Clark St. in Chicago

Beth, a dramaturg at a regional theatre company, spends her waking hours reading new scripts in the hopes of finding "the one" that will please her boss Pam. Enter Tim, a young African American playwright, whose work is miles beyond anything else she has read so far. But when Tim's hot new play is rejected in favor of producing legendary playwright August Wilson in the theater's "black slot," Tim and Beth hatch a plan to reveal the racism and hypocrisy of the American theater. Things quickly get out of hand in this behind-the-scenes satire that skewers and challenges the politics of the business we call show.
THE BLACK SLOT, developed at InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, is the first new work to be selected from AstonRep's annual Writers' Series to receive a full production. It marks the company's first full world premiere.

February 2017

ELEEMOSYNARY

By Lee Blessing

Co-Directed by Associate Artistic Director Derek Bertelsen and Company Member Jeremiah Barr

Venue TBA

Sensitive and probing, Eleemosynary examines the subtle and often perilous relationship between three generations of remarkable women: the grandmother, Dorothea, who has sought to assert her independence through strong-willed eccentricity; her brilliant daughter, Artie, who has fled the stifling domination of her mother; and Artie's daughter, Echo, a child of exceptional intellect, whom Artie has abandoned to an upbringing by Dorothea. This poignant and mature study of familial relationships highlights the human need for connection and forgiveness.

May 11 - June 11, 2017

TIME STANDS STILL

By Donald Marguiles

at The Raven Theatre (West Stage), 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago

TIME STANDS STILL focuses on Sarah and James, a photojournalist and a foreign correspondent trying to find happiness in a world that seems to have gone crazy. Theirs is a partnership based on telling the toughest stories, and together, making a difference. But when their own story takes a sudden turn, the adventurous couple confronts the prospect of a more conventional life. Time Stands Still is a witty, intelligent look at what happens when ordinary life is refracted through the lens of war.

November 2016

7TH ANNUAL WRITERS' SERIES

at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

AstonRep's 7TH ANNUAL WRITER'S SERIES is a festival of talented local and regional writers who have an opportunity to workshop near-finished plays and works in development. Over the course of a day, five to seven new works are read by professional actors followed by focused talkback sessions - a time-honored celebration of artistic collaboration.

---

About the Playwrights:

Warren Hoffman (The Black Slot) other plays include New Words, The Last and Stitched, which have been developed at theaters around the country. Warren spent two years as an inaugural Core Playwright with InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia and also served for several years as the Literary Manager and Dramaturg for Philadelphia Theatre Company. Warren is also the author of two books: The Passing Game: Queering Jewish American Culture and The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical. warrenhoffman.com.

Lee Blessing's (Eleemosynary) plays include A Walk In The Woods (Broadway and London's West End), Going to St. Ives, (Outer Critic's Circle Award, Best Play, Obie for ensemble performance); Thief River (Drama Desk nomination, Best Play); Cobb (Drama Desk award, Best Ensemble); Chesapeake, Down The Road, The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid and Cold Water. In the 1992-93 Signature Theatre season: Fortinbras, Lake Street Extension, Two Rooms and the world premiere of Patient A. Recent regional world premieres: A Body of Water at the Guthrie Theater and the Old Globe Theatre; Lonesome Hollow, Flag Day and Whores, all at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival; The Scottish Play at La Jolla Playhouse; Black Sheep at Florida Stage and The Winning Streak at George Street Playhouse. Other plays: Independence, Riches, Oldtimers Game and Nice People Dancing To Good Country Music and Perilous Night. Other awards: The American Theater Critics Circle Award, the L.A. Drama Critics Award, The Great American Play Award, The Humanitas Award and the George and Elisabeth Marton Award among others. He has been nominated for Tony and Olivier awards, as well as for the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in New York and heads the graduate playwriting program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.

Donald Margulies' (Time Stands Still) plays include Brooklyn Boy, Dinner with Friends, Sight Unseen, Collected Stories, The Loman Family Picnic, God Of Vengeance, The Model Apartment, What's Wrong with this Picture? and Found a Peanut. He has won a Lucille Lortel Award, an American Theatre Critics Award, two Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards, two OBIE Awards, two Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Awards, five Drama Desk Award nominations, two Pulitzer Prize nominations and one Pulitzer Prize. His works have been performed on and off Broadway; at major theatres across the U.S. including South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club, Primary Stages, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse and Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival; and in Paris, London, Rome, Madrid, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Sydney, Berlin, Vienna and many other cities around the world. Mr. Margulies is an alumnus of New Dramatists and serves on the council of The Dramatists Guild of America. He is an adjunct professor of English and Theatre Studies at Yale University.

AstonRep Theatre Company was formed in the summer of 2008. Since then, the company has produced 17 full-length productions and six annual Writers' Series. AstonRep Theatre Company is an ensemble of artists committed to creating exciting, intimate theatrical experiences that go beyond the front door to challenge audiences and spark discussion where the show is not the end of the experience: it is just the beginning.