The Gift Theatre Announces Its Tenth Season

Celebrating its tenth anniversary, The Gift Theatre announces a season of thrilling new work including two world premieres, one American premiere, and one Chicago premiere.

Ten: A World Premiere

Performed and directed by The Gift Theatre Ensemble

The Gift will produce a festival of short plays written specifically for The Gift by artists whose work they have produced over the past ten years. Playwrights include Eric Bogosian, David Rabe, Craig Wright, J.T. Rogers and Gift Ensemble members Andrew Hinderaker, William Nedved, Maggie Andersen and Jenny Connell.

Ten will run January 5-15, 2012 and is free. There are only ten shows. Tickets are available immediately for subscribers and to the public if available on January 1, 2012. Show times are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm with Saturday matinees at 4:00 and Sunday matinees at 2:30.

Absolute Hell: A U.S. Premiere

By Rodney Ackland

Directed by ensemble member Sheldon Patinkin

Featuring ensemble members Brittany Burch, John Connolly, Paul D'Addario, Gabriel Franken, Alexandra Main, Kenny Mihlfried, Lynda Newton, Michael Patrick Thornton, Jay Worthington and guest artists Alexis Atwill, Harter Clingman, Kurt Conroyd, Patrick DeNicola, Joanne Dubach, Donna McGough, Marssie Mencotti, Justin Serino, Amy Speckian, Maria Stephens, Dylan Stuckey, Adam Welsh.

It’s London in the summer of 1945. Christine Foskett tends bar at La Vie en Rose, a homey private club where servicemen and bohemians drink rye, gin-and-French and black-market brandy. Ackland beautifully explores the necessity for escape and the awful loneliness that goes along with it, and his cast of characters includes the most powerful of critics, the most washed-up writers and American air force officers who have no interest in becoming movie stars. Outside the ground floor window, the neighborhood prostitute turns 25 tricks a night and a deranged elderly woman cries out that Jesus was born on Boxing Day.

Absolute Hell will run March 1-April 29, 2012.

Show times are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays

at 7:30 p.m. with Sunday matinees at 2:30.

Oh the Humanity (and other exclamations): A Chicago premiere

By Will Eno

Directed by ensemble member Michael Patrick Thornton

Assistant Directed by Marti Lyons

The writer of Middletown and Thom Pain (based on nothing) gives us a series of short plays in which a coach gives a postseason press conference to own up to his failures; a man and woman pour out their lonely hearts online, not really connecting; and an airline spokeswoman publicly accounts for a catastrophe, struggling to spin existential optimism out of tragedy. By clustering these dramatic snapshots, Eno shows common threads running through adjacent lives.

Oh the Humanity will run June 14-August 12, 2012. Show times are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. with Sunday matinees at 2:30.

Dirty: A World Premiere

By ensemble member Andrew Hinderaker

Directed by Jonathan Berry
From the Joseph Jefferson Nominated writer & director of Suicide, Incorporated comes the story of Matt Barnes, an investment banker who struggles to stomach his job. But when Matt's struck by a business idea that will net him millions while helping those in need, he believes he's discovered his new career. So why does everyone think this venture is even viler than the last? A blend of humor, Hendrix, and hardcore porn, Dirty explores whether there's any place for philanthropy in this cut-throat country called "home".

Dirty will run September 13-November 18, 2012. Show times are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. with Sunday matinees at 2:30.

For tickets: (773) 283-7071 or buy online @ www.thegifttheatre.org
The Gift Theatre

4802 N. Milwaukee

The Gift Theatre is conveniently located at 4802 N. Milwaukee in Chicago’s Jefferson Park neighborhood—two storefronts north of Lawrence, on the west side of Milwaukee—and is easily accessible by the Kennedy Expressway, the Lawrence and Milwaukee buses, and the CTA Blue Line.

THE GIFT THEATRE is dedicated to telling great stories on stage with honesty and simplicity. Since its 2002 debut, The Gift has consistently established itself as an actors’ theatre, consistently eschewing directorial cleverness for honest, powerful connections between the actors and the audience. With the conception of The Lab—an ensemble-only forum dedicated to artistic growth and exploration—The Gift continues to deepen its commitment to the idea of ‘ensemble’ by training together on an ongoing basis. Previous and future instructors in The Lab include Sheldon Patinkin, Jeff Perry, Susan Messing, and Dr. Eric Forsythe.

Previous productions include Cloud 9, Northwest Highway, Night & Her Stars, The Lonesome West, Suicide, Incorporated, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Almost, Maine, Santa’s Great American Depression Holiday Show! America 2: Son of Santa’s Great American Depression Holiday Show! America, Summer People, The Ruby Sunrise, Talk Radio, Stop/Kiss, Santa’s Great American Depression Holiday Show! America, Natural Gas, Streamers, W;t, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, White People, Three Sisters, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Blithe Spirit, 365 Days/365 Plays, The Halloween Show, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Glass Menagerie (Remount—Theatre on the Lake), The Good Thief, The Clearing, Hurlyburly, The Glass Menagerie, The Pavilion, A Young Man In Pieces, Language of Angels, 6, County Fair, The Countess, Alcatraz (Abbie Hoffman Festival), Orestes 2.0, and Boys’ Life.

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