The House Theatre of Chicago Announces Upcoming Season

The House Theatre of Chicago announces its 12th Season creating Amazing Feats of Storytelling. The five programs in the 2013-14 Season are all written and helmed by Company Members of The House, investing in the rich and diverse talents of the ensemble.

"As we find ourselves beginning new cycles of adulthood, the artists of The House are drawn to work right at the center of our obsessions with the cycles of darkness and light," remarked Artistic Director Nathan Allen. "These plays explore that mythic tension in our communities, our selves, and in our favorite tragic heroes."

Continuing in residence at The Chopin Theatre, the season kicks off with The Crownless King, in which Artistic Director Nathan Allen and Company Member Chris Mathews will take their political action-adventure trilogy onto the high seas. The Crownless King is the second installment of the trilogy that began with last season's epic The Iron Stag King.

The Nutcracker returns for the holidays with continued enhancements in spectacle and holiday magic. Company Member Tommy Rapley will once again lead the production.

Opening in the thick of the Chicago winter 2014, the much-honored writing trio of Chris Mathews, Jake Minton and Nathan Allen will bring the House's original myth, Rose and the Rime, to life. Enhanced production and development support will make for a most spectacular family-friendly respite from the cold. Director Nathan Allen expresses his interest in revisiting the "deeper, darker developments" in The House's favorite story. "I find myself drawn back to The House's central expression of mythology from a new personal maturity. We've recovered from the financial burdens of the last 5 years, we have more than doubled the audiences we serve, and I'm about to become a father to a second baby girl. This meditation on the cycles of struggle and joy is deeply personal for me."

First workshopped and produced at both Hope College and The House in 2008/09, Rose and the Rime was honored at the Kennedy Center as the Best New Work at the American College Theatre Festival. The production has already secured a transfer to The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, where it will play a 5-week run. This continues the growing partnership between the two producers, who have previously mounted House productions of The Sparrow, Death and Harry Houdini, and The Nutcracker for Miami audiences.

The season concludes with DORIAN, welcoming back playwright and Company Member Ben Lobpries upon his graduation from Emerson College's MFA Creative Writing program. Lobpries and Tommy Rapley have co-authored this adaptation of Oscar Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. First mounted in 2006 at the Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, the pair is eager to return to work on their dance-fueled adaptation of this gothic horror story back home at The House. Rapley will direct and choreograph.

The Magic Parlour will run every Friday night throughout the entire season at the exquisite Palmer House Hilton Hotel. Award-winning, third-generation magician Dennis Watkins performs 75 minutes of intimate, classic magic and mind reading in Chicago's only weekly, late night magic show. New feats are incorporated every few months, keeping this show as astonishing as ever for fans of Watkins and The House. Performances are at 7:30pm and 9:30pm on Fridays, with 10:30pm-only performances during the run of Death and Harry Houdini (June 21 - August 11).

Memberships are now on sale and start at $75.

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