The Ruckus Announces Their 2010/2011 Season

The Ruckus Theater is proud to announce Season 2 in Chicago, following a killer first year of sold-out performances on the storefront theater scene in Chicago. Artistic Director Allison Shoemaker, Associate Artistic Director Joshua Davis and Managing Director Jeffrey Fauver released today a season of three new plays, and the company's first world-premiere musical-all performed at The Side Project Theatre in Rogers Park (1439 W Jarvis Ave). In the autumn, Ruckuser Brian Ruby directs All Saints' Day aka 44 Poems About Jeffrey Jones by Ron Riekki (September 2 - 26, 2010). Kicking off the New Year following a workshop earlier this year, Tympanic Theatre Company Artistic Director Daniel Caffrey directs Escape from the Haltsburg Boys Choir, book by Ruckuser Aaron Dean, music and lyrics by Jason Rico and Dean (January 6 - 30, 2011). In March 2011, The Ruckus workshops Ruckuser Timo Aker's new play Su Sessiz (Calm Water). And completing the season next spring is the world premiere of 15 Minutes developed by the Company, by Mitch Vermeersch and Aaron Dean, directed by Allison Shoemaker (May/June 2011). Further details regarding the 2010/2011 season, including casting, ticket information and additional dates will be announced in the coming weeks. Please visit www.ruckustheater.org for more information.

The Ruckus also welcomes Christine Grodecki as its newest company member in Chicago. Her previous work with The Ruckus includes The Gay American, Tell It & Speak It & Think It & Breathe It, and the workshop of Escape from the Haltsburg Boys Choir. In addition to her work with The Ruckus, Christine has done freelance lighting and carpentry at various theaters around Chicago and interned at Kalamazoo Civic Theatre in Michigan. Grodecki joins the company of thirteen, including a contingent of four out-of-state artistic associates.

"I'm really sort of disappointed with the stuff we scraped together for season two," said Artistic Director Allison Shoemaker. "We had all this really great work lined up, but two restraining orders and one ruined birthday later and here we are, just sort of phoning it in. I mean, Dan and Ron and Jason are great, but the rest of us have given up-just like my mother said we would." [sic]

20010/2011 SEASON @ The Side Project Theatre
ALL SAINTS' DAY by Ron Riekki | directed by Brian Ruby
September 2 - 26, 2010

On one side of the door, the Trick or Treater knocks. On the other, someone waits. Someone answers, or doesn't. Someone holds all the candy. Someone else takes it. All Saints' Day dissects this simplest of relationships and sends it through the American centrifuge of war, death, love, loss, sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

ESCAPE FROM THE HALTSBURG BOYS CHOIR
book by Aaron Dean, music and lyrics by Aaron Dean & Jason Rico | directed by Dan Caffrey
January 6 - 30, 2011

The Ruckus' first musical, Escape from the Halstburg Boys Choir, sends you tumbling through the Austrian woods with four desperate boys on the cusp of adulthood. Theirs is a world of witches, wolves, vindictive worms and malevolent choirmasters, but the most terrifying creatures of all may be the boy with the squeak in his voice and the girl with the golden hair. To get out, my friends, you'll need to use ‘em...or lose ‘em.

SU SESSIZ (CALM WATER) by Timo Aker| A workshop
March 2011

Istanbul, 2006. In a city centuries old, a young man grapples with what it means to be American, and to be other. Help The Ruckus make Su Sessiz (Calm Water) with this 2010/2011 workshop by company member Timo Aker.

15 MINUTES | developed by the Company; by Mitch Vermeersch and Aaron Dean
directed by Allison Shoemaker
May/June 2011

In 15 Minutes, there are the Knowns and the Not-Knowns, and there is everyone in between. In a city built of glass and steel, cables and cameras, six people are about to meet a very strange man with some very strange ideas. There are rules, and there are risks, and there is something very strange about this World's Fair-but if you listen to him you could become one of the six most famous people alive.

About The Ruckus Theater

Made up of an industrious group of Michigan ex-pats, The Ruckus is composed of actors, directors, playwrights, musicians, casting directors, publicity managers, grant writers, baristas, grad students, poets, computer fixers, appointment-makers and census-takers who aim to create a new kind of company-a casteless theater that blends the lines between playwright and actor, audience and company member. The Ruckus Theater is led by Artistic Director Allison Shoemaker, Associate Artistic Director Joshua Davis and Interim Managing Director Jeffrey Fauver.

We're here to create, to examine, to invent, to explode-to create a ruckus. Our aim is to break down the old models of new work development in order to nurture new forms, great plays and better and smarter artists. We will work together to create vibrant and unexpected new work, spin terrific yarns and build a world in which two things are sacred: the rehearsal room and the audience member. We will be messy; we will be brave; we demand that our theater become both aspect and integral to our community. We will bring the ruckus.

See how we make a ruckus all over the interweb on our blog, iruckus.blogspot.com; fan us at facebook.com/theruckustheater; view our photostream at flickr.com/ruckustheater; follow our tweets at twitter.com/ruckustheater; and spend hours at youtube.com/theruckustheater.

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