The Shadowmen present Doug Wright's Obie winner 'Quill'

T h e  S h a d o w m e n

 

The Shadowmen present Doug Wright's Obie Award winning Quills

Just in time for Halloween, The Shadowmen open their 2008 – 2009 season with Quills, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Doug Wright's incendiary ode to the Marquis de Sade.
 
"I am incredibly pleased and proud to open our season with Quills," producer Jordan Kohl said. "It perfectly encapsulates the type of production we love most by blending layered artistic themes of topical relevance with a story which, at the end of the day, is simply a supremely riveting tale about the destruction of a man who was larger than life."
 
Quills follows the Marquis de Sade through his last days on earth, caged in the Charenton insane asylum. Deep within this prison, the Marquis' violent sexual behavior has finally been restricted.  However, his captors-one a puritanical doctor, the other a sexually-frustrated priest-are not satisfied simply preventing the Marquis' debaucherous actions. They are determined to stop his writing as well. Fueled by his lust for the ravishing young seamstress Madeleine and an obsession to destroy his hypocritical jailers, the Marquis sets Charenton ablaze with his perverse, irrepressible genius.
 
Doug Wright's Quills garnered a 1995 Obie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting, and was adapted into an acclaimed 2000 film starring Geoffrey Rush. He also won the 2004 Pulitzer, Tony, and Drama Desk awards for I Am My Own Wife, which first premiered at About Face Theatre in Chicago. Recently, Mr. Wright has written the book for both Grey Gardens (Tony nomination) and Disney's The Little Mermaid.
 
The production is directed by Scott McKinsey (co-founder of The Shadowmen), an alumnus of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Recent projects include the world premiere of David Caudle's Likeness and Christopher McGovern's new musical A Visit to Roswell.

In describing his attraction to the play, McKinsey said, ""At the end of his life, the Marquis de Sade was convinced all memory of him would be obliterated from history by his oppressors. And yet nearly 200 years later, his grip on our imagination is as strong as ever. De Sade proclaims the vital importance of our most extreme passions-and the consequences of repressing them."
 
Starring in Quills is Errol McLendon (Endgame, Red Tape Theatre). In an interesting twist of life imitating art, McLendon is also a Tantric Coach working with couples and individuals to improve their sexual satisfaction. The rest of the cast includes Kate Bailey (Minneapolis Fringe Festival), Jordan Kohl (co-founder of The Shadowmen, trained at Moscow Art Theatre School), Joshua Leigh (Midwest premiere of Dennis Lehane's Coronado, Steep Theatre Company), John Arthur Lewis (member of Pulse Theatre Ensemble, New York; Pugilist Specialist, Red Tape Theatre) Marco Minichiello (recent graduate of Northwestern; trained at the British-American Drama Academy), Jhenai Mootz (Dancing at Lughnasa & Much Ado About Nothing, Oak Park Festival Theatre).
 
The production staff includes Dave Sweeney and Scott McKinsey (Scenic, Lighting, & Sound Designs), Lauren Yearsich and Jordan Kohl (Costume Design), and Christopher Pazdernik (Stage Manager).
 
The production plays October 16 – November 1, 2008 with performances Thursday – Saturday at 8 PM at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland St., Chicago, IL 60622. More information and tickets are available at www.shadowmenchicago.com. Admission is $16.
 
The Shadowmen's season will continue in February with a production of An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein at the Raven Theatre.
 
The Shadowmen strive to produce works which balance artistic relevance with entertainment, that find the equilibrium between the provocative and the commercially viable.