TimeLine to Host Australian Playwrights for Day of Play Readings & More, 2/23

TimeLine Theatre Company, in collaboration with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and the Australian Consulate, announces that it will host several of Australia's best and brightest performance writers for a day of discussion and play readings on Sunday, February 23, 2014 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street, Chicago.

Writers Reg Cribb, Tom Holloway, Lally Katz and Maxine Mellor are visiting Chicago as part of a tour of the United States that also takes them to Los Angeles and New York City this month. The tour has been organized by the Australian organization Inscription, led by its director Marcus West. Founded in 1998, Inscription collaborates with leading artists from Australia and the United States to script, sharpen and present quality content across theatre, film and television.

All events are free and open to the public, but space is limited and reservations are strongly recommended. Call the TimeLine Theatre Box Office at 773.281.8463 x6 or emailboxoffice@timelinetheatre.com to request reservations to any individual or all events.

EVENT SCHEDULE
11 am - 11:45 am: Panel Discussion moderated by Chris Jones, chief theatre critic for the Chicago Tribune, and featuring playwrights Reg Cribb, Tom Holloway, Lally Katz, Maxine Mellor, and Inscription Director Marcus West.

12 pm - 1:30 pm: Reading of Forget Me Not by Tom Holloway
Gerry is almost 60 and he's going to meet his mother for the first time since he was 3. His mother lives somewhere in the UK-Liverpool, according to the records-and his daughter Sally has had it up to here with him and his problems. So Gerry is going back to Britain to find out what made him who he is. Between 1945 and the late 1960s more than 3,000 British children were told they were orphans and sent to Australia on a promise of warmth, fresh air, abundant food and boundless opportunity. Instead they arrived to deprived institutions where neglect and abuse were the norm. Playwright Tom Holloway has written a series of raw, achingly beautiful conversations between members of a scattered family. Drawing the whole thing together is Gerry's extraordinary, precarious bid to finally learn what it means to love and belong to a family.

1:45 pm - 3 pm: Reading of A Golem Story by Lally Katz
Ahava, a young Jewish woman, wakes up in the Synagogue. She has been through a traumatic ordeal. Her memory is weak, her heart is broken. She has woken into a desperate time, in a desperate place. On the cobblestone streets of medieval Prague, chaos reigns. As the men fight their own demons and each other, children are disappearing. An invisible emperor has decreed a purging of the Ghetto, and a Rabbi works through the dark night to fashion an avenging monster, a man made out of clay. The Golem. A love, mystery and revenge story.

All events will take place on the 5th Floor of the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street, in downtown Chicago, with the panel discussion taking place in the Millennium Park Room and both play readings taking place in the Washington Room.

"The 2014 U.S. Tour is designed with three key focuses in mind," said Inscription Director Marcus West. "We'll be promoting the writers' work through public readings, pitch meetings and targeted circulation of their portfolios, and engaging with U.S.-based producers to forge stronger creative and commercial ties. And finally, this tour is about knowledge-writers will absorb as much information as possible regarding getting their work produced in America and sharpening their scriptwriting skills."

"TimeLine is thrilled to collaborate with some of Australia's leading playwrights and the dynamic organization Inscription," said Artistic Director PJ Powers. "Our TimePieces play reading series aims to showcase new and rarely produced plays, as well as emerging playwrights, and the day-long events on February 23 allow us to expand our scope to work with and promote writers from across the globe to Chicago's theater community."

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