Timeline Theatre announces 2008-09 Timepieces Series

 

TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES
2008-09 TIMEPIECES PLAY READING SERIES

 

TimeLine Theatre Company announces the 2008-09 season of its TimePieces Play Reading Series, a series of one-night-only readings designed to offer Chicago audiences a chance to hear new and rarely produced plays and to extend TimeLine’s mission of presenting stories inspired by history that connect to today’s social and political issues.

This season, TimePieces will feature the plays PROFESSOR BERNHARDI by Arthur Schnitzler, adapted by Samuel Adamson (Tuesday, November 11 at 7 p.m.), DEMOCRACY by Michael Frayn (Tuesday, May 12 at 7 p.m.) and WINDOWS by John Galsworthy (Tuesday, June 16 at 7 p.m.). Each reading will include a brief post-show discussion.

Admission to the TimePieces series is FREE, with a $10 suggested donation. Advance reservations are strongly recommended as space is extremely limited. All readings will take place at TimeLine’s home at 615 W. Wellington Ave., Chicago.

To make reservations or for more information, call 773.281.TIME (8463) or visit timelinetheatre.com.

PROFESSOR BERNHARDI
by Arthur Schnitzler, adapted by Samuel Adamson
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at 7 p.m.
Arthur Schnitzler’s work has come to define Vienna at the turn of the last century. Set in a hospital in Vienna in 1900, Professor Bernhardi exposes the violent prejudices lurking beneath the city’s glittering surface. In the interests of a dying patient, Jewish doctor Professor Bernhardi prevents a Catholic priest from administering the last rites to a girl who is blissfully unaware of her imminent death. The result is a witch-hunt that sets medical etiquette against religious orthodoxy and the Christian establishment against Jews, creates a funding crisis for the teaching hospital, and even has Bernhardi convicted of agitating the Catholic religion. This acclaimed new adaptation by National Theatre playwright Samuel Adamson recently was the first production of Professor Bernhardi to appear on a London stage in more than 70 years, and TimeLine is delighted to bring it to Chicago audiences for the first time.

DEMOCRACY
by Michael Frayn
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 7 p.m.
Winner of the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play, Democracy is Michael Frayn’s follow-up to his landmark work Copenhagen. This play re-imagines the interactions and motivations of Willy Brandt and those in his political circle as he became chancellor of West Germany in 1966. It also follows Günter Guillaume, a functionary who became Brandt's personal assistant and who was eventually exposed as an East German spy in a discovery that helped force the chancellor from office. What circumstances allowed Brandt to become the first left-wing chancellor in 40 years? And why, given his progressive policies, did the East German secret police feel it necessary to plant a spy in his office and risk bringing down his government? Inspired by known events of 20th Century history, Frayn has created a drama of extraordinary urgency and subtlety.

WINDOWS
by John Galsworthy
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 7 p.m.
During the first decade of the 20th Century, John Galsworthy was widely regarded as one of England's leading writers, as both a novelist and playwright and the winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize for Literature. Yet he is rarely produced in the United States today. Galsworthy built his reputation by dealing regularly with the unequal division of wealth and the unfair treatment of poor people, and in Windows he examines that issue once again. Written in 1922, Windows is subtitled “A Comedy in Three Acts for Idealists and Others.” The play takes us inside the home of Geoffrey and Joan March, an idealistic and liberal middle-class couple living with their young daughter and World War I-veteran son. Their home, lives and even their cultural viewpoints are turned upside down when they hire a new maid, recently released from prison for a highly publicized and scandalous crime, who possesses many secrets.

Location/Transportation/Parking/Accessibility

TimeLine Theatre is located at 615 W. Wellington Ave., inside the Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ building, near the corner of Wellington and Broadway in Chicago’s Lakeview East neighborhood. CTA El stops at Diversey (Brown/Purple lines) and Belmont (Red/Brown/Purple lines) are nearby. CTA busses #36-Broadway, #76-Diversey, #77-Belmont, #22-Clark and #8-Halsted stop nearby. There is limited street parking, but several paid parking facilities are located nearby. Visit timelinetheatre.com for complete directions and parking information. There are two flights of stairs totaling 18 steps between the street and the theater space, with no elevator.

About TimeLine Theatre Company

TimeLine was founded in April 1997 by six graduates of The Theatre School at DePaul University. The company’s mission is to present stories inspired by history that connect with today’s social and political issues. TimeLine’s first 11 seasons featured 35 productions, including five world premieres and eight Chicago premieres. Praised as “a must-see company” (Chicago Sun-Times) and a “fast-rising Chicago company” (The New York Times) and recipient of the 2006 Alford-Axelson Award for Nonprofit Managerial Excellence, TimeLine has received 37 Non-Equity Jeff Awards, including an award for Outstanding Production six of the past eight seasons: Not About Nightingales (2001); The Crucible (2002), Awake and Sing! (2003), Hannah and Martin (2004), This Happy Breed (2005) and Fiorello! (2007). TimeLine’s 2008-09 season is presented under contract with Actors Equity Association.

Now playing:

• The Chicago premiere of A HOUSE WITH NO WALLS by Thomas Gibbons, directed by Louis Contey, October 29 – December 21, 2008

Coming soon:

• The world premiere of NOT ENOUGH AIR, by Masha Obolensky, directed by Nick Bowling, January 24 – March 22, 2009 (previews 1/21 – 1/23)
• The Chicago premiere of THE HISTORY BOYS, by Alan Bennett, directed by Nick Bowling, April 25 – June 21, 2009 (previews 4/22 – 4/24)

Company members are Nick Bowling, Janet Ulrich Brooks, Lara Goetsch, Juliet Hart, David Parkes, Maureen Powers, PJ Powers and Benjamin Thiem. TimeLine is a member of the League of Chicago Theatres, Theatre Communications Group and the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce.