Victory Gardens Fresh Squeezed Series Announces English Class Heretics

Victory Gardens announces a collaboration with the popular teen poetry slam Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB) as part of Victory Gardens Fresh Squeezed series. For two nights only, Fresh Squeezed will present English Class Heretics: Louder Than A Bomb in Concert, an original evening with LTAB founder Kevin Coval and current and alumni slam poets. The event will be held in the Zacek-McVay Theater at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park on August 5 and 6, 2011, at 7:30pm.

In just eleven years, Louder Than A Bomb has grown to become the largest teen poetry slam in the world. A diverse group of high school students from throughout the Chicago area, these young performers transcend socioeconomic, racial and gang boundaries. LTAB, part of Young Chicago Authors; www.youngchicagoauthors.org; presents original performances of spoken-word poetry in a non-competitive environment that promotes both honest storytelling and positive social interaction.

An electrifying evening, English Class Heretics will feature current and former LTAB sages and storytellers from throughout the Chicago area and beyond with their scintillating hip-hop and spoken-word poetry.

English Class Heretics will be the launching pad for a year-long collaboration between LTAB and Fresh Squeezed at Victory Gardens. After enrolling in playwriting classes at Victory Gardens, LTAB alumni poets will devise and present a culminating original work at the Biograph Theater in the summer of 2012.

Fresh Squeezed Producer Will Rogers comments, "Louder Than A Bomb and Victory Gardens have been scheming up ways for the two organizations to work together and this concert is a fitting way to kick off the relationship. The event will feature some of the best work to come out of LTAB in the past few years and will showcase some familiar faces from LTAB's recent hit documentary. We are also working on a year-long curriculum for graduates of the LTAB program to immerse themselves in our world of playwriting. As these young poets discover and explore the world of theater, we look forward to introducing them to new audiences at Victory Gardens."

Logistics and Amenities
Performances are at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, in the heart of Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Tickets are $15 and are available through the Victory Gardens Box Office, 773.871.3000 (tty: 773.871.0682), email tickets@victorygardens.org, or visit www.victorygardens.org.

Parking
Discounted parking is available one block south at Children's Memorial Hospital for all shows except weekday matinees (no overnights). Metered and street parking is available, but mind the neighborhood parking restrictions.

Public transit
By CTA train, take the Red, Purple or Brown lines to the Fullerton stop. Walk east on Fullerton to Lincoln, then north 1/2 block to the theater. The #8 Halsted, #11 Lincoln, #37 Sedgwick/Ogden, and #74 Fullerton CTA buses all stop at the corner of Fullerton and Halsted, 1/2 block south of the theater. See transitchicago.com for times and routes.

Pre- and post-show dining
See www.victorygardens.org for a list of Victory Gardens' neighborhood dining partners. Each is within walking distance of the Biograph, and all offer a special discount to patrons who present a Victory Gardens ticket stub.

About Fresh Squeezed
Fresh Squeezed brings together provocative and exemplary artists in a series of special performances seeking out new, diverse audiences. Through language, music, poetry and history, Fresh Squeezed explores the varied ways theater is being performed today and surveys the performing arts medium to bring fresh new perspectives to the stage.

Fresh Squeezed encourages new people to visit the theater and poke around. Not just new audiences - but also new writers and performers and cultures and ideas. We are a theater dedicated to tending new plays, and in our rapidly diversifying cultural landscape, Fresh Squeezed allows us to cast a wide net and find hidden treasures that are relevant to our community. But don't get the wrong idea; it doesn't all have to be that heady. Victory Gardens is about some nonsense and laughter too.

About Victory Gardens Theater
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Chay Yew and Executive Director Jan Kallish, Victory Gardens Theater is home to the bold voices of world premiere theater. The company features the work of its own 14-member Playwrights Ensemble, as well as that of exciting playwrights who are changing theater in the U.S. and abroad. Since its founding in 1974, the company has produced more world premieres than any other Chicago theater, a commitment recognized nationally when Victory Gardens received the 2001 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. The company's dedication to developing, supporting and producing new work makes Victory Gardens an American Center for New Plays.

In 2006, Victory Gardens successfully completed an $11.8 million renovation of Chicago's famed Biograph Theater, and moved two blocks north from its longtime venue at 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue, to its beautiful new home in one of Chicago's most celebrated historic landmarks. Renamed Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, the new venue is a state-of-the-art 299-seat mainstage which has greatly expanded the company's artistic flexibility, while enhancing Victory Gardens' ability to welcome patrons old and new.

In 2009, Victory Gardens completed the second phase of renovation at the Biograph, building an intimate, new, 109-seat studio theater on the second floor. On March 1, 2010, at a special launch event for Victory Gardens $1 million Campaign for Growth, the theater's new studio was officially named the Richard Christiansen Theater, in honor of the Chicago Tribune chief critic emeritus and longtime champion of Chicago's live theater scene. Visit www.victorygardens.org/campaignforgrowth for more details.

Victory Gardens Fresh Squeezed is sponsored in part by Boeing. Victory Gardens Theater receives major funding from John T. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, Shubert Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, Allstate Insurance Company, Alphawood Foundation, Motorola Foundation, REAM Foundation, and Crown Family Philanthropies. Additional funding is provided by: National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council (IAC), a State Agency, CityArts Program 4 Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Charles and M.R. Shapiro Foundation, and by 3Arts, Harry S. Black and Allon Fuller Fund, Charles H. and Bertha L. Boothroyd Foundation, Elizabeth Cheney Foundation, John R. Halligan Fund, Illinois Tool Works (ITW), James S. Kemper Foundation, Irving Harris Foundation and Wrightwood Neighbors Association.

To post a comment, you must register and login.