Victory Gardens Presents Ameriville, Tix on Sale 11/25

Victory Gardens continues its 2011-12 season with Ameriville, written and performed by Universes, developed with and directed by Artistic Director Chay Yew. Tickets go on sale on Black Friday, November 25, with a $15 ticket offer. The production runs January 27 - February 26, 2012 at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park. The Press Opening is Monday, February 6, 2012.

For one week only, beginning Friday, November 25 through December 8, all preview tickets (for performances January 27-February 5) are only $15. The offer is limited and tickets are expected to sell quickly. Tickets are available at Victory Gardens, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, 773.871.3000; victorygardens.org.

Performed by the celebrated performance ensemble Universes, this thrilling exploration of the American experience prowls the dark corners of our contemporary landscape and asks, "If Hurricane Katrina happened again, would we be ready?" An electrifying evening infused with hip-hop, song, poetry and dance, Ameriville is a passionate and hopeful vision of a community's responsibility to another amidst a nation in turmoil.
Chay Yew comments, “An ensemble piece created and performed by one of the premier poetry-based ensembles in America—Ameriville takes a look at our country’s identity through the lens of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. If it could happen in New Orleans, it could happen anywhere—and are we ready as a community—as a country—to fight the next Katrina? Universes weaves this beautiful, powerful 90 minute exploration of race, class, poverty, immigration, and political awareness into a great adventure about what it means to be American.”

Title: Ameriville
Written by: Universes
Directed by: Artistic Director Chay Yew
Previews: January 27 – February 5, 2012
Press opening: Monday, February 6, 2012 at 7:30 pm
Regular run: February 8 – February 26, 2012
Schedule:
Tuesdays: 7:30 pm, except no performance February 7
Wednesdays: 2:00 pm on February 15 only
7:30 pm on February 1, 8 and 22
Thursdays: 7:30 pm
Fridays: 7:30 pm
Saturdays: 4:00 pm, except no performance on February 4
7:30 pm
Sundays: 3:00 pm

Special 10:30am matinees are available for school groups and youth organizations on select weekdays. Contact Group Sales Manager Megan Campbell, 773-634-9874.

Location: Victory Gardens Biograph Theater is located at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue,
in the heart of Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood

Tickets: Limited pre-sale offer: All tickets to previews (Jan. 27-Feb. 5) are $15
Starting December 9, preview ticket prices are: $20 - $40
Regular run: $20 - $50
Box Office: The Box Office is located at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago.
773.871.3000; victorygardens.org

Chay Yew (Artistic Director/ Director) joined Victory Gardens Theater in July 2011 as its first new artistic director in 34 years. He is a recipient of the Obie and DramaLogue Awards for Direction. His productions have been cited by the Los Angeles Times and New York Times as one of the “Ten Best Productions of the Year;” Seattle Times and Strangers’ Best Achievement in Theatre; and was named Best Director by Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He has directed world premieres by playwrights Jose Rivera, Naomi Iizuka, Kia Corthron, Julia Cho, David Adjmi and Jessica Goldberg, and performance artists Rha Goddess, Universes, Alec Mapa, Sandra Tsing Loh and Brian Freeman. He is the recipient of the London Fringe Award for Best Playwright and Best Play, George and Elisabeth Marton Playwriting Award, GLAAD Media Award, Asian Pacific Gays and Friends’ Community Visibility Award, Made in America Award, AEA/SAG/AFTRA 2004 Diversity Honor, and Robert Chesley Award; he has received grants from the McKnight Foundation, Rockefeller MAP Fund and the TCG/Pew National Residency Program.

Chay is also an accomplished and widely respected playwright, and his plays are published in two titles, The Hyphenated American Plays and Porcelain and A Language of Their Own, by Grove Press; the latter was nominated for a Lamda Literary Award. He is presently editing a new anthology Version 3.0: Contemporary Asian American Plays for TCG Publications. An alumnus of New Dramatists, he has held residencies at Mu Lan Theatre Company, Northwest Asian American Theatre Company and East West Players. He serves on the National Advisory Board at the Playwrights Center and the Artistic Advisory Board of Partial Comfort Theatre. He is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect and Vineyard Theatre Community of Artists. He has also served on the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group and is presently on the Executive Board of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. Upcoming productions include the world premiere of Dael Orlandersmith’s Black and Blue Boys at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Goodman Theatre (spring 2012).

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 Theater receives major funding from Alphawood Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, Shubert Foundation, Joyce Foundation, John T. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, Allstate Insurance Company, The Boeing Company, Polk Bros. Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding is provided by: Leo S. Guthman Fund, Motorola Foundation, REAM Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, Sara Lee Foundation, Illinois Arts Council (IAC, a state agency), Edgerton Foundation, James S. Kemper Foundation, Charles & M.R. Shapiro Foundation, and by Wrightwood Neighbors Conservation Association, 3Arts, Harry S. Black and Allon Fuller Fund, Charles H. and Bertha L. Boothroyd Foundation, John R. Halligan Charitable Fund, Illinois Tool Works, PNC Foundation, Elizabeth Cheney Foundation, a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and Irving Harris Foundation.

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