Vision Productions Will Present the Midwest Premiere of THE ART OF SISTERS

Vision Productions has announced the limited engagement of the Midwest premiere of The Art of Sisters, adapted and directed by Vision Productions Artistic Director Miriam Canfield, March 4 - 7 in the library at Mayslake Peabody Estate, 1717 31st St. Opening/press night is Wednesday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. with additional performances Thursday, March 5 and Friday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 7 at 3 and 7:30 p.m. The running time is 80 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $28 each and on sale at Visionproductions.org

The Tudor Revival-style Mayslake Peabody Estate is the setting for this Midwest premiere of The Art of Sisters. The production centers around the lives and works of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë and highlights the faith and fortitude they displayed throughout their short, but, significant lives. Adapted by Canfield, The Art of the Sisters incorporates excerpts from some of the Brontës' most beloved novels, ­"Jane Eyre," "Wuthering Heights" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" and includes sections of their diary entries, letters and poems. Pianist Nathan Ben-Yehuda accompanies the story with original music and other selections.

The Art of Sisters actors and creative team includes Grace Smith*, "Emily Brontë /Catherine Earnshaw;" Stephanie Neuerburg, "Anne Brontë/Nelly Dean/Mrs. Graham/Helen Burns;" Miriam Canfield*, "Charlotte Brontë/Jane Eyre" with Tom Paulsen, "Patrick Brontë;" Nate Smith, "Mr. Rochester;" Derek Fawcett, "Heathcliff and Death" and Liam Ouweleen, "Gilbert Markham /Understudy for Mr. Rochester" with Nathan Ben-Yehuda on piano and lighting design by Ricky Harbecke.

*Indicates a member of Actors Equity Association.

ABOUT Miriam Canfield

Miriam Canfield is the founder and artistic director of Vision Productions, through which she recently appeared at the New York Public Library in, Anne Bronte: A Woman of Courage. Her favorite roles include "Joan of Arc," in The Trial of Faith, "Nina," in The Fall, a play about 9/11, "Blanche," in King John, and "Charlotta Ivanovna," in The Cherry Orchard. A graduate of New York University's Tisch Drama School, Canfield began her performing career dancing with Ken Von Heidecke's Chicago Festival Ballet and the Chautauqua Festival Ballet where she choreographed her first work.

ABOUT Vision Productions

Vision Productions was founded in 2019 with the mission to bring historical narratives about persevering Christians to the stage, is a nonprofit production company in partnership with Artists in Christian Testimony INTL.

ABOUT MAYSLAKE PEABODY ESTATE

In 1919 Francis Stuyvesant Peabody commissioned renowned Chicago architect Benjamin Marshall to design the Tudor Revival-style. The style reaches back to England's Tudor period as a revival of the timber-frame buildings popular at that time.

After his death in 1922 Peabody's family sold the 840-acre estate to the Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart, order of Friars Minor, in 1926. The hall became a retreat house, and the order sold sections of the estate over time. The last 89 acres including Mayslake Hall and the Portiuncula Chapel was sold to the Forest Preserve District in 1993.

Today, the Forest Preserve District is working to restore Mayslake Hall, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The hall currently serves as a venue for architectural tours, lectures, nature related art classes and performances throughout the year.

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