side project's MILES AWAY Begins Previews 8/4

As the final play of the side project's 9-show "Season of Reps," the company will present the Chicago premiere of Miles Away by Christine Whitley. Directed by Scott Weinstein, the play will start previews August 4th and run in rep with Mike and Seth by Daniel Talbott, directed by Artistic Director Adam Webster. Both plays are hyper-intimate studies of characters at key turning points of their lives.

(Previews August 4-5; Press Opening Wednesday, August 6 & Saturday August 9 at 3pm)
For Sissy and Ron, two desperate pool hustlers holed up in a cheap hotel, a brutal cycle of dependency, betrayal, and hope comes to a head. Ron is a pool hustler living on the road with the young Sissy. After having been on a run for two years, all the "can't miss" spots are drying up because of Sissy's growing reputation as an unbeatable pool player. They are broke and desperate. Lovers, they each want out of the miserable life they are living together. Ron sees a chance to move up with the help of Giles, a stakehorse who wants to back Sissy in the lucrative arena of high stakes pool.

Miles Away, Christine Whitley's second full-length play, was the winner of the first Bloomington (Indiana) Playwrights Project Woodward/Newman Drama Award (2010), a semifinalist for the 2010 O'Neill Playwrights Conference, and was produced by Bloomington Playwrights Project in 2011. The cast of the side project's production is Josh Odor (Ron), Isabel Ellison (Sissy) and Dan Wilson (Giles).

Christine Whitley (playwright). Whitley's other plays include The Goatwoman of Corvis County, which premiered in 2008 at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts and was also produced by Pacific Resident Theater in Los Angeles. In 2008, her ten-minute play Peep Show was seen Off-Off Broadway in Blue Coyote Theater Group's evening of short plays. In the spring of 2010, her one-act play Parents & Children was produced Off-Off Broadway as a part of the Drilling Company's short plays project "Faith".

Scott Weinstein (Director) directed the currently running Sesussical! at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, as well as She Kills Monsters (Buzz22 Chicago, Steppenwolf Garage); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Griffin Theatre); All-American (Redtwist Theatre); and A Doll's House (Buzz22 Chicago). Regional credits include: Baristas (New York International Fringe Festival); Ampersand (Bloomington Playwrights Project); and Murder for Two (Adirondack Theatre Festival, Hangar Theatre, 42nd Street Moon). Mr. Weinstein is currently the associate director for the national tour, Las Vegas and Chicago productions of Million Dollar Quartet. His work has been featured in multiple year-end, "best of" lists and he is the recipient of both a Berkshire Theatre Festival Directing Fellowship and a Stage Directors and Choreographers Society Observership. He is the co-artistic director of Buzz22 Chicago and a graduate of Northwestern University.

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