Illusion Theater Announces Their Annual Fresh Ink Series, Begins 7/7

Fresh Ink, Illusion's annual summer series, gives space for artists to develop creative-often experimental-new works. Now in its 24th rendition, this year's series includes a new play by Jeffrey Hatcher, a one-woman show inspired by true stories of Iraqi refugees, a workshop production adapted by John Gaspard from the writings of The New Yorker's Ian Frazier, and a special evening reading of Toni Morrison's Jazz, adapted and directed by Marion McClinton. All performances take place in July at Illusion Theater, 528 Hennepin Ave. in Minneapolis.

July 7, 8, 9, 10
What's the Word For
By Jeffrey Hatcher
Directed by Michael Robins

Mrs. Caleodis is in her eighties, loves crossword puzzles, and spends plenty of time on the phone. Hayden is thirty years younger, a former film instructor with a meticulous sense of timing. Brought together by circumstance, the pair help each other cope with the painful reality of life off the silver screen. After 17 years of creating their own brand of family, they are faced with a difficult decision and a sense that the choice isn't actually theirs to make.

July 14, 15, 16, 17
No Place Called Home
Written and Performed by Kim Schultz
Directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde
Music by Amikaeyla Gaston

Traveling to the Middle East to interview Iraqi refugees and hear their stories, former Minnesotan Kim Schultz accidentally falls in love with one of them. This is that unexpected story - a story of an American woman and an Iraqi man, a story about one refugee and four million, a story that wasn't supposed to be a love story.

In 2009, Schultz and musician Amikaeyla Gaston were a part of a delegation of American artists traveling to Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon as a part of IVAP (Iraqi Voices Amplification Project), commissioned by New York-based social justice organization, Intersections International. Schultz created No Place Called Home to humanize the crises of the refugees and to give voice to their under-heard stories. She portrays over a dozen resilient people who survived Saddam Hussein's reign and the US military intervention, and now have no place to call home.

July 21, 22, 23, 24
Dating Your Mom
By Ian Frazier
Adapted by John Gaspard
Directed by Peter Moore
Starring Sally Wingert

"In today's fast-moving, transient, rootless society, where people meet and make love and part without ever really touching, there's one relationship every guy already has that is too valuable to ignore. And that's his relationship with his mother."

Readers of The New Yorker magazine know that Ian Frazier continues in the tradition of New Yorker humorists-strange, bizarrely funny. Now, Minnesota's own John Gaspard has adapted Frazier's writings, morphing them into strangely hilarious sketch comedy theater, including Coyote vs. Acme, The Cursing Mommy Cooking Show, and of course, Dating Your Mom.

July 29
Toni Morrison's Jazz
Adapted for the stage by Marion Isaac McClinton
Directed by Marion Isaac McClinton

Fresh Ink presents a special reading of playwright/director Marion McClinton's original adaptation of Toni Morrison's epic of jazz-age Harlem. Composed of twisting tales of passion, loss and redemption, Jazz explores how a love-triangle of characters make and re-make themselves in the name of love and obsession. Support for the reading is provided in part by the Playwright's Center and Baltimore's CENTERSTAGE, where Jazz will have its world premiere January 2012, before coming back to Illusion for the 2011-2012 season.

Tickets for Fresh Ink plays are $15 each. Group discounts are available for groups of 12 or more people. Tickets are available at the Illusion Theater Box Office at 612-339-4944 or online at www.illusiontheater.org.

Calendar Information

Fresh Ink Series
July 7-29, 2011
Illusion Theater
528 Hennepin Ave., 8th Floor, Minneapolis
Tickets: $15
Box office: 612-339-4944 or www.illusiontheater.org

WHAT'S THE WORD FOR
Thursday, July 7 @ 8pm
Friday, July 8 @ 8pm
Saturday, July 9 @ 8pm
Sunday, July 10 @ 7pm

NO PLACE CALLED HOME
Thursday, July 14 @ 8pm
Friday, July 15 @ 8pm
Saturday, July 16 @ 8pm
Sunday, July 17 @ 7pm

DATING YOUR MOM
Thursday, July 21 @ 8pm
Friday, July 22 @ 8pm
Saturday, July 23 @ 8pm
Sunday, July 24 @ 7pm

Toni Morrison's JAZZ
Friday, July 29 @ 8pm

No Place Called Home's Kim Schultz and Amikaeyla Gaston