Mickle Maher News

For the first show of Season Five, The Catamounts joyfully reunite with Mickle Maher, author of their 2014 hit production There Is A Happiness That Morning Is.  Swapping randy college lecturers on William Blake for telemarketing superheroes, SPIRITS TO ENFORCE once again combines a keen absurdist sense of humor with hyper-literate and heartfelt storytelling.

The Tank - a midtown theater company dedicated to developing and presenting new works for the stage by emerging artists, announces its 2015 - 2016 Flint & Tinder series, which includes five new plays from Chicago, Baltimore, Norway, Paris and North Carolina.

 Jewish Plays Project (JPP), a development organization committed to putting bold, progressive Jewish conversations on world stages, continues its annual Open: Festival of play readings and workshops at the 14th Street Y including four new full-length plays and one new musical by Margot Connolly, Sarah Gancher, Gary Jaffe, David Hein & Irene Sankoff, and Sam Lahne.

Following their intial production a few months ago - Beta Blockers, a show composed of vignettes that outlined the triumphs and pitfalls of modern day relationships both with oneself as well as others - Left of Left Center is presenting another show with just as many quirks hoping for another positive response from the community. With the primary goal of defying the stereotypes of community theatre, the company is determined to make their mark on the Madison stage. Their newest production, Spirits to Enforce, is a comedic tale that follows a group of superheroes who are ferociously fundraising to put on a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest. 

While it has only been open to the public since April of 2014, and fund-raising efforts to complete the conversion of its 72-seat Mainstage space continue, Catskill's Bridge Street Theatre has already proven itself to be a vital part of our region's cultural life. Housed in the old Curtron Factory Building at 44 West Bridge Street, just across Catskill Creek from Main Street, it has been presenting surprising new events almost every weekend - theater, magic acts, cabaret performances, classical, jazz, folk, bluegrass, and jug band concerts, art installations, a Haunted House, even a celebrity appearance by actress Patty Duke - and bringing new life (and foot traffic) to Catskill's West Bridge Street Corridor.

Catastrophic is pleased to once again introduce Houston audiences to a fresh voice in American theatre. As it did with Mickle Maher (The Strangerer and Spirits to Enforce) and Miki Johnson (American Falls and Fleaven), Catastrophic will produce 2 plays by Mark Schultz in a single season, beginning with the world premiere of The Blackest Shore and ending with Everything Will Be Different.

Stuart, 16, is making a movie: graphic violence, extreme sex, the walking dead. Of course it's also a love story. And it's all true. In fact it's more horribly true than anyone, even Stuart, can rightly comprehend.

Catastrophic is pleased to once again introduce Houston audiences to a fresh voice in American theatre. As it did with Mickle Maher (The Strangerer and Spirits to Enforce) and Miki Johnson (American Falls and Fleaven), Catastrophic will produce 2 plays by Mark Schultz in a single season, beginning with the world premiere of The Blackest Shore and ending with Everything Will Be Different.

The hilarious holiday favorite, The SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris, adapted by Joe Mantello and produced by Cleveland Public Theatre, makes its return to PlayhouseSquare this holiday season, Nov. 28 - Dec. 21, starring native Clevelander Eric Schmiedl as "Crumpet."

Happiness was a huge hit at the Fall Fringe festival last year, and richly deserves this full revival; not only is Maher's ear for verse spot-on, you simply cannot ask for a better cast.

The hilarious holiday favorite, The SantaLand Diaries by David Sedaris, adapted by Joe Mantello and produced by Cleveland Public Theatre, makes its return to PlayhouseSquare this holiday season, Nov. 28 - Dec. 21, starring native Clevelander Eric Schmiedl as "Crumpet."

A new crop of local talent joins Goodman Theatre's artistic team for the 2014/2015 Season.

Having wowed Hollywood Fringe Festival audiences in 2012 with their acclaimed production of SPEED MERCHANT (OF VENICE), Action! Theatre Company returns to the 2014 Fringe Festival with the West Coast Premiere of Mickle Maher's comedy, THERE IS A HAPPINESS THAT MORNING IS. In partnership with Christina Keefe, Director of Rice University's Theatre Program and directed by A!TC Artistic Director, Tiger Reel, Action! Theatre Co. is proud to bring this beautiful and funny ode to love, sex and the poetry of William Blake to the Lounge Theatre.

The hilarious send-up of 1950s cold war repression and kitsch culture, '5 Lesbians Eating Quiche' was an original critically-acclaimed creation by The New Colony. This remount featuring the original off-Broadway cast is presented by the Chicago Commercial Collective, running today, May 1 to June 8 at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division Street.

The hilarious send-up of 1950s cold war repression and kitsch culture, "5 Lesbians Eating Quiche" was an original critically-acclaimed creation by The New Colony. This remount featuring the original off-Broadway cast is presented by the Chicago Commercial Collective, running May 1 to June 8 at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division Street. Tickets ($15 - $40) are on sale now.

Chicago Commercial Collective, which was formed to help Chicagoans discover the finest of its city's vibrant theater scene by showcasing the biggest off-Loop hits in the city, today announced that the company plans to give renewed life to two standout Chicago theater productions by staging remountings of the critically acclaimed productions.

First Floor Theater is thrilled to present the Chicago Premiere of THE RECKONING OF KIT AND LITTLE BOOTS (TROKALB), Nat Cassidy's rip-roaring metaphysical buddy comedy, directed by Gus Menary, playing tonight, February 8 - March 2, 2014 at The Den Theatre.

First Floor Theater is thrilled to present the Chicago Premiere of THE RECKONING OF KIT AND LITTLE BOOTS (TROKALB), Nat Cassidy's rip-roaring metaphysical buddy comedy, directed by Gus Menary, playing February 8 - March 2, 2014 at The Den Theatre.

A new crop of local talent joins Goodman Theatre's artistic team for the 2013/2014 Season. The four Chicago-based writers named to the fourth season of the Playwrights Unit-a year-long residency program designed to support and develop new works-include Andrew Hinderaker, Gift Theatre ensemble member; Mickle Maher, cofounder of Theater Oobleck; Anne Garcia-Romero, a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists; and Laura Schellhardt, who oversees undergraduate playwriting at Northwestern University. A partnership with Chicago Dramatists, the Playwrights Unit meets twice per month with members of the Goodman's artistic team to discuss their plays-in-progress and provide feedback for one another. The program includes readings of the playwrights' works-in-progress at Chicago Dramatists in early 2014, and culminates in summer 2014 with staged readings of their completed works at the Goodman. Playwrights Unit alumni include Greg Allen, Alice Austen, Ike Holter and Christopher Oscar Peña (2012/2013 Season); Philip Dawkins, Nambi E. Kelley, Elaine Romero and Martin Zimmerman (2011/2012 Season); and Seth Bockley, Lisa Dillman, Laura Jacqmin and Rohina Malik (2010/2011 Season).

Chicago Commercial Collective is thrilled to announce The Off-Loop Tour, aiming to export the best of Chicago theatre to the rest of the region and beyond.