Cody Estle News

Northlight Theatre continues its 41st season with the Tony nominated MOTHERS AND SONS, written by Terrence McNally and directed by Steve Scott. The production plays now through February 28, 2016 and just celebrated its opening night in Skokie. BroadwayWorld has photos from the festivities below!

Michael Menendian, Producing Artistic Director of Raven Theatre, has announced casting for A Loss of Roses, the infrequently produced drama by William Inge that premiered on Broadway in 1959 and launched the career of a young Warren Beatty. Raven's production will be the play's first professional staging in the Chicago area since early 1999. The Raven production will run on the company's West Stage from February 17 to April 2, 2016 under the direction of Raven Associate Artistic Director Cody Estle.

Michael Menendian, Producing Artistic Director of Raven Theatre, has announced casting for The Old Friends by Horton Foote. Raven's production will be the play's second since its World Premiere staging in fall 2013 by New York's Signature Theatre Company. That production was subsequently remounted in 2014 at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. The Raven production will run on the company's East Stage from January 27 to March 26, 2016 under Menendian's direction.

Haven Theatre Company closes their 2014 - 2015 Season with the Chicago premiere of Stephen Belber's Don't Go Gentle, directed by Haven Theatre Company Artistic Associate Cody Estle, at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., May 31 - July 12.

Haven Theatre Company closes their 2014 - 2015 Season with the Chicago premiere of Stephen Belber's Don't Go Gentle, directed by Haven Theatre Company Artistic Associate Cody Estle, at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., May 31 - July 12. Previews are Sunday May 31 at 3 p.m., Tuesday June 2 - Thursday, June 4 at 8 p.m. Opening/Press night is Friday, June 5 at 8 p.m. The regular schedule is Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at

Raven Theatre Company's exploration of Horton Foote will continue with its free reading of Foote's Courtship, the fifth of nine plays in the writer's The Orphans' Home Cycle, a series of plays based on the life of Foote's father between the years 1902 and 1928.

Following its artistic and popular successes of the past 12 months, which included multiple Jeff nominations for The Playboy of the Western World, praise for the rarely produced Vieux Carre by Tennessee Williams, universal acclaim for All My Sons and the Chicago premiere of Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate, Raven Theatre will produce a five-show subscription season for the first time in the company's 33-year history. Three of the subscription-season plays will be performed on the company's 140-seat East Stage and two will be played in its intimate 60-seat studio, the West Stage.

Raven Theatre Company's exploration of Horton Foote will continue with its free reading of Foote's Courtship, the fifth of nine plays in the writer's The Orphans' Home Cycle, a series of plays based on the life of Foote's father between the years 1902 and 1928.

Dividing the Estate, a 2008-09 Tony Award nominee for Best Original Play and Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role (Hallie Foote), can finally be seen in Chicago in Raven Theatre's production, which began preview performances on Tuesday, January 27.

Hallie Foote, actress and daughter of the late playwright Horton Foote, visited the Raven Theatre on Tuesday, January 13 to observe a rehearsal of Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate and again on the 14th for a public interview to discuss her father's work. The January 14th interview was conducted by Goodman Theatre Resident Artistic Associate Henry Wishcamper. Scroll down for photos from Foote's visit!

Hallie Foote, an actress best known for playing some of her father's most memorable characters both on and off Broadway and in feature films, will visit Raven Theatre tonight, January 14, to discuss the legacy of her father, the playwright Horton Foote, author of Raven's upcoming Chicago premiere of Dividing the Estate, as well as The Trip to Bountiful, The Young Man from Atlanta and the Academy Award-winning screenplays for Tender Mercies and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Hallie Foote, an actress best known for playing some of her father's most memorable characters both on and off Broadway and in feature films, will visit Raven Theatre on Wednesday, January 14, to discuss the legacy of her father, the playwright Horton Foote, author of Raven's upcoming Chicago premiere of Dividing the Estate, as well as The Trip to Bountiful, The Young Man from Atlanta and the Academy Award-winning screenplays for Tender Mercies and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Hallie Foote, an actress best known for playing some of her father's most memorable characters both on and off Broadway and in feature films, will visit Raven Theatre on Wednesday, January 14, 2015 for a public event entitled 'A Conversation with Hallie Foote about Horton Foote.' Horton Foote, who died in 2009, was the author of nearly 100 plays, teleplays and screenplays, including The Trip to Bountiful, Tender Mercies and To Kill a Mockingbird. Hallie Foote's roles in her father's plays have included award-winning turns in The Trip to Bountiful and The Roads to Home and a Tony Award nomination for Dividing the Estate. She was a producer of both the 2013 Broadway production of The Trip to Bountiful starring Cicely Tyson and the television version of the same. While in Chicago, Ms. Foote will attend a rehearsal and consult on Raven's upcoming production of Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate.

Raven Theatre's production of Dividing the Estate, by the Pulitzer Prize and two-time Academy award winning playwright Horton Foote, will feature a cast of 13 actors from many of Chicago's most celebrated theater companies, according to Michael Menendian, Raven's co-Artistic Director. Foote's comedy-drama, which focuses on the feuds and disputes among members of a wealthy Texas family whose fortunes have declined, was his last new play to be presented on Broadway. That 2008 production was nominated for Tony Awards for Best Original Play and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play (Hallie Foote). Raven Theatre, who produced Foote's The Trip to Bountiful in 2013, will be the first company to bring this acclaimed script to a Chicago stage. Raven associate artistic director Cody Estle (Raven's Brighton Beach Memoirs and Vieux Carre, The Artistic Home's Watch on the Rhine, Mary-Arrchie's Uncle Bob) will direct.

Haven Theatre Company and Executive Director Carol Cohen have announced Josh Sobel as the organization's newly appointed artistic director. Sobel is an established freelance director in the Chicago storefront theater scene, having worked with a variety of companies such as A Red Orchid Theatre, The Ruckus, Collaboraction, New Leaf Theatre and Strawdog Theatre Company, where he also serves as literary manager and ensemble member. In addition to assuming the role of artistic director for Haven Theatre Company, Sobel will be directing We Three at the side project this fall and The Pied Piper at Strawdog Theatre Company next summer. He is a graduate of Oberlin College.

Raven Theatre Co-Artistic Directors Michael Menendian and JoAnn Montemurro have announced the appointment of Cody Estle as Associate Artistic Director. Estle, a Raven ensemble member, has directed five of the theatre company's productions over the past three seasons, including Dating Walter Dante, Boy Gets Girl, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Good Boys and True and Vieux Carre'. He is set to direct the company's Chicago premiere of Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate in January.

Kicking off the Artistic Home's 14th season will be Lillian Hellman's 1941 New York Drama Critic's Circle award-winner Watch on the Rhine.

Haven Theatre Company announces their 2014-2015 season. The company's second full season features two Chicago premiere productions: Catherine Trieschmann's Hot Georgia Sunday, directed by Marti Lyons, at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave., and Stephen Belber's Don't Go Gentle, directed by Cody Estle, at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets will go on sale at a later date and will be announced on the Haven Theatre Company website: www.HavenTheatreChicago.com.

Raven's revival of this later play by Tennessee Williams that was 'rediscovered' in acclaimed productions in London and New York is an autobiographical play that Williams first began writing around the time he started The Glass Menagerie. It concerns a young writer who in 1938 moves to a ramshackle French Quarter rooming house that's home to an assortment of desperate and eccentric characters. The New York Times said Vieux Carre is, along with The Glass Menagerie, Williams' other autobiographical memory play, one of two 'critical bookends' to Williams' career. Scroll down to see a trailer for the production!