Edge Theater News

First Floor Theater announces their eighth season, featuring one world premiere and two Chicago premieres.First Floor Theater announce their eighth season, featuring one world premiere and two Chicago premieres.

Japan Society proudly announces its 2019-2020 Performing Arts Season, featuring works by visionary artists in dance, music, theater and more, along with one-of-a-kind related workshops and events, as detailed below.  Notably, Fall 2019 features programming thematically linked to the celebration of Japan's new era, Reiwa, following the recent May 2019 enthronement of the 126th emperor, Naruhito. 

AstonRep Theatre Company launches its 2019-20 season with Peter Shaffer'spsychological thriller EQUUS, directed by Co-Artistic Director Derek Bertelsen*, playing September 27 - October 27, 2019 at AstonRep's new home, The Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway St. in Chicago.

AstonRep Theatre Company, under the artistic leadership of Derek Bertelsen and Sara Pavlak McGuire, announces its 2019-20 season, to be presented at its new artistic home, The Edge Theater in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood.

EgoPo Classic Theater in Philadelphia announces the hiring of Associate Producer, Dane Eissler, and Managing Director, Katrina Foy, arriving in July at the start of the 2019-2020 "Shepard Country" Festival Season, joining founder and Artistic Director Lane Savadove in leading the organization.  Foy succeeds Shayna Freed as Managing Director, who served in the role since 2015.  Eissler is the first in the Associate Producer role, marking a time of growth and opportunity for EgoPo's future.

Blank Theatre Company Co-Artistic Director's Dustin Rothbart and Danny Kapinos announce their second season.

Pivot Arts, which celebrates innovative, multidisciplinary performance, has expanded the lineup for its seventh annual Pivot Arts Festival, including five world premieres by playwright/director Seth Bockley, BraveSoul Movement, Chicago Fringe Opera, choreographers Ayako Kato and Erin Kilmurray, musician/actor Ahmed Moneka making his U.S. debut and more. The Festival runs May 31-June 9 at various locations in Chicago's Uptown and Edgewater neighborhoods.

Japan Society is proud to present Ashita no Ma-Joe: Rocky Macbeth by the Theater Company Kaimaku Pennant Race (KPR).  Director Yu Murai, founder of KPR, cleverly retells Macbeth through the 1960s mega-hit manga Ashita no Joe, centering on the rise and fall of a troubled teenager turned high-ranking professional boxer, echoing the struggles of the Scottish king in the Shakespeare classic.  Interlaced with reimaginings of famous scenes from both works, this production promises to surprise Shakespeare and manga lovers alike.  Murai uses the mythos surrounding the boxer Joe to create an innovative, playful theatrical production in which two worlds fraught with angst and ambition collide.  This production, a North American premiere, will have five performances at Japan Society (333 East 47th Street), playing May 15 - 18.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced its 2019–2020 theater season, with more than 15 productions from New York, London, and across the globe, plus original Kennedy Center productions.

Hell in a Handbag's parody of the classic 1972 disaster film, is in top ship-shape and worthy of you booking a passage. It's a laugh riot of epic proportions.

Japan Society presents You Took a Part of Me, a dance production with choreography by "punk ballerina" Karole Armitage, performed by her company Armitage Gone! Dance.  You Took a Part of Me arrives at Japan Society (333 East 47th Street) for two performances only: Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 at 7:30pm.

 Idle Muse Theatre Company proudly announces its first play of 2019, Best for Winter, being a short Shakespeare adapted from The Winter's Tale and other works, adapted and directed by Evan Jackson, March 21 - April 20, at The Edge Theater Off-Broadway, a new space at 1133 W. Catalpa Ave. Previews are Thursday, March 21 and Friday, March 22 at 8 p.m. Opening night is Saturday, March 23 at 8 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. with an added performance Wednesday, March 27 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 for previews and $20 for regular performances and are on sale now at idlemuse.org or by calling 773.340.9438.

Japan Society proudly presents Cross Transit, a collaborative multimedia dance work by acclaimed Japanese choreographer/dancer Akiko Kitamura, with video, photos and narration by Cambodian visual artist Kim Hak. 

Hell in a Handbag Productions is pleased to launch its 2019 season with a revival of the musical that started it all: POSEIDON! An Upside Down Musical, a musical parody and a loving homage to the classic 1972 film, The Poseidon Adventure, the grandmother of all disaster films. Handbag's very first show will return March 15 - April 28, 2019 at a venue befitting of an ocean liner: The Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway in Chicago.

Hell in a Handbag Productions launches its 2019 season with a revival of the musical that started it all: POSEIDON! An Upside Down Musical, a musical parody and a loving homage to the classic 1972 film, The Poseidon Adventure, the grandmother of all disaster films.

Pivot Arts, which celebrates innovative, multidisciplinary performance, announces the lineup for its seventh annual Pivot Arts Festival showcasing theatre, dance and music performances, including five world premieres. The Festival runs May 31-June 9 at various locations in Chicago's Uptown and Edgewater neighborhoods. Tickets go on sale April 3 at pivotarts.org/festival.

David Gow will join the cast of the US Premiere of BLEACH by Dan Ireland-Reeves beginning March 6. This award-winning underground hit, seen throughout the UK as well as in Paris, Stockholm and Dublin, made its US premiere in January in an intimate, immersive production performed for an audience of 10. Gow will join current performers Eamon Yates and Brendan George, sharing the role of Tyler, a young man trying to find his way while paying the rent in NYC. Audiences are invited to join Tyler at Tyler's Basement in Bushwick, Brooklyn for this dark and humorous look at sex, violence, and city living. Directed by Zack Carey, performances run through March 24.

Janet Cella joins the board of directors as president of one of New York's most ambitious and cutting-edge theater companies.

Japan Society proudly presents Cross Transit, a collaborative multimedia dance work by acclaimed Japanese choreographer/dancer Akiko Kitamura, with video, photos and narration by Cambodian visual artist Kim Hak. Cross Transit arrives at Japan Society (333 East 47th Street) for two performances only: Friday, March 22 and Saturday, March 23 at 7:30pm, as part of a North American tour, produced and organized by Japan Society, that includes stops at Towson University (North American Premiere; March 15; Asian Arts & Culture Center / Stephen Halls Theatre) and The Kennedy Center (March 19).

Promethean Theatre Ensemble will close its 2018-19 season with the Midwest Premiere of MAD BEAT HIP & GONE, by Steven Dietz, author of LAST OF THE BOYS and PRIVATE EYES and over thirty other plays that have been produced by regional theatres across the country, internationally, and off-Broadway in New York. MAD BEAT HIP & GONE, which had its world premiere in Austin, Texas in 2013, follows two young Nebraska men who meet beat generation writer Jack Kerouac. Rejecting the established order of mid-1950s America, they follow Kerouac's example and hit the open road in search of truth. Do they find it? And what can we learn from their travels?