Kelsey Brennan News

When the audience arrives at American Players (APT) Up the Hill Theatre for the opening of William Shakespeare's King Lear, they might believe a presidential press conference will be staged. Green lawn expands into the audience, actors place contemporary white chairs in a distinct pattern and a glass podium greets the audience--and plenty of paparazzi appear to capture the King, the Duke of Gloucester and Duchess of Kent, and Lear's three daughters entering the lawn party. At night under the stars, the royal staging opens when the King appears announcing his 'retirement,' dividing his kingdom to his three progeny. Two dutiful daughters ascend to the podium pronouncing their love, while Cordelia speaks from the back row of chairs, the front of the Up The Hill Theatre. Goneril, Regan and Cordelia were 'dressed to kill', so to speak in sophisticated, fashion worthy coats and the appropriate fascinators, for English royalty, as were the men.This beginning places the audience firmly in a King Lear crafted for the current day, up to the very minute audiences.

Name one person worth passing through the gates of Hades for while singing a song so sorrowful the stones would weep--A parent? A child? A partner? Perhaps even a true friend? American Players Theatre stages Eurydice, steampunk style in the Touchstone Theatre, recreating Sarah Ruhl's ethereal, surreal play examining love and the lengths someone would travel to serve that love. Based on the Greek myth of lovers Eurydice and musical rock star Orpheus, the child of Calliope and perhaps the God Apollo, Ruhl transforms the myth with a tale in tribute to her own father. Directed by Londoner Tyne Rafaeli, this production acquires a spiritual ambiance drawing the audience into Ruhl's and Rafaeli's underworld where Orpheus searches for Eurydice and literal sobs, tears flowing freely, were heard in the audience on opening day.

Quite refreshing and revitalizing as a summer breeze, American Players Theater (APT) opened their 2016 Up the Hill season in Spring Green with a wild version of William Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. Directed by the well-known David Frank, this condensed Comedy revisits a slight nod to Lewis Carroll's 'The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.' The production plays broadly by quoting  Shakespeare's verse with a tongue in cheek delivery also heightened by Victorian costumes designed by Fabio Tablini.  The imaginative designer envisioned two Dromios which might resemble Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, clothed in wide striped pants, vivid colored jackets and huge straw hats. The story set amid an Ephesus where square marble columns and a great gate placed on the left Up The Hill stage fashioned by Scenic Designer Nayna Ramey, gives Ephesus a rather dream like quality. 

The popular Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse returns to First Stage for Kevin Kling's theatrical adaptation of Kevin Henkes best selling children's book beginning this May. A picture book written in 1996, Henkes' story features a tiny little girl mouse struggling to be who she is, wearing glitter sunglasses and mismatched outfits--as Lilly called herself, 'The Queen of the World' who liked everything' and in 2016, celebrates 20 years still tucked firmly in children's hearts.

Remy Bumppo Theatre Company's landmark 20th season features three plays that exemplify the company's lifelong dedication to mind-opening ideas and its special niche in the Chicago theatre community.

American Players Theatre (APT) announces its 37th Summer Festival Season, June 3 - October 16, 2016, a diverse lineup of eight classical and contemporary plays in repertory that includes the return and work of two visiting Chicago directors: Derrick Sanders, founding Artistic Director of Congo Square Theatre Company directing The African Company Presents Richard III by Carlyle Brown in APT's intimate 200-seat Touchstone Theatre; and Jeff Award winner William Brown taking on William Shakespeare's King Lear in APT's flagship 1140-seat outdoor amphitheater on the Hill.

BUYER & CELLAR is an outrageous new one-man comedy about an out of work actor who signs up to take on the oddest of odd-jobs: the only shopkeeper in the private shopping mall beneath Barbra Streisand's Malibu mansion. Will she get him his big break? Or will life with the demanding diva try his patience and his love life? This campy comedy, directed by Darren Sextro, features KC's favorite Bat Boy, Seth Golay as Alex More.

BUYER & CELLAR is an outrageous new one-man comedy about an out of work actor who signs up to take on the oddest of odd-jobs: the only shopkeeper in the private shopping mall beneath Barbra Streisand's Malibu mansion. Will she get him his big break? Or will life with the demanding diva try his patience and his love life? This campy comedy, directed by Darren Sextro, features KC's favorite Bat Boy, Seth Golay as Alex More.

BUYER & CELLAR is an outrageous new one-man comedy about an out of work actor who signs up to take on the oddest of odd-jobs: the only shopkeeper in the private shopping mall beneath Barbra Streisand's Malibu mansion. Will she get him his big break? Or will life with the demanding diva try his patience and his love life? This campy comedy, directed by Darren Sextro, features KC's favorite Bat Boy, Seth Golay as Alex More.

American Players Theatre (APT) stages Pierre D. Marivaux's romantic romp The Game of Love and Chance surrounded by the warmth of Spring Green's Touchstone Theatre. What could be more enchanting and elegant on their intimate stage than a golden Rococo chandelier illuminating Nathan Stuber's mimimal and sophisticated set design? Only these APT actors who dazzle the audience dressed in their lush, period Robert Morgan costumes.

American Players Theatre (APT) is excited to announce its 37th season, which will run June 4 to October 16, 2016. In APT's flagship outdoor amphitheater, William Shakespeare will bookend the Hill season with The Comedy of Errors and King Lear. Also playing on the Hill: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde and Arcadia by Tom Stoppard.

Marking playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney's Kansas City debut, The Brothers Size is a lyrical tale of brotherly love, pulsing with the rhythms of the Louisiana bayou. When younger brother Oshoosi Size struggles to restart his life after leaving prison, he reaches out for help from his older brother Ogun. This modern tale explores West African Yoruba myth in a striking production that engages the audience as witness and judge. This drama contains strong language and mature subject matter as well as flights of poetry, music and dance in an exploration of freedom and the need to belong.

Noel Coward's popular play Private Lives currently on stage at American Players Theatre might be ripped from modern entertainment headlines. These scenes of two recently divorced spouses reconnecting for a romantic tryst could be versions of Duchess Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew living unmarried under one roof (after their long ago divorce) and wishing for royal approval to remarry. Or perchance reminiscent of Gyweneth Paltrow and Coldplay's Chris Martin separating and naming their split a "conscious uncoupling," Coward's 1930 production appears more believable decades later, continually relevant for contemporary audiences.

First published more than 200 years ago, Jane Austen's famous novel Pride and Prejudice comes to American Players Theatre (APT) and revisits significant gender issues audiences might assume have been resolved. Former Milwaukee Reperatory Theater Artistic Director Joseph Hanreddy and acclaimed J.R. Sullivan adapted one of the world's most popular novels into a compelling, senstive stage play that breathes life into Austen's romantic couples who search for their futures on Spring Green's Up the Hill stage this summer.

American Players Theatre (APT) will launch its 36th Season tonight, June 6, 2015 with a preview performance of William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. The performance begins at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are still available.

American Players Theatre (APT) will launch its 36th Season June 6, 2015 with a preview performance of William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Toss together James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin, and Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara in Zurich in 1917 (where they really were), throw in limericks and lyrics and The Importance of Being Earnest, then shred the whole melange through the mixed-up mind of an aging British civil servant (who has a big grudge against Joyce concerning a pair of trousers), and you've entered the Wilde-ly witty world of Travesties.

?American Players Theatre (APT) announces its 36th Summer Season, June 6 to October 18, 2015, a diverse lineup of eight classical and contemporary plays in repertory that includes the work of two visiting Chicago directors: Derrick Sanders, founding artistic director of Congo Square Theatre Company, makes his APT debut directing The Island by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona in APT's intimate 200-seat Touchstone Theatre; and Jeff Award winner William Brown returns to direct Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire in APT's flagship 1148-seat outdoor amphitheater Up the Hill.

Toss together James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin, and Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara in Zurich in 1917 (where they really were), throw in limericks and lyrics and The Importance of Being Earnest, then shred the whole melange through the mixed-up mind of an aging British civil servant (who has a big grudge against Joyce concerning a pair of trousers), and you've entered the Wilde-ly witty world of Travesties.

I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers is a one-woman play about a ground-breaking Hollywood agent. For more than 20 years, Sue Mengers' clients were the biggest names in show business, and her dinner parties were the envy of Hollywood. Now, you're invited into her glamorous Beverly Hills home for an evening of dish, dirty secrets and all the inside showbiz details only Sue can tell you. Warning: This play contains profanity from a hard-drinking, pot-smoking catty Hollywood gossip! Sue had the scoop on all of her "twinkly" clients: Barbra Streisand, Faye Dunaway, Burt Reynolds, Ali MacGraw, Gene Hackman, Cher, Candice Bergen, Ryan O'Neal, Nick Nolte, Mike Nichols, Gore Vidal, Bob Fosse and more!