2018-19 Season Press Release

Press Contact: Tom Dacey Carr
312-391-1385
Tom@facilitytheatre.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 28, 2018

Facility Theatre Announces 2018-19 Season:

PHOEBE IN WINTER
By Jen Silverman
Directed bydado

THE RUSE OF MEDUSA
By Erik Satie
Directed bydado

(Chicago, IL) – Facility Theatre is pleased to announce its 2018/19 Season, opening this fall with the dark comedic play PHOEBE IN WINTER by Jen Silverman. Directed by resident director Dado, it is an unsettling and mysterious fable about war and its consequences.

In Spring 2019, Facility will produce Erik Satie’s little known surrealist comedy THE RUSE OF MEDUSA. Also directed by Dado, Satie wrote seven short musical interludes to accompany this absurdist piece.

This year marks the beginning of a year long residence at Holy Trinity Church School (Szkoła ŚW. Trójcy), 1135 N. Cleaver St., in Chicago, in the historic West Town area. Tickets and more information can be found at facilitytheatre.org.

Kirk Anderson, Artistic Director for Facility Theatre, said “We’re very excited about the work in our second season and the potential to cement community relationships at Holy Trinity. Our first season was a beautiful challenge. We’re eager to present our next season to Chicago, because that’s mostly what we do.”

Facility Theatre’s 2018-19 Season:

PHOEBE IN WINTER
By Jen Silverman
Directed bydado

Press opening: Saturday, September 22, 2018 at 8:00 pm

Three brothers return home from a distant war preparing to settle into their old lives, but a knock at the door brings other plans. A woman named Phoebe accuses them of killing her own three brothers and demands reparations--that they must become her new family instead. As Phoebe's presence changes the very structure of their family, a war that was once far away now threatens to reignite inside their home.

THE RUSE OF MEDUSA
By Erik Satie
Directed by dado

Press opening: Thursday, February 28th at 8:00 pm

The Ruse Of Medusa, Satie's surreal farce of nine scenes with piano interludes called monkey dances, was first brought by John Cage to Black Mountain College in 1948. The piece involves the quixotic Baron Méduse, his daughter Frisette, her suitor Astolpho, and the Baron's recalcitrant valet Polycarpe.

About the Playwrights

Jen Silverman is a New York-based playwright raised in Asia, Europe, and Scandinavia and the United States. Her work has been produced off-Broadway by the Playwrights Realm (Crane Story), off-off Broadway by Clubbed Thumb (Phoebe in Winter), regionally at InterAct (The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane), and commissioned and produced by Playwrights Horizons Theatre School/ NYU (That Poor Girl and How He Killed Her). The Roommate was selected for the 2015 Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville. She is an affiliated artist with New Georges, Ars Nova, The Playwrights Realm, The Lark, and Youngblood/EST, was a workspace resident with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), and received a Playwriting Grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is a two-time MacDowell Fellow and has developed work with Playwrights Horizons, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, NY Stage & Film/ Powerhouse, Williamstown, Playpenn, the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Seven Devils, New York Theatre Workshop, and The New Harmony Project. Her play The Hunters was selected for the 2014 Cherry Lane Mentor Project (mentor Lynn Nottage). Her play Still won the 2013 Yale Drama Series Award, and was published by Yale University Press. She is the recipient of the Kennedy Center's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and a Leah Ryan / Lilly Award. Education: Brown, Iowa Playwrights Workshop, Juilliard.

Éric Alfred Leslie Satie (May, 17 1866 – July 1, 1925) was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th-century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, Surrealism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd. In addition to his body of music, Satie left a remarkable set of writings, having contributed work for a range of publications, from the dadaist 391 to Vanity Fair.  

About the Director

Dado is the resident director for Facility Theatre and directed The Little Match Girl Passion this spring after becoming the 2017 University of Chicago Awardee of the Edes Foundation Prize. She is an ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre who recently received acclaim for her re-staging of A Red Orchid's Simpatico at the McCarter Theatre. She has directed The Grey Zone, Simpatico and The Mutilated for A Red Orchid and Alice In Bed by Susan Sontag at Trap Door Theatre. She received an After Dark Award for Outstanding Direction for the critically acclaimed U.S. premiere of Huddersfield by Ugliesa Sajtinac, which was produced by TUTA at Victory Gardens. She is the recipient of The Goodman Theatre’s Michael Maggio Directing Fellowship, where she assistant directed A Life In The Theater with Robert Falls. Her work has been seen at Shattered Globe, Emerald City, Steppenwolf, Prop, Famous Door, as well as many others. Dado is the Director of Education for Emerald City Theatre Company.

About Facility Theatre

Facility Theatre is a theater collective that invites audiences to a re-imagining of rarely seen works and original plays. While confronting social and artistic stereotypes, this group of seasoned and emerging artists intends to bring a fresh eye and an alternative perspective to the traditional narrative. Founded in 2016, the collective cultivates the collaborative process as a means of empowerment for the artists, and foster an environment of inclusivity and curiosity with the community. For additional information check us out at www.facilitytheatre.org, facebook.com/facilitytheatre, and twitter.com/facilitytheatre.


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