THE NUTCRACKER, Christmas 2011
The House Theatre of Chicago at The Chopin Theatre
The House’s completely re-imagined version of The Nutcracker first premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre in 2007 under the Visiting Company Initiative.
An adaptation of the original tale by ETA Hoffman, with an original score by composer and House company member Kevin O’Donnell.
The House’s fantastical deconstruction of this holiday classic centers on Clara’s journey to save her family from the Rat King before Christmas, with the help of a Nutcracker, a gift from her beloved Uncle Drosselmeyer. What unfolds is a heartwarming holiday story that weaves together riveting dialogue, astonishing puppetry, beautiful song and spellbinding spectacle to tell a darkly moving story of magic and mystery.
ARE YOU WATCHING BOSS ON THE STARZ CHANNEL THIS FALL? SEE ME in episodes 102, 104, 107 and 108 the season finale.
Mayor Tom Kane (Kelsey Grammer) sits like a spider at the center of Chicago’s web of power; a web built on a covenant with the people. They want to be led, they want disputes settled, jobs dispensed, and loyalties rewarded. If he achieves through deception and troubling morality, so be it. As long as he gets the job done, they look the other way.
Yet despite being the most effective mayor in recent history, a degenerative brain disorder is ripping everything away from him. He can’t trust his memory, his closest allies, or even himself.
Kane’s wife Meredith (Connie Nielsen) knows nothing. Theirs is a marriage of convenience. Kitty O’Neil (Kathleen Robertson), Kane’s advisor, has her suspicions but stays silent. And Kane’s political advisor Ezra Stone (Martin Donovan), a Yale graduate with a rough edge, remains questionless.
Only Emma (Hannah Ware), Kane’s estranged daughter, has a chance of learning his secret. This is going to be the toughest term yet for the Boss.
Starring: Kelsey Grammer, Connie Nielsen, Kathleen Robertson, Hannah Ware, Jeff Hephner, Martin Donovan, Francis Guinan, Rotimi Akinosho, Troy Garity
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/boss-tv-review-250296
Boss - Official Trailer (by Starz)
CAPTAIN D’S COMMERCIAL 2009
Once upon a time I shot this little gem for Captain D’s. Yes Captain D’s- the fish joint. I had the time of my life. My face still burns, however, from tangy BBQ sauce.
Directed by: Trish Sie
Produced by: Goodness MFG
O’Connor Casting Chicago
"I was forced to live far beyond my years when just a child, now I have reversed the order and I intend to remain young indefinitely."
- Mary Pickford
FIVE LESBIANS EATING A QUICHE!
Produced by The New Colony in the summer of 2011
It’s 1956 and the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein are having their annual quiche breakfast. Will they be able to keep their cool when Communists descend on their idyllic town?
THE WARRIORS
Produced by The New Colony at The Second Stage Theatre in March of 2011
At 12 years old, Chicago actress Mary Hollis Inboden survived the Westside Middle School massacre, one of the most shocking events of the 90s. But who writes history when nobody’s the victor? In an honest and irreverent homecoming that mixes fact, fiction, identity, and history, Mary Hollis recruits an ensemble of her former classmates to help capture their stories, not of the tragic event that unites them, but of the daily battles and triumphs that define their present.
“I sat on those e-mails for three and a half months because I was so nervous about sending it out. I literally had not talked to some of these people since I was 16, of the class of 89 people,” she says. “I had anxiety that the response would be: Still too soon, still too much, don’t make a play about this thing. But the responses were amazing. All of that anxiety was for naught,” she adds. “A lot of the Warriors are coming to see the show.”
Timeout Chicago: Preview: The Warriors
CALLS TO BLOOD
Produced by The New Colony at The Royal George Theatre in the fall of 2009
A MARRIAGE. A TRAGEDY. A TRUE STORY.
Based on an extraordinary true story, Calls to Blood tells the darkly comic tragedy of the perfect America couple and their seemingly impenetrable happiness-even as they struggle to conceive the child they want so desperately. But in trying to find a solution to this continual failure, they unearth the one truth that can destroy everything upon which their perfect lives have been built. Staged in the intimate environment of the Royal George’s studio theatre, the audience will be no more able to escape the emotionally powerful debate of the couple’s future than the couple’s own best friends and family.
“Pitch-Perfect Cast! Highly Recommended!” Chicago Reader
“Gut-wrenching! This flawless execution is beyond rare. It will floor you.” Centerstage Chicago
“Originality is the calling card for this young company and they deserve a place on the Chicago theater map” Steadstyle Chicago
“Gut-wrenchingly tragic and very, very funny.” Time Out Chicago
Chicago Tribune: New Colony has a hit, moving to bigger theater
TUPPERWARE: AN AMERICAN MUSICAL FABLE
Produced by The New Colony in the summer of 2009
REVOLUTION IS A DANGEROUS THING
Tupperware tells the story of Delores Clarke, a young widow living in Kissimmee, Florida, in 1950, her struggle to fit into the traditional mold of the All-American housewife, and how a revolutionary new kitchen product (and equally revolutionary new marketing system) ended up breaking the mold altogether. As she and Brownie Wise, the inventor of the Tupperware Party, begin selling a few hours of independence to local women in the form of Tupperware, they tack;e social norms, small-town politics, and a woman’s right to pursue her own entrepreneurial enterprise, changing the face of the American dinner table forever.
http://chitheatreaddict.com/2009/07/20/tupperware-an-american-musical-fable/
http://timeoutchicago.com/arts-culture/theater/65801/tupperware-an-american-musical-fable
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/chicago/ch212.html
http://www.edgechicago.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=theatre&sc2=&sc3=performance&id=92766
