CHICAGO ( July 20, 2016 ) — Shattered Globe Theatre is pleased to announce the first two productions of its 2016-17 Season, kicking off this fall with a revival of Pulitzer Prize winner Sam Shepard's quintessential American drama TRUE WEST, directed by James Yost. The production will feature Shattered Globe Ensemble Members Joseph Wiens, Kevin Viol and Rebecca Jordan with Rob Frankel.
Shattered Globe's 26th Season continues this winter with the Chicago premiere of Meg Miroshnik's THE TALL GIRLS, an ensemble piece about five young women in the 1930s rural Midwest who find a way to escape their crumbling town — by playing basketball. The season's final production, set for next April/May, will be announced shortly.
The full 2016-17 Season will be presented at Shattered Globe's resident home, Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Tickets for TRUE WEST go on sale Monday, August 1, 2016 at www.shatteredglobe.org, by calling ( 773 ) 975-8150 or in person at the Theater Wit Box Office. Discounted group sales for both productions are currently available at groupsales@shatteredglobe.org or by calling ( 773 ) 770-0333.
Shattered Globe Theatre's 2016-17 Season includes:
September 8 — October 22, 2016
TRUE WEST
By Sam Shepard
Directed James Yost
Press opening: Sunday, September 11 at 3 pm
Featuring Shattered Globe Ensemble Members Joseph Wiens as Lee, Kevin Viol as Austin and Rebecca Jordan as Mom with Rob Frankel as Saul Kimmer.
Estranged brothers claw for their piece of the American Dream in Sam Shepard's deeply personal iconic play. In their Mother's house, amidst the surreal terrain of the California desert, screen writer and family man Austin is confronted by his brother Lee whose reckless nature threatens to obliterate everything he has been working towards. Envy fuels a wild and side splitting attempt to escape into each other's lives.
"As a director I have always been fascinated by the idea of double nature and duality," comments James Yost. "Shepard's True West has introduced two of the most interesting characters to ever live on a stage. More than 30 years later, the play still resonates with contemporary audiences, as it is the most pointed and personal of all his plays. With a mix of humor and intensity, True West is the kind of raw, dirty, in-your-face kind of theater that Chicago audiences have come to know and love."
January 12 — February 25, 2017
THE TALL GIRLS
By Meg Miroshnik
Press opening: Sunday, January 15 at 3 pm
As Jean gets off the train in Poor Prairie, a dusty speck on the map during the Depression, she meets a handsome man holding a cloth bag that conceals a brand new basketball. Jean has been exiled to what she fears is her "grave town" to be caretaker for her wild younger cousin. Haunt Johnny has a checkered past of his own, but he knows how to coach. In true pioneering spirit, the town's girls build a basketball team that just might be their means of escape to a better life. Inspired by the 1930's basketball teams in the rural Midwest, The Tall Girls asks, "Who can afford the luxury of play? And will these young women prevail against a town hell bent on crushing their dreams?"
"Meg Miroshnik's The Tall Girls looks back to a time when a pioneer like Babe Didrikson Zaharias was carving her name in sports history and challenging culturally accepted ideals of beauty and femininity," comments Producing Artistic Director Sandy Shinner. "Audiences will cheer for these passionate girls of Poor Prairie who dream that playing basketball will give them a shot at a better life."
About the Artists
Sam Shepard ( Playwright, True West ) is a celebrated American playwright, actor, author, screenwriter and director. In a career spanning over 40 years, Shepard has written nearly 50 plays. His first two plays Cowboys and The Rock Garden were produced in 1966 on a double bill off-off Broadway at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery. Two years later in 1968, he won OBIE Awards for three of his plays, an unprecedented achievement. His iconic play True West was written in 1980, when he was playwright in residence at San Francisco's Magic Theatre. It was part of his family tragedy series, which also included the Pulitzer Prize Award-winning Buried Child and Curse of the Starving Class. One of his most produced plays,True West has enjoyed many high profile revivals over the years.
James Yost ( Director, True West ) is the co-artistic director of Interrobang Theatre Project and previously served as the producing artistic for BareBones Theatre Group, a company he co-founded in 1998. Selected credits include: Mr. Marmalade, Psycho Beach Party and Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical, The Graduate, The Play About the Baby, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Drift, Ugly Art, bash; the latter-day plays, Squirrels, The Wizard of Oz, Lend Me A Tenor, The Graduate, Mr. Marmalade, The Pitchfork Disney, Noises, Orange Flower Water ( Jeff nomination for best supporting actor, Joseph Wiens ), Ibsen is Dead, The North Pool and Really, Really. Yost also teaches acting, directing, production design and film at the high school and collegiate level. He is published in Teaching Theatre Journal, a publication of Dramatics Magazine.
Meg Miroshnik's ( Playwright, The Tall Girls ) plays include The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, The Droll {A Stage-Play about the END of Theatre}, Old Actress and an adaptation of the libretto for Shostakovich's Moscow, Cheryomushki. Her work has been developed or produced by the La Jolla Playhouse, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Center Theatre Group, South Coast Rep, the McCarter Theatre Center, Alliance Theatre, Yale Rep, the Kennedy Center, Lark New Play Development Center, Chicago Opera Theater, the Moscow Playwright and Director Center, Washington Ensemble Theatre, Circle X, The Wilma Theater, Perishable Theatre, WordBRIDGE Playwrights Laboratory, One Coast Collaboration, and published in Best American Short Plays, 2008-2009 ( Applause, 2010 ). She is the recipient of a 2012 Whiting Award. The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls was a finalist for the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn prize and winner of the 2011-2012 Alliance/Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Award. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama where she studied with Paula Vogel. Meg hails from Minneapolis and currently lives in Los Angeles, where she is a member of the Playwrights Union and The Kilroys.
Shattered Globe Theatre ( Sandy Shinner, Producing Artistic Director; Doug McDade, Managing Director ) was born in a storefront space on Halsted Street in 1991. Since then, SGT has produced more than 60 plays, including nine American and world premieres, and garnered an impressive 42 Jeff Awards and 102 Jeff Award nominations, as well as the acclaim of critics and audiences alike. Shattered Globe is an ensemble driven theater whose mission is to create an intimate, visceral theater experience that challenges the perspective of audience and artist alike through passionate storytelling. Shattered Globe is inspired by the diversity of our city and committed to making the theater available to all audiences. Through initiatives such as the Protégé Program, Shattered Globe creates a space which allows emerging artists to grow and share in the ensemble experience.
Shattered Globe Theatre is partially supported and funded by generous grants from the Shulman-Rochambeau Charitable Foundation, The James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation, The Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The MacArthur Fund for Arts & Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Illinois Arts Council, The Field Foundation of Illinois, The Blum-Kovler Family Foundation and The Robert J. & Loretta W. Cooney Family Foundation.
For more information on Shattered Globe Theatre, please visit www.shatteredglobe.org .
