CHICAGO (March 9, 2022) — Sideshow Theatre Company is pleased to announce its 2022 season featuring the world premiere of Artistic Associate Brynne Frauenhoffer's brash, incisive comedy Pro-Am, directed by Artistic Director Regina Victor, and a staged reading of Preston Choi's sci-fi post-apocalyptic dramedy Drive-In at the End of the World, directed by Artistic Associate Marti Lyons, the culmination of a nine-month artistic residency. Sideshow will also host its first-ever "Juneteenth Pride Gala," a celebration of the Black and Trans-led organization and its incredibly diverse ensemble.
Sideshow Artistic Director Regina Victor (they/them/pharaoh) comments, "I'm so excited to return to Victory Gardens with Ken-Matt Martin as Artistic Director; it's a privilege to be a Black-led theatre company working with Black leadership. In keeping with that same theme, everything we're doing this year centers on liberation, from our fundraiser to our performances. Our production of Pro-Am this year was originally slated for 2020. Brynne and I first started developing it in 2017, and the world's relationship to our bodies, freedom and sex work has shifted so much since then. It's a privilege to produce and direct Pro-Am for Sideshow's first return to the stage in nearly three years."
Victory Gardens Theater Artistic Director Ken-Matt Martin (he/him) adds "I am so grateful that the long tenured partnership between Victory Gardens and Sideshow will continue; we can't wait to welcome them back to the Biograph! We are equally excited about Regina Victor's new leadership and vision and the many places they will take this great theatre in the future!"
Sideshow's 2022 season will be staged at its resident home, Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago. Pay-what-you-can tickets for Drive-in to the End of the World are currently on sale at victorygardens.org/event/drive-in. Pro-Am will go on sale this summer.
Sideshow's "Juneteenth Pride Gala," will be held Saturday, June 18, 2022. Additional details will be announced shortly.
Sideshow Theatre Company's 2022 Season:
August 19 — September 25, 2022
Pro-Am — World Premiere!
By Artistic Associate Brynne Frauenhoffer
Directed by Artistic Director Regina Victor
Dramaturg: Catherine Miller
Hey cutie, you like to watch? Don't feel shy. I'll tell you a secret: I'm gonna be famous one day.
Most careers don't last longer than three months in Miami's professional-amateur porn scene. But that's about to change when rising star Chloe Kendall meets driven trans performer Nastasia. The girls are doing it for themselves now, and for the first time, people won't just be watching them — they'll be paying attention.
Pro-Am was commissioned and developed by Sideshow Theatre Company.
Friday, March 25, 2022 at 7:30 pm
Drive-In at the End of the World — Pay-What-You-Can Staged Reading!
Written by Preston Choi
Directed by Artistic Associate Marti Lyons
Dramaturg: Artistic Director Regina Victor
The night shift at a small town drive-in takes a turn for the worse as small fears transform into big myths. Murmurs of the mothman and big foot plague this town as amateur monster hunters Ian, Herb and Angela attempt to discern the truth about these cryptids. Through a menagerie of apocalyptic metaphors, Drive-In To The End Of The World wonders what we will value as our lives fall apart — college acceptance and capitalist success — or the pursuit of truth and intimate relationships.
The reading is a culmination of Preston Choi's nine-month artistic residency with Sideshow Theatre to develop his full-length play. Award-winning director Marti Lyons served as Choi's primary mentor with additional artistic support from Artistic Director Regina Victor, members of the Sideshow Ensemble and friends of the Company for a diversity of perspectives on the piece.
Artist Biographies
Brynne Frauenhoffer (she/her, Playwright, Pro-Am) is a Chicago-based playwright and a proud Artistic Associate with Sideshow Theatre. Her full-length production credits include Vape Naysh (First Floor Theater, 2020) and Bury Me (Dandelion Theatre, 2019). Her past workshops and readings include The Young Ones(First Floor Theater), Pro-Am (Sideshow Theatre's The Freshness Initiative; also selected for The Kilroys List 2020), Synchronicity (Salt Lake Acting Company; also chosen as a 2018 semi-finalist for the O'Neill Center's National Playwrights Conference), Age Play (The New Coordinates), Pizza Hut Heartbreaker (Commission Theatre Company) and Shitty Christians (Prop Thtr's Church of the New Play). Brynne's short plays have been produced by Broken Nose Theatre, MadLab, American Blues Theater and the Chicago One-Minute Play Festival. As a script supervisor and director's assistant, she has worked on world premieres at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and Chicago Dramatists. Currently, Brynne is developing a new play through Broken Nose Theatre's The Paper Trail, as well as revising a full-length draft titled Faculty (or, The Opposite of Oleanna).www.brynnefrau.com
Regina Victor (they/them/pharaoh, Director, Pro-Am) is a dramaturg, director, multidisciplinary artist and cultural critic. Presently Sideshow Theatre's Artistic Director, and one of Newcity's "Fifty Players" — 2019, 2020 and 2022. Recent directing credits: Long Wharf Theatre, Timeline Theatre and Actors Theatre of Louisville. As a dramaturg, Pharaoh has collaborated with Sarah Ruhl, Beaufield Berry, J. Nicole Brooks, and more. In 2017, they founded Rescripted, an online arts journalism platform. Pharaoh's service includes the National Advisory Council for Howlround Theatre Commons, Bard at the Gate and the Artistic Caucus for Long Wharf, Baltimore Centerstage, St. Louis Rep and Woolly Mammoth Theatre.
Preston Choi (he/him, Playwright, Drive-In at the End of the World) is a Chicago-based playwright whose work focuses on Asian-American history, mixed race and queer lives and social science fiction. His plays include A Great Migration or The Migratory Patterns of the North American Monarch Butterfly and Fatherless Sons (2021 Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award; 2019 NNPN New Play Showcase; 2017 Agnes Nixon Award), performing class (2021 NNPN Bridge Program), Happy Birthday Mars Rover (The Passage Theatre), This Is Not A True Story (CAATA ConFest 2018). His plays have been developed with Artists at Play, Interact Theatre, Silk Road Rising, Theatre Mu, The New Harmony Project, The Passage Theatre and Victory Gardens. He received a BS in Theatre from Northwestern University and is currently a 2nd year MFA Playwright at UCSD.
Marti Lyons (she/her Director, Drive-In at the End of the World) most recently directed Cymbeline at American Players Theatre. She also recently directed I, Banquo at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the audio production of Kings for Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. Next, she will direct the world premiere of John Proctor is the Villain at Studio Theatre. Marti was recently named the Artistic Director of Remy Bumppo Theatre Company. Additional directing credits include How to Defend Yourself (Victory Gardens Theater, co-production with Actors Theatre of Louisville); Native Gardens (Victory Gardens Theater); Cambodian Rock Band (Victory Gardens Theater, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, Merrimack Repertory Theatre); Witch (LA Drama Critic's Circle Award for Best Direction and Best Production, Saturn Award for Best Production; Geffen Playhouse, Writers Theatre); The Niceties (Writers Theatre); Botticelli In The Fire (Woolly Mammoth Theatre); The Wolves and Kings (Studio Theater); Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (Court Theatre); The Merry Wives of Windsor(Montana Shakespeare in the Parks); Short Shakes! Macbeth and Short Shakes! Romeo and Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Wit (The Hypocrites); The City of Conversation (Northlight Theatre Company);Wondrous Strange (2016 Humana Festival); and Title And Deed (Lookingglass Theatre). Other projects includeBethany, Mine and Body and Blood (The Gift Theatre); Hot Georgia Sunday and Seminar (Haven Theatre); Prowess, The Peacock and The Last Duck (Jackalope Theatre); The Play About My Dad (Raven Theatre); Give it all Back, Mai Dang Lao, 9 Circles, Maria/Stuart and the co-direction of The Golden Dragon (Sideshow Theatre). She is the Artistic Director of Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, an Ensemble Member at The Gift Theatre, an Artistic Associate with Sideshow Theatre and a proud member of SDC. www.MartiLyons.com
About Sideshow Theatre Company:
Sideshow Theatre Company is a place for the curious to converge and change the culture. It is the mission of Sideshow to mine the collective unconscious of the world we live in with limitless curiosity, drawing inspiration from the familiar stories, memories and images we all share to spark new conversation and bring our audiences together as adventurers in a communal experience of exploration.
Over its 14-year history, Sideshow is proud to have distinguished itself as a vital member of the Chicago theatre community. Sideshow was awarded the 2016 Broadway In Chicago Emerging Theatre Award by the League of Chicago Theatres. Sideshow is a multiple Jeff Award-winning theatre and has been listed on the "Best of" lists in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2018 by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, Time Out Chicago and the Chicago Sun-Times.
Sideshow is also the producer of Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers (CLLAW), a wildly popular fundraiser held in benefit of Sideshow Theatre Company and other local community organizations. CLLAW has been featured in local and national press, including The Washington Post, Reuters and the Chicago Sun-Times and on WGN Morning News, ABC 7's Windy City Live and CBS 2.
For additional information on Sideshow Theatre Company, visit sideshowtheatre.org .
