Returning for a third season to Millennium Park is the theater lab series, In The Works, where audiences have a chance to sit on the stage of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion to experience works in development by local theater artists.
The 2011-2012 season, supported by a grant from The Boeing Company, concludes April 19-21 at 7:30 PM with Columbia College Chicago: Playwriting Program's Staging Change. Sharp. Chicago. Stories.
Presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, in partnership with the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture, and the Columbia College Chicago: Playwriting Program, Staging Change, consists of three evenings of new works by Columbia College Chicago playwriting students selected by faculty from the Fiction Writing and Theatre Departments. Three full-length plays that portray people lost and the ramifications of finding them again, old secrets that surface in the midst of new crisis, and a look at the underside of Chicago most of us seldom, if ever, see.
On Thursday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m., audiences will get to see Rocky Road by Michael Allen Harris, directed by Geoffrey Jackson Scott; on Friday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m., they will view Everybody’s Got a Story by Bill Hillman, directed by Tom Mula; and on the final night, Saturday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m., they will see The Runaway Gene by Skye Robinson Hillis, directed by Stephanie Shaw.
Tickets are $15 and available by calling 312.742.TIXS (8497) or via the links below. A discussion with the playwrights, actors and directors will follow each performance.
Thursday, April 19 at 7:30 PM
Friday, April 20 at 7:30 PM
Saturday, April 21 at 7:30 PM
In Rocky Road, Dorothy Mae Walker receives an unexpected visit from an elderly stranger, whose presence forces Dorothy to face old demons in the midst of a festering family crisis. The acting company includes Dawn Renee Jones, Torian Miller and Christina Harper. Director Geoffrey Jackson Scott is a graduate of Columbia College’s theater department with a concentration in directing; playwright Michael Allen Harris received a BFA in acting from Columbia College Chicago in 2011. Rocky Road will be produced as a main stage production at Columbia College next season. Learn more here (mp3).
Everybody's Got a Story is based on the true story of the bloody night the internationally-acclaimed, local storytelling series The Windy City Story Slam was created. Playwright Bill Hillmann is currently a student in the Playwriting Program at Columbia College Chicago. Learn more here (mp3).
In The Runaway Gene, a family's broken world is rocked by the return of their adult daughter Meg, who has been missing for 10 years. As Meg attempts to crawl back in through the cracks in the facade, each family member must confront their own yearning to escape and discover if their world can be made whole again. The performers include Brian Shaw, Bill O’Connor, Julia Neary, Lydia Ellis-Cuny and Keith Hinkley. The Runaway Gene playwright Skye Robinson Hillis graduated from Columbia College in 2011 with a BFA in directing; director Stephanie Shaw is a senior lecturer in the Columbia College theater department. Learn more here (mp3).
