Azusa Productions’ World Premiere of David Alex’s EROICA Runs Through Aug 7 at Redtwist Theatre
Azusa Productions, in association with Redtwist Theatre, is pleased to present the world premiere of the touching family drama EROICA, by David Alex, directed by Maggie Speer, playing July 9 – August, 2016 at Redtwist Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr in Chicago. Tickets for EROICA are currently available at dime.io or in person at the Redtwist Theatre Box Office.EROICA features Felipe Carrasco, Sarah Koerner, Sara Pavlak McGuire and Garrett Young.
EROICA follows a family in small town U.S.A. during the Vietnam War. It is a timely play dealing with timeless issues. “Eroica explores the nature of faith, commitment and betrayal,” comments playwright David Alex. “Life is full of choices: love, honor, patriotism and lies. Eroica asks, ‘what happens when political and social questions conflict with certainties of the heart?’”
EROICA was named a Finalist in the American Theatre Co-op, Reva Shiner and Coldwater (Michigan) Playwriting Competitions, Semi-Finalist in the Mill Mountain (Virginia) Playwriting and Reverie Productions (New York) competitions. It was given a workshop by NSP Productions in Elgin, Illinois.
The production team for EROICA includes: Elyse Balogh (scenic design), Becca Duff (costume design), Matt Reich (sound design) and Jessica Banaszak (stage manager).
About the Creative Team
David Alex’s (Playwright) award winning plays have been staged in several cities. He has received three grants from the Illinois Arts Council and one from the Pilgrim Foundation, an award for plays that deal with issues of moral significance. He has written thirteen full-length plays and eighteen one-acts. A staged reading of his new play, “N,” was included in DePaul University’s Black History Month Celebration. Productions include Ends, an African-American Theatre Festival Award Winner (Univ. of Louisville), at New Jersey Repertory Company and Bowen Park Theatre Co., Adrift, Polarity Ensemble, Corpus Delicti, MadKap Productions, Onto Infinity, Azusa Productions, Bowen Park Theatre Company; The Second-Oldest Profession (musical book), Tesseract Theatre and By The Rivers of Babylon, Chicago Playwrights’ Center. Dramatic Publishing has published two of his plays and one monologue. He is a former Secretary of the Illinois Theatre Association and Chicago Alliance for Playwrights and a member of the Jeff Awards Committee that recognizes excellence in Chicago theatre. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild. For additional information, visit www.davidalex.net.
Maggie Speer (Director) a director, producer, actor and educator, Maggie is a seasoned veteran of Chicago’s vibrant theatre scene. Her most recent directing credits include The Miss Firecracker Contest (Dominican University), Inglorious Bitches (an adaptation of Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds) and David Alex’s Adrift. Maggie’s directing runs the gamut of other Tarantino adaptations (Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction) to classical works including Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, The Tamin’ of the Shrew and Twelfth Night. She has also directed/produced many of the works of Sam Shepard including Chicago and Icarus’s Mother (co-director); Fool For Love; Killer’s Head; La Turista; The Unseen Hand (co-director); A Lie Of The Mind for Azusa Productions (celebrating its 20th year in 2016) where she is Artistic Director. Her work as a former Artistic Director of Bowen Park Theatre Company includes acting, directing and producing numerous well-known plays including Les Liaisons Dangereuses, On The Verge and Blithe Spirit, in addition she also proudly introduced audiences to new works by Chicago playwrights (David Alex’s Ends and Onto Infinity and Cindy Hanson and Cheryl Norris’ Cooking with Lard). For ten years Maggie taught theatre at Lake Forest College where her most popular course was “Shakespeare to Tarantino: why violence endures and flourishes in theatre, film and literature.” At LFC she also directed The House of Bernarda Alba, Sean O’Casey’s great play The Plough and the Stars, The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Comedy of Errors, the world premiere of Claudia Allen’s play Eulah and Lisa Loomer’s The Waiting Room. Maggie is a former member of Strawdog Theatre Company and a current member of Polarity Theatre Ensemble.
Azusa Productions, now celebrating it’s 20th anniversary, Azusa Productions was founded in 1996 as a free-wheeling ensemble – in our 20 year existence we have continued to strive to create and maintain the theatre as place of recognition, exploration, revelation, and celebration, to be shared by both audiences and artists alike. We present stories about everything from A to Z in the USA and beyond and we are also committed to creating opportunities for emerging and early career theatre artists. Azusa is best known for its popular and critically-acclaimed productions of many of the works of Sam Shepard and adaptations of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.
Photo: (left to right) Sara Pavlak McGuire, Felipe Carrasco and Sarah Koerner in the world premiere drama EROICA by David Alex, directed by Maggie Speer, presented by Azusa Productions in association with Redtwist Theatre. Credit: Evan Hanover