AstonRep Theatre Company Announces Full 2013-14 Season
AstonRep Theatre Company is pleased to announce its 2013-14 season at its new, larger home at Chicago’s Raven Theatre. The season kicks off this fall with the Chicago premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s riveting drama THE WATER’S EDGE. In the spring, AstonRep presents Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama WIT. The season concludes next summer at The Den Theatre with the 6th ANNUAL WRITER’S SERIES, exposing and developing new works by some of Chicago’s most talented playwrights. Tickets for all productions will go on sale at a later date. For additional information, visit www.astonrep.com.
“We are extremely excited about this upcoming season, as we bring our immediate, intimate, personal voice to two great dramas – and celebrate the works of Chicago’s own artists through our annual Writer’s Series,” comments Artistic Director Robert Tobin. “We are also thrilled to invite our audiences into our new, spacious home at the Raven Theatre – it’s an honor to be associated with such a great venue,” adds Tobin.
AstonRep Theatre Company’s 2013/14 Season:
September 26 – October 26, 2013
THE WATER’S EDGE
By Theresa Rebeck, Directed by Artistic Director Robert Tobin
at The Raven Theatre, West Stage, 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago
Featuring Ensemble Members Amy Kasper, Ray Kasper and Tim Larson with Sara Pavlak
A modern take on a Greek tragedy, a scorned husband and father returns home after a 17-year absence – with a new girlfriend in tow – to face the ex-wife who still blames him for a devastating loss in their family’s past. This tense domestic drama turns shocking, however, as a startling twist is revealed, leading to a stunning climax.
Theresa Rebeck’s other New York productions include The Understudy, Mauritius, The Scene, Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection, Spike Heels, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann, View of the Dome and Omnium Gatherum (co-written, Pulitzer finalist). Publications include her Collected Plays Volumes I, II and III; Free Fire Zone; and two novels, Three Girls and Their Brother and Twelve Rooms With a View. Produced feature films include Harriet the Spy, Gossip and the independent features Sunday on the Rocks and Seducing Charlie Barker (adapted from her play The Scene). Awards include the Writers Guild of America Award for Episodic Drama and a Peabody Award for her work on NYPD Blue. She has also won the National Theatre Conference Award, the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award, the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, an Alex Award and a Lilly Award. Rebeck is the creator/executive producer of the NBC show Smash. She is also a contributing editor to the Harvard Review and an associate artist of the Roundabout Theatre Company.
May 8 – June 8, 2014
WIT
By Margaret Edson, Directed by Ensemble Member Derek Bertelsen
at The Raven Theatre, West Stage, 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago
Featuring ensemble member Alexandra Bennett
WIT revolves around the story of Vivian Bearing, Ph.D., a renowned professor of English, a specialist in the metaphysical, life and death themes of John Donne’s Holy Sonnets, who finds herself the subject of research designed to try to save her life as she is being treated for stage IV metastatic ovarian cancer. Vivian comes to reassess her life and her work with a profundity and humor that are transformative both for her and the audience.
Margaret Edson is an American playwright who won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Wit. The critically acclaimed show was first produced in 1995 at South Coast Repertory in California. She penned a second play, Satisfied, about a country-gospel radio station in Kentucky. Edson graduated with a BA in Renaissance History from Smith College and received a master’s in English literature from Georgetown University.
July 2014
THE 6TH ANNUAL WRITERS’ SERIES
at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago
AstonRep’s annual WRITER’S SERIES is a festival of talented local and regional writers who have an opportunity to workshop near-finished plays and works in development. Over the course of a day, five to seven new works are read by professional actors followed by focused talkback sessions – a time-honored celebration of artistic collaboration.
About AstonRep Theatre Company:
AstonRep Theatre Company was formed in the summer of 2008. Since then, the company has produced
nine full length productions and five annual Writer’s Series. “An ensemble of artists focused on keeping theatre relevant by producing new works, revisiting and re-imagining classics, and uncovering timely, rarely-produced works of the past.”