About Face Launches Reading Series With SEED By Artistic Associate Scott Bradley Jan 12 at 7 pm
About Face Theatre is pleased to launch its new FIRST DRAAFT reading series, dedicated to showcasing the latest works by AFT’s talented company of Artistic Associates, with a free reading of SEED, a new play by AFT Artistic Associate Scott Bradley (We Three Lizas, Alien Queen), directed by AFT Artistic Associate Eric Hoff (Hit The Wall), featuring Coburn Goss and Brendan Meyer.
SEED will be presented Monday, January 12, 2015 at 7 pm at the Hoover-Leppen Theatre at The Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St. in Chicago. The reading will be followed by a brief feedback forum. Admission is free; advance reservations are strongly recommended at www.aboutfacetheatre.org.
Scott Bradley’s intensely powerful new play is set on the frozen outskirts of a small Iowa town. When a farm-seed salesman invites a young stranger to his motel room, identities quickly begin to mutate and expand as man and boy fight to escape a poisonous legacy.
“With SEED, Scott is exploring how the sins of the father are not only passed from father to son, but how they evolve and grow into something beyond our control,” comments director Eric Hoff. “What does it mean to break free from these deeply planted roots, which are so tightly wound round our hearts? How does one break cycles of violence and depart the only world a family has known?,” adds Hoff.
PRODUCTION DETAILS:
Title: SEED
Playwright: AFT Artistic Associate Scott Bradley
Director: AFT Artistic Associate Eric Hoff
Cast: Coburn Goss and Brendan Meyer
Location: Hoover-Leppen Theatre, The Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St. in Chicago Date/time: Monday, January 12 at 7 pm
Tickets: Free. Donations accepted. Reservations at www.aboutfacetheatre.org.
About the Artists
Scott Bradley (Playwright) is co-founder of Chicago-based performance company The Scooty & JoJo Show, for which he wrote the books for and developed the musicals Alien Queen, Carpenters Halloween, Rosemary Clooney’s Baby, Mollywood, Tran: The Atari Musical and the comedy/variety series The Scooty & JoJo Variety Hour, Thank God! It’s the Scooty & JoJo Show and Diva Brunch. He wrote book and lyrics for We Three Lizas (with composer Alan Schmuckler), which premiered with About Face Theatre. Bradley is a writer, performer and director who has also collaborated with Chicago’s Walkabout Theatre Company, The Hypocrites, Hell In A Handbag Productions, and Bailiwick Theatre; New York’s The Public Theatre, PNBC/HERE, New Works Project, adobe theater company, Next Stage Theater, HOME for Contemporary Theatre & Art, BACA Downtown and CBGB’s; Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington Stage Guild and Washington Shakespeare Company; Seattle’s UMO Ensemble, Open Circle Theater, AHA! Theatre Company and Bald Faced Lie. He is Creator-Founder of Creators Lab and a member of the Dramatists Guild, AEA and SAG/AFTRA.
Eric Hoff (Director) is a producer, director and dramaturg. For the Steppenwolf Garage Rep, Eric directed Ike Holter’s Hit The Wall, produced by The Inconvenience. Hit The Wall extended twice at the Garage, and then played at Theatre On The Lake, The Greenhouse and Off-Broadway at Barrow Street Theatre. For Red Tape Theatre, Eric directed The Life & Death of Madam Barker and The Skriker. With Bonnie Metzgar, Eric was the dramaturg and assistant director for Pony. With About Face Theatre, where he is an Artistic Associate, Eric directed What’s the T? and produced The Woyzeck Project. He is the co-creator and producer of REVIVAL, with Jesse Morgan Young, which is presented by DCASE in Chicago at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. This spring, he will travel with Pig Iron Theatre Company to Louisville to premiere a new play, I Promised Myself To Live Faster at Humana Festival.
About Face Theatre creates exceptional, innovative, and adventurous plays to advance the national dialogue on gender and sexual identity, and to challenge and entertain audiences in Chicago, across the country, and around the world.