ADRIFT Offers $12 Tix For Active Servicemen, Servicewomen & Vets For Navy Week Through Aug. 26

ADRIFT Offers $12 Tix For Active Servicemen, Servicewomen & Vets For Navy Week Through Aug. 26 1 Polarity Ensemble Theatre in association withAzusa Productions presents ADRIFT, a new play by David Alex, directed byMaggie Speer, playing July 26 – August 26, 2012 at the Greenhouse Theater Center Upstairs Studio, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago.  ADRIFT featuresJames Eldrenkamp, Colin Henry Fewell, Gary Murphy and Eric Ryan Swanson.  Tickets for ADRIFT are available by calling the Greenhouse Theater Center Box Office at (773) 404-7336 or online at www.greenhousetheater.org.

Adrift-5 (left to right) Colin Henry Fewell and James Eldrenkamp in ADRIFT by David Alex, directed by Maggie Speer, presented by Polarity Ensemble Theatre in association with AzusaProductions. Photo by Johnny Knight.

In honor of “Navy Week,” ADRIFT is offering $12 discounted tickets for active servicemen, servicewomen and veterans for all performances through August 26, 2012.  Reservations can be made by calling the Greenhouse Theater Box Office at 773-404-7336 — simply mention the branch of the military.   
Performances run Thursdays – Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 2:30 pm.  A complete press release on ADRIFT by David Alex, directed by Maggie Speer is included below.

Polarity Ensemble Theatre in association withAzusa Productions presents ADRIFT, a new play by David Alex, directed byMaggie Speer, playing July 26 – August 26, 2012 at the Greenhouse Theater Center Upstairs Studio, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago.  ADRIFT featuresJames EldrenkampColin Henry Fewell, Gary Murphy and Eric Ryan Swanson.  Tickets for ADRIFT are available by calling the Greenhouse Theater Center Box Office at (773) 404-7336 or online at www.greenhousetheater.org.

Due to the positive response from his first appearance, Dr. John Mundt will return for a second post show discussion regarding Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following the performance on Thursday, August 16 at 7:30 pm.  Mundt, a staff psychologist at Chicago’s Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, will again focus on a range of issues and problems impacting returning veterans.

Isaac Abbas, a devoted andloving son, wanders in search of an answer, “How can I forgive myself for the choice I made?”  We see Isaac’s reverence as a child, flippancy as a teen and sincere compassion as an adult. The memory of his father, Jack, a Naval Officer who suffered from post-traumatic stress, continues to haunt him.  As a high school teacher, Isaac attempts to help his student, Tom, reconcile with his father who also serves as Isaac’s principal.  Fathers and sons grow and learn from each other as they confront and make decisions concerning definitions of truth, loyalty, honor and accountability.  Do our life experiences determine their definitions or does our definition of them direct our life?

David Alex has received three Grant Awards from the Illinois Arts Council in Recognition in Playwriting (including Adrift) and a Grant from the Pilgrim Foundation. His full-length works include By the Rivers of BabylonCorpus DelictiEndangeredEndsEroicaHeart of the SuffererOnto InfinityThe Humble ConstantThe Lutwidge CanvassThe Second-Oldest Profession andThe Tinker Wins, in addition to 17 one-act plays. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and former Secretary of the Chicago Alliance for Playwrights and the Illinois Theatre Association.  For additional information, visitwww.davidalex.net.

Maggie Speer is Artistic Director of Azusa Productions, where she previously produced DavidAlex’s Onto Infinity and most recently directed Michael Alessandro’s adaptation of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Other Azusa directing credits include Sam Shepard’s Chicago and Icarus’s Mother (co-director), Fool For LoveKiller’s HeadLa TuristaThe Unseen Hand (co-director),A Lie Of The Mind (co-director), Jesse & The Bandit Queen (co-director) and both the original and the reprise of Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (co-director).  Maggie is also currently the Managing Director of Polarity Ensemble Theatre where she recently directed David Hammond’s adaptation of Henry Fielding’sTom Jones and, as part of Polarity’s 2011 Dionysos Cup Festival, Richard Engling’s play Absolution.  She also served as Artistic Director of Waukegan’s Bowen Park Theatre, where, in addition to presenting great classics of the theatre, she proudly brought new work of Chicago playwrights to the North Shore.  For ten years, Maggie taught theatre classes at Lake Forest College where her favorite class remains “Shakespeare to Tarantino: why violence endures and flourishes in theatre, film and literature.”

The production team for ADRIFT includes: Dennis Mae (scenic design), Staci Weigum (costume design), Jake Bray (lighting design), Jenna Moran (sound design) and Zoe Claster (stage manager).

Title:    ADRIFT

Playwright:   A new play by David Alex

Director:    Maggie Speer

Featuring:    James Eldrenkamp (Jack), Colin Henry Fewell (Isaac), Gary Murphy (Judd) and Eric Ryan Swanson (Tom) 

Location:   Greenhouse Theater Center Upstairs Studio,  2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago      

Dates:  Preview: Thursday, July 26 at 7:30 pm

Regular run:   Saturday, July 28 – Sunday, August 26, 2012

Curtain Times:   Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 2:30 pm

Tickets:   $20$12 students, seniors & industry.

Greenhouse Theater Center Box Office at (773) 404-7336or online at www.greenhousetheater.org.

Parking:    Free parking (5 hour limit) for Greenhouse Theater Center patrons is available at the former Children’s Memorial Hospital lot, 2316 N. Lincoln. Spaces are limited.

Polarity Ensemble Theatre is a professionally diverse group of artists who strive to advance the state of Chicago theater for both local and international audiences by developing new works and bringing new life to the classics through live performance, workshops and publishing. When wework with local writers, we bring them into the circle of the ensemble and the community to assist them with a multilayer process to bring their scripts to full maturity. As an ensemble, we are a collective of actors, writers, directors and designers working to deepen our connections as artists, as interpreters of story, and as servants of our audience.

Azusa Productions was founded in 1996 as a freewheeling ensemble—in our 15 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.