APPLAUSE!!!! BAILIWICK CHICAGO THEATER ANNOUNCES 2013-14 SEASON

Bailiwick Chicago Theater is pleased to announce its 2013–14 Season, which celebrates daring new work alongside a recharged classic. In March 2014, Artistic Director Lili-Anne Brown directs the darkly comedic new play BOOTYCANDY written by award-winning playwright Robert O'Hara. Immediately following in May 2014, a unique resurrection of the 1970 Tony Award-winning musical APPLAUSE, directed by Collective Member Christopher Pazdernik, who promises an unbridled look at the desire, conflict and renewed spirit found in this musical based on the 1950 film All About Eve.  The 2013-14 Season also marks Bailiwick Chicago’s participation in Victory Gardens Theater’s inaugural Resident Theater Program.  Tickets for the 2013-14 Season will go on sale at a later date.

“The passion that drove this season selection began with my obsession with Bootycandy, which sparked the first time I saw the title of the play,” comments Bailiwick Chicago Artistic Director Lili-Anne Brown. “I felt that Christopher Pazdernik approached me with the same zeal for Applause. I was inspired by his ideas and his vision of how Applause could be a Bailiwick Chicago show, and when I read Bootycandy I thought, 'This IS a Bailiwick Chicago show.' We are daring, very joyful, and at heart we're just a bunch of smart-asses at Bailiwick Chicago. We love things that are high-minded and conceptual, yet in-your-face and irreverent at the same time. We also love surprises, and we have more than a few in mind for this season,” adds Brown.

The Bailiwick Chicago Theater 2013–14 Season includes:

March/April 2014

The Chicago Premiere of

BOOTYCANDY

Written by Robert O'Hara, Directed by Artistic Director Lili-Anne Brown

at Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago

Behind a tall church pulpit, a fire-and-brimstone preacher delivers a shocking sermon to his congregation. On the tropical sands of a deserted island, two lesbians come together. And at the home of a young boy Sutter, a mother scolds him for reading Jackie Collins romance novels. This is just a taste of playwright Robert O’Hara’s wildly imaginative anthology of sassy lessons in sex ed – a kaleidoscope of sketches that interconnect to portray growing up gay and African-American. With variety-show vivacity, outrageous humor and real heart and soul, BOOTYCANDY tests how we talk about human desire and racial stereotypes at home, in church and on the corner.

Robert O’Hara has recently released his film writing and directing debut, The Inheritance. He received the 2010 NAACP Best Director Award for his direction of Eclipsed by Danai Guiria. He received 2010 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play for Antebellum and an OBIE Award for his direction of the world premiere of the critically acclaimed In The Continuum at Primary Stages. O’Hara wrote and directed the world premiere of Insurrection: Holding History at the New York Shakespeare Festival, which received the Oppenheimer Award for Best New American Play and was subsequently published by both TCG and Dramatist Play Service. His new play Etiquette of Vigilance was produced in the Steppenwolf’s 2010 First Look Rep, ACT/Zeum recently produced his play, Good Breeding. Bootycandy, under his direction, was presented at the Woolly Mammoth Theater. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at NYU/TISCH School of the Arts.

May/June/July 2014

APPLAUSE

Book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green

Music by Charles Strouse, Lyrics by Lee Adams

Directed and Choreographed by Collective Member Christopher Pazdernik

Musical Direction by Collective Member Aaron Benham

Featuring Katherine Condit

at Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago

Based on the film All About Eve and the original story by Mary Orr.

In the late 1960s, legendary actress Margo Channing decides to take a stage-struck young hopeful, Eve Harrington, under her wing. With youth, beauty and talent at her fingertips, Eve quickly devises a plot to oust Margo from her leading role on Broadway, ensnaring the aging actress in a trap that keeps her from the stage and out of the limelight. Suddenly, a devastated Margo must choose between the love of her life and the life she's loved for so long. A surprising discovery—and an enlightening realization—leads her inevitably towards “the sound that says love” — “Applause.”

The musical adaptation of the 1950 film All About Eve opened on Broadway on March 30, 1970 and went on to garner four Tony Awards (including Best Musical), three Drama Desk Awards and two Theatre World Awards.

November 2013

THE CHICAGO CASTING AUCTION

Bailiwick Chicago Theater’s CHICAGO CASTING AUCTION returns for its third year with a live auction in November 2013 and performances of the yet-to-be-announced musical in January/February 2014

Bailiwick Chicago Theater’s annual CHICAGO CASTING AUCTION is a unique opportunity for non-professionals to experience the thrill of being on stage in a professionally produced Chicago stage production. More than 50 roles are auctioned off during the annual event at Chicago’s Dank Haus German American Cultural Center Grand Ballroom, 4740 N. Western Ave. Contenders for leading and major supporting roles take the stage during the nail-biting live auction, often edged on by the crowd to show off their vocal and dancing talents. Additional supporting and chorus roles are won via silent auction. After casting is complete and five weeks of rehearsals, all the fun culminates in a public production. The event raises more than $50,000 annually for Bailiwick Chicago Theater programming.

Bailiwick Chicago is a non-profit professional company with a mission to produce contemporary musicals and plays, reinvent classic musicals and develop new work, while sharing a powerful and authentic Chicago theatrical experience. The company celebrates and engages our community through diverse programming, artistic partnerships and outreach opportunities. In its first three seasons Bailiwick Chicago has garnered 44 award nominations, including 10 Non-Equity Jeff Award Nominations in its first Jeff-Eligible season (2011-12).

Bailiwick Chicago Staff:

Artistic Director: Lili-Anne Brown

Executive Director: Kate Garassino

Creative Director: Eric Martin

Managing Director: Geoff Bleeker