Found Objects Theatre Group presents Painting Molly: Two One-Act Plays:

Found Objects Theatre Group presents Painting Molly: Two One-Act Plays: 1 Found Objects Theatre Group's Chicago premiere of their acclaimed 2012 New York International Fringe Festival show. Written and performed by The Chicago Reader's "Best Emerging Playwright of 2009" Mark Chrisler, and directed by Teenager of The Year's Tim Racine, The Art of Painting is the sort-of-true story of one of history's greatest painters, Vermeer, and one of history's greatest forgers, Hans Von Meegren, told through a mysterious and malcontented instructor in the strangest art history lecture ever recorded.The Art of Painting is a centuries-spanning journey of sex and impotence, violence and murder, Nazis and cheats, patricide and rue, authenticity and falsehood, that Backstage Magazine calls "a masterful piece of heady writing," and The New York Times calls "a sophomore's dream." Now, for the first time, Chicago gets a chance at the very production which NYTheatre says "demonstrates a startling eloquence and intellectual depth, neatly packed into fifty minutes."

402071-250Found Objects Theatre Group’s Chicago premiere of their acclaimed 2012 New York International Fringe Festival show. Written and performed by The Chicago Reader’s “Best Emerging Playwright of 2009” Mark Chrisler, and directed by Teenager of The Year’s Tim Racine, The Art of Painting is the sort-of-true story of one of history’s greatest painters, Vermeer, and one of history’s greatest forgers, Hans Von Meegren, told through a mysterious and malcontented instructor in the strangest art history lecture ever recorded.The Art of Painting is a centuries-spanning journey of sex and impotence, violence and murder, Nazis and cheats, patricide and rue, authenticity and falsehood, that Backstage Magazine calls “a masterful piece of heady writing,” and The New York Times calls “a sophomore’s dream.” Now, for the first time, Chicago gets a chance at the very production which NYTheatre says “demonstrates a startling eloquence and intellectual depth, neatly packed into fifty minutes.”

Notes to Molly
Written by Chris Bower, directed by Kevlyn Hayes.

An all new staging of Chris Bower’s one-act play about a couple that has one bed, one bed that both never use at the same time. Notes to Molly is a play about failure, searching for things in the dark, and fish which Chicago Theater Beat describes as “an indelible portrait of a dead-end alcoholic couple and the psychological forces that barely keep them hanging on, to themselves and to life… an intensely realized work.” The 2010 Prop Thtr production received both Critic’s Choice and Reader Recommends citations from The Chicago Reader, who saidNotes to Molly “suggests what The Sun Also Rises might’ve been like if Hemingway had never left Oak Park.”

ABOUT THE COMPANY
Started in 2007, Found Objects Theatre Grp. has been responsible for some of the Chicago fringe’s biggest dark horse success stories, including Teatime at GolgothaHistories Minor, Birthday Boy, Promises to Keep, Torvald and IAn Increasingly Uncordial Invitation and Mascot. Led by artistic director Kevlyn Hayes, Found Objects Theatre Grp. is a collective of fringe theatre artists dedicated to creating new work that uses the absurdities of language, literature, and history in the name of humor and pathos. In the tradition of such Fringe stalwarts as Theatre Oobleck and The Curious Theatre Branch, FOTG strives to produce affordable, experimental, and wildly entertaining material. We have produced plays at and for The New York Fringe Festival, The Prop Thtr, Acme Arts, The Side Project, The Rhinoceros Theatre Festival, The Den and New Orleans’ Voodoo Mystere Theatre.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Chris Bower’s plays have been produced at Rhino Fest, The Prop Thtr, The Den and The Side Project in Chicago.  His work includes The Family Dogs, Promises to Keep: The Poems of Robert F. Kennedy, Santa IBS, Siberian Mouth, and Mascot.  His novella The Family Dogs is forthcoming in October with Rose Metal Press and his debut book of short stories Little Boy Needs Ride will be published by Curbside Splendor in 2015.  Bower also hosts and curates the long time Chicago literary art show, The Ray’s Tap Reading Series.

Mark Chrisler’s plays have been presented or developed at such places as The Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, ACT Theatre, The Stella Adler Studio, The San Francisco Playhouse, Ilkhom Theatre, Four Humours Theatre, The Side Project, Springboard Theatre, The New York International Fringe Festival, Curious Theatre Branch and many more. His work includes Teatime at Golgotha, Histories Minor, Chinese Whispers, Worse Than Tigers, On Loss, Torvald and I, An Increasingly Uncordial Invitation and Phonies, Frauds and Fakes. He received his MFA in dramatic writing from Ohio University and his BA in theater arts from Northern Illinois University. He is the recipient of many awards and honors, including a Newberry Library Fellowship, a special Orgie Award, a NAPAT New Play Award and the Best Emerging Playwright of 2009 award from The Chicago Reader. He lives in Chicago with his wife, where he serves as a resident playwright for Found Objects Theatre Group, an Artistic Associate for Prop Thtr and teaches playwriting for Silk Road Rising Theatre. His plays Teatime at Golgotha and The Art of Painting are available through Broadway Play Publishing.

 Kevlyn Hayes graduated from NIU in 2006 with a BFA in acting. She also studied at the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia and the Actor’s Movement Studio in New York City. She lives in Chicago, where she serves as the artistic director of Found Object’s Theatre Group. Since helping to found the company in 2007 she has directed many of FOTG’s productions, including Teatime at GolgothaTorvald and IAn Increasingly Uncordial Invitation,Histories MinorShuttlecock’dImposters, and Mascot. She was a member of the 2012 Director’s Lab Chicago, a symposium of local and international directors. Most recently she assistant directed Theatre Y’s The Binding.

Tim Racine is a writer and comedian living in Brooklyn. He performs regularly with the comedy duo Teenager of the Year (JustForLaughs Chicago, SF Sketchfest, SxSW) and co-hosts a weekly variety show in New York City called The “Emily” Show. Previous collaborations with Mr. Chrisler include, but are not limited to, Chinese Whispers365 Days/3,000,000,000 Plays, and Our Flat Earth.