Interrobang Theatre Project’s THE AMISH PROJECT runs Nov 10 – Dec 4 at The Athenaeum Theatre

Interrobang Theatre Project, in association with The Athenaeum Theatre, is pleased to present the Jessica Dickey’s gripping drama THE AMISH PROJECT, directed by David Connelly, featuring ensemble member Sarah Gise* in a powerful solo performance. THE AMISH PROJECT will play a limited engagement November 10 – December 4, 2016 at The Athenaeum Theatre (Studio 1), 2936 N. Southport Ave. in Chicago. Tickets go on saleFriday, September 9, 2016 at www.interrobangtheatre.org, by calling (773) 935-6875 or in person at The Athenaeum Theatre Box Office. 

On October 2, 2006, a gunman walked into a one-room Amish school house in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania and opened fire. In the wake of this tragedy, playwright Jessica Dickey explores forgiveness in the shadow of violence and loss. With gentle ferocity, ITP ensemble member Sarah Gise* portrays seven characters in a performance that explores forgiveness, joy, and hope in the face of tragedy.

Originally directed by David Connelly for San Antonio’s AtticRep, Sarah Gise traveled with THE AMISH PROJECT to Italy for the Intercultural Festival Laboratory of Theatre Practices, hosted by Teatro Potlach.

BIOGRAPHIES

Jessica Dickey (Playwright) is best known for The Amish Project, which premiered at the New York Fringe before opening at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. The Amish Project has gone on to be produced around the country and the world, including American Theater Company in Chicago, the City Theatre in Pittsburgh, Mo’Olelo in San Diego, Milwaukee Rep and New Rep, and most recently at the Guthrie. Jessica’s play Charles Ives Take Me Home premiered at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (Susan Blackburn nomination), for which Jessica was hailed as “a talent to watch” by Charles Isherwood, and went on to be produced at City Theatre in Pittsburgh, Strawdog in Chicago and Curious Theatre Company in Denver. Jessica’s play, Row After Row, premiered with the Women’s Project at the City Center in NYC (Susan Blackburn nomination), completed its regional premiere at People’s Light and Theatre Company and most recently ran at Echo Theater Company in LA (Ovation nomination for Best Play). Her new play, The Guard, was commissioned by Ford’s Theatre in D.C. and premiered there in September as part of the Women’s Voices Festival, with an upcoming production at City Theatre in Pittsburgh. Jessica is also an actor, most recently at Playwrights Horizons and on the TV show Shades of Blue. She serves on the board of the New Harmony Project. www.jessicadickey.com

David Connelly (Director) has worked professionally as an actor, director, producer, playwright, composer and teacher. He has performed on Broadway, at the Festival of Perth, Australia, with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Utah Shakespearean Festival and San Antonio Public Theatre. David has performed for AtticRep in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2014 & 2012), American Buffalo, Blackbird and Back of the Throat; he directed True West for the company in both 2015 & 2008. David teaches acting at San Antonio’s North East School of the Arts (NESA), where he also directs much of the main stage season. In 2014, The Hollywood Reporter listed NESA eighth among the nation’s top ten high schools for “launchpads for teenage talent.”

Sarah Gise (Actor) has been a proud ITP company member since February 2015. She graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a BFA in Acting. She was previously seen in Interrobang’s Fifth Season productions, Owners and Really Really. She is currently a company member with New American Folk Theatre (Chicago) and a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre (Los Angeles), with whom she won the LAWeekly Best Actress award for The Belle of Belfast in 2013. She can currently be seen at film festivals around the country in the new film Halfway starring Quinton Aaron from The Blindside, which was awarded Best Feature at the Julian Dubuque Int. Film Festival. In February 2016, she performed the one-woman show The Amish Project with AtticRep in San Antonio, TX, and shortly after was invited to take the show to the Teatro Potlach FLIPT festival in Rome, Italy. She can be seen performing in the Midwest premiere of Still by Jen Silverman with Interrobang this fall.

About Interrobang Theatre Project

Now in its seventh season, Interrobang Theatre Project, under the artistic leadership of Georgette Verdin and James Yost, has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a “company to watch” and by Time Out Chicago as “one of Chicago’s most promising young theatre companies.” Productions have included the world premiere of Ibsen Is Dead (Jeff Recommended) and the Jeff Award Recommended The Pitchfork Disney, Terminus, Orange Flower Water, Really Really, Recent Tragic Events and The North Pool. The critically-acclaimed Hot ‘N’ Throbbing earned a 5-star review from Time Out Chicago which called the production a “scintillating revival” and Newcity Stage exclaimed, “Interrobang Theatre Project, guns ablaze, dives headfirst into the play’s challenging themes, and offers a rare production in which every element onstage is as robust and capable as every other.”

What’s an interrobang?

An interrobang is the combination of a question mark and an exclamation point, joining the Latin for “question” (interro) with a proofreading term for “exclamation” (bang). Through the plays we produce, Interrobang Theatre Project aims to pose worthwhile and exciting questions which challenge our understanding and assumptions of who we are and the world in which we live.

For more information, please visit www.interrobangtheatreproject.org.

About The Athenaeum Theatre 

The Athenaeum Theatre is firmly committed to providing the Chicago non-profit performing arts community a welcoming shared space to incubate new projects and collaborations by providing high quality and below cost performance, rehearsal, office and reception space supported by a staff of theatre professionals.