Pine Box Theater Presents ElectionFest 2012: October 22-23 & 29-30, 2012 at Theatre Wit

Pine Box Theater Presents ElectionFest 2012: October 22-23 & 29-30, 2012 at Theatre Wit 1 Just in time for the final showdown for the White House, Pine Box Theater patriotically presents ElectionFest 2012, twelve bold, ten-minute plays exploring the issues driving the divide in today’s political landscape and the upcoming election, written by some of the country's most exciting theatrical voices.  The four-night festival will be presented October 22-23 & 29-30, 2012 at Theatre Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. Tickets are currently available at www.theatrewit.org or by calling the Theatre Wit Box Office at (773) 975-8150. The ElectionFest 2012 line-up includes:Just in time for the final showdown for the White House, Pine Box Theater patriotically presents ElectionFest 2012, twelve bold, ten-minute plays exploring the issues driving the divide in today’s political landscape and the upcoming election, written by some of the country’s most exciting theatrical voices.  The four-night festival will be presented October 22-23 & 29-30, 2012 at Theatre Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. Tickets are currently available at www.theatrewit.org or by calling the Theatre Wit Box Office at (773) 975-8150. The ElectionFest 2012 line-up includes:

Cliffside

By Rachel Axler, Directed by Susan E. Bowen

12A, 12B

By Laura Eason, Directed by Julieanne Ehre

This Is Where You Lose Them

By Tony Werner, Directed by Neil Patrick Stewart

Guess Who’s Not Coming To Dinner?

By Sarah Gubbins, Directed by Joanie Schultz

The One Percent

By Andrew Hinderaker, Directed by Emily Campbell

A Letter to Mama-in-Chief Obama

By Nambi E. Kelley, Directed by Jerre Dye

Sign of the Times

By Shannon Matesky, Directed by Marie Cisco

What Came After

By christopher oscar peña, Directed by Lisa Portes

Constituent

By Joshua Rollins, Directed by Gus Menary

A Moderate Threat

By Steven Simoncic, Directed by Vincent Teninty

Cheek to Cheek

By Paul Oakley Stovall, Directed by Krissy Vanderwarker

The Sleeping World

By Michael Patrick Thornton, Directed by Benjamin Hendren

ElectionFest 2012 will be performed by Pine Box Ensemble Members Karen Aldridge, Audrey Francis, Sasha Gioppo and Linsey Page Morton with Greg Anderson, Sean Bolger, Tom Hickey, Mary Hollis Inboden, Daniel Johnson, Howie Johnson, Isabel Liss, Shannon Matesky, Sean Parris, Brad Smith, Kristina Valada-Viars and more.

Everyone has a different opinion and reaction to the upcoming election and, thanks to social media, it’s all out in the open. It has never been easier to post a link, express your opinion, and unfriend anyone who disagrees. In this era where human interaction is at a premium and people debate each other endlessly with the click of a button, Pine Box asked its favorite playwrights to consider the following: What are the human elements driving the division in today’s political discourse? What happens when the gloves come off and you can no longer ignore other people’s beliefs or hide your own?

It’s time to trash the old advice to “never discuss religion or politics in polite company.” Screw polite, we say. We want dialogue, however messy, hilarious or maddening it gets. In ten minutes or less. The result: ElectionFest 2012.

Pine Box Theater’s ensemble seeks to inhabit complex characters that thrive on the knife’s edge of moral ambiguity. We pursue the story of the sinner, the bastard, and the lost, leaving everything raw and bare and pulsing with the beauty and ugliness of our shared humanity. What better arena to do this than the upcoming presidential election? For four nights in October, Theatre Wit will become our debate stage, our pulpit, our boxing ring. It will be our street corner and our high-rise apartment. Most importantly, it will be up close and face-to-face.

Title:                           ElectionFest 2012    

Location:                   Theatre Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago

Dates:                         October 22, 23, 29 & 30

Schedule:                  Monday, October 22 & Monday, October 29:

      Constituent

A Letter to Mama-in-Chief Obama

Cheek to Cheek

This Is Where You Lose Them

Guess Who’s Not Coming To Dinner?

A Moderate Threat

Tuesday, October 23 & Tuesday, October 30:

The One Percent

12A, 12B

What Came After

Cliffside

Sign of the Times

The Sleeping World

Curtain Times:          7:30 pm

Tickets:                      $13. Available at www.theatrewit.org or by calling the Theatre Wit Box Office at (773) 975-8150

Pine Box Theater Company (Vincent Teninty, Artistic Director; Greg Rothman, Managing Director) has its genesis in a group of actors who all met and graduated from the School at Steppenwolf in 2004. Wanting to build upon this common experience and strengthen the relationships they had forged there, these actors agreed to form a company with a commitment to producing challenging theatre with a focus on intense character and relationship-driven stories. Seminal productions include: Life and Limb by Keith Reddin, This is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan, Hot ‘N’ Throbbing by Paula Vogel and Pine Box Ensemble Member Joshua Rollins’ A Girl With Sun In Her Eyes in the summer of 2011.