Video Clips of Irish Theatre of Chicago’s SPINNING
Irish Theatre of Chicago concludes its 2015-16 Season with the U.S premiere of Deirdre Kinahan’s probing drama SPINNING, directed by Joanie Schultz, playing May 25 – July 3, 2016 at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are currently on sale at www.irishtheatreofchicago.org.
SPINNING features ensemble members Jodi Kingsley, Carolyn Kruse and Dan Waller* with guest artist Tyler Meredith.
Conor is fresh from prison, grasping at the threads of his life. Susan is grieving the loss of her teenage daughter. Two lives collide in a seaside cafe and are forever changed. Deirdre Kinahan, playwright of the acclaimed Irish drama Moment, masterfully unspools a gripping contemporary tale over three distinct timelines in this U.S. premiere.
“I’m thrilled to be back in Chicago and working with Irish Theatre and my friend Joanie Schultz,” comments playwright Deirdre Kinahan. “Chicago embraced my play Moment several years ago at Steep Theatre. Spinning is a favorite piece of mine, and I’m delighted for the opportunity to once again share my work with Chicago audiences.”
“The emotional life of Spinning is viscerally truthful and relatable,” comments Director Joanie Schultz. “Deirdre Kinahan throws us head first into the colliding lives of two parents desperately trying to hang on to their children. The play weaves together an emotional landscape of loss and regret in which devastation and confusion spiral out of control in action and in memory. As we jump in time through past and present, the play keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, trying madly to understand the events that got us to this present moment. The cast, mostly made up of ITC company members, bring a fearlessly vulnerable energy to the play that breathes the best kind of life into this thrilling piece.”
PRODUCTION DETAILS:
Title: SPINNING
Playwright: Deirdre Kinahan
Director: Joanie Schultz
Cast: Ensemble members Jodi Kingsley (Susan), Carolyn Kruse (Jen) and Dan Waller (Conor)* with guest artist Tyler Meredith (Annie).
Location: The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago
Dates: Preview: Wednesday, May 25 at 7:30 pm
Press performance: Friday, May 27 at 7:30 pm
Regular run: Saturday, May 28 – Sunday, July 3, 2016
Curtain Times: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 3 pm.
Tickets: Preview $12. Regular run $26 Thursdays/Fridays, $30 Saturdays/Sundays. Seniors/students $5 off. Tickets are currently on sale at www.irishtheatreofchicago.org.
*Denotes ensemble member of Irish Theatre of Chicago
CREATIVE BIOGRAPHIES:
Deirdre Kinahan (Playwright) is a Dublin-based playwright whose other plays include Wild Sky, Halcyon Days, Bogboy, Moment, Hue & Cry, Melody and Maisy Daly’s Rainbow. Her latest play, Wild Sky, commissioned by Meath County Council Arts Office, is written in commemoration of events leading up to the 1916 Irish Rising and is premiereing in Spring 2016 at various venues Ireland, Europe & US. Deirdre has also written for The Royal Court and Bush Theatre in London, as well as Fishamble Theatre, Abbey Theatre, Civic Theatre, Project Arts Centre, Tall Tales and Livin Dred in Ireland. She is currently under commission to The Old Vic Theatre (London), Manhattan Theatre Club (New York), Fishamble Theatre Company (Ireland) with numerous other theatre projects in development. Deirdre has won numerous playwriting awards – most notably a Fringe First for Halcyon Days in 2013 and the Tony Doyle Bursary with BBC Northern Ireland 2009. She is co-writing her first feature film with the support of the The Irish Film Board and has another feature in development with BLINDER films, Dublin. She is the recipient of the Jim McNaughton Tilestyle Bursary 2013, A Pegggy Ramsay Award 2014 and Arts Council of Ireland Commission Award 2015. Deirdre was a founding member and Artistic Director of Tall Tales Theatre Co. for 15 years and now sits on the Abbey Board (Ireland’s National Theatre) and on the Stewart Parker Trust advisory committee whose mission is to encourage new writing for the stage. Her work is translated into many languages and produced regurlarly both in Ireland and on the International stage.
Joanie Schultz (Director) is thrilled to be directing the U.S. premiere of Spinning with Irish Theatre of Chicago. This season she is also directing Hand to God at Studio Theatre in D.C., along with the world premieres of Lot’s Wife by Eric Rosen at Kansas City Repertory, Bruise Easy by Dan LeFranc at American Theater Company, The Cheats by Hamish Linklater at Steep Theatre and Cocked by Sarah Gubbins at Victory Gardens Theater. Recently she directed Martyr at Steep Theatre; Yankee Tavern for American Blues Theater, The Hundred Flowers Project at Silk Road Rising; Rest and The Whale at Victory Gardens; Venus in Fur at the Goodman Theatre; Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey for Remy Bumppo Theatre; and fml: How Carson McCullers Saved My Life at Steppenwolf for Young Adults. She has also directed operas including Bluebeard’s Castle, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, Acis and Galatea and Carmen. Joanie holds an MFA in directing from Northwestern University; was a Drama League Fellow; The Goodman Theatre’s Michael Maggio Directing Fellow; the SDCF Denham Fellow; a Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab participant; and was 2013 Co-Artistic Curator for Theater on the Lake. She is an ensemble member at Steep Theatre is on the theater faculty of Columbia College and University of Chicago. Joanie has been serving as Associate Artistic Producer at Victory Gardens Theater, as part of the Leadership U One-on-One Fellowship funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by TCG.
Irish Theatre of Chicago (formerly Seanachaí Theatre Company) is supported in part by The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council and The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs: City Arts Program.