A World Premiere by Laura Eason, directed by Anna C. Bahow
November 20 - December 20
It wasn't supposed to be this way. They were the next big thing in rock. But Noah walked away. Elisha married that asshole. And now Jim's dead - leaving them all to wonder - "How did we get here?"
Starting in 1998 and told backwards, Rewind follows the life of a would-be rock musician from his premature death to his teenage dreams of a music career. Partly based on Eason's experiences in Chicago's independent music scene in the 90s, the play asks what success means when loyalties and lifelong dreams are intertwined.
"Extremely sharply directed by Anna Bahow, wonderfully acted and very exciting ... go see it!" - Kelly Kleiman, Dueling Critics, WBEZ's 848
"depicting the thrills and travails of incipient fame ... The '90s are evoked with gentle affection and an era-appropriate basement vibe. Shane Kenyon shines, dully, as a rising record exec, [and] it's a particular pleasure to watch Blakewell devolve from rich man's wife to gawky, dreaming teen." - TimeOut Chicago
"[A] tender, mournful portrait of fleeting glory and damaged souls in the indie-rock world" - Chicago Reader
A World Premiere by Jesse Weaver, directed by Carolyn Klein
January 15 - February 14
A derelict basement apartment. Decades. In the future. Mott's DJ career - and his spunk - have turned to dust. Freud hasn't been able to paint for 73 (Or is it 23? 95?) years. Maybe it's time for a new fucking muse.
Now.
What to do with the old one?
"Intense, intriguing and deeply introspective ... Weaver is [a writer] with considerable promise" - Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
"[a] sometimes hilarious, sometimes repugnant symphony of squalor" - Kerry Reid, Chicago Reader
A World Premiere by Robert Tenges, directed by Adam Webster
May 7 - June 6
It's been a year since Paul was sent away over what happened with the young girl in his class, and no one knows what to say. Or think. Did he do it? Could they have known? Did they know?
Do we ever know who people are, behind closed doors?
The director and playwright of 2005's staging of Strangers Knocking ("compelling" - Time Out, "strikingly resonant" - Tribune, "powerful" -Sun-Times and "startlingly true" - Reader) team up with a world-premiere team of emerging artists from across the city.
4 Stars! - TimeOut Chicago "delivers powerful, and often powerfully comic, insight into the resources and limitations of friendship and love."
[read more]
Recommended! - Reader "what Donald Margulies's Dinner With Friends could've been ... Tenges excels at truthy dialogue dipped in acid, and Adam Webster's cast of six could hardly be better at landing his lines with razor precision." [read more]
Recommended - Tip of the Week! - Newcity "Adam Webster's direction peels away emotional layers as the show progresses and gives the piece a cool complexity, showing us that no one knows anyone really, not all that well." [read more]
Critics Pick! - WBEZ's 848 "wonderfully performed and very, very thoughtful and provocative" [read more]
3 Stars! - Chicago Stage Review "a fascinating slideshow of relationships that are trying to hold out past the expiration date" [read more]
Special Pre-Show Event:
"Anatomy of a Rewrite" Thursday, June 3
Join director (and side project Artistic Director) Adam Webster, playwright Robert Tenges, actor (and Chicago Dramatists Resident Dramaturg and playwright) Robert Koon and Victory Gardens Associate Artistic Director Sandy Shinner for light dinner and conversation about People We Know's 10-year journey from page to stage.
Written in 2001, shelved until 2005, staged in a reading at Victory Gardens in 2006, rewritten from scratch at a retreat, and revised for the world premiere, get an inside look at how a script becomes a show.
The event begins at 6:30pm with heavy appetizers from the Caribbean-American Baking Company!
