We at A Red Orchid know it's that time of the year again...

 The time when sweet, sticky summer slowly makes it way back to bed, and leaves the front door open for crisp autumn to stroll straight on in. And as much as we'd all like to keep that summer feeling for longer and hold on to it's nostalgia, fall has started to creep on in, bringing the start of schools, long coats, colorful trees, hot chocolate, and new beginnings. And what goes better with your fall coat or the vibrant trees, than the beginning of a fresh Season here at A Red Orchid Theatre?


Don't be fooled, the weather may be cooling down, but we are just warming up...


FROM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, KIRSTEN FITZGERALD -

 On the heals of our most successful season to date, we maintain that theatre is potentially the greatest sustenance for the human spirit. Are we more ambitious animals than moral ones? More curious than kind? The exploring of these questions is often hilarious, sometimes horrifying and always carries the potential for deepened intimacy. Paul Mullen (our first playwright this season) recently posited that "theatre at it's best exists at the intersection of the intimate and the sublime." I would ad that life at it's best exists at that same intersection. As always, our 2010-2011 productions have been hand picked by our artistic ensemble.

drum roll please....

THE 2010/2011 SEASON:

The Midwest Premiere of
Louis Slotin Sonata

By Paul Mullin

Directed by Ensemble Member Karen Kessler

Will our innate curiosity and confidence kill us or lead us to greater awakenings? At 3:20 PM on Tuesday, May 21, 1946 Louis Slotin's hand slipped—a small, practically insignificant blunder, except that Slotin was the chief -bomb builder at Los Alamos, and at that fateful moment he held in his hands a plutonium bomb core named "Rufus". With a structure inspired by classical music's sonata allegro form, Louis Slotin Sonata traces the true story of a brilliant scientist's last nine days, as his body and mind gradually succumb to the chaos wrecked by radiation.
 

Homer’s The Iliad
By Craig Wright

Adapted from Robert Fagles’ translation

Directed by Steve Wilson and featuring the young women of the A Red Orchid Youth Ensemble

Adapted by Craig Wright specifically for our young, all-female cast, this version of The Iliad offers a provocative and playful new spin on Homer’s age-old tale of the Trojan War. Vengeance, loyalty, or honor: which is most important? And, in this saga of bloody battles and huge male egos, where exactly do women and children fit in? Packed with swordplay, gender politics, and even a few songs, this is one war you don’t want to miss.

The Midwest Premiere of

The New Electric Ballroom

By Enda Walsh

Directed by Robin Witt

Featuring Ensemble Member and founding Artistic Director, Guy Van Swearingen

Trapped in the years that have passed since their halcyon days at The New Electric Ballroom, three sisters relive memories of something resembling romance with hilarious and horrible effect. Interruptions from the local fishmonger only remind of the dangers of love and life outside. Words, in Mr. Walsh’s harsh but illuminating vision, are both the making of experience and its destruction. How do we share our history and how does it shape us?

 

Machiavelli’s The Mandrake

Adapted by Peter Constantine

Directed by Steve Scott

A young Italian merchant, Callimaco, dreams of loving the beautiful Lucrezia, but there are several obstacles. Lucrezia is married (to a real pea-brain) and her virtue seems beyond reproach. Callimaco enlists the help of Ligurio who devises an extraordinarily complicated, and hilarious, plan; Involving a corrupt Priest, Lucrezia’s mother, and the root of the Mandrake. With everyone behaving so badly, can anyone possibly win?
 
 
 
 

We want to share this fresh beginning, this exciting season, with you!

So call 312.943.8722 to subscribe to our season Flashpasses!

 

 

Yours truly,

 

A Red Orchid Theatre