HARVEY
By Mary Chase
Directed by Devon de Mayo
May 11, 2017 - June 11, 2017 at Court Theatre

Elwood P. Dowd is a pleasant man with a unique friend, Harvey—who happens to be an invisible, six-foot, three-inch tall rabbit. Elwood embraces Harvey in his life and introduces him to everyone he meets, thoroughly embarrassing his social-climbing sister, Veta. Questioning his sanity, she decides to have him committed to a sanitarium, but nothing goes quite according to plan. The search is on for the mild-mannered Elwood and his unseen companion.
Starring Tim Kane and directed by Devon de Mayo, Harvey is a celebrated classic and Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy.

Photo of Timothy Edward Kane by Joe Mazza.The 2016/17 Season is sponsored by Barbara and Richard Franke.
Harvey is sponsored by 
The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation

A MASTERPIECE OF COMIC ... TIMING! BY ROBERT CAISLEY 
New York producer Jerry Cobb has invited wunderkind playwright Nebraska Jones for an all-expense-paid trip to paradise. Cobb has invested all his money commissioning Jones’ next play, which he believes will eclipse his Broadway debut – hailed by critics as a “masterpiece of comic timing.” Banking on Jones’ reputation and momentum, Cobb is disheartened to find his playwright suffering from a severe case of depression: he’s morose; he won’t eat; he can’t write – in fact all he wants to do is drink Cobb’s bourbon and sleep all day in the $250-per-night luxury room, at Cobb’s considerable expense. Right-hand man, Charlie Bascher, is charged with keeping the kid at the typewriter, distracting him from the booze, and figuring out the cause of his distemper. 

What happens when you’ve paid for the next hit comedy, but what’s coming out of the typewriter is tragedy? In this “vintage” screwball comedy skewering an artistic life in the theatre, the line between comedy and drama comes under hilarious scrutiny and is found to be much narrower – and sillier – than you’d think.

REVIEWS 
"There are lots of jokes in this play that make up all of the crazy action going on on stage... When it all comes to an end, the audience is still laughing uproariously." - Davis Enterprise, Read More

A Masterpiece of Comic...Timing premiered at B Street Theatre in Sacramento, CA in March 2016 under the direction of Buck Busfield.

Two new productions of A MASTERPIECE OF COMIC ... TIMING!
 6th Street Playhouse (May 12 - May 28, 2017) in Santa Rosa, CA
Little Lake Theatre (Aug 31 - Sep 20, 2017) in Canonsburg, PA. 

Heartcorps: Riders of the Storyboard / U.S.A. (Lead Artist: dandypunk, Key Collaborators: Darin Basile, Jo Cattell) — Follow the story of Particle, a two-dimensional light being, as you walk through the pages of a giant, immersive comic book. Hand-drawn illustrations come to life around you using projection-mapping technology, while high-level Cirque du Soleil performers interact with animated characters in this "digital light poem." Cast: Ekenah Claudin, Elon Höglund, Youssef El Toufali, Jenni Gamas.

Park City, UT — Now in its second decade of breaking new ground at the forefront of art and technology, Sundance Institute has curated an in-depth vision of storytelling’s future for the 2017 edition of New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival, January 19-29 in Park City. The full slate — including storyworlds in Augmented Reality headsets, projection-mapped acrobatics, a VR beauty salon producing neuroscience data via the internet of things and a host of socialized, interactive and immersively haptic VR story experiences — stands as a testament to New Frontier’s expertise in identifying, developing and amplifying the most relevant and high-impact modes of tech-enabled narrative.
Live performances, a feature film and augmented reality experiences will complement a total of 20 VR experiences and 11 installations, showcased between three venues in Park City. The historic Claim Jumper will host seven immersive installations focused on cross-disciplinary story construction and and two video works; the VR Palace will feature 15 VR experiences alongside additional installations; and the VR Bar will offer a lineup of mobile VR. Three projects are part of the Festival’s The New Climate program, which highlights the environment and climate change. More New Frontier projects will be announced in the coming weeks.
Robert Redford, President and Founder of Sundance Institute, said, “Every year, more artists are drawn to the vanguard of art and technology: independent, creative storytellers have more tools to break the mold than ever before. For the last decade-plus, New Frontier’s vision has evolved and grown with this expanding palette, to curate and showcase the most exciting new work made with the latest advances.”
Shari Frilot, Sundance Film Festival Senior Programmer and Chief Curator, New Frontier, said, “In an era that has recalibrated economies, redefined social realms and rewired the connection between the individual and the world, we must also reimagine what it is to be human. Through Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and various crafted immersive experiences, New Frontier this year challenges the very nature of perception and what we consider to be ‘reality.’”
Through New Frontier’s history, Sundance Institute has been at the forefront of new media storytelling, recognized as a pioneer of story-based, tech-enabled experiences; New Frontier alumni include Doug Aitken, James Franco, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Chris Milk, Nonny de la Peña, Pipilotti Rist and Jennifer Steinkamp. The Institute’s support extends well beyond its curated slate of Festival projects, and includes the annual New Frontier Story Lab, which offers mentorship and development opportunities for new media storytellers, New Frontier Day Labs in cities nationwide and the New Frontier Residency Program, which combines the might of partners such as MIT Media Lab's Social Computing Group and Jaunt Studios to drive groundbreaking data-visualization and VR storytelling tools, training and resources to independent artists.
2016 marked New Frontier’s 10th Anniversary, with celebrations at MoMA in New York City, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
In addition to the New Frontier program announced today, films in U.S. and World Competitions and NEXT have been announced and are listed at sundance.org/festival.

2017 Joyce Awards Announced 12/8/2016
By: Tracie Hall, Culture Program Director
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As the new Culture Program Director at the Joyce Foundation, it’s my great pleasure to announce the winners of the 2017 Joyce Awards. I am especially pleased that these winners speak to the vital role of the arts in community development and social justice.
The 2017 Joyce Awards have been awarded to five collaborations between artists of color and cultural organizations --in Chicago, Cleveland, and the Twin Cities. Each collaboration receives a $50,000 grant to produce and present new work. The awards are the only region-wide program dedicated to supporting artists of color in major Great Lakes cities, and since the competition started in 2003, Joyce has awarded nearly $3 million to commission 55 new works.
 
A distinctive feature of the Joyce Awards is the requirement that artists and host institutions include a robust community engagement plan. Appropriately at this time of social, economic and political change, the winning projects for 2017 address themes such as voting rights, immigration, and the impact of women’s labor on the global economy.
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Free Street Theater and Ricardo Gamboa
Free Street Theater will commission artist and activist Ricardo Gamboa to work with a team that includes visual artists, poets and storytellers to research the history of Mexican migration to Chicago, to capture the oral histories of local residents, and to engage residents in interactive community installations. The completed work will be presented in programs held in Little Village and Pilsen next summer, and will be featured in the 2017 Mexican Independence Day celebrations scheduled for next September. 

Jenni Lamb is a Chicago-based playwright and former improviser. Jenni wrote her most recent play, Messina as part of the Goodman Playwrights Unit. Other plays include Quiver, 12th and Clairmount, Candy Store, Memento Polonia, Period Piece (with Lisa Linke), and Suicide Kills. Jenni’s plays have had readings or productions with The Goodman Theatre, The House Theatre, The Gift Theatre, American Theatre Company, Stage Left Theatre, Black Box Acting Studio, Wordsmyth Theatre (Houston), Northwestern University, and Chicago Dramatists. She has received commissions from the Goodman, House Theatre, and Northwestern University. In addition to traditional plays, she wrote Thou Proud Dream, a site-specific adaptation of Henry V. Jenni received an honorable mention for her play Quiver from the Kilroy List and she is a two-time semi-finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. As an improviser, she performed on many Chicago stages as well as national comedy festivals in New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. Currently, she is a producing playwright with the Living Room Playmakers and an artistic associate with Route 66 Theatre. Jenni holds an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University.
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Glass (ZUJAJ)
By Rohina Malik
Directed by Sean Graney, Artistic Director of The Hypocrites 
The members of the Syrian rock band ZUJAJ dream of winning Syria's battle of the bands. But when revolution soon escalates into civil war, the band members are forced to battle for their lives. 
Glass is a commission by The Hypocrites; it is the culmination of a 28-Hour Workshop at Chicago Dramatists.

December 3, 2016 2pm 
Chicago Dramatists. 1105 W. Chicago Avenue