Goodman Theatre

For Immediate Release

(Chicago, IL) Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls proudly announces a summer partnership with The O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference. From more than 600 submissions to the esteemed Conference, The Ballad of Emmett Till by Chicago playwright Ifa Bayeza is one of eight plays chosen to receive a workshop in July-in advance of its world premiere production at the Goodman in April/May 2008. Bayeza and director Kate Whoriskey will live on the grounds of the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut for one month, where they will engage in a six-day process of rehearsals and two script-in-hand readings on July 26 at 8pm and July 28 at 5pm.

"We are thrilled that the O'Neill Theater Center has included The Ballad of Emmett Till among its impressive slate of offerings this summer," said Goodman Theatre Executive Director Roche Schulfer. "This is a rare, wonderful opportunity for Ifa and Kate to come together on this play at an organization renowned for its nurturing environment."

Wendy C. Goldberg, now in her third season as artistic director of The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, noted, "The collaboration between the O'Neill and the Goodman feels quite natural. I have always looked to the Goodman and Artistic Director Robert Falls as a leader in the field, one of the finest resident companies in this country. Providing a home for the development of emerging playwright Ifa Bayaza's The Ballad of Emmett Till is exciting, and feeds our work to nurture the next generation of theatrical storytellers."

The 1955 lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till served as a shocking catalyst for the infant civil rights movement, and remains one of the most horrifying incidents in a tumultuous era. In The Ballad of Emmett Till, a highlight of the Goodman's New Stages series last season, Bayeza explores the powerful truths at the heart of the story, creating a work of vibrant theatricality and music, pierced with the poignancy of real life and the grandeur of contemporary myth.

More than 600 plays have evolved at The O'Neill since the National Playwrights Conference began. Playwrights who have participated in the conference include Kia Corthron, John Guare, Israel Horovitz, David Henry Hwang, David Lindsay-Abaire, Adam Rapp, Mark Ravenhill, Wendy Wasserstein and August Wilson. Conference participants represent a wide range of experience from playwrights working on a first play to Broadway veterans; directors and actors have also worked on and off Broadway and in regional theaters, and represent emerging artists and seasoned professionals. In addition to writers selected for staged readings, the conference serves as a retreat for several writers in residence working independently on special projects. Recent summers' residents include Christina Anderson, David Cale, Joseph Chaikin and Regina Taylor.

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, founded in 1964, has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and 2,500 emerging artists and is itself the winner of a special Tony Award, the National Opera Award, the Jujamcyn Award for Theater Excellence and the Arts and Business Council Encore Award. Today, the O'Neill is home to the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, Puppetry Conference, Cabaret Conference, National Critics Institute, and the fully accredited National Theater Institute, which includes semester-long, fully accredited intensive theater-training programs and a six-week accredited summer program, Theatermakers. In addition, the O'Neill owns and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage, the childhood home of Nobel Prize-winning and four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Eugene O'Neill.

Goodman Theatre, recipient of the Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, has been a leader in the American theater and internationally recognized for its artists, productions and education programs. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Robert Falls and Executive Director Roche Schulfer, the Goodman is committed to producing classic and contemporary works, giving full voice to a wide range of artists and visions. Central to that mission is the Goodman's Artistic Collective, including Frank Galati, Mary Zimmerman, Chuck Smith, Regina Taylor and Henry Godinez. In 2000, the Goodman moved to the heart of Chicago's revitalized downtown North Loop Theater District, into a new state-of-the-art complex which houses two principal theaters: the 856-seat Albert Ivar Goodman Theatre and the 400-seat flexible Owen Bruner Goodman Theatre. Board Chairman is Lester N. Coney and Alice Young Sabl is chair of the Women's Board.

American Airlines is the Exclusive Airline of Goodman Theatre. Kraft Foods is the Principal Sponsor of the Goodman's free Student Subscription Series.

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April 19, 2007