New Stages Series: Where Legends are Born
December 11-20, 2009 | Owen Theatre
FREE
PLEASE NOTE: All 2009 New Stages Series readings are now full.
You won't want to miss this unique opportunity to hear six new play readings by today's most promising playwrights-and tomorrow's brightest stars in the 2009 New Stages Series from December 11 to 20, 2009. The free series of script-in-hand staged readings takes place in the Goodman's Owen Theatre and is open to the public.
Now in its seventh year, the Goodman's New Stages Series has provided the first look at nearly 35 new plays, many of which have gone on to receive world-premiere productions at the Goodman-including the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning Ruined by Lynn Nottage and the upcoming The Long Red Road by Brett C. Leonard, which is already creating a buzz in the 09/10 Owen season lineup (February 13 - March 14, 2010). Other American theaters that have produced plays read in past New Stages Series include Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, New York's The Public Theater, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, American Theatre Company and Geffen Playhouse.
Don't miss the stars of tomorrow in the 2009 New Stages Series. This is where legends are born.
Tickets are FREE but reservations are required. Please call 312.443.3800 to reserve your FREE tickets to any of the following New Stages readings today!
Click on the artists below to read bios and interviews.
Rain
By Goodman Theatre Artistic Associate Regina Taylor
Friday, December 11 at 7pm
After her marriage falls apart, Iris makes her annual trip home to Dallas for her mother Rose's birthday. For Iris, home is a place where nothing ever changes, a refuge from the storm. But change is afoot in her mother's house, and Iris and Rose must learn to weather the storm together. Laced with humor, Rain is a moving portrait of family, motherhood and the ties that bind one generation to the next. From Regina Taylor, the author of Crowns, The Dreams of Sarah Breedlove and Magnolia.
The Color of Desire
By Nilo Cruz
Directed by Wendy C. Goldberg
Saturday, December 12 at 7pm
Havana, 1960. As the revolution heats up, a dashing American businessman hires a young Cuban actress for a role unlike any she's ever played: the woman he loved and lost. The newest play by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Nilo Cruz is a vibrant and poetic exploration of the lost love affair between America and Cuba.
SPECIAL EVENT
Saturday, December 12 | 6pm
Discussion with playwright Nilo Cruz & director Wendy C. Goldberg
PLEASE NOTE: This is not a ticketed event.
Bugs of the Pigs in the Lions
By Kia Corthron
Directed by Goodman Theatre Resident Director Chuck Smith
Sunday, December 13 at 7pm
Mum, a librarian, proudly provides her community with uncensored knowledge while her father Harmon, a former Black Panther, meticulously protects the privacy of his past. But in the wake of the Patriot Act, federal agents use library records to uncover information that begins to collapse Mum's world. Now she struggles to balance the disadvantages of censorship with the advantages of privacy-and must confront her own family's battle for justice, free speech and liberty.
Dartmoor Prison
By Carlyle Brown
A Goodman Theatre Commission
Directed by Marion McClinton
Friday, December 18 at 7pm
The charismatic black sailor King Dick is the ruler of a complex nation within the walls of Dartmoor Prison, where the British have imprisoned thousands of American sailors during the War of 1812. At Dartmoor, King Dick and the other black sailors enjoy a freedom they never experienced as slaves in their own country; they are keenly aware that when the war is over, they will return to the bonds of slavery. When the white prisoners ask King Dick for his help planning an escape, he must ask himself whether his loyalty lies with America or with the nation he has built within the prison walls.
Yasmina's Necklace (El collar de Yasmin)
By Rohina Malik
Directed by Goodman Theatre Resident Artistic Associate Henry Godinez
Saturday, December 19 at 7pm
Meet Abdul Samee: his father is Iraqi, his mother is Puerto Rican-but if you ask him, he'll say he's Italian. Longing to shed his cultural identity he changes his name to Sam, marries an American and does everything in his power to turn his back on his heritage. But when Sam meets Yasmina, a beautiful woman from his father's homeland, he begins to learn that a tree without roots cannot stand for long.
Mary
By Thomas Bradshaw
A Goodman Theatre Commission
Directed by May Adrales
Sunday, December 20 at 7pm
It's 1983, but when David, a young gay college student, invites his boyfriend home for Christmas to meet his parents for the first time, it may as well be 1803. His family's Virginia home, once a plantation, is tended to by Mary, a woman whose ancestors were enslaved there-and never left. This darkly comic new play by provocative young writer Thomas Bradshaw tackles race, sexuality, religion and the absurd but devastating nature of hate.
SPECIAL EVENT
Sunday, December 20 | 6pm
Discussion with playwright Thomas Bradshaw and Goodman Theatre Literary Manager, Tanya Palmer.
PLEASE NOTE: This is not a ticketed event.
FREE tickets for the 2009 New Stages Series can be reserved at the Goodman Box Office (170 N. Dearborn St.), or by phone at 312.443.3800.
New Stages is sponsored by
The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, Sponsor of the 2009 New Stages Series
The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Support for New Work Development and Production