New Stages 2016

2016 New Stages Festival
September 21 – October 9, 2016 in the Owen

Professionals Weekend: October 7-9

Three productions in the 2016/2017 “Essential Goodman” Season emerged from New Stages, including The Magic Play, Objects in the Mirror and King of the Yees. Founded in 2004, the New Stages Festival is a celebration of innovative new plays designed to give playwrights an opportunity to take risks and experiment. New Stages offers Chicago theatergoers a first look at dozens of plays, many of which have gone on to become successful full productions—including Noah Haidle’s Smokefall and Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Ruined. The line-up, including three developmental productions and staged readings, to be announced at a later date.

PRESS RELEASES
September 13, 2016 | Casting Announced for 2016 New Stages Festival
August 10, 2016 | Free “New Stages” Festival Returns, September 21-October 9

About the Productions: For more information about the developmental productions and staged readings, please visit the show page here. 

PHOTOS
High resolution photos are below, please scroll down to view. For more information about the show, including cast head shots and bios, please visit the show page here. 

Press Items

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New Stages Curator

Tanya Palmer is the director of new play development at Goodman Theatre, where she coordinates New Stages, the theater’s new play program, and has served as the production dramaturg on a number of plays including the world premieres of Vigils by Noah Haidle, Magnolia by Regina Taylor, The Long Red Road by Brett C. Leonard and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Ruined by Lynn Nottage. Prior to her arrival in Chicago, she served as the director of new play development at Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she led the reading and selection process for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. She is the co-editor, with Amy Wegener and Adrien-Alice Hansel, of four collections of Humana Festival plays, published by Smith & Kraus, as well as two collections of 10-minute plays published by Samuel French. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, she holds an MFA in playwriting from York University in Toronto.

Author: Goodman Theatre

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Poster 185×230

Author: Goodman Theatre

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Rehearsal Photos

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01Abe Koogler, Playwright – Blue Skies Process

ABE KOOGLER (Playwright, Blue Skies Process) Koogler’s play Kill Floor received a Chicago production at American Theater Company, after opening at Lincoln Center Theater. In the 2016/2017 season, his play Fulfillment Center will receive its world premiere in New York, and his play Lisa, My Friend will premiere at Dallas’ Kitchen Dog Theater as part of the “Legacy of Beckett” project. He is a winner of Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Weissberger Award and the Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Award. Koogler was a Michener Fellow at University of Texas at Austin and is an alumnus of Juilliard’s playwrights program. He was born and raised in Washington State. 

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

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02Ellen Fairey, Playwright – Support Group for Men

ELLEN FAIREY (Playwright, Support Group for Men) is the author of Graceland, which held its New York premiere as part of Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3 series and previously enjoyed an extended six-month run at Chicago’s Profiles Theatre. Graceland was awarded the 2010 Jeff Award for Best New Work and The New York Times named Fairey one of their “Faces to Watch” for spring 2010. Her first play, Girl 20, was named one of the top 10 plays of 2006 by the Chicago Tribune and nominated for two LA Weekly Theater Awards. Her short plays have been part of Collaboraction’s Sketchbook Festival and Chicago Dramatists Saturday series as well as Edward Albee’s Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska. She is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Fairey was a writer/producer onNurse Jackie and is currently writing on Masters of Sex.

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03Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Playwright – The King of Hell’s Palace

FRANCES YA-CHU COWHIG (Playwright, The King of Hell’s Palace) returns to Goodman Theatre, where her play The World of Extreme Happiness appeared in the 2012New Stages Festival and the 2014/2015 Season. The play was also produced at the National Theatre in London and Manhattan Theatre Club. Her other plays have been produced by Trafalgar Studios 2 (West End), Crowded Fire Theater, Page 73 Productions, InterACT Theatre, Borderlands Theater and the Contemporary American Theater Festival. She received the Wasserstein Prize, the Yale Drama Series Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and the Keene Prize for Literature. She is currently under commission to create works for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Goodman Theatre and the National Theatre. She received an MFA in writing from the James A. Michener Center for Writers at University of Texas at Austin, a BA in sociology from Brown University and a certificate in ensemble-based physical theater from the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. Her work has been published by Yale University Press, Glimmer Train, Methuen Drama, Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service. She was born in Philadelphia and raised in Northern Virginia, Okinawa, Taipei and Beijing. She directs the undergraduate playwriting concentration at University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is an assistant professor of drama.

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05Kristiana Rae Colón, Playwright – Florissant & Canfield

KRISTIANA RAE COLÓN (Playwright, Florissant & Canfield) is a poet, playwright, actor, educator, Cave Canem Fellow and executive director of the #LetUsBreathe Collective. Colón was a member of the Goodman’s 2015/2016 Playwrights Unit. Her play Octagon, winner of Arizona Theater Company’s 2014 National Latino Playwriting Award and Polarity Ensemble Theater’s Dionysos Festival of New Work, had its world premiere at the Arcola Theater in London in September 2015. Her work was featured in Victory Gardens Theater’s 2014 Ignition Festival. In 2013, she toured the U.K. with her collection of poems promised instruments, published by Northwestern University Press. In autumn 2012, she opened her one-woman show Cry Wolf at Teatro Luna in Chicago while her play but i cd only whisper had its world premiere at the Arcola Theater, followed by its New York premiere in the spring of 2016 at The Flea. She is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and one half of the brother/sister hip-hop duo April Fools. She appeared on the fifth season of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam.

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06Lindsey Ferrentino, Playwright – Amy and the Orphans

LINDSEY FERRENTINO (Playwright, Amy and the Orphans) is a New York-based playwright originally from Florida, where many of her plays are set.  Her breakout playUgly Lies the Bone was a New York Times Critic’s Pick and played a sold-out extended off-Broadway run at Roundabout Theatre Company this past fall. She has upcoming productions at The National Theatre in London and will be a part of Atlantic Theatre Company’s Amplified Reading Series and Playwrights Horizon’s New Works Lab this year. She is the recipient of The Paul Newman Drama Award, Laurents Hatcher Citation of Excellence, finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn and the only two-time finalist for the Alliance’s Kendeda prize.  She is currently under commission for new plays from Roundabout, The Geffen, South Coast Repertory, a new musical for The National Theatre and an original television pilot for Big Beach Films. She received her BFA from New York University and also holds two MFAs in playwriting from Hunter College and The Yale School of Drama. 

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01Henry Wishcamper, Director – Blue Skies Process

HENRY WISHCAMPER (Director, Blue Skies Process) is a member of the Goodman’s Artistic Collective. His Goodman Theatre directing credits include The MatchmakerThe Little Foxes (Jeff Award nomination), the world premiere of Ask Aunt Susan, his own adaptation of Animal Crackers (Jeff nomination), A Christmas Carol (2013, 2014 and 2015 productions), Other Desert Cities and Talking Pictures. Other Chicago directing credits include The Dance of Death (Jeff nomination) at Writers Theatre and The Night Alive at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. His New York directing credits include work with Manhattan Theatre Club, LCT3, Atlantic Theater Company, New World Stages, Katharsis Theater Company and Keen Company. Regional theater and other directing credits include work at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Guthrie Theater, The Old Globe and at Hartford TheaterWorks. He has served as the assistant director of the Broadway productions of August: Osage County and Shining City. His adaptation of Animal Crackers has been produced by the Denver Center Theatre Company, Baltimore Center Stage, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Lyric Stage Company. Mr. Wishcamper was the artistic director of Katharsis Theater Company in New York and the Maine Summer Dramatic Institute (MSDI) in Portland. He is a Drama League directing fellow and a graduate of Yale University.

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

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02Kimberly Senior, Director – Support Group for Men

KIMBERLY SENIOR (Director, Support Group for Men) returns to Goodman Theatre, where she previously directed Disgraced and Rapture, Blister, Burn. Her Chicago credits include Marjorie Prime, The Diary of Anne Frank, Hedda Gabler, The Letters (Writers Theatre, where she is a resident director); Discord4000 Miles and The Whipping Man (Northlight Theatre); Want and The North Plan (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Inana, My Name is Asher LevAll My Sons and Dolly West’s Kitchen (TimeLine Theatre, where she is an associate artist); Disgraced (American Theater Company) and The Great God PanAfter the RevolutionMadagascarThe Overwhelming and The Busy World is Hushed (Next Theatre Company). Ms. Senior directed the Broadway premiere of Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Disgraced, which she previously directed off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater and later at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Mark Taper Forum. Her other off-Broadway credits include Engagements (Second Stage Theatre) and The Who and the What (Lincoln Center Theater). Regional credits include Sex with Strangers (Geffen Playhouse), Little Gem (City Theatre), Murder on the Nile and A Few Good Men (Peninsula Players), The Who and the What (La Jolla Playhouse) and Mauritius (Theatre Squared). She was a 2013 finalist for the SDCF Joe A. Callaway Award and the Zelda Fichandler Award. Kimberly is the recipient of the 2016 Special Non-Equity Jeff Award and the 2016 Alan Schneider Award. KimberlySenior.net

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

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03Tea Alagic, Director – The King of Hell’s Palace

TEA ALAGI? (Director, The King of Hell’s Palace) Select theater credits include the world premiere of Tarell McCraney’s The Brothers Size (The Public Theater, Studio Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Old Globe and Abbey Theatre in Dublin); Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek’s Jackie, starring Tina Benko (New York City Center); Charise Castro Smith’s Washeteria (Soho Repertory Theatre); Romeo and Juliet, starring Elizabeth Olsen and Julian Cihi (Classic Stage Company); Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s  Lidless (Page 73) and productions of a wide repertory of plays and musicals at Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Kitchen, Carlotta Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, La MaMa, The Women’s Project, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, ZKM in Croatia,  4+4 Festival in Prague and BAC in London. Ms. Alagi? is head of the directing department at The New School in Greenwich Village and artist-in-residence at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn. She received her BFA from Charles University in Prague and her MFA from the Yale School of Drama. TeaaAlagic.com

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

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06Scott Ellis, Director- Amy and the Orphans

SCOTT ELLIS (Director, Amy and the Orphans) Broadway credits include She Loves Me (Tony Award nomination), On the Twentieth Century, You Can’t Take It With You (Tony nomination), The Elephant Man, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Tony nomination), HarveyCurtains (Tony nomination), The Little Dog Laughed (Drama League Award nomination), Twelve Angry Men (Tony nomination), The Man Who Had All the LuckThe Rainmaker1776 (Drama Desk Award and Tony nominations), She Loves Me (Tony nomination, also in London where he received the Olivier Award for Best Revival and Best Director), Picnic (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), CompanyA Month in the Country and Steel Pier (Tony nomination). Off-Broadway credits include Dada Woof Papa Hot; The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom DurninGruesome Playground InjuriesStreamers; Good Boys and TrueEntertaining Mr. SloaneFlora, the Red Menace (Drama Desk nomination); And the World Goes ’Round (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards) and The Waverly Gallery. His television credits include Dr. Ken (pilot), Undateable (pilot), Two Broke Girls, The Good Wife, The Closer, Weeds (executive producer), 30 Rock (Emmy Award nomination for Best Director), Modern Family, Frasier and, most recently, the Lionsgate/Hulu pilot Crushed.

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05Monty Cole, Director – Florissant & Canfield

MONTY COLE (Director, Florissant & Canfield) is a Chicago-based director and the Artistic Programs Manager at Victory Gardens Theater, where manages casting, The Access Project, the Resident Theater program and the Directors’ Inclusion Initiative. This past fall, he collaborated with Alex Lubischer on Weird Kids at Haven Theater Company as part of The Director’s Haven. He has also directed for Something Marvelous (Paloma by Isaac Gomez), Victory Gardens Theater (Marcus Gardley’s The Gospel of Lovingkindness), Definition Theater Company/ALTA (Isaac Gomez’s The Displaced) and Dianne Nora’s Western Country performed at the Walker Space at Soho Rep in New York. He directed the 5-time Jeff Award-nominated production of The Hairy Ape for Oracle Productions. This summer, he began workshopping a new Alex Lubischer play for The House Theatre’s Chicago Performance Lab. He will attend the California Institute of the Arts this fall for his MFA degree in directing.

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BlueProduction_01

Michael Gomez (Kenny) and Joe Dempsey (Peter) in Blue Skies Process, a play by Abe Koogler. Directed by Henry Wishcamper at Goodman Theatre (September 21 – October 8, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

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BlueProduction_02

Michael Gomez (Kenny) in Blue Skies Process, a play by Abe Koogler. Directed by Henry Wishcamper at Goodman Theatre (September 21 – October 8, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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BlueProduction_03

Meighan Garachis (Amy) and Guy Massey (Kristan) in Blue Skies Process, a play by Abe Koogler. Directed by Henry Wishcamper at Goodman Theatre (September 21 – October 8, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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BlueProduction_04

Karen Rodriguez (Reina) in Blue Skies Process, a play by Abe Koogler. Directed by Henry Wishcamper at Goodman Theatre (September 21 – October 8, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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BlueProduction_05

Meighan Garachis (Amy) and Guy Massey (Kristan) in Blue Skies Process, a play by Abe Koogler. Directed by Henry Wishcamper at Goodman Theatre (September 21 – October 8, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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SupportProduction_01

Anthony Lee Irons (Delano), Keith Kupferer (Roger), Ryan Kitley (Brian) and Dan Lin (Kevin) in Support Group for Men, a play by Ellen Fairey. Directed by Kimberly Senior at Goodman Theatre (September 23 – October 9, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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SupportProduction_02

Ryan Kitley (Brian), Steve Wojtas (Officer Nowak) and Elena Marisa Flores (Officer Delgado) in Support Group for Men, a play by Ellen Fairey. Directed by Kimberly Senior at Goodman Theatre (September 23 – October 9, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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SupportProduction_03

Anthony Lee Irons (Delano), Jeff Louis Kurysz (Alex) and Keith Kupferer (Roger) in Support Group for Men, a play by Ellen Fairey. Directed by Kimberly Senior at Goodman Theatre (September 23 – October 9, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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SupportProduction_04

Anthony Lee Irons (Delano), Keith Kupferer (Roger), Ryan Kitley (Brian) and Dan Lin (Kevin) in Support Group for Men, a play by Ellen Fairey. Directed by Kimberly Senior at Goodman Theatre (September 23 – October 9, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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KingProduction_01

Celeste Den (Pearl/Lili), Wai Yim (Wen/Director Zhang), James Saito (Chen/Old Yang), Jo Mei (Yin-Yin/Pei-Pei), Rammel Chan (Little Yi) and C.S. Lee (Stone/Kuan) in King of Hell’s Palace, a play by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig. Directed by Tea Alagi? at Goodman Theatre (September 25 – October 9, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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KingProduction_02

Rammel Chan (Little Yi), C.S. Lee (Stone/Kuan) ), James Saito (Chen/Old Yang)  and Wai Yim (Wen/Director Zhang) in King of Hell’s Palace, a play by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig. Directed by Tea Alagi? at Goodman Theatre (September 25 – October 9, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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KingProduction_03

Celeste Den (Pearl/Lili), Wai Yim (Wen/Director Zhang), Mia Park (Luo Na/Dr. Gao), C.S. Lee (Stone/Kuan) and Jo Mei (Yin-Yin/Pei-Pei) in King of Hell’s Palace, a play by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig. Directed by Tea Alagi? at Goodman Theatre (September 25 – October 9, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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KingProduction_04

Mia Park (Luo Na/Dr. Gao), Celeste Den (Pearl/Lili), Rammel Chan (Little Yi), Wai Yim (Wen/Director Zhang), James Saito (Chen/Old Yang) and Jo Mei (Yin-Yin/Pei-Pei) in King of Hell’s Palace, a play by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig. Directed by Tea Alagi? at Goodman Theatre (September 25 – October 9, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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KingProduction_05

Michelle Krusiec (Jasmine/Han-Han) in King of Hell’s Palace, a play by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig. Directed by Tea Alagi? at Goodman Theatre (September 25 – October 9, 2016). GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStagesFestival

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04Vanessa Stalling, Director – And Moira Spins

VANESSA STALLING is a freelance director based in Chicago. She is the current Michael Maggio Directing Fellow at Goodman Theatre. Chicago directing credits include work with The House Theatre of Chicago, Oracle Productions, Stage Left, Red Tape, Actors Gymnasium and TimeLine Theatre Company. Her most recent production was United Flight 232 for The House Theatre, a work she directed and adapted from Laurence Gonzales’ Flight 232. Ms. Stalling also served as associate artistic director at Redmoon, where she devised and directed several productions including a remount of The Cabinet, Last of My Species, Winter Pageant, Princess Club, Twilight Orchard and roaming performances for President Obama’s White House Halloween Celebrations. She is adjunct faculty at The University of Chicago and Roosevelt University. 

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Headshots