New Stages 2017


New Stages
Festival September 20 – October 8, 2017 (“Industry Weekend” is October 6-8) in the Owen
Six New Plays (Three Developmental Productions + Three Staged Readings) 

The 14th annual New Stages festival of new plays includes three developmental productions in repertory and three staged readings. Three productions in the 2016/2017 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

ONSTAGE +
Click here for more behind-the-scenes information, including artist interviews and in-depth articles published by the Goodman.

PRESS RELEASE
September 11, 2017 | Casting Announced for 14th Annual New Stages Festival
August 14, 2017 | “New Stages” Festival of New Plays, September 20 – October 8 at Goodman Theatre

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

PHOTOS
High resolution photos are below, please scroll down to view. Please credit Cody Nieset/Goodman Theatre 

Press Items

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Poster 185×230

Author: Goodman Theatre

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Rehearsal Photos

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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

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

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Annie Tippe, Director – Continuity

ANNIE TIPPE (Director, Continuity). Directing includes Ghost Quartet (The Bushwick Starr), When the Tanks Break (Drama League), Washeteria (Soho Rep), Aaron/Marie (with Rachel Chavkin, Incoming! @ Under the Radar), Far Away (Harvard University), Cowboy Bob (Yale Institute for Music Theatre Summer Lab and Ars Nova) and I Heard Sex Noises (Ars Nova). Tippe served as the associate director for Present Laughter on Broadway, the TEAM’S touring productions of Mission Drift and RoosevElvis and The Ambassador (Brooklyn Academy of Music). She was Ars Nova’s 2016 Director-in-Residence, a Drama League Fall Directing Fellow, part of Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Directing Corps and a New Georges Audrey Resident. She is the creator/director of the web series BASIC WITCHAnnieTippe.com.

Author: Goodman Theatre

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Headshots

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Bess Wohl, Playwright – Continuity

BESS WOHL’S (Playwright, Continuity) plays include Small Mouth Sounds, American Hero, Barcelona, Touched and In. They have been produced or developed at theaters in New York and around the country, including Second Stage, Ars Nova, Williamstown Theatre Festival, People’s Light and Theatre Company, Center Theatre Group, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, Vineyard Arts Project, The Pioneer Theatre, The Pittsburgh Public Theater, Northlight Theatre, TheaterWorks New Works Festival, Geffen Playhouse, Vineyard Arts Project, Ojai Playwright’s Conference, Cape Cod Theatre Project and the New York International Fringe Festival (Award for Best Overall Production).  Her original musical about the adult entertainment industry, Pretty Filthy, produced by The Civilians, also premiered off-Broadway and was nominated for both the 2015 Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Musical. She won the Sam Norkin special Drama Desk Award for “establishing herself as an important voice in New York theater, and having a breakthrough year” in 2014-2015.She also writes for film and television, most recently the pilot Broad Squad for ABC. She is also at work on a new feature for Disney, and has written two features for Paramount Pictures: The Luxe (based on the book) and Virginia (the true story of mob queen Virginia Hill). Her screenplay adaptation of her playIn was included on Hollywood’s Black List of best scripts. She has also developed original television pilots for HBO, USA, FOX and the CW. Her work has been supported by a MacDowell Fellowship, PlayPenn, the Sewanee Writer’s Conference and Ars Nova, where she is a Play Group alumna. She has been the recipient of new play commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Hartford Stage and Center Theatre Group. As an actress, Wohl appeared onstage in New York and regionally, and in numerous films and television shows. She is a graduate of Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude, where she was awarded the Rona Jaffe Writing Prize and the Tennessee Williams Scholarship. She earned her MFA from the Yale School of Drama, where she was a recipient of the Rebecca West Scholarship. She is originally from Brooklyn, New York, and lives in New York.

Author: Goodman Theatre

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Headshots

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Mat Smart, Playwright – Eden Prairie, 1971

MAT SMART (Playwright; Eden Prairie, 1971) is a native of Naperville and currently lives in Manhattan. Upcoming world premieres include Kill Local at the La Jolla Playhouse, directed by Jackson Gay and The Agitators: The Story of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass at Geva Theatre Center, directed by Logan Vaughn. Other plays include The Royal Society of Antarctica (premiere at the Gift Theatre in Chicago, recipient of the 2015 Jeff Award for Best New Work; upcoming at Stage Theatre in Ft. Worth), Samuel J. and K. (Williamstown Theatre Festival and Steppenwolf for Young Adults), The Hopper Collection (The Magic Theatre and Huntington Theatre Company), Tinker to Evers to Chance (Geva Theatre Center and Merrimack Repertory Theatre), The 13th of Paris (City Theatre and Seattle Public Theater) and Naperville (Slant Theatre Project and Theatre Wit). He has received two Jerome Fellowships, a McKnight Advancement Grant, two Edgerton Foundation New Play Awards and was the recipient of the 2014 Otis Guernsey New Voices Award from the William Inge Center for the Arts. 

Author: Goodman Theatre

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Headshots

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Christina Anderson, Playwright – How to Catch Creation

CHRISTINA ANDERSON (Playwright, How to Catch Creation) Anderson’s work has appeared at The Public Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Penumbra Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons and other theaters in the U.S. and Canada.  She is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and Epic Theatre Ensemble, a DNAWORKS ensemble member and the interim head of playwriting at Brown University. Awards and honors include the Inaugural Harper Lee Award for Playwriting, two Playwrights of New York nominations, three Susan Smith Blackburn Award nominations and Woursell Prize finalist. She obtained her B.A. from Brown University and M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama’s playwriting program. 

Author: Goodman Theatre

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Headshots

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Ike Holter, Playwright – Lottery Day

IKE HOLTER (Playwright, Lottery Day) is a resident playwright at Victory Gardens Theater, and his work has been workshopped at The Kennedy Center, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and The Playwrights’ Center. His work has been produced at the Steppenwolf Garage, The Philadelphia Theater Company, off-Broadway at Barrow Street Theatre and Cherry Lane Theatre, The Lily Tomlin Center in Los Angeles, True Colors in Atlanta, Water Tower Theater in Dallas, 3oaks in Michigan and Jackalope Theatre Company, Teatro Vista, A Red Orchid and The Inconvenience in Chicago. He is the artistic director of The Roustabouts and is a regular performer at Salonathon and The Paper Machete. Holter is a 2017 winner of the Windham-Campbell Prize. 

Author: Goodman Theatre

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Lili-Anne Brown, Director – Lottery Day

LILI-ANNE BROWN (Director, Lottery Day) A native Chicagoan, Brown works as a director, actor and educator, both locally and regionally.  She is the former artistic director of Bailiwick Chicago, where she directed Dessa Rose (Jeff Award), Passing Strange (Black Theatre Alliance Award for Best Director of a Musical and Jeff Award nomination for Best Director of a Musical) and the world premiere of Princess Mary Demands Your Attention by Aaron Holland. Other directing credits include The Wiz (Kokandy Productions), Xanadu (American Theatre Company), Jabari Dreams of Freedom by Nambi E. Kelley (Chicago Children’s Theatre), Michael John LaChiusa’s See What I Wanna See (Steppenwolf Theatre Garage Rep); American Idiot (Northwestern University); On the Boards and Hearts of Darkness (Roosevelt University); the national tour of Jesus Snatched My Edges and HairsprayUnnecessary Farce, Cabaret, Sweet Charity, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Timber Lake Playhouse, where she is an artistic associate). She is a member of SAG-AFTRA, an associate of SDC and a graduate of Northwestern University.

Author: Goodman Theatre

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Headshots

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Mikhael Tara Garver, Playwright, Director – Postnation

MIKHAEL TARA GARVER (Creator, POSTNATION) is a D.C. born, Brooklyn-based and Chicago-bred theater maker, director and choreographer. For the past 16 years, she has created immersive productions on subways, in rock clubs, throughout museums, with technology, in theaters and major large-scale events. Her work has been seen in Detroit, London, New York, Chicago, Portland and Kansas City. She recently premiered Stand for Revolutionary Love at Brooklyn Academy of Music with Kristin Sudeikis Dance Company. She worked with the artistic and partnership team for the Women’s March on Washington and continues to be active in national resistance work. Garver was the associate director for Sleep No More, the artistic director of Chicago Storefront Uma Productions, the managing artistic director for Woodshed Collective, emerging artist for the National Theater of Scotland, artistic fellow at American Repertory Theater and an artistic associate of SITI company. 

Author: Goodman Theatre

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José Rivera, Playwright, Director – The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona

JOSÉ RIVERA (Playwright and Director, The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona) The first Puerto Rican screenwriter to be nominated for an Academy Award, for The Motorcycle Diaries, Rivera is also the author of 26 full-length plays including the Obie Award-winning Marisol and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, both produced at The Public Theater. Other plays include Cloud Tectonics (Playwrights Horizons and Goodman Theatre), School of the Americas (The Public Theater), The Maids and Adoration of the Old Woman (INTAR), Massacre (Sing to Your Children) (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre and Goodman Theatre), Brainpeople (American Conservatory Theatre), Sonnets for an Old Century (Barrow Group), Another Word for Beauty (Goodman Theatre), Boleros for the Disenchanted (Yale Repertory and Goodman Theatre), The Street of the Sun (Mark Taper Forum), Sueño (Manhattan Class Company) and Human Emotional Process (Chaskis Theatre, London).  Screenplays include On the Road, The 33, Trade, and Letters to Juliet.  For television he co-created and produced the NBC series Eerie, Indiana and has written pilots for HBO and Showtime.  Awards include a Fulbright Arts Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a McKnight Fellowship, a Rockefeller grant, a Whiting Foundation Award and New York Council for the Arts grant.  Rivera has mentored the Sundance Screenwriting Lab in Utah, Jordan and India and leads the New York based Writer’s Group.

Author: Goodman Theatre

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Headshots

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Rebecca Gilman, Playwright – Twilight Bowl

REBECCA GILMAN (Playwright) is an artistic associate at the Goodman. Gilman’s plays include Luna GaleA True History of the Johnstown FloodDollhouseBoy Gets GirlSpinning Into ButterBlue Surge (all of which were originally produced by the Goodman); Soups, Stews, and Casseroles: 1976 and The Crowd You’re in With (also at the Goodman); The Glory of LivingThe Sweetest Swing in Baseball and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Gilman is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, The Harper Lee Award, The Scott McPherson Award, The Prince Prize for Commissioning New Work, The Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, The Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, The George Devine Award, The Theatre Masters Visionary Award, The Great Plains Playwright Award and an Illinois Arts Council playwriting fellowship. Boy Gets Girl received an Olivier nomination for Best New Play and she was named a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for The Glory of Living. She is a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America and a board member of the ACLU of Illinois. She received her MFA in playwriting from the University of Iowa. Gilman is an associate professor of playwriting and screenwriting at Northwestern University as part of its MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage program. She is the recipient of a Global Connections Grant by Theatre Communications Group and an American Scandinavian Foundation Creative Writing Grant.

Author: Goodman Theatre

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Headshots

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Erica Weiss, Director -Twilight Bowl

ERICA WEISS (Director, Twilight Bowl) is a Jeff Award-nominated director and filmmaker based in Chicago. She was the recipient of Goodman Theatre’s Michael Maggio Directing Fellowship in 2014, is an ensemble member of The Gift Theatre Company and was the associate artistic director of Route 66 Theatre Company for four years. She recently directed the Gift’s critically acclaimed production of The Grapes of Wrath. Her primary passions lie in the development of new work and bringing female voices to the stage and screen. Her directing work includes the world premieres of Jerre Dye’s Cicada (Route 66 Theatre) and Distance (Strawdog Theatre Company). Weiss is a longtime and frequent collaborator with writer Caitlin Parrish, directing their world premiere productions of The Downpour (Jeff Award nominations for Best Production, Best Director, Best New Work and Best Lead Actress), A Twist of Water with Route 66 Theatre Company and off-Broadway at 59E59 and The Burials at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She and Parrish co-directed their first feature film The View From Tall, which has screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Chicago International Film Festival. Up next, she will direct the world premiere of Stacy Amma Osei-Kuffour’s Hang Man at The Gift Theatre. 

Author: Goodman Theatre

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Headshots

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David Cale, Composer, Playwright – We’re Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time

DAVID CALE (Composer and performer, We Are Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time) previously appeared at the Goodman in the premiere of his musical Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky, for which he wrote the book, lyrics, co-composed the music and played Floyd. The work was also commissioned by the Goodman. Cale’s additional Goodman shows include the premieres of the solos Lillian, Somebody Else’s House (Goodman commission), Deep in a Dream of You (Goodman commission), Smooch Music and The RedthroatsFloyd and Clea Under the Western Sky went on to a run in New York at Playwrights Horizons receiving an Outer Critics Circle Nomination for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical.  Lillian also ran at Playwrights Horizons, receiving an Obie Award, and Deep in a Dream of You ran at The Public Theater, receiving a Bessie Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement. Lillian was recorded live at the Goodman Studio Theatre for National Public Radio’s This American Life. Cale’s other solo shows include A Likely Story, Palomino and The History of Kisses. His duet works include Betwixt and The Blue Album (with Dael Orlandersmith). He composed the songs for 600 Highwaymen’s Employee of the Year (2016 Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theater, Bessie Award nomination) and has written lyrics for songs sung by artists including Debbie Harry and Elvis Costello. A show of his songs Songs for Charming Strangers, performed in collaboration with Matthew Dean Marsh, is ongoing.  As an actor, Cale’s film and television credits include The Slaughter Rule, Two Lovers, Pollock and The Good Wife. He has performed in plays on Broadway and off, most recently The Total Bent at The Public Theater. His new solo work Harry Clarke premieres in November off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre. 

Author: Goodman Theatre

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Headshots

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Matthew Dean Marsh, Music Arranger – We Are Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time

MATTHEW DEAN MARSH (Music Arranger, We Are Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time) is a Brooklyn-based composer, writer and performer. His compositions have been heard at Madison Square Garden, Lincoln Center, Barclays Center, the Michigan Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Tribeca Film Festival, McKittrick Hotel (Sleep No More) and the White House. Accompanying credits include Joseph Keckler (at Centre Pompidou in Paris), Ato Blankson-Wood, Todd Almond, Jo Lampert, Salty Brine, David Cale, Max Jenkins, Tom Hennes, Erin Markey, Shaina Taub and Sherie Rene Scott. He has worked on projects for directors Steve Cosson, Preston Martin, Shaun Peknic, Leigh Silvermann and Alex Timbers. He music directs the band for Shred for Your Life’s 2016 viral sensation champion, Mrs. Smith. His song and music video “Lost Boys” is a finalist at the Los Angeles 2016 Music Video Awards, a semi-finalist in the 2017 International MV Awards in Paris and a contender in the 2017 Portland MV Festival.

Author: Goodman Theatre

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Headshots

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LotteryDay_01

J. Nicole Brooks (Mallory) and Tommy Rivera-Vega (Ezekiel) in Lottery Day by Ike Holter, directed Lili-Anne Brown at Goodman Theatre (September 20 – October 7, 2017). GoodmanTheatre.org/LotteryDay

Author: Cody Nieset

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LotteryDay_02

Aurora Adachi-Winter (Tori), Bear Bellinger (Nunley), J. Nicole Brooks (Mallory), McKenzie Chinn (Cassandra), Sydney Charles (Zora), Robert Cornelius (Robinson), Anthony Lee Irons (Avery), Monica Orozoco (Vivien), Tommy Rivera-Vega (Ezekiel), and Pat Whalen (Ricky) in Lottery Day by Ike Holter, directed Lili-Anne Brown at Goodman Theatre (September 20 – October 7, 2017). GoodmanTheatre.org/LotteryDay

Author: Cody Nieset

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LotteryDay_03

Robert Cornelius (Robinson) and Pat Whalen (Ricky) in Lottery Day by Ike Holter, directed Lili-Anne Brown at Goodman Theatre (September 20 – October 7, 2017). GoodmanTheatre.org/LotteryDay

Author: Cody Nieset

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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LotteryDay_04

Tommy Rivera-Vega (Ezekiel) in Lottery Day by Ike Holter, directed Lili-Anne Brown at Goodman Theatre (September 20 – October 7, 2017). GoodmanTheatre.org/LotteryDay

Author: Cody Nieset

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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Continuity_01

Rammel Chan (The PA) in Continuity by Bess Wohl, directed by Annie Tippe at Goodman Theatre (September 24 – October 8, 2017). GoodmanTheatre.org/Continuity

Author: Cody Nieset

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Continuity_02

Amanda Drinkall (Nicole [Eve]), Marc Grapey (David Claxton), Ryan McBride (Jake [George]), Bill McGough (Larry), Rebecca Spence (Maria), and Netta Walker (Lily [Anna]) in Continuity by Bess Wohl, directed by Annie Tippe at Goodman Theatre (September 24 – October 8, 2017). GoodmanTheatre.org/Continuity

Author: Cody Nieset

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Continuity_03

Marc Grapey (David Claxton) and Rebecca Spence (Maria) in Continuity by Bess Wohl, directed by Annie Tippe at Goodman Theatre (September 24 – October 8, 2017). GoodmanTheatre.org/Continuity

Author: Cody Nieset

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Continuity_04

Rebecca Spence (Maria) in Continuity by Bess Wohl, directed by Annie Tippe at Goodman Theatre (September 24 – October 8, 2017). GoodmanTheatre.org/Continuity

Author: Cody Nieset

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

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TwilightBowl_01

Angela Morris (Maddy) in Twilight Bowl by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Erica Weiss at Goodman Theatre (September 24 – October 8, 2017). GoodmanTheatre.org/TwilightBowl

Author: Cody Nieset

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TwilightBowl_02

(L to R) Hayley Burgess (Clarice), Mary Taylor (Brielle) and Becca Savoy (Sam) and in Twilight Bowl by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Erica Weiss at Goodman Theatre (September 24 – October 8, 2017). GoodmanTheatre.org/TwilightBowl

Author: Cody Nieset

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos

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TwilightBowl_03

Heather Chrisler (Jaycee)  in Twilight Bowl by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Erica Weiss at Goodman Theatre (September 24 – October 8, 2017). GoodmanTheatre.org/TwilightBowl

Author: Cody Nieset

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TwilightBowl_04

(L to R) Becca Savoy (Sam), Hayley Burgess (Clarice), Anne E. Thompson (Sharlene) and Heather Chrisler (Jaycee) in Twilight Bowl by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Erica Weiss at Goodman Theatre (September 24 – October 8, 2017). GoodmanTheatre.org/TwilightBowl

Author: Cody Nieset

Email: press@goodmantheatre.org

Category: Production Photos