Here’s the press release from AROT (updated August 13, 2009):
A Red Orchid Theatre’s 2009-2010 Season to feature
The World Premiere of Craig Wright’s Mistakes Were Made
Featuring Oscar Nominee Michael Shannon;
Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party
and the return of the holiday hit,
A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant
CHICAGO, IL—A Red Orchid proudly announces its revised 2009-2010 season, featuring the World Premiere of Craig Wright’sMistakes Were Made, directed by Dexter Bullard and featuring Ensemble Member and Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon and Ensemble Member Mierka Girten; the return of the smash holiday hit, A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageantfeaturing members of the A Red Orchid Youth Ensemble & guests; and Academy Award nominee and Palme d’Or winner Mike Leigh’sAbigail’s Party, directed by Shade Murray, to feature an all-Ensemble cast.
Flexible Season Subscriptions are on sale now through the A Red Orchid box office,
Featuring Ensemble Members Michael Shannon and Mierka Girten
Legendary producer Felix Artifex gets in way over his fast-talking head when he takes on Mistakes Were Made, the first World Premiere of his long and chequered career. Mistakes is a gargantuan epic of the French Revolution which Felix thinks is going to be his ticket to professional and personal redemption. A compact gem of philosophy and funny-business from Craig Wright, the Emmy-nominated writer of Six Feet Under and the award-winning playwright of Lady, Grace, and The Pavilion.
A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant
Featuring members of the A Red Orchid Youth Ensemble & more
A Red Orchid’s first holiday offering and smash hit returns! Based on the tremendous critical and artistic success of last year’s Chicago Premiere, the Pageant is back. With many of the original cast members as well as new faces on stage, this year’s production promises to be “hugely entertaining, surprisingly enlightening and just a bit disturbing”. An anonymous company of merry children gather on a cold winter night to rejoice in telling the story of Scientology founder and hero L. Ron Hubbard. This satiricalmusical explores the magic of Dianetics, the fascinating E-meter, the immortal Thetans, and the entrancing story of Xenu with the straightest of faces.
With the closing of the 08-09 Chicago Premiere of A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant, the A Red Orchid Youth Ensemble was formed. All ten talented and enthusiastic members of the 2008 Pageant cast remain active members of the Youth Ensemble; gathering once a week for skill development, professional coaching and the development of an ensemble piece of their creation. The A Red Orchid Youth Ensemble includes Chaz Allen, Najwa Brown, Jackson Challinor, Jaiden Fallo, Paola Lehman, Melanie Neilan, Adam Rebora, Kara Ryan, Elenna Sindler and Aria Szalai-Raymond and meets under the direction of Steve Wilson and Larry Grimm.
Abigail’s Party
By Mike Leigh
Directed by Shade Murray
February 4- March 28, 2010
Opening Night TBA
Featuring an All-Ensemble Cast
A domestic cocktail party goes hilariously and horrifically awry exposing the obsessions, prejudices and petty competitiveness of the party-goers. A suburbancomedyof manners, and satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the 1970s. The play, developed through lengthy improvisations in which Mike Leigh explored the characters with actors, provides a tremendous opportunity for the entire creative team.
About A Red Orchid
Since 1993 A Red Orchid Theatre has been an artistic mainstay of the Chicago theatre community; known and praised for its powerful ensemble, creative design and its gripping, intimate productions. The resident Ensemble maintains the conviction that passionately committed theatre will draw passionately committed audiences, and the 2009-2010 subscription season promises to bring Ensemble and audience even closer together.
A Red Orchid Theatre is: Lance Baker, Dado, Jennifer Engstrom, Kirsten Fitzgerald, Joseph Fosco, Steve Haggard, Mierka Girten, Larry Grimm, Karen Kawa, Karen Kessler, Danny McCarthy, Brett Neveu, Michael Shannon, Guy Van Swearingen, Doug Vickers and Tiffany Wilson.
The A Red Orchid Youth Ensemble includes: Chaz Allen, Najwa Brown, Jackson Chalinor, Jaiden Falllo, Paola Lehman, Melanie Nielan, Adam Rebora, Kara Ryan, Elenna Sindler and Aria Szalai-Raymond.
The 2009-2010 Season is dedicated in loving memory of, and with many thanks to, Donald Shannon, who has provided invaluable guidance and energy as an Advisory Board member since the beginning.
Dueling in Dystopia: A Review of "Last Hermanos" at A Red Orchid Theatre Two Mexican American brothers who've grown up separately in the United States are together on the run, hoping to make it across the border to Mexico and escape the unfriendly confines that our country has become in a not-too-distant dystopian future.
