City Lit announces 2010-2011 season

Here’s the press release from City Lit:

CITY LIT THEATER ANNOUNCES 2010-2011 SEASON

31^st SEASON WILL FEATURE WORLD PREMIERE SHERLOCK HOLMES ADAPTATION, REMOUNT OF 2009 HIT THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, FIRST SHOW IN FIVE-YEAR CIVIL WAR SERIES, PLUS WORKS BY BRIAN FRIEL, WASHINGTON IRVING AND  BEN JONSON

World premiere adaptations of both a Sherlock Holmes novel and a Washington Irving short story,  the first Chicago revival in many years of a modern Irish classic, the greatest non-Shakespeare comedy of the English Renaissance, the first production in a projected five-year series of City Lit shows commemorating the sesquicentennial years of the Civil War, and the remount of last year’s successful holiday musical make up City Lit Theater’s 2010-2011 season, artistic director Terry McCabe announced today.  The season, City Lit’s thirty-first, will consist of a four-show subscription series plus two non-subscription family shows.  The subscription offerings are Lovers by Brian Friel, Volpone by Ben Jonson, The Copperhead by Augustus Thomas, and The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle.  The non-subscription shows are a City Lit world premiere adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, set to run in the weeks leading up to Hallowe’en, and the second year of Douglas Post’s musical adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows during the holidays.

“We begin our fourth decade with a particularly swell season,” McCabe said.  “Lovers is one of Brian Friel’s great plays.  It’s been overshadowed in recent years by the magnificence of his Translations and Dancing at Lughnasa, but there are few plays as beautiful and funny and heartbreaking as it is.”

Lovers begins previews on Friday, August 27, and runs through Sunday, October 3.  Press opening is Tuesday, August 31, at 7:00 p.m.

“Volpone, on the other hand, is funny in a way that has nothing heartbreaking about it,” McCabe added.  “It’s savagely funny.  It’s funny for the same reason Warner Brothers cartoons are funny:  the characters want each other dead.  Sylvester wants to eat Tweety Pie, and in Jonson’s play, Corbaccio, Voltore and Corvino all hope to feast off Volpone’s corpse.    If Shakespeare had never been born, Renaissance London would still have provided the richest theatre scene in the history of the English language, and this play is one reason that’s so.”

Volpone begins previews on Friday, January 21, 2011, and runs through Sunday February 27.  Press opening is Tuesday, January 25, at 7:00 p.m.

“This season also begins a long-term project for City Lit. The years 2011 through 2015 are the sesquicentennial years of the Civil War, and in April of each of those years we will produce a show that relates in some way to the war.  The series begins with The Copperhead, the play that made Lionel Barrymore a star in 1918.  ‘Copperhead’ was the name given to any Northerner who harbored Southern sympathies; in the play, an Illinois man becomes known as such in the early days of the war, and lives estranged from his community by that reputation for forty years.”

The Copperhead begins previews on Friday, April 8 and runs through Sunday May 15.  Press opening is Tuesday, April 12, at 7:00 p.m.

“The Sign of the Four will be our third Sherlock Holmes adaptation in five years.  We have not consciously planned to produce a series of them, but the stories have proven impossible for us to resist, and Don Bender is a wonderful Holmes.  Along with The Hound of the Baskervilles, this is one of the two best Holmes novels: along with its story of murder and lost treasure and poisoned darts, it introduces both Holmes’s cocaine use and Watson’s marriage.”

The Sign of the Four begins previews on Friday, May 27, and runs through Sunday July 3.  Press opening is Tuesday, May 31, at 7:00 p.m.

“In addition to the subscription series,” McCabe concluded, “we look forward to our two non-subscription family shows: the story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for Hallowe’en, and our year two of Douglas Post’s terrific musical of The Wind in the Willowsover Christmas and New Year’s.”

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow begins previews on Friday, October 14, and runs through Sunday October 31.  Press opening is Sunday, October 17, at 7:00 p.m.

The Wind in the Willows begins previews on Friday, December 17, and runs through Sunday January 9.  Press opening is Tuesday, December 21, at 7:00 p.m.

City Lit Theater is located in the historic Edgewater Presbyterian Church building at 1020 West Bryn Mawr Avenue, one block west of Sheridan Road and a block and a half east of the Bryn Mawr Red Line L stop. The 84 Peterson bus, the 147 Lake Shore Express bus, and the 151 Sheridan bus all stop near City Lit. Valet parking is available for theatre customers at Francesca’s Restaurant, located across the street from City Lit.  Also, discounted parking is available for theatre customers with validation from the Edgewater Beach Café, located one block east of the theatre.

City Lit specializes in literate theatre, including stage adaptations of literary material.  Its work during 2010-2011 is supported in part by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs CityArts program, the Alphawood Foundation, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.  Its outreach program is sponsored in part by A.R.T. League.  For subscription information, call 773/293-3682.