Rock 'N' Roll by four-time Tony Award winner Tom Stoppard-"triumphant…arguably Stoppard's finest play" (New York Times)-directed by Charles Newell, artistic director of Chicago's Court Theatre; and The Crowd You're In With by Rebecca Gilman, "a delightfully funny and thought-provoking new play" (San Franscisco Chronicle) directed by Wendy C. Goldberg, artistic director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference in Waterford, Connecticut.
The Goodman production of both of these plays marks their Midwest premieres, and both directors make their Goodman Theatre directorial debut. Rock 'N' Roll and The Crowd You're In With join Goodman Theatre's 2008/2009 season with the previously announced Turn of the Century by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, directed by Tommy Tune; Ruined by Lynn Nottage, directed by Kate Whoriskey; Yohen by Philip Kan Gotanda, directed by Steve Scott; Ghostwritten by Naomi Iizuka, directed by Lisa Portes; and Desire Under the Elms by Eugene O'Neill, directed by Robert Falls and featuring Brian Dennehy, as part of a Eugene O'Neill celebration. Still to be announced are two plays in the new season.
"It's thrilling to welcome back both Tom Stoppard and Rebecca Gilman-two very different but distinctly bold, smart voices of incredible creative depth-to the Goodman," said Artistic Director Robert Falls. "I'm excited to produce the Chicago premiere of both plays, two works which nicely complement the other offerings of our 2008/2009 season."
About the Plays and Artists
Rock 'N' Roll, By Tom Stoppard, Directed by Charles Newell
In the Albert Theatre, Spring 2009
Direct from a record-breaking run on Broadway and in London's West End, Rock 'N' Roll is a theatrical event. It's August 1968, and Russian tanks are rolling into Prague... Jan, the Czech student, lives for rock music; Max, the English professor, lives for Communism; and Esme, the flower child, is high. By 1990, the tanks are rolling out, the Stones are rolling in and idealism has hit the wall. Stoppard's sweeping and passionate play spans two countries, three generations and 22 turbulent years, at the end of which, love remains-and so does rock 'n' roll.
Playwright Tom Stoppard's work was last seen at Goodman Theatre in the 1995/1996 season with a production of Arcadia directed by Michael Maggio. His body of work includes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Jumpers, The Real Inspector Hound, Travesties, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Dirty Linen, Night and Day, The Real Thing, Artist Descending a Staircase, Hapgood, Arcadia, The Invention of Love and, most recently, his trilogy The Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center, which won seven Tony Awards. His other plays include Indian Ink and After Magritte. Translations and adaptations include Undiscovered Country (Schnitzler), On the Razzle (Nestroy), Rough Crossing (Molnar), Henry IV (Pirandello) and Heroes (Sibleyras). Screenplays as writer and co-writer include Brazil, Empire of the Sun, Enigma and Shakespeare in Love, which won him an Oscar and a BAFTA award. He directed his own screenplay of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which won the Golden Lion and the Venice Film Festival. Director Charles Newell has been Artistic Director of Court Theatre, where he has directed over 30 productions, since 1994. He made his Chicago directorial debut in 1993 with The Triumph of Love, which won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Production. Directorial credits at Court include Titus Andronicus, Arcadia, Uncle Vanya, Raisin, The Glass Menagerie, Man of La Mancha, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Hamlet, The Invention of Love, and Nora. Newell has also directed at the Guthrie Theater (The History Cycle, Cymbeline), Arena Stage, John Houseman's The Acting Company, the California and Alabama Shakespeare Festivals, Juilliard, and New York University.
The Crowd You're in With, By Rebecca Gilman, Directed by Wendy C. Goldberg
In the Owen Theatre, Spring 2009
A backyard barbeque is the perfect place to tackle life's big questions: Is the chicken done? Does the band need a new tune? Is this the right time to have a baby? Rebecca Gilman's fresh and moving new play takes an intimate look at modern families, friendships and the ins and outs of love. The Crowd You're in With was chosen for the 2007 Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference and premiered at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco in 2007.
Playwright Rebecca Gilman returns to Goodman Theatre where her plays Dollhouse, Spinning Into Butter, Boy Gets Girl and Blue Surge enjoyed their world premiere productions. Gilman's other plays include The Sweetest Swing in Baseball and The Glory of Living, which was named a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize. Her plays have been produced at theaters across the country and abroad, including Goodman Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre, Joseph Papp's Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club and Manhattan Class Company. Awards and prizes include a Guggenheim Fellowship, 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, and The George Devine Award. Gilman is a resident playwright at the Chicago Dramatists Workshop and teaches playwriting in the MFA program for Writing for the Screen and Stage at Northwestern University. Director Wendy C. Goldberg is in her fourth season as Artistic Director of the National Playwrights Conference at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, where she directed The Crowd You're in With. Other recent directing credits include: the world premiere of Deathbed, Doubt (co-production with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Actors Theater of Louisville) Third and The Sweetest Swing in Baseball. For five seasons, Goldberg served as Artistic Associate at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., where she conceived and led downstairs in the Old Vat Room, an artistic initiative dedicated to the development of new American plays.
Turn of the Century, By Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, Directed by Tommy Tune
Fall 2008 - dates TBA
Nine-time Tony Award winner and National Medal of the Arts recipient Tommy Tune directs the world premiere of the musical Turn of the Century, a romantic comedy and trip through time and the American songbook from the writers of the Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys-Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. Dixie Wilson's a singer who can't catch a break-with a gig or a guy. Billy Clark's a piano player who knows the songs and loves the ladies. The friction between them is immediate; so is the chemistry. At the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve 1999, the impossible happens-and together, Billy and Dixie steal the songs that make the whole world sing, becoming the superstars they've always dreamed of being, at the Turn of the Century.
Ruined, By Lynn Nottage, Directed by Kate Whoriskey
Fall 2008 - dates TBA
MacArthur Foundation Fellowship winner Lynn Nottage returns to Chicago with her Goodman commission, Ruined, which the theater workshopped and produced as part of the 2007 New Stages Series. Set in the present day Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ruined centers around Mama Nadi, a savvy businesswoman who, in the midst of a complex civil war, protects and profits from the women whose bodies have become a battleground. Nottage's work was last seen at the Goodman in 2006-Crumbs from the Table of Joy directed by Chuck Smith.
Yohen, By Philip Kan Gotanda, Directed by Steve Scott, Produced in association with Silk Road Theatre Project
September 18 - November 2, 2008
Performed at Silk Road Theatre, 77 W. Washington St., Chicago, IL
A divorced Japanese woman and an African American GI meet in post-World War II Japan, fall in love, and marry. After nearly four decades of defending their relationship against prevailing prejudices, they now live in a quiet, accepting Los Angeles suburb. Their seemingly durable marriage, however, is in danger and the things that originally brought them together now threaten to tear them apart. More than a study of clashing cultures, Yohen is a poetically resonant story of two partners who discover that as environments change, so do intimate relationships-and love, however time-tested, is never a constant.
Desire Under the Elms and a showcase of Eugene O'Neill in the 21st century, Directed by Robert Falls, Featuring Brian Dennehy
Winter 2009 - dates TBA
Artistic Director Robert Falls' history with Eugene O'Neill has spanned four landmark productions: The Iceman Cometh (1990), A Touch of the Poet (1996), Long Day's Journey Into Night (2002) and Hughie (2004). His 2009 production of Desire Under the Elms starring Brian Dennehy will be the centerpiece of a showcase of O'Neill's work as it is being interpreted today.
Sparked by the dark hollows and brilliant imaginings of his subconscious, master playwright Eugene O'Neill conceived Desire Under the Elms as he slept one night, resulting in a work with the powerful emotional pitch of a fever dream. Elder Ephraim Cabot returns to his remote New England farm with his third wife-the young, alluring, headstrong Abbie-setting his three disapproving grown sons on an emotional rollercoaster and bitter fight for their inheritance. When Ephraim's youngest son Eben sets his sights on Abbie, the resulting tempest brings tragic consequences. First produced in 1924, Desire Under the Elms hauntingly mingles love and loathing, and has been praised for its "poetry and terrible beauty"(The New York Times).
Ghostwritten, By Naomi Iizuka
Spring 2009 - dates TBD
An American woman goes to Southeast Asia and strikes a bargain with a mysterious stranger. Twenty years later, she's become an acclaimed chef specializing in Asian cuisine with an adopted Vietnamese-born daughter and a life that is successful beyond her wildest dreams-until the stranger from her past reappears to collect on an old debt. Into her life the stranger from her past reappears to collect on an old debt. A striking reimagining of the tale of Rumplestiltskin, Ghostwritten explores the relationship between America and Southeast Asia, unearthing the wounds of the Vietnam War, and uncovering what it means to come face to face with the ghosts of your past. -- www.goodmantheatre.org
