Season 30, 2022-2023

Season 30: Disrupting the Cycle

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“Cycles make for familiar processes and helpful tools for growth. Cycles can also be harmful — destructive, even — and are perhaps best broken. There is a cycle of theatrical production, and while it would be easy to let that cycle become a bit of a hamster wheel — to do it all the same — not all stories, not all artists, and not all times call for the same processes.

I am thrilled to bring you two plays in our 30th year that dig into cycles and stepping off that hamster wheel in very different ways. Each of them interrogates what it means to survive and what we need to thrive. Through the epic journey of Is God Is and the hilarious and heartbreaking every-day of The Malignant Ampersands, we explore the breaking of cycles to reclaim both the narrative and the best of what lies ahead.

In the spirit of breaking cycles, we are very excited to make time for experimentation and incubation; time dedicated to joyful coming-together, risk taking, and the cultivation of new collaborations. There is great desire to examine artistic process, and I am thrilled to invite our patrons into the process earlier with opportunities to attend readings, open rehearsals, experimental performances, and conversations this winter.”

 – Kirsten Fitzgerald, Artistic Director, A Red Orchid Theatre

Season 30 Shows

Written by Ensemble Member Brett Neveu Directed by Ensemble Member Dado Performance Dates: October 6 - November 27, 2022 Press Performances: Saturday, October 15, 2022World Premiere!Playwright Brett Neveu returns to the A Red Orchid stage with this very unofficial sequel to Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons. A century ago, the Ampersands were a wealthy, thriving family. Now, their remaining descendants must struggle with the legacy of their persistent curse. A darkly funny and unsettling look at ancestry, sacrifice, and survival.

The Malignant Ampersands

Written by Ensemble Member Brett Neveu
Directed by Ensemble Member Dado
Performance Dates: October 6 – November 27, 2022
Press Performances: Saturday, October 15, 2022
World Premiere!
Playwright Brett Neveu returns to the A Red Orchid stage with this very unofficial sequel to Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons. A century ago, the Ampersands were a wealthy, thriving family. Now, their remaining descendants must struggle with the legacy of their persistent curse. A darkly funny and unsettling look at ancestry, sacrifice, and survival.
Performance Dates: Jan. 25 and Feb. 1, 13 & 27, 2023With our Winter 2023 Play Reading Series, A Red Orchid Theatre invites you to take a peek behind the curtain and see how our team goes about exploring a play. What gets our ensemble excited about a script? How do actors, directors, playwrights, and designers all approach the same text differently? What defines a quintessential A Red Orchid production?To recreate the warm ambience of these casual, cozy conversations, we’ve ventured outside of Wells Street and partnered with some new friends. Join us for a bite and a drink and let the words wash over you!

A Taste of Red winter reading series

Performance Dates: Jan. 25 and Feb. 1, 13 & 27, 2023

With our Winter 2023 Play Reading Series, A Red Orchid Theatre invites you to take a peek behind the curtain and see how our team goes about exploring a play. What gets our ensemble excited about a script? How do actors, directors, playwrights, and designers all approach the same text differently? What defines a quintessential A Red Orchid production?

To recreate the warm ambience of these casual, cozy conversations, we’ve ventured outside of Wells Street and partnered with some new friends. Join us for a bite and a drink and let the words wash over you!

Act Five Directed & devised by Ensemble Member dado Performance Dates: Feb. 15 & 22 and March 1, 8 & 9 What if the orchard was not destroyed, and we return years later to find our musicians still playing out there? In this exploration of an imagined Act Five of Chekhov's THE CHERRY ORCHARD, we finally get to meet and experience the offstage musicians in person. ACT FIVE will be shared with audiences via five performances at Facility Theatre.Reawakening Desire Directed & devised by Ensemble Member Shade Murray Performance Date: March 5 Leaning into the sexy, the giddy, and the heartbreaking of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, this project aims to investigate a world where desire is ignited in the most wonderfully unexpected ways. This workshop will culminate in a free, salon-style reading at A Red Orchid Theatre.

2023 Incubator Series

Act Five
Directed & devised by Ensemble Member dado
Performance Dates: Feb. 15 & 22 and March 1, 8 & 9
What if the orchard was not destroyed, and we return years later to find our musicians still playing out there? In this exploration of an imagined Act Five of Chekhov’s THE CHERRY ORCHARD, we finally get to meet and experience the offstage musicians in person. ACT FIVE will be shared with audiences via five performances at Facility Theatre.
Reawakening Desire
Directed & devised by Ensemble Member Shade Murray
Performance Date: March 5
Leaning into the sexy, the giddy, and the heartbreaking of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, this project aims to investigate a world where desire is ignited in the most wonderfully unexpected ways. This workshop will culminate in a free, salon-style reading at A Red Orchid Theatre.
Written by Aleshea Harris Directed by Marti Gobel Performance Dates: April 6 – May 28, 2023 Press Performances: Saturday April 15 Featuring Ensemble Member Karen Aldridge Chicago Premiere! When twins Racine and Anaia receive a letter from the mother they thought was dead, they swear to avenge her — and themselves — with blood. Their “mission from God” spans from the Dirty South to the California desert, from hip-hop to Afropunk, from ancient tragedy to the Spaghetti Western. Winner of the 2016 Relentless Award and the 2018 Obie Award for Playwriting, Is God Is asks us to consider the roots, futility, and inevitability of cyclical violence, and to question ourselves for wallowing so happily in stories that traffic in it.

Is God Is

Written by Aleshea Harris
Directed by Marti Gobel
Performance Dates: April 6 – May 28, 2023
Press Performances: Saturday April 15
Featuring Ensemble Member Karen Aldridge
Chicago Premiere!
When twins Racine and Anaia receive a letter from the mother they thought was dead, they swear to avenge her — and themselves — with blood. Their “mission from God” spans from the Dirty South to the California desert, from hip-hop to Afropunk, from ancient tragedy to the Spaghetti Western. Winner of the 2016 Relentless Award and the 2018 Obie Award for Playwriting, Is God Is asks us to consider the roots, futility, and inevitability of cyclical violence, and to question ourselves for wallowing so happily in stories that traffic in it.

Season 30: Disrupting the Cycle

arot_kirsten_1200x800

In the spirit of breaking cycles, we are very excited to make time for experimentation and incubation; time dedicated to joyful coming-together, risk taking, and the cultivation of new collaborations. There is great desire to examine artistic process, and I am thrilled to invite our patrons into the process earlier with opportunities to attend readings, open rehearsals, experimental performances, and conversations this winter.”

– Kirsten Fitzgerald, Artistic Director, A Red Orchid Theatre

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Season 30 Shows

Written by Ensemble Member Brett Neveu Directed by Ensemble Member Dado Performance Dates: October 6 - November 27, 2022 Press Performances: Saturday, October 15, 2022World Premiere!Playwright Brett Neveu returns to the A Red Orchid stage with this very unofficial sequel to Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons. A century ago, the Ampersands were a wealthy, thriving family. Now, their remaining descendants must struggle with the legacy of their persistent curse. A darkly funny and unsettling look at ancestry, sacrifice, and survival.

The Malignant Ampersands

Written by Ensemble Member Brett Neveu
Directed by Ensemble Member Dado
Performance Dates: October 6 – November 27, 2022
Press Performances: Saturday, October 15, 2022
World Premiere!
Playwright Brett Neveu returns to the A Red Orchid stage with this very unofficial sequel to Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons. A century ago, the Ampersands were a wealthy, thriving family. Now, their remaining descendants must struggle with the legacy of their persistent curse. A darkly funny and unsettling look at ancestry, sacrifice, and survival.
Written by Aleshea Harris Directed by Marti Gobel Performance Dates: April 6 – May 28, 2023 Press Performances: Saturday April 15 Featuring Ensemble Member Karen Aldridge Chicago Premiere! When twins Racine and Anaia receive a letter from the mother they thought was dead, they swear to avenge her — and themselves — with blood. Their “mission from God” spans from the Dirty South to the California desert, from hip-hop to Afropunk, from ancient tragedy to the Spaghetti Western. Winner of the 2016 Relentless Award and the 2018 Obie Award for Playwriting, Is God Is asks us to consider the roots, futility, and inevitability of cyclical violence, and to question ourselves for wallowing so happily in stories that traffic in it.

Is God Is

Written by Aleshea Harris
Directed by Marti Gobel
Performance Dates: April 6 – May 28, 2023
Press Performances: Saturday April 15
Featuring Ensemble Member Karen Aldridge
Chicago Premiere!
When twins Racine and Anaia receive a letter from the mother they thought was dead, they swear to avenge her — and themselves — with blood. Their “mission from God” spans from the Dirty South to the California desert, from hip-hop to Afropunk, from ancient tragedy to the Spaghetti Western. Winner of the 2016 Relentless Award and the 2018 Obie Award for Playwriting, Is God Is asks us to consider the roots, futility, and inevitability of cyclical violence, and to question ourselves for wallowing so happily in stories that traffic in it.