Press Room

Welcome to the Press Room!

•Click this link for a PDF version of the LEAPFEST release-Release_LFX_Final

•Click this link for a PDF version of theRABBIT release-Release_Rabbit

•For High-Resolution photos from Season 31 – Click Here

For Immediate Release
Stage Left Theatre Company ● 3408 N. Sheffield, Chicago, IL  60657
773.883.8830 phone ● www.stagelefttheatre.com
Press Contact:  Vance Smith, 773-677-6398, vance@stagelefttheatre.com

Chicago Cultural Center Presents

Stage Left Theatre’s

LEAPFEST 10

A Downstage Left Festival of New Work

at The Storefront Theater

June 11 – 30, 2013

Chicago, May 10, 2013– Stage Left Theatre is proud to partner with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events to present LeapFest 10, Stage Left’s annual new-play festival, at the Storefront Theater (66 E Randolph), running June 11 – 30, 2013.  LeapFest is an annual event featuring several new plays with socio-political themes, presented as workshop productions in rotating repertory. This year’s festival includes new works from Scott Barsotti, Steven Haworth, Kristin Idaszak, Jayme McGhan, Steven Simoncic and Katie Watson. 

The festival’s name stems from the Downstage Left logo, which features a frog about to “take the leap.”  The three-week event is designed to help playwrights and their plays bridge the gap between development and full production. To further this objective, the festival features an extensive rehearsal process for each play, multiple workshop performances before the public, and post-show audience discussions after each performance. In addition to our general audiences, regional theater producers and artistic directors are invited to attend the festival in order to get an advance look at some of the best new plays in the country.

First Night

Stage Left will kick off LeapFest 10 with its First Night celebration on Tuesday, June 11 at The Storefront Theater (66 E Randolph). The event begins at 7:00, with a preview of the six plays to begin at 7:30. Join the playwrights, directors, cast, designers, members of the Stage Left ensemble, and our friends and supporters for a free meet-and-greet event. 

Tickets, LeapPASS & General Information

LeapFest 10 will be performed at the Storefront Theater at 66 E. Randolph in Chicago. Tickets and information for all events are available by calling 800.595.4849 or online at www.stagelefttheatre.com. Single tickets for LeapFest performances are $11 each. Patrons can save by purchasing a LeapPASS for $25.  The LeapPASS entitles the bearer to full access to all LeapFest shows and special events.

Detailed performance schedules and information on the plays are provided below. The theater is handicapped and CTA accessible via Randolph/Wabash El Stop (Brown, Green, Orange, Pink, & Purple)

While the workshop productions and plays are still in development and therefore not open for critical review, press coverage of this unique festival program and its significant history of success in refining, showcasing and placing new plays is welcome. Please contact Vance Smith at 773.883.8830 (office), 773-677-6398 (cell) or vance@stagelefttheatre.com to arrange interviews and receive additional background material. This release and archived releases will be available at stagelefttheatre.com/press.html 

The LeapFest 10 Plays and Performance Schedule

AUTONOMY
by Jayme McGhan*
directed by Artistic Director Vance Smith
Fri. 6/14 @7:30pm, Thur 6/20 @7:30pm, Sun 6/30 @ 2pm
A world famous atheist and professor of physics prepares for the release of her much-anticipated book, which is supposed to definitively disprove the existence of God. But there’s something startling about her past and present in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood that is causing her to reconsider her belief in Autonomy. 

BLUE/WHITNEY
by Steven Haworth
directed by Greg Werstler*
Sat 6/15 @7:30pm, Sun 6/23 @2pm, Thur 6/27 @7:30pm
In order to learn about the murdered runaway daughter she never really knew, a wealthy white suburban woman bails out the black city kid accused of the crime.

BROKEN FENCES
by Steven Simoncic
directed by Ann Filmer and Ilesa Duncan
presented in association with 16th Street Theater
Sun 6/16 @7:30pm, Sat 6/22 @7:30pm, Friday 6/28 @7:30pm
As a West Side neighborhood gentrifies, property taxes rise and Hoody and D struggle to keep the only home they have ever known. But when April and Czar buy the house next door, the very definition of home is called into question.

OPEN BOOK
by Katie Watson
directed by Scott Bishop*
Thur 6/13 @7:30pm, Sat 6/22 @2pm, Sat 6/29 @7:30pm
A hipster essayist moves into the Wyoming Governor’s mansion to write the memoir of an aging actor-turned-politician, and opposites attract. But what Lorelei learns about Governor Hawk’s past is the story she’s really dying to tell. Are any of us who we say we are?

THE LIAR PARADOX
by Kristin Idaszak
directed by Katie Horwitz*
Fri 6/21 @7:30pm, Sat 6/29 @2pm
On New Year’s Eve, a catastrophic car accident leaves Marissa’s twin sister in a coma and her best friend dead. In the wake of this personal tragedy, all three of the young women’s secrets start to come to light, calling into question their identities in a multitude of ways.

YOUR TEACHER IS OUT TODAY
by Scott T. Barsotti
directed by Drew Martin*
Sat 6/15@2pm
Henry is an FBI agent who knows the world is full of monsters; immediately following the arrest of one such monster (a teacher removed directly from his classroom), he takes it upon himself to speak to the perp’s students. In trying to ease their minds, Henry gives them much more to think about.

*Stage Left Theatre company member

The LeapFest 10 Playwrights

Scott T. Barsotti is a playwright and performer originally from Pittsburgh, PA. Scott’s plays include Kill Me, The Revenants, Jet Black Chevrolet, Brewed, McMeekin Finds Out, Facing Angela and adaptations of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Body Snatcher, H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and Geoffrey Hayes’ children’s book The Mystery of the Pirate Ghost.  His work has been produced/developed at theatres nationwide, including WildClaw Theatre, Curious Theatre Branch, Lifeline Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, The Route 66 Theatre Company, Pittsburgh Playwrights, Tympanic Theatre Company, Happy Medium Theatre Company, and The Visceral Company among others; he is the featured playwright of The Ruckus Theater’s 2013 season.  Scott is also an actor and movement designer, a company member of WildClaw Theatre and Curious Theatre Branch, and a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists. His work can be found online at http://scottbarsotti.wordpress.com.

Steven Haworth’s plays have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Oregon and New Zealand.  His play Fernando was a winner of both the 2011 Ashland New Play Festival in Ashland, OR; and the 2009 First Look Festival in Los Angeles.  He wrote [HOME] or The Quest for the Lost Tablet of Ur for Zoo District which received five LA Weekly Award, an Ovation and Garland nominations.  Haworth freely adapted Mikail Bulgakov’s Flight for the Open Fist Theatre in Los Angeles.  In New York his play Little Fishes was produced by Abingdon Theater, Dark Age (starring Richard Schiff) by Project 3 Ensemble Theatre, and The White Cave by Jesco Productions.  His plays have been developed by A.S.K. Theatreworks, Echo Theatre, Project 3, E.S.T. Los Angeles, Abingdon Theatre, Circle Rep, Circle West, ANPF, Open Fist, Soho ThinkTank, Carnegie Mellon Showcase of New Plays, and The Lark.  MFA in playwriting fromCarnegieMellonUniversity.  He is absolutely thrilled to be working with Stage Left and many thanks to all.

Kristin Idaszak has had her work produced or developed around Chicago at the DCA Incubator Series at the Studio Theatre, Steppenwolf Garage (with Caffeine Theatre), Chicago Dramatists, American Theatre Company, Theatre Seven, Vintage Theatre Collective, LiveWire Theatre, Collaboraction and Rasaka. Elsewhere around the country her work has been seen at Perishable Theatre (Providence, RI), The InkWell Theatre (Washington, DC) and Westmont College (Santa Barbara, CA, upcoming). She has been a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. She formerly served as Associate Artistic Director of Collaboraction and Associate Artistic Director/Literary Manager of Caffeine Theatre. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at the University of California, San Diego.

Jayme McGhan’s plays have been produced and developed across the country at such theatres as Irish Repertory Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Washington Shakespeare Company, Stage Left Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Mortar Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, Hot City Theatre, Yellow Tree Theatre, Cockroach Theatre, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, Forestburgh Playhouse, Southern Appalachian Repertory, Chased by an Elephant, and many more. He is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and an Associate Artist at Stage Left Theatre. His plays include The Fisherman, Mother Bear, Hellfire, The Methuselah Tree, In the Soundless Awe, The Sweet Stuff, and Damn the River Deep. Four of his plays are published. He is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Concordia University, Chicago and is the former Regional Representative of the Dramatists Guild to the Twin Cities. Jayme holds an M.F.A in Playwriting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Southwest Minnesota State University. He is blessed to be married to his beautiful wife, Julie.

Steven Simoncic’s past theatrical productions include Heat Wave, Words with C, Black Coffee, Day Care, The Space Behind Your Heart, A Moderate Threat, Something Blue, and Discovery Channel.  His plays have received productions, readings and workshops at The Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, The Side Project, Pegasus Players, The Soho Theatre in London and Stageplays Theatre in New York City.  His play, Once Upon a Time in Detroit was recently selected as a semi-finalist for the 2013 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference and is a finalist in the 2013 Dionysus Cup Festival at Polarity Ensemble in Chicago. His play, Toxic Donut, recently won the NAAA Playwriting Festival in London and received a staged reading at the Wright Theatre at The London Central School for Dramatics. Steven is currently a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists Theatre and the Writer in Residence at 16^th Street Theatre.

Katie Watson has been writing, performing, and directing improv and sketch comedy shows in Chicago for over ten years. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at the Second City Training Center, she has been a member of Sirens (the country’s longest-running all-female improv group) since 2000, and she is half of The History Girls (a duo offering current events commentary from the perspective of interesting dead people at the live magazine show Paper Machete). Katie’s first play, Pound of Flesh, received a staged reading with the Goodman Theatre in 2012 and a development process with Chicago’s Polarity Theater ensemble in its 2011 Dionysius Festival. In the other half of her life Katie is a professor of bioethics and medical humanities at Northwestern Medical School.

The LeapFest 10 Staff and Production Team

The LeapFest 10 production team includes Tara Malpass* (stage management), Kristin Steele* (production management), Kathy Arfkin (props design), Emma Deane (lighting design), Adam Smith* (sound design), kClare Kemock (costume design), Drew Martin* (projection design), Courtney Cales (assistant stage management), Julia Gray (production management intern), Zev Valancy* (literary management), Laura Przybysz* (literary associate)

*Stage Left Theatre company member

ABOUT STAGE LEFT

Founded in 1982, Stage Left Theatre is committed to nurturing voices for the American theatre by developing and producing plays that raise debate and challenge perspectives on political and social issues. Through a full subscription season and Downstage Left, one of Chicago’s most prolific new play development programs, Stage Left strives to bring high-quality new work and world premieres to the Chicago stage.

ABOUT CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER PRESENTS

Chicago Cultural Center Presents is an on-going performing arts series that showcases critically acclaimed local, national and international music, theater, dance and multi-disciplinary artists, newly commissioned works and debut performances at the Chicago Cultural Center, Millennium Park-The Jay Pritzker Pavilion, The Storefront Theater, and other venues.