Sarah Clark (Solveig, Nora, etc.) is so happy to be performing at this beautiful theatre. It is an honor to work with these incredibly talented performers again. Sarah has just returned from upstate New York where she worked on an hour-long adaptation of the epic play Peer Gynt. Ibsen would've been proud. Sarah is a local theater artist who most recently performed in Desiree's Baby, based on the Kate Chopin story, at the Adler Danztheatre Festival. Sarah has been lucky enough to work with The Neo-Futurists, Pegasus Players, Fieldhouse Lab Inc., Box Theatre, Remy Bumppo, Theater Oobleck, and Live Bait. Sarah is currently writing a solo-piece about making choices/fantasy vs. reality. She thanks all of the awesome people who surround her...
Dina Connolly (Lady Inger, Hedda Gabler, etc.) has been a member of The Neo-Futurists since 2003, performing in Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind and co-curating the Neo-Futurists' annual summer festival of staged readings, It Came From The Neo-Futurarium! In May Dina wrote and performed in her first full-length solo show, Bernadine And Dina, as part of The Neo-Futurists' Neo-Solo. She also recently had the pleasure of performing in the remount of The Gift Theatre Company's The Glass Menagerie at Theater on the Lake. Dina has worked with The Journeymen, Theater Oobleck, Roadworks, Improv Olympic and TimeLine. Her work in film includes an appearance as Casey Affleck's fiancé in Ocean's Twelve. Dina is a 2004 Jeff Citation nominee for her performance as Millie Owens in Griffin Theatre Company's Picnic. Very special thanks to this incredible cast, and much love to the Connollys, RW and KD.
Joe Dempsey (Peer Gynt, Helmer, etc.) was recently seen in Gypsy at Ravinia with Patti Lupone, Half and Half at Victory Gardens, and Jolly and The Disappearance of the Jews at Goodman as part of the David Mamet Festival. His previous Northlight work includes The Second City’s Disgruntled Employee Handbook and Sex and The Second City, and All in the Timing. Joe has also acted at Apple Tree, Lookingglass, Remy Bumppo, About Face, St. Louis Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, and Madison Rep, and on the TV shows “E.R.,” “Early Edition,” and “What About Joan?” Joe is looking forward to his next show, Inherit the Wind, right here at Northlight.
Merrie Greenfield (Gerd, Mrs. Alving, etc.) Merrie's previous work with The Neo-Futurists includes two years in It Came from the Neo-Futurarium! She is thrilled to use her degree from University of Arizona 's BFA Acting/Directing program AND her experience leading the rebellious, celebrated Tucson sketch group Comedy Corner in one show. Most recently she created the protagonist Ruth in Jen Ellison's Invasion of the Minnesota Normals and was selected as one of ten storytellers for the 2006 SKALD competition. She was part of the New York Fringe Festival's Best Ensemble Award-winning Poseidon! An Upside-Down Musical and created the role of Camille Paglia for Sweetback's The Birds. An ensemble member with Hell in a Handbag and WNEP Theater, she has also worked with CollaborAction, Live Bait, Great Beast, Annoyance Productions, and Arizona Repertory Theater.
Michael Kingston (Maximus, Brand, etc.) is thoroughly tickled to be back with the kids for this Ibsen reunion. He has recently completed two shows for TimeLine Theatre— Guantanamo: Honor Bound To Defend Freedom and Fiorello! Other credits include shows for Hell in a Handbag, Porchlight Musical Theatre, Raven Theatre, the Apollo Theatre, and Emerald City Childrens’ Theatre. You can also look for him in Clock Productions’ indie film Chicago Store Front Theatre. Michael wishes to thank all the supportive sistahs, the folks at Northlight for this opportunity, and Patricia Victor for mentoring.
Steve Walker (Catiline, Oswald, etc.) has worked with The Neo-Futurists a number of times, most recently adapting, directing and narrating the staged reading of KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park for It Came from the Neofuturarium VI: Bride of the Neo-Futurarium. He is an Ensemble Member and former Artistic Director of The Factory Theater and a founding member of Hope and Nonthings Productions. Film credits include Stir Of Echoes and Dot.
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Greg Allen (Adaptor/Director) is thrilled to have this opportunity to bring his production of The Last Two Minutes... to Northlight. He is the founder of The Neo-Futurists and creator of over two dozen productions including the legendary Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind (30 Plays in 60 Minutes) which has been running every week in Chicago since the Reagan administration. His scripts include Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (a comedy to end all comedy), H20, A Child's History of Bombing (with Donovan Sherman), and K., his adaptation of Kafka's The Trial, which won him a Best Director Award at the New York International Fringe Festival as well as the After Dark Award for Outstanding New Production. His collaboration with Theater Oobleck, The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett as Found in an Envelope (partially burned) in a Dustbin in Paris Labeled "Never to be performed. Never. Ever. EVER! Or I'll Sue! I'LL SUE FROM THE GRAVE!!!" has enjoyed ten international productions including a three month UK tour and two off-Broadway revivals in 2006. His environmental collaborations—Boxing Joseph Cornell; A Duchampian Romp, even; Lear's Shadow and Crime & Punishment: A (mis)Guided Environmental Tour with Literary Pretensions— have seen long successful runs at his home Neo-Futurarium. A proud graduate of Oberlin College, Greg teaches residencies in Neo-Futurism at universities and theater programs across the country as well as in Chicago where he teaches playwriting at the University of Chicago.
Henrik Ibsen (1828 - 1906) grew up in small Norwegian towns by the sea with very little money, enlightenment, or sunshine. He ceased all formal education at the age of 15 to become a lonely, impoverished, over-worked pharmacist, something he called a "state of living death." At 18 he and a servant girl had an illegitimate son whom he never saw again. His first plays were abject failures that suffered only one or two performances, if his own theater company did not reject them outright. He later disowned them. At 30 he married Suzannah Thoresen, the woman who stood by him the rest of his life through alcoholism, attempted suicide, poverty, fame, and affairs with young women. At 36 he left Norway and lived in exile for the next 27 years. In Rome he published Brand, which won him great Scandinavian fame. After years of writing in verse, he broke from tradition and wrote his fifteenth script, Pillars of Society, in prose and gave it a contemporary domestic setting. This, followed by A Doll's House, Ghosts, and The Wild Duck, was such a stunning departure from established theater tradition that it won him the moniker "The Father of Modern Drama". He termed his final play, When We Dead Awaken, "a dramatic epilogue", suffered a series of strokes, and passed away in 1906 at the age of 78.
Jim Moore (Set Design) is happy to be working with Greg and The Neo-Futurists for the first time. He is a company member of The Hypocrites and has served as Technical Director and sometimes-designer since 2002. With them he has lead many builds, including Henry 5, Machinal, Happy Days, Balm in Gilead, Edward Gorey’s Dispirited Diversion for Christmas, Camille/La Traviata, Leonce und Lena, Equus, A Christmas Carol: A Radio Broadcast, The Glass Menagerie, and Angels in America: Millennium Approaches & Perestroika. Other Chicago companies he has worked with include Naked Eye, Rivendell, Seanachai, European Rep, Chicago Dramatists, Pegasus, Open Eye, Walkabout, 500 Clowns, Barrel of Monkeys, Ravenous Productions, and Plasticene. He is also the Technical Director of the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs Theater Department. Originally from Wyoming, Jim was lured to Florida by the love of track & field and the prospect of a good, affordable education. After being cut from the University of Florida Track Team, he received the latter in the form of a BA in Classical Languages and Literature from New College of Florida (where he translated and produced the Roman Comedy, Mostellaria of Titus Maccius Plautus). Thank you for supporting theater.
Diane D. Fairchild (Lighting Design) is excited to be working with Greg Allen and The Neo-Futurists. Design credits: Chicago: Court, Redmoon, Noble Fool, Infamous Commonwealth, Next; NYC: The Juilliard School, Dixon Place, The Kitchen, Joyce Soho, HERE, New Georges; Regional: INTIMAN Theatre, Trinity Repertory, Syracuse Stage. Ms. Fairchild holds an MFA in theater design from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and she earned her BFA in design and technology for the theater from Wright State University in her hometown, Dayton, Ohio. Much thanks and love to F.L. and Baby Xan.
Alison Heryer (Costume Design) loves to design costumes. Her work is frequently seen at Roosevelt University , where she also teaches. She’s worked regularly with Steppenwolf where her credits include A Lesson Before Dying, Orange Flower Water, The Fall to Earth, World Set Free, and most recently The Bluest Eye. As an artistic associate of Redmoon Theater she has collaborated on many spectacle events, including an adaptation of Chekov’s Seagull. Other favorites include House of Bernarda Alba with Greasy Joan & Company, Red Scare with Second City, The Ubu Plays at Roosevelt, Lot’s Wife with Local Infinities, and Angel City with American Theater Company.
LaRonika Thomas (Dramaturg) An Indiana transplant, LaRonika has made Chicago her home for the past three years. The Director of Education at Writers’ Theatre, as well as a freelance dramaturg, LaRonika was the dramaturg on the original production of The Last Two Minutes.... She has worked with Greg since 2003 and is looking forward to collaborating with him once again on You Asked For It! this coming winter. As the Literary Manager at Stage Left Theatre, LaRonika was a 2005 recipient of an LMDA Residency Grant for her work there. This spring, she became both an ensemble member at Stage Left Theatre and the Regional VP for Metro Chicago for LMDA. As a freelancer, she has worked at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, Stockyards Theatre Project and Chicago Theatre for Youth Audiences. LaRonika holds an MA in Theatre from Purdue University , and a BA in Theatre and Anthropology from Indiana University.
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