Chicago Premiere

November 1 – December 23, 2023

A comedic showdown between truth and fact set in the world of non-fiction publishing.

JIM FINGAL IS AN EAGER YOUNG INTERN at a high-profile magazine hoping to impress his demanding editor-in-chief, Emily Penrose. When assigned the job of fact-checking legendary writer John D’Agata’s essay about the city of Las Vegas, Jim discovers a huge problem: many of the essay’s details were made up. As the publication deadline looms, a battle between truth and fact ensues in a gripping and fast-paced comedic showdown.

Drawing from true events surrounding real-life Jim Fingal’s fact-checking of the John D’Agata essay “What Happens There,” The Lifespan of a Fact has been praised as “a smart and engaging exploration of the nature of truth and the role of the media in society,” (Chicago Tribune) and “a tightly written and expertly crafted play that keeps the audience riveted from start to finish” (The New York Times).

The book on which the play is based, The Lifespan of a Fact, received critical attention from national media including NPRThe New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. It was subsequently named a “Top 10 Most Crucial Book” by the editors of Slate, a “Best Book of the Year” by The Huffington Post, and an Editor’s Choice by The New York Times Book Review. 

The stage adaptation opened on Broadway in 2018, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Bobby Cannavale, and Cherry Jones.


CONTENT ADVISORY: To learn more about the specific content and themes of this production, please visit our content advisory page.

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May 10 – July 2, 2023

The first Chicago-based production of the Tony Award-nominated Pulitzer Prize finalist!

Fifteen-year-old Heidi earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In this hilarious, hopeful, and guttingly human debate-meets-play, she resurrects her teenage self in order to trace the relationship between four generations of women—all while grappling with the founding document that, for better and worse, shapes their lives.

What the Constitution Means to Me is a “slyly crafted piece of persuasion and a tangible contribution to the change it seeks” (The New York Times) and a “singularly charming, politically urgent and cathartically necessary play” (Los Angeles Times) that shows “how broad concepts of law and governance effect individual lives in the most intimate ways” (The Guardian)

A sensation upon its premiere at New York Theatre Workshop in 2018, What the Constitution Means to Me went on to a five-month Broadway run. TimeOut New York declared: “Here is something that every citizen must see. It’s theater in the old sense, the Greek sense, a place where civic society can come together and do its thinking and fixing and planning.”

Today, What the Constitution Means to Me is bound to feel even more relevant, profound, and searing than during its original run and Broadway debut. In the end, Shreck’s personal stories reflect our own, as does her passion, her laughter, and her outrage at a document that deserves to be challenged as much as it is upheld.

“Here is something that every citizen must see”


HEALTH AND SAFETY: TimeLine is currently requiring mask-wearing at all Thursday evening, Sunday matinee, and Distanced Seating performances of What the Constitution Means to Me. While masking is no longer required at most performances, TimeLine will support an individual’s choice to mask. For more information, please visit our Health & Safety policies.


CONTENT ADVISORY: To learn more about the specific content and themes of this production, please visit our content advisory page.

What the Constitution Means to Me runs approximately 1 hour, 40 minutes with no intermission

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World Premiere

August 3 - September 25, 2022

Based on the true story of Leone Baxter and Clem Whitaker, who formed the first political consulting firm in U.S. history, Campaigns, Inc. is a hysterical and jaw-dropping inside look at the underbelly of politics through the lens of two of the undeniable founders of “fake news.”

IT IS 1934, and famous novelist Upton Sinclair is all but guaranteed to become the first Democratic governor of the state of California—until a young, unknown pair of consultants from the shadows of the challenger’s campaign attempt to take him down. As Frank Merriam and Sinclair battle it out in the spotlight—seeking endorsements from the likes of Charlie Chaplin and FDR—Baxter and Whitaker work behind-the-scenes to methodically construct one of the most spectacular, unbelievable, and star-studded smear campaigns ever.

This world premiere play was developed through TimeLine’s Playwrights Collective, launched in 2013 to support Chicago-based playwrights in residence and create new work centered on TimeLine’s mission. Campaigns, Inc. is the third play developed through the Collective to receive a full production, following Brett Neveu’s To Catch a Fish (2018) and Tyla Abercrumbie’s Relentless (TimeLine and Goodman Theatre, 2022). Campaigns, Inc. received its first public reading as part of our inaugural First Draft Playwrights Collective Festival in 2018.

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Wednesday, October 21 at 7:30pm

Although TimeLine’s production of Campaigns, Inc. has been postponed, we can still start the conversation!

Set in 1934, Campaigns, Inc. follows The Jungle novelist Upton Sinclair as he is challenged in his bid to be the first Democratic governor of California, exposing a timely true story about the power that persuasion, deceit, and perception hold in the U.S. electoral system.

This live virtual event will feature playwright Will Allan, dramaturg Maren Robinson, and special guest speaker Jessica Lee (Snopes.com) in a panel discussion exploring a notable early example of “fake news” and how we got from there to today’s political climate. Introduced by director Nick Bowling and moderated by TimeLine Company Member Anish Jethmalani, the event will also feature scenes from the play performed by cast members Charles Andrew Gardner, Terry Hamilton, Larry Baldacci, and Tyler Meredith.

This FREE & one-night-only event will be presented live on YouTube.

If you want to let us know you plan to watch, you can still register via the “Buy Tickets” link below. But there are no tickets required to watch the livestream. Just settle in via your preferred viewing platform before 7:30pm (CDT), and enjoy!

Watch the Livestream

TO MASTER THE ART Online Discussion

Thursday, June 11 at 6pm (CST)

In conjunction with remote view performances of To Master the Art, TimeLine is offering opportunities for anyone who has seen the production to gather via a Zoom online video conference with members of the artistic team in a conversation moderated by dramaturg Maren Robinson.

This discussion is FREE, and will last for one hour.

Participating artists at this discussion (to date) include playwrights William Brown and Doug Frew, plus cast members Jeannie Affelder and Ian Paul Custer.

REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED! Details about how to participate will be shared only with those who register.

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May 12 - June 7, 2020 (remote viewing)

This hit production, which recalls the adventure and romance of Julia and Paul Child’s journey of discovery to Paris during the 1950s, is now offered for a limited time via online video streaming.

MORE ABOUT REMOTE VIEWING

From the French bistro where Julia Child fell in love with food, to the kitchen table where she recreated everything learned during cooking class, to a room where Paul was grilled by U.S. agents about alleged Communist contact, To Master the Art is the story of a larger-than-life culinary icon and her remarkable husband as they struggle to find themselves as Americans abroad.

Commissioned by TimeLine in 2008, To Master the Art received its world premiere at TimeLine in 2010, selling out its 8-week run within days and receiving more than 20 rave reviews and five Jeff Award nominations, including New Work and Production. The production was remounted in 2013 at the Broadway Playhouse via the Chicago Commercial Collective, Broadway In Chicago, and producers Brian Loevner and Aurélia F. Cohen. The video that will stream during this remote viewing run was filmed during the 2013 production.

During its two previous Chicago runs, To Master the Art was acclaimed as “an excellent, intimate, foodie-friendly staging, resonant with atmosphere and the kind of classic, cozy, autumnal kitchen ambiance that makes one want to swear off takeout food from this moment forth” by the Chicago Tribune, and “a total delight—funny, touching, charming and as enjoyable as an exquisite meal enjoyed together with good company” by Talkin’ Broadway. And Woditsch’s performance as Julia Child was declared “magnificent” and “a piece of acting not to be missed” (Chicago Tribune) and “so absolutely perfect … that we left the theater discussing the possibility that she is actually a better Julia Child than [Meryl] Streep” (Newcity).

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TO MASTER THE ART Online Discussion

Wednesday, June 3 at 6pm (CST)

In conjunction with remote view performances of To Master the Art, TimeLine is offering opportunities for anyone who has seen the production to gather via a Zoom online video conference with members of the artistic team in a conversation moderated by dramaturg Maren Robinson.

This discussion is FREE, and will last for one hour.

Participating artists at this discussion include co-playwright Doug Frew, plus cast members Jeannie Affelder and Heidi Kettenring, lighting designer Charles Cooper, and producer Brian Loevner.

This event has already occurred and registration is no longer available.

 

TO MASTER THE ART Online Discussion

Tuesday, May 26 at 6pm (CST)

In conjunction with remote view performances of To Master the Art, TimeLine is offering opportunities for anyone who has seen the production to gather via a Zoom online video conference with members of the artistic team in a conversation moderated by dramaturg Maren Robinson.

This discussion is FREE, and will last for one hour.

Participating artists at this discussion (to date) include co-playwright Doug Frew, plus cast members Jeannie Affelder, TimeLine Associate Artist Terry Hamilton, and Brian Plocharczyk.

This event has already occurred and registration is no longer available.

Chicago Premiere

November 6, 2019 - January 12, 2020

Named one of the “100 plays of the century” by the Royal National Theatre, Githa Sowerby’s rarely produced family drama is a smart and absorbing twist on a woman’s “place” in a male dominated society.

In the industrial north of England in 1912, the patriarch of the Rutherford family has spent decades building a respected glass works company to pass on to his children, without any say from them. Caught between passion, purpose, and expectation, John, Richard, and Janet struggle to break free from an oppressive and narrow-minded father dead set on writing their stories himself. Less entangled by these family expectations and with ambitions to give her son the life he deserves, John’s young wife Mary is determined to upend the cycle, whatever it takes.

Playing on the conventions of the period with wit and creative edge, Rutherford and Son is a play ahead of its time, asking us to question if our “place” in life should be anything but what we ourselves determine it to be.

The estimated run time is 2 hours and 10 minutes, including one intermission.
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Chicago Premiere

September 10 - October 20, 2019

“A riveting political thriller.”
— Associated Press

Don’t miss TimeLine’s Chicago premiere of the 2017 Tony Award® winner for Best Play—a remarkable story about the unlikely friendships, quiet heroics, and sheer determination that pushed two foes to reach something neither thought truly possible—peace.

When the Israeli prime minister and the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization shook hands on the White House lawn in 1993, the world had no idea what it took to orchestrate that momentous occasion. Behind the scenes, a Norwegian diplomat and her social scientist husband hatched an intricate, top secret, and sometimes comical scheme to gather an unexpected assortment of players at an idyllic estate just outside Oslo. Far from any international glare, mortal enemies were able to face each other not as adversaries, but as fellow human beings.

J.T. Roger’s’ Oslo is a humorous, surprising, and inspiring true story about the people inside politics, and the incredible progress that is possible when we focus on what makes us human—together.

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October 19 - December 9, 2018

This glorious, raw, and bittersweet look at one of opera’s most formidable talents was the Tony Award winner for Best Play in 1996.

Witness a master class conducted by legendary opera diva Maria Callas. Glamorous and demanding, Callas critiques and regales a new crop of opera’s finest. Both frustrated and amazed by the students thrust before her, she escapes into recollections of the glories and failures of her past, remembering her rise as one of opera’s biggest underdogs. This authentic and musically rich Master Class presents a portrait of a fading star who refuses to be anything but unapologetically herself.

TimeLine’s production stars Company Member Janet Ulrich Brooks, a six-time Jeff Award nominee for roles at TimeLine (including 33 Variations, A Walk in the Woods, and All My Sons), where she mostly recently appeared last season as Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience.

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October 20 – December 16, 2017

“Leave behind the stranglehold of convention and loosen your corset, you will breathe much better.”

This intimate and humorous story of awakening, equality, and the need for connection was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award nominee for Best Play. It is the 1880s and Thomas Edison’s invention of the electric light has begun to change the fabric of daily life. Inspired by Edison’s discovery, scientist and inventor Dr. Givings experiments with a piece of machinery to treat the increasingly common affliction of female hysteria. When he starts to see a new patient regularly, his wife’s curiosity with the invention and what occurs “in the next room” grows, leading to discoveries of her own. Don’t miss this entertaining night of self-discovery which shows that human connection is not simply a means to an end, but a vital part of life itself.

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Chicago Premiere

Jan 11, 2017 - Apr 9, 2017

TimeLine presents a new and rare staging of this exquisite, internationally acclaimed play about love, math, and how the past and future connect. In 1913, a clerk in rural India named Srinivasa Ramanujan sends a letter to famed mathematician G.H. Hardy, filled with astonishing mathematical theorems. In the present, a math professor and a businessman fall in love. Told in a mesmerizing whirlwind of vignettes spanning history and time, A Disappearing Number is a love letter to numbers, blending the beauty of everyday relationships with the mysticism of the cosmos.

Winner of the 2007 Critics’ Circle Theatre, Evening Standard, and Laurence Olivier awards for Best New Play.

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Chicago Premiere

August 19 - October 15, 2016

“Miracles happen. Don’t they?”

A provocative and hilarious look at what makes art—and people—authentic. Maude has bought the ugliest thrift store painting she could get her hands on as a gag gift. When she’s told it might be an undiscovered work by the famed Jackson Pollock, she invites a world-class art expert to decide if it’s a forgery or the real thing, worth millions.

Inspired by a true story and set to feature TimeLine Company Member Janet Ulrich Brooks and TimeLine Associate Artist Mike Nussbaum in the two-person cast, Bakersfield Mist is “a perfect marriage of emotion and ideas that is rare indeed” (Los Angeles Times).

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Spill

Midwest Premiere

Oct 24, 2015 - Dec 19, 2015

From the Emmy Award-nominated head writer of The Laramie Project, acclaimed as “a pioneering work and a powerful stage event” by Time magazine. This can’t-miss theatrical event goes beyond the headlines to tell vivid personal stories from all sides of the country’s greatest environmental disaster.

The Price

August 27 - November 22, 2015

This classic play is about the legacy of the past and the price of life’s choices. In a New York brownstone marked for demolition, two estranged brothers meet to sort through and sell their late father’s belongings—a pile of relics and old furniture buried by a lifetime’s worth of family baggage. What follows is a poignant, intimate, and often heart-wrenching look at the ways we are liberated or trapped by those we love.

We hope you will join us for a discussion on the themes in SPILL, moderated by TimeLine Company Member and Resident Dramaturg Maren Robinson, who also served as production dramaturg on SPILL.

Inana

Chicago Premiere

May 6, 2015 - Jul 26, 2015

On the eve of the United States’ invasion of Baghdad in 2003, an Iraqi museum curator plots to save treasured antiquities from destruction—including the statue of ancient mother goddess Inana. Fleeing to London with his young, mysterious bride, he makes a life-altering deal to ensure the statue’s preservation. Against this background of international and personal intrigue, the couple’s poignant and beautiful love story opens a window of hope and healing.

The Apple Family Plays
That Hopey Changey Thing and Sorry

Chicago Premieres

Jan 13, 2015 - Apr 19, 2015

Richard Nelson’s celebrated series of four Apple Family Plays—first commissioned by The Public Theatre in New York where they premiered on the day they are set—explores politics, change, and family dynamics. TimeLine presents the Chicago debut of two of these remarkable works (the first and third in the series) on an alternating schedule.

Set in the American town of Rhinebeck, New York, That Hopey Changey Thing takes place as the polls close on the 2010 mid-term elections, and Sorry is set on the morning of the presidential election in 2012. Both explore how a family sorts through personal and political feelings of loss and confusion in the shadow of history as it is being made.

The How and the Why

Jan 28, 2014 - Apr 6, 2014

From the writer/producer of television hits like House of Cards and In Treatment comes this smart and compelling new play about science, family, and survival of the fittest. Two women meet for the first time on the eve of a national conference. Both are brilliant evolutionary biologists who share a zeal for science and a bold, contrarian approach to their male-dominated field—even as one challenges the other with a radical new theory that may change the way people regard sex. As mysteries unfold about their relationship, the two scientists clash over differing views on evolution, feminism and generational divides in modern America.

The Normal Heart

Oct 26, 2013 - Dec 29, 2013

Originally premiered Off-Broadway in 1985, TimeLine’s production is the first Chicago staging of this landmark play that “blasts you like an open, overstoked furnace” (The New York Times) since its Tony-Award winning Broadway production in 2011. Set at the height of the public and private indifference to the AIDS plague in the early 1980s, this searing drama will feature acclaimed actor/director David Cromer in his return to the Chicago stage as a passionate activist leading the fight to awaken the world to the crisis. Along the way he, and the community he leads into the battle, must face the deeply held fears that led so many to remain silent for too long.

Wasteland

World Premiere

Oct 12, 2012 - Dec 30, 2012

TimeLine’s latest world premiere follows extraordinary successes with new works like My Kind of Town, To Master the Artand Hannah and Martin. An American soldier, captured by the enemy in Vietnam and isolated in an underground cell, hears a voice from the other side of his prison wall. Thrust into each other’s lives, the two men are separated by solid ground, divergent backgrounds and opposite worldviews. But over time, they are drawn together as they battle dire conditions, loss of faith, and each other. This emotionally stirring new play affirms the extraordinary power of human connection to forge hope in even the darkest hours.

33 Variations

Chicago Premiere

Aug 24, 2012 - Oct 21, 2012

TimeLine’s 2012-13 season opener is an elegant waltz between past and present, fact and speculation, a mother and daughter, and art and life. One of classical music’s enduring riddles is why Ludwig van Beethoven devoted four years of his diminishing life writing 33 variations of a mediocre waltz. Two hundred years later, a modern-day music scholar is driven to solve the mystery even as her own health and relationship with her daughter crumbles.

The result is an extraordinary new American play — accompanied throughout by a live pianist playing the variations themselves — about passion, parenthood, and the moments of beauty that can transform a life.

My Kind of Town

World Premiere

May 1, 2012 - Jul 29, 2012

My Kind of Town puts a human face on the police torture scandal that has plagued Chicago for more than three decades. Veteran investigative journalist John Conroy covered the story, challenging public indifference to become one of the leading voices drawing attention to the charges. My Kind of Town is his passionate, groundbreaking new drama revolving around one imprisoned man’s fight for justice, inspired by the stories of numerous victims, police officers, prosecutors and families whose lives have been poisoned by the allegations. With interlocking storylines that humanize the play’s issues of corruption and responsibility, My Kind of Town sets the stage for a new conversation about today’s culture of law and order.

Enron

Chicago Premiere

Jan 17, 2012 - Apr 15, 2012

One of the most infamous scandals in financial history becomes a dynamic new theatrical event that was a sold-out sensation in London. Crafted as sprawling tragedy mixed with savage comedy, Enron follows a group of ambitious men and women through the breathtaking rush of greed and fraud that led to a legendary financial collapse. Along the way we gain disturbing insight into the backroom secrets of big business and confront a world where appearance has little relation to reality.

The Pitmen Painters

Chicago Premiere

Sep 6, 2011 - Dec 4, 2011

Heralded in London and on Broadway, this new play by the Tony Award- winning writer of Billy Elliot is based on a triumphant true story. A group of miners in Northern England taking an art appreciation class start experimenting with painting and soon build an astonishing body of work that makes them the unlikeliest of art world sensations. An arresting and hilarious salute to the power of individual expression and the collective spirit, The Pitmen Painters is a deeply moving and timely look at art, class and politics.

A Walk in the Woods

Aug 18, 2011 - Nov 20, 2011

Lee Blessing’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated drama, filled with unexpected humor and extraordinary humanity, is an absorbing, revealing and brilliant debate on the eternal hope and relentless futility of high-stakes politics. Two superpower arms negotiators— one a witty but cynical Russian veteran and the other an idealistic American newcomer — meet informally in the woods after long, frustrating hours at the bargaining table. TimeLine’s production is presented with a twist: The two characters (originally written as two men) are portrayed by TimeLine Company Members Janet Ulrich Brooks and David Parkes.

We hope you will join us for a discussion on the themes in The Pitmen Painters, moderated by Artistic Director PJ Powers.

In Darfur

Chicago Premiere

Jan 19, 2011 - Mar 20, 2011

Playwright Winter Miller’s experiences accompanying Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in Sudan inform this provocative account of the horrors of genocide. In a camp for internally displaced persons in Darfur, three lives intertwine — an aid worker trying to save lives, a Darfuri woman searching for safety and a journalist who believes that one front-page story can help stop the madness. Together they tell an intense, inspired-by-real-life story that demands international attention.

To Master the Art

World Premiere

Oct 26, 2010 - Dec 19, 2010

Commissioned by TimeLine in 2008, this world premiere recalls the adventure and romance of Julia and Paul Child’s journey of discovery to Paris during the 1950s. From the bistro where Julia fell in love with food, to the kitchen table where she recreated everything learned during cooking class, to a room where Paul was grilled by U.S. agents about alleged Communist contact, this is the story of a larger-than-life culinary icon and her remarkable husband as they struggle to find themselves as Americans abroad.

Frost / Nixon

Chicago Premiere

Aug 17, 2010 - Oct 10, 2010

Three years after the Watergate scandal ended his presidency, Richard Nixon has agreed to break his silence in a series of interviews with up-and-coming British broadcaster David Frost. Behind-the-scenes it’s a battle of egos for the upper hand in controlling history, but as the cameras roll, the world is riveted by a remarkably honest exchange between one man who has lost everything and another with everything to gain.

The Farnsworth Invention

Chicago Premiere

Apr 14, 2010 - Jun 13, 2010

From Aaron Sorkin, the creator of The West Wing and A Few Good Men comes this fascinating new play direct from Broadway. Two ambitious visionaries — Philo T. Farnsworth, an Idaho farmboy, and David Sarnoff, head of RCA — battle through corporate espionage, family tragedy, financial disaster and the thrill of discovery for the rights to one of the greatest inventions of all time: the television.

When She Danced

Nov 4, 2009 - Dec 20, 2009

Visit Paris in 1923 to eavesdrop on the bohemian life of international star Isadora Duncan — renowned as the “mother of modern dance” — in this evocative and incredibly funny portrait. A multi-lingual script of great heart mixes the high comedy of a colorful cast of characters with a poignant view of how art can move and inspire us.

Not Enough Air

World Premiere

Jan 21, 2009 - Mar 22, 2009

This world premiere drama Not Enough Air follows famed journalist-turned-playwright Sophie Treadwell as she is drawn into the real-life tragedy of Ruth Snyder’s 1928 murder trial. Treadwell is haunted by Ruth’s story and finds herself compelled to bring it to the stage in the form of her landmark play Machinal, acclaimed as one of the high points of expressionist theater on an American stage. In this astonishing exploration of media sensationalism and ethics as well as interpretation and manipulation in the creative process, Obolensky illuminates the lives of two women who pushed against the limitations and expectations imposed upon them by society.

Paradise Lost

Aug 21, 2007 - Oct 21, 2007

Reportedly considered by Odets himself to be his best and most significant work,Paradise Lost is an intense family drama set amid the vast landscape of social and economic challenges faced during the Great Depression. How will financial misfortune affect the values, personalities, relationships and aspirations of the well-educated, middle-class Gordons and their close circle of friends?

Odets’ passionate characters speak with a fast-talking language that sings with big dreams and optimism for the future, despite daunting odds.

The General from America

Chicago Premiere

Aug 22, 2006 - Oct 8, 2006

Tony Award-winning playwright Richard Nelson’s powerful drama about the early, uncertain birth of America introduces us to the new country’s most notorious traitor, General Benedict Arnold. Betraying his reputation as a Revolutionary War hero, Arnold makes an uncharacteristic decision to defect to the British and surrender West Point, a plot that threatens to derail the war. What caused this founding father to betray his fellow colonists? The General from America delves into the complex story of one man’s life, his honor, and the stunning choice that would make him infamous.

Time praised The General from Americaas one of the 10 best plays of 2002, calling it “politically savvy, morally complex and theatrically cunning” and The Spectator praised it and its author as “a rich, rare and remarkable triumph on the stage … in play after play, Nelson has established himself as that contemporary stage rarity, a civilized, urbane, literate, acidic ironist in an age of urban thuggery.”

Copenhagen

Aug 23, 2005 - Oct 9, 2005

One of the most celebrated new plays of the last decade, Copenhagen is a powerful drama that explores an enduring mystery of modern scientific history. In 1941, German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a mysterious trip to Copenhagen for a meeting with his Danish mentor, Niels Bohr. What was said during their meeting is unknown, but their relationship, and the course of World War II was changed forever.

This Tony Award-winning play that dares to imagine their meeting – the discussions of friendship, developing an atomic bomb and the ultimate moral responsibility of scientific discovery.

Martin Furey's Shot

World Premiere

May 3, 2005 - Jun 19, 2005

Written by veteran Chicago actor Maureen Gallagher, MARTIN FUREY’S SHOT takes us into the life and work of a photojournalist as he moves between his home in Chicago and the violence of the war zones he covers. Martin tries to balance the horrors he has seen in Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and pre-election South Africa with the normalcy he is expected to return to with his family and girlfriend. With his fellow photographers, Martin captures the struggles and dreams of a nation awaiting Nelson Mandela even as his own life falls apart.

Pravda

Chicago Premiere

Feb 8, 2005 - Mar 26, 2005

Set in the booming 1980s, PRAVDA is the hilarious battle between an unscrupulous newspaper magnate and his idealistic editor over the integrity of the press. After Lambert Le Roux buys up London’s Fleet Street papers, he uses them to serve his political and financial whims, testing Andrew May’s willpower and principles. This hard-hitting satire by two of the most provocative playwrights of our time examines the public’s hunger for sensationalism and the objectivity of our news.

It's All True

Chicago Premiere

Apr 27, 2004 - Jun 6, 2004

Art and politics collide when the government’s Works Progress Administration shuts down director Orson Welles’ new pro-union musical THE CRADLE WILL ROCK in 1937. With the theatre doors padlocked, the cast and company must work frantically to make sure their voices are heard. This fast-paced and brilliantly witty comedy brings to life a defining moment in the history of American theatre.