Behind the ‘Line

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A new musical for Chicago

TimeLine is thrilled to bring the musical Juno to Chicago audiences for the first time. Based on the 1924 Sean O’Casey classic Juno and the Paycock, this musical was originally produced on Broadway in 1959. It closed after just 16 performances, never approaching the acclaim enjoyed by two other classic plays turned into musicals during that era, My Fair Lady and West Side Story. Since then, the show has lived mostly in obscurity, although music ...
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Two sisters talk biology, gender and theatre

Dr. Julie Robinson is the Chief Scientist for the International Space Station. She is also my sister. While working on The How and the Why, which examines not only questions about science and gender but also inheritance and family, I took the opportunity to interview my ...
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A conversation with Sarah Treem

During rehearsals, Artistic Director PJ Powers (PJP) conducted this interview with The How and the Why playwright Sarah Treem (ST). Spoiler alert: Some key plot and character details of the play are discussed. An edited version of this interview appears in The How and the ...
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How and why, then and now

We laugh, we cry, we are born, we die, Who will riddle me the how and the why? How you are you? Why I am I? Who will riddle me the how and the why? The world is somewhat; it goes on somehow; But what ...
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What a year!

What a year 2013 was! TimeLine was involved in five productions in three venues during the year, a diverse selection of plays that included Naomi Iizuka’s Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West, J.T. Rogers’ Blood and Gifts and Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the ...
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Growing up in a state of indifference

We’re all going to go crazy, living this epidemic every minute, while the rest of the world goes on out there, all around us, as if nothing is happening, going on with their own lives and not knowing what it’s like, what we’re going through. We’re living through war, but where they’re living it’s peacetime, and we’re all in the same country.  — Ned Weeks in Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart” With plays that focus ...
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Let’s make a wall of memories

Join The Normal Heart. Help us make this amazingly moving production even stronger for those who will come to see it! It’s a project unique to our production, built on your participation. We would like anyone who comes to see TimeLine’s production to bring a ...
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A potent call to action

In 2010 TimeLine’s literary manager, Ben Thiem, encouraged me and my fellow Company Members to read Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart. Embarrassingly, initially I  made the mistake of assuming that it was a dated play. And then I read it, for the first time. Like ...
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A conversation about “The Normal Heart”

During rehearsals, Artistic Director PJ Powers (PJP) talked with director Nick Bowling (NB) and actor David Cromer (DC) about The Normal Heart. An edited version of their conversation appears in The Normal Heart Backstory. “The Normal Heart” actor David Cromer (from left), director Nick Bowling ...
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Around the table

As To Master the Art begins its new life, courtesy of the Chicago Commercial Collective and Broadway In Chicago, I thought it worth noting just how we got to this point in a process that began an astonishing seven years ago. Ironically, the process has ...
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