Behind the ‘Line

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Memories of 1962

We choose to go to the moon. — President John F. Kennedy at Rice University, 1962 Two weeks from tonight, on Friday, March 16, 2012, TimeLine will produce what is essentially the fifth production of our 2011-12 season — our annual Step Into Time benefit. This one night is an opportunity to extend our mission of exploring history by literally stepping into another era. OK, there’s no time machine involved, but TimeLine’s creative team does ...
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Our 2012-13 season

Breaking news today! We’ve announced TimeLine’s 2012-2013 season — an incredible collection of plays that are all new to Chicago, including one world premiere! With a stunning new script by local playwright Susan Felder and Chicago premieres by a trio of the country’s most provocative ...
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On technology

One of my favorite things about working at TimeLine is an idea — one that, if you were to pop into our rehearsals or production meetings, you’d hear voiced at some point on virtually every show we produce: We’ve really never done anything like this ...
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In your hands now

Clockwise from top left: Terry Hamilton as Ken Lay; Bret Tuomi as Jeffrey Skilling, Sean Fortunato as Andrew Fastow (with his “raptors,” portrayed by Benjamin Sprunger, Demetria Thomas and Matt Holzfeind); and Amy Matheny as Claudia Roe with Tuomi in TimeLine’s “Enron.” Just over a ...
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Ask why.

Today marks the opening of TimeLine’s 50th production! I must say, this milestone is a bit astonishing. In many ways, it seems like just yesterday the six of us who founded TimeLine were each pitching in $50 to get the company started. But since that ...
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It’s complicated

I can’t stop thinking about Enron. As we approach the opening of our 50th production, there are a lot of sleepless nights — as there always are during tech and previews — but I think that’s even more true this week, as many of us can’t stop thinking and talking about this play. Personally, I have many complicated feelings about what happened at Enron, and specifically about Jeff Skilling and Andrew Fastow. Bret Tuomi as ...
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A Pitman’s guide to the Art Institute

A few weeks ago I emailed my friend, co-conspirator and TimeLine Marketing Director Lara Goetsch to see if she wanted to go to the Art Institute of Chicago and look for all the art mentioned in The Pitmen Painters.  She agreed and we met in ...
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13 x 4 = 52

Here we are in the final weekend of the run of A Walk in the Woods! Over the past few months, whenever people asked me why we produced  A Walk In The Woods at Theater Wit, I talked about TimeLine’s need to expand our production ...
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Congratulations, Chicago theatre!

TimeLine’s Company Members (from left): Juliet Hart, David Parkes, PJ Powers, Ben Thiem, Nick Bowling, Janet Ulrich Brooks and Lara Goetsch at the 2011 Equity Jeff Awards. Last night the entire TimeLine Company, members of the Board of Directors and representatives from all four of ...
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The Hawk and the Dove

Last summer, as I prepared to take on the role of American negotiator John Honeyman in Lee Blessing’s A Walk in the Woods and researched the world of arms negotiators, no book became more valuable to my process than The Hawk and the Dove: Paul ...
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