Behind the ‘Line

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Lee Blessing – An interview

I was fascinated by these nations putting some of their best people in critically sensitive jobs with the sole intention of letting them fail. It’s hard to find a more existential situation than that.  — “A Walk in the Woods” playwright Lee Blessing Recently Artistic Director PJ Powers had the opportunity to interview the playwright of TimeLine’s 15th season-opening production, A Walk in the Woods. Blessing explained the historical inspiration behind the plot and characters ...
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Opening Night

Tonight is Opening Night of the first production of our 15th Anniversary season and my 16th show at TimeLine. My first opening night at TimeLine was a little less than four years ago — the opening of Tesla’s Letters. Back then we had 1,140 subscribers ...
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A thrilling year starts

Today — with the first preview of A Walk in the Woods at 8 pm — we welcome you to TimeLine’s 15th season, with an expanded schedule featuring more than 100 additional performances than last season and a venture outside of our home, going from ...
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Same Story, Different Century

TimeLine’s final production for the 2010-2011 season, The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, has taken audiences into the bustling 1920’s press room of Chicago’s Criminal Courts building. It is a time and place in which the likes of Walter Burns and Hildy ...
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Orchestrating a vision

What does a director actually do? This simple question formed the basis of TimeLine’s Directors Salon, an intimate fundraising event featuring food and drink intertwined with Q & A which delved into the world of the director. Hosted by Paul (TimeLine’s Board President) and Nancy ...
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Share your thoughts

The pressroom is open! TimeLine’s revival of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s quintessential Chicago classic opened last week and already ticket demand has been so strong that we have announced an extension through July 17. The audience response has been amazing, especially watching folks react to the dramatic lobby display, completely re-envisioned theatre space, and of course, the play itself. This town’s theater critics have already had their say (on opening night you certainly could ...
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Space for re-invention

One of the things TimeLine audiences often comment on is their appreciation for how our theater is continually re-invented. Our flexible seating system allows us to reconfigure where the playing area is and re-imagine the physical relationship between actor and audience. That flexibility is being ...
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From theater to reality

A few years ago I was browsing in a bookstore when a book caught my eye—The Front Page: From Theater To Reality by George W. Hilton. As a longtime fan of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s pressroom romp, I immediately picked it up and discovered ...
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On the ground in Darfur

As the production of In Darfur enters its final week, on Sunday, March 13, Timeline Theatre patrons had the opportunity to gain a dynamic insight into the realities and complexities of the Sudanese conflict via a forum with Human Rights Watch researcher Jehanne Henry. It ...
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Tracing the threads

As I left a post show discussion of In Darfur recently, one of the audience members grabbed my arm and said, “You are a theater company with a conscience and I appreciate that.” It is something I appreciate too. I feel very fortunate to have ...
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