TimePieces Play Reading Series
TimePieces is TimeLine’s series of one-night only presentations designed to extend our mission beyond the four subscription series productions we offer each season.
This play reading series offers audiences a chance to hear new or rarely produced plays inspired by history that connect with today’s social and political issues.
Each play reading is FREE (although donations are accepted) and includes a brief post-show discussion to give the audience a chance to reflect on the piece and the themes and issues it presents.
Reservations are strongly recommended for all TimePieces presentations, as seating is limited. For information and to request reservations, please email the TimeLine Box Office or call 773.281.8463 x6.
The 2018-19 TimePieces season is generously underwritten by an anonymous sponsor.
Upcoming
THE LEFT HAND SINGING
by Barbara Lebow
directed by Elly Green
Tuesday, June 18, 2019 at 7pm
TimeLine Theatre, 615 W. Wellington Ave., Chicago
Amidst the idealism and violence of the Civil Rights movement during the summer of 1964 in Mississippi, three college students traveling to aid in the movement, vanish, seemingly without a trace. As the parents of Honey, Linda, and Wes cope with their loss, they become inescapably linked—the heirs of their lost children’s dreams. Throughout the next three decades, the connections among these people with very disparate backgrounds are tested against the fire of the country’s social and political turbulence. Told across time, Left Hand Singing explores the relationships of those left behind as they grapple with loss, newfound activism, and the constant drive to heal and find peace.
Cast includes: Shanésia Davis, Lawrence Grimm, Mary Beth Fisher, Sam Hubbard, Kat McDonnell, Sarah Price, and Ambria M. Sylvain.
TICKET AVAILABILITY IS VERY LIMITED.
Reservations are strongly recommended and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
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Already this season…
GROUND
by Lisa Dillman
directed by Sandra Marquez
Monday, April 8, 2019 at 7pm
TimeLine Theatre, 615 W. Wellington Ave., Chicago
When Zell Preston inherits her father’s struggling pecan farm and moves back to her childhood home in Fronteras, New Mexico, she finds that the once tight-knit border community has changed radically. The government has cracked down on the undocumented immigrant population, dividing families and pitting neighbor against neighbor. Chuy Gallegos, foreman at the Preston farm for 30 years, wants the piece of land he says Zell’s father promised him long ago. Ines Sandoval and her sister Angie Zelaya lobby for the return of their recently deported aunt. Angie’s husband Carl Zelaya defends to his community and family his choice to work for the Border Patrol. And Cooper Daniels, industrial pecan grower and head of a civilian border surveillance group, forges ahead with a volunteer-built fence. These forces collide in Ground, which examines the human costs of immigration policies, and the strength of personal beliefs about family, home, and civil rights in the face of a shifting political and social landscape.
Featuring Jim Farruggio*, Eddie Martiniez*, Darci Nalepa*, Ramón Carmin Ybarra*, Cher Alvarez, and Ilse Zacharias.
NAT TURNER IN JERUSALEM
by Nathan Alan Davis
directed by Company Member Wardell Julius Clark
Monday, November 12, 2018 at 7pm
TimeLine Theatre, 615 W. Wellington Ave., Chicago
In August 1831, Nat Turner led a slave uprising that shook the conscience of the nation. Turner’s startling account of his prophecy and the insurrection was recorded and published by attorney Thomas R. Gray. Nat Turner in Jerusalem imagines Turner’s final night in a jail cell in Jerusalem, Virginia, as he is revisited by Gray and they reckon with what has passed and what the dawn will bring. Woven with vivid imagery and indelible lyricism, Nat Turner in Jerusalem examines the power of an individual’s resolute convictions and their seismic reverberations through time.
Featuring Kai Ealy and Josh Carpenter.
TimePieces Archive
See below for information about past seasons of TimePieces.