Productions & Events featuring Jennifer Martin

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.

One of the most acclaimed playwrights to emerge in Chicago in the last decade, Brett Neveu has a reputation for blistering dialogue, complex characters and haunting stories. Described as a “master at establishing mood” (Chicago Sun-Times) and “perhaps the city’s closest equivalent to a young [David] Mamet” (Chicago Tribune), with Harmless, he delivers a gripping three-character drama about a crisis unfolding on a small Midwestern college campus.

A creative writing professor is called to the office of the college president for questioning. What has been going on in his classroom to provoke a growing controversy and attract the attention of the United States military? Is there a real threat, or is it imagined?

Inspired by a 19th-century legal case, Lillian Hellman’s landmark drama premiered in 1934 to great acclaim amid tremendous controversy — the play was initially banned in several major cities and the Pulitzer committee refused to attend.

When an angry student accuses two female boarding school teachers of having an affair, the results are devastating. As their lives fall apart, the women struggle to clear their stained reputations amidst a flurry of attacks and questions about the basis of the allegations. Director Nick Bowling delivers a bold, innovative staging of this provocative classic.

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.”

Ahead of its time when it premiered in 1959 and now often called a neglected masterpiece, Fiorello! is a classic Broadway musical that features heartbreaking ballads (“When Did I Fall in Love”), rousing chorus numbers (“Politics and Poker”) and melodic showstoppers (“Little Tin Box”) to tell the story of one small, honest man’s struggle against corruption in big-city politics.

With guts and perseverance, Fiorello H. LaGuardia put a bright, new shine on “The Big Apple” and became one of the most enduring figures of the 20th century.

Originally produced to great acclaim in London in 2004 and a subsequent hit Off-Broadway, Guantanamo is based on interviews with the families of men detained in Guantanamo Bay. This stirring drama weaves together riveting personal stories, legal opinion and political debate, putting a human face on the world’s headlines and examining the divisive line between maintaining national security and protecting human rights.

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.