Theme Chosen in Celebration of DePaul University Centennial:
"The American Experience in the 20^th Century: Dreams Denied & Delayed, Lost & Found"

The Theatre School, DePaul University, lauded as a "legendary training ground" by the Chicago Tribune, announces its 1998-99 subscription season of productions at DePaul’s Merle Reskin Theatre, 60 E. Balbo Drive, Chicago. In celebration of DePaul University’s Centennial, the season reflects the theme "The American Experience in the 20^th Century: Dreams Denied & Delayed, Lost & Found."

For information about the Showcase and Chicago Playworks seasons, included sign-language interpreted performances, and to purchase subscriptions, call the Theatre Box Office at (312) 922-1999.

Founded as the Goodman School of Drama in 1925, The Theatre School is the premiere theatre conservatory in the Midwest and is recognized throughout the nation for its professional training programs. Throughout its history, the school has provided Chicago audiences with first-rate affordable entertainment. Plays are directed and designed by the professional faculty of the school and performed and designed by students in the professional training programs.

Last season The Theatre School Showcase was twice named "Critic’s Choice" in the Chicago Reader, and the Chicago Sun-Times highly recommended one production as "a celebration of young talent … and of a cast and crew filled with the greatest potential." The 1998-99 Showcase season includes five plays ranging from a rollicking musical set among turn-of-the-century immigrants to a contemporary meditation on truth and justice.

Chicago Playworks offers a season of stories about America’s children. Whether traveling to freedom along the Underground Railroad or marching to champion youth labor laws, the young people in these plays remind us all how the dreams and imaginations of our youth have shaped our lives. Chicago Playworks received the Illinois Theatre Association’s 1997 Children’s Theatre Award in honor of its 74-year tradition of excellence and innovation in theatre for young audiences.

The Theatre School faculty and staff have dedicated the Centennial Showcase season to John Ransford Watts, dean of the The Theatre School, who will retire in June from the post he has held since 1979. The faculty and staff have dedicated the Centennial Playworks season to Dr. Bella Itkin, professor emeritus of the school and past artistic director of Chicago Playworks.

THE THEATRE SCHOOL SHOWCASE

The Theatre School Showcase season opens in November with the musical TINTYPES, conceived by Mary Kyte with Mel Marvin and Gary Pearle and featuring musical and vocal arrangements by Mel Marvin and

orchestration and vocal arrangements by John McKinney. Patriotic marches, spirituals, popular songs and ragtime illustrate our nation’s character at the time when millions of immigrants entered America seeking the land of hope and opportunity. Tintypes spans the post-Civil War era through the early 1900s with a musical potpourri of music from George M. Cohan, John Philip Sousa, Bert Williams, Victor Herbert and Scott Joplin. Songs like "Meet Me in St. Louis," "You’re a Grand Old Flag," and "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" will delight the spirit and touch the soul. The play is directed by Betsy Hamilton with musical direction by Mark Elliott and runs November 6 - 15, 1998 (previews 11/4 & 11/5).

The season continues in December with Tennessee Williams’ THE GLASS MENAGERIE, directed by John Jenkins. Laura Wingfield is a fragile and unique young girl, like the glass unicorn in her collection. Seen through the eyes and heart of her brother Tom, she lives in a fantasy world and greets her only gentleman caller with hope. The curtain first rose on Tennessee Williams’ most popular play in Chicago 54 years ago, and it won the 1945 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play. The Glass Menagerie runs December 4 - 13, 1998 (previews 12/2 & 12/3).

In March, the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play OUR TOWN takes us to Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, one hundred years ago. Emily Webb and George Gibbs discover how wonderful it is to live and love and that it is the small things in life that truly matter. Wilder’s frank theatricality and simplicity illuminate patterns of human experience that remain unchanged in the face of progress. Our Town is directed by Ric Murphy and runs March 5 – 14, 1999 (previews 3/3 & 3/4).

SLEEP DEPRIVATION CHAMBER, by Adam P. Kennedy and Adrienne Kennedy, is the fourth production of the Showcase season. Teddy, a young African American, was stopped by the police late at night less than a block from his Arlington, Virginia, home. Without provocation, the policeman brutally beat him, arrested him and charged him with assault and battery. First performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1996, this autobiographical drama is a dreamlike meditation on truth and justice. Sleep Deprivation Chamber is directed by Phyllis E. Griffin and runs April 23 - May 2, 1999 (previews 4/21 & 4/22).

The Showcase season concludes in May with Frank Galati’s Tony Award-winning adaptation of THE GRAPES OF WRATH, based on John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Struggling to survive the economic chaos of the Great Depression with dignity, the Joad family is forced to pack up its few belongings and set out for new lands. On the road from Oklahoma to California, Tom Joad is tested by contradictions and inequities at the heart of the American experience. The Grapes of Wrath is directed by Michael Maggio and runs May 21 - 30, 1999 (previews 5/19 & 5/20).

Subscription prices for The Theatre School Showcase are $25 - $40. Single ticket prices are $6 - $10. Group rates are available for 15 or more people. Post-show discussions are scheduled for each production. Free Parent/Teacher Guides are available for each production. Subscribers will receive a quarterly newsletter, The Theatre School Scoop. Dinner Offers are available at the Chicago Hilton and Towers Pavilion Restaurant: $20.00 for adults, $11.00 for children 12 and under. For information and to purchase subscriptions, call the Theatre Box Office at (312) 922-1999.

CHICAGO PLAYWORKS for Families and Young Audiences

The 1998-99 Chicago Playworks season opens with STEAL AWAY HOME by Aurand Harris, based on the novel by Jane Kristof. Sent by their mother to the Underground Railroad, Obadiah and Amos flee a South Carolina plantation. On a journey of hope and faith, they travel to meet their father, a Freedman living in Pennsylvania. The boys are aided along their way by a cast of characters who guide them to freedom with spiritual and folk songs. Steal Away Home, directed by Patrice Egleston, runs October 6 – December 5, 1998.

In January, the Playworks season continues with COYOTE AND HIS BROTHERS (Tales of the Pima Indians), by Lin Wright and the original cast of the production. The play is based on Pima Indian Legends by Anna Moore Shaw. The mischievous coyote is much too clever for his own good, bragging and telling tales to his desert friends. Mirage and Whirlwind plot to teach Coyote a lesson. Story telling is central to the Pima Indian way of life, and this collection of legends reflects the Native American belief that there is great beauty in the natural world. Coyote and His Brothers, directed by Peter Hobert, runs January 12 - March 6, 1999.

The Playworks season concludes with a world premiere specially commissioned for DePaul University’s Centennial. THREADHEADS (Mother Jones and the March of the Mill Children), by Dean Corrin, introduces Julia and Gus, who work with their mother in the textile mills of turn-of-the-century Philadelphia. Instead of attending school, the children must spend 14-hour workdays spinning and spooling threads for meager wages. When they meet the legendary labor leader Mother Jones, they join her now-famous march to convince President Teddy Roosevelt to champion their rights. Threadheads, directed by Chicago Playworks Artistic Director David L. Avcollie, runs March 30 - May 22, 1999.

Saturday subscriptions for Chicago Playworks are $15. Single tickets are $6. Group rates are available for 15 or more people. Free Parent/Teacher Guides are available for each production. Subscribers will receive a quarterly newsletter, The Theatre School Scoop. Post-show Ice Cream Socials with the director and cast are scheduled for Saturday, October 17; Saturday, January 30; and Saturday, April 24. Tickets for the Ice Cream Socials are $2.50 and may be purchased through the Theatre Box Office. For information or to purchase subscriptions, call the Box Office at (312) 922-1999.

INTERPRETED PERFORMANCES

Selected performances during the 1998-99 Chicago Playworks and Theatre School Showcase seasons will be interpreted to American Sign Language by Sign On Stage. Interpreted performances are supported by a grant from Dr. Richard Meister and the Executive Office of Academic Affairs at DePaul University. For information about interpreted performances, call TTY: (773) 325-7975.

Interpreted performances are scheduled for the following dates and times: Steal Away Home — Tuesday, October 27 at 10 a.m. and Saturday, October 31 at 2 p.m.; Coyote and His Brothers — Tuesday, February 2 at 10 a.m. and Saturday, February 6 at 2 p.m.; Threadheads — Tuesday, May 11 at 10 a.m. and Saturday, May 15 at 2 p.m.; Tintypes — Saturday, November 7 at 7:30 p.m.; The Glass Menagerie — Sunday, December 13 at 2 p.m.; Our Town — Sunday, March 14 at 2 p.m.; Sleep Deprivation Chamber — Saturday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m.; and The Grapes of Wrath — Saturday, May 29 at 7:30 p.m.

Further information about The Theatre School and its subscription season is available via the Internet on The Theatre School’s Website, located at http://theatreschool.depaul.edu .

The Theatre School is a member of the Illinois Arts Alliance, Illinois Alliance for Arts Education, American Alliance for Theatre and Education, Illinois Theatre Association and the League of Chicago Theatres.