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Chicago Writers Bloc 2024 New Play Festival
The festival features five new musicals and five new plays from 14 local Chicago playwrights, lyricists, and composers; including John S. Green (Jeff winner and Pulitzer nominated, THE LIQUID MOON), Chloe Bolan (O’Neill semi-finalist, LOVE IN THE TIME OF DEMENTIA), Joanne Koch (National Nantucket Short Play Competition winner for STARDUST), and former Chicago Tribune feature writer Fran Zell. The works to be performed as staged readings will cover genres from comedies and dramas to documentary theatre, and subject matter that ranges from history to current events, and fantasy to reality.
Sunday, May 5 HEARTS IN THE WOOD. Book by Joanne Koch, and music and lyrics by Jim Lucas.
A West Virginia dulcimer maker and once popular folksinger discovers he has an adult granddaughter and decides to reconnect with life. His newfound granddaughter prompts him to bring his regional music to Chicago. Grandfather and granddaughter find unexpected romances and finally get past their differences, united by bonds of love and their special musical heritage.
Monday, May 6. HELL IS CANCELED. Book and Lyrics by Wencke Braathen, Music by Gerald H. Bailey
Archangel Michael lands in Hell and announces to Lucifer that God has decided that this department is defunct and will be liquidated. Michael gets stuck in Hell with Lucifer and a lost soul while Hell disintegrates. Archangel Raphael causes problems from above, and Katie and Kevin save the day by sending new feathers to Lucifer's wings.
Tuesday, May 7. DREAM CITY. Book and Lyrics by June Finfer, Music and Lyrics by Elizabeth Doyle
The musical story of Chicago in a Gilded Age not unlike today, when immigrants, women, and minorities fight for inclusion in an economy controlled by the wealthy. The 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition World’s Fair seemed to offer all Chicagoans opportunities for participation, visibility, and jobs, from the architects who designed it to the workers who built it.
Wednesday, May 8. REMEMBER ME. Written by John S. Green.
The story of Jake, a second-generation Nigerian American who joined the army to prove that he was a “real American.” When he returns from fighting in Afghanistan, he reaches out to his acting teacher, Earl, seeking comfort, sanity and a chance to rekindle his broken dreams. They work together to conquer their own personal demons and perform Hamlet.
Sunday, May 12. DRIVING THE DREAM, Book and Lyrics by Chloe Bolan, Music by Gerald H. Bailey.
A musical bioplay on the life of Bertha Benz, the woman who drove the first motorwagen farther than anyone before her and so introduced the world to the age of the automobile. She might seem like a conservative hausfrau, but her rebellion at three different times in her life testify to her strong instincts, her indomitable courage, and her belief in a dream she and her husband shared.
Monday, May 13. "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Venezuelans" / "My Name is Renny Edward Milano Salgado,” both written by Fran Zell.
Two timely one-act documentary theatre pieces about asylum seekers will be presented. “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Venezuelans” is based on the playwright’s experiences volunteering with asylum seekers in Chicago. “My Name is Renny Edward Milano Salgado” recounts one asylum seeker’s journey, a story of loss, grief, mortal danger, and always, hope.
Tuesday, May 14. NO KIND OF HERO, written by Nic Hamel.
Amidst the growing threat of fascism in the 1930’s, the young French philosophy professor Simone Weil struggles against the oppression she witnesses all around her. Caught between practical limitations and an unrelenting idealism, Simone’s choices are both absurd and inspiring as she seeks to embody hope and heroism in an increasingly chaotic world.
Sunday, May 19 at 7:30 PM. Double-bill of “Merry Widows, the Musical,” Book by Joanne Koch and Diane Dorsey, Lyrics by Francesca Peppiatt, Music by Ilya Levinson, Directed by Joan Mazzonelli; and “The Deconstruction of a Honky” written by Blake Levinson.
In “Merry Widows, The Musical,” women and men gather together in grief groups to help each other grieve. Only our grief group doesn't just talk about their profound losses. They, along with their empathic leader, use the magic of music and some gentle humor to go beyond their sorrow and bring themselves to reconnect with a new life. With 14 million widows and widowers in the U.S. today, and thousands of these grief groups, the creative team thought it was about time to offer something more than a fluffy operetta.
In “The Deconstruction of a Honky,” emerging white playwright Sam meets with DD, his influential Black director-dramaturg prior to the staged reading of his socially conscious play on racism. Their discussion takes a charged turn when she begins to question the authenticity of his Black characters. Tensions heighten as DD turns the spotlight on Sam’s indomitably liberal character and exposes a shocking secret.
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/2369130-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/2369130-2
