Chicago Dramatists Presents Hickorydickory May 13, 2011

Chicago Dramatists, known for producing award-winning work, is proud to present Hickorydickory by 2009 Wendy Wasserstein Prize winning Resident Playwright Marisa Wegrzyn. This national award honors the work of a young woman playwright by the Educational Foundation of America (EFA) in honor of the late Pulitzer and Tony Award- winning playwright, Wendy Wasserstein. The production will preview May 5, open May 13 and run through June 12, 2011. Hickorydickory, directed by Chicago Dramatists’ Artistic Director Russ Tutterow, will be Tutterow’s 25th anniversary production.

“The opportunity to work with Russ is always a delight and I am honored that his direction of Hickorydickory coincides with such a notable milestone for him at Chicago Dramatists,” says Marisa Wegrzyn. “He has been a significant force behind this growing production and he has a special gift in nurturing both playwrights and their unique visions. My experience with him and Chicago Dramatists has been an invaluable one.”

“Hickorydickory is a challenging show for Chicago Dramatists,” says Managing Director, Brian Loevner. “While it is a large scale production, both technically and in scope, it once again proves that Chicago Dramatists can deliver big shows in a little space, making it an intimate and amazing experience for audience members.”

What would happen if we all had an internal clock telling us the precise time of our death? Hickorydickory, complete with both gore and love scenes, explores the weight involved with the intriguing idea of a mortal clock embedded in the bodies of all humans. A dark comedy set in a watch and clock repair shop in the suburbs of Chicago, Wegrzyn’s Hickorydickory winds extraordinary elements around an unusual family story. Someone has tinkered with Cari Lee’s mortal clock and she’s stuck at 17 for eternity, the same age as her daughter Dale. Yet Dale’s worried about her own mortal clock; the one that tells her the day and time she’ll die. Dad’s an expert clock-smith, but some timepieces are not meant to be tampered with.

Wegrzyn’s play Ten Cent Night had its world premiere at Chicago Dramatists in 2008 and was produced at Victory Theatre Center in Burbank, California in 2009. Her playThe Butcher of Baraboo was produced by Steppenwolf and Off Broadway at Second Stage, and published in the Smith & Kraus anthology “New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2008.” Other theatres that have presented her work include Theatre Seven, Moxie Theatre in San Diego, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Chicago’s Rivendell Theatre, Geva Theatre Center of Rochester, NY, Lucid by Proxy in LA, Washington University and HotCity Theatre in St. Louis, Nice People Theatre Company in Philadelphia, The Hourglass Group in NYC, Baltimore Centerstage, and The Magic Theatre in San Francisco. She is currently working on commissions from Steppenwolf and Yale Rep, in addition to a screenplay adaptation of her play Diversey Harbor for the film production company Briar Street Productions. Her writing was cited in The Chicago Reader's list, "Best of Chicago 2008." Wegryzn is also a founding member of Theatre Seven of Chicago.

Russ Tutterow, celebrating his 25th year as the Artistic Director at Chicago Dramatists, has directed countless new play readings, and nurtured the art and careers of hundreds of playwrights. In 2005, he received the Artistic Leadership Award from the League of Chicago Theatres for his "outstanding achievement in developing new plays and his long time contribution to Chicago theatre." Most recently, Tutterow directed Chicago Dramatists' hit production of A Steady Rain by Keith Huff which was produced on Broadway in 2009. He also directed recent Chicago Dramatists productions of Water by Alice Austen, Voyeurs de Venus by Lydia R. Diamond, Heat by Marsha Estell, and The Prophet of Bishop Hill by David Rush. He served on the 2006 First Look Council at Steppenwolf Theatre and directed Prop Thtr's acclaimed production of Rosemary by Jim O'Connor. He has directed, managed or taught for such Chicago theatres as Goodman, Victory Gardens, Royal George, Mercury, Briar Street, Prop, Zebra Crossing, Igloo, and Cullen, Henaghan & Platt Productions.

Hickorydickory stars Joanne Dubach, Thomas Gebbia, Cathlyn Melvin, Gail Rastorfer, and Tyler Ross. The design team features Barry Bennett (Sound Designer), Simon Lashford (Set Designer), Samantha C. Jones (Costume Designer), Jeff Pines (Lighting Designer), Jenniffer J. Thusing (Props Designer), and Ryan Oliver (Special Effects Designer). Hickorydickory’s artistic team also includes Emmi Hilger (Assistant Director) and Robert Koon (Dramaturg).The production of Hickorydickory is funded in part through a generous grant from the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation

Chicago Dramatists is the only theatre in the country that is both a playwrights’ development center and a full producing theatre which continues to push the envelope with the newest plays and most promising playwrights. Through its long-standing Residency program, Chicago Dramatists seeks to nurture accomplished, Chicago-based dramatists who will make significant contributions to the American theatre repertory. Every year, Chicago Dramatists' playwrights earn literally hundreds of accomplishments from productions and awards to other honors at large and small theatres in Chicago and around the world; enriching the lives of hundreds of thousands of theatre patrons, exporting Chicago voices across the globe, and significantly boosting Chicago Dramatists’ reputation as one of the nation's foremost new play development theatres.

About Chicago Dramatists

In the fall of 1979, four playwrights came together to hear their work read aloud and to hone their craft. Today, Chicago Dramatists’ amazing record of achievement has landed them an invaluable place in the artistic community as a vital source of inspiration to 40 Resident Playwrights, 160 Associate Playwrights, 60 Associate Artists, and thousands of audience members. Over the past three decades, Chicago Dramatists has worked with over a thousand playwrights, produced and developed thousands of plays and stayed true to its mission to nurture compelling, challenging and diverse plays that move on to productions, earn awards, and define the American theatre. Chicago Dramatists has helped launch the career of hundreds of award-winning writers, including Tina Fey (30 Rock), Rick Cleveland (Mad Men), Rebecca Gilman (Spinning Into Butter), Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House), Lydia R. Diamond (Stick Fly) and Keith Huff (A Steady Rain). Each season Chicago Dramatists presents three world premiere productions and the signature Saturday Series, weekly staged readings of plays-in-progress. The theatre also conducts educational outreach to at-risk students at Chicago Public Schools, awakening the possibility of self-expression by writing for the theatre. Through passionate dedication, personal nurture and careful exposure, Chicago Dramatists carries on its thirty-two-year-old mission of developing new plays and playwrights for the next generation of theatre.

Chicago Dramatists is located just minutes from the Loop at 1105 W. Chicago Avenue, at the 24-hour Chicago Avenue stop of the Blue Line subway, and is just off the Ogden and Augusta exits of the Kennedy Expressway. Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m.; Individual ticket prices are $32, and student tickets are offered for all Thursday performances at $15. There is street parking available, a detailed parking map can be found at www.chicagodramatists.org/parking. For more information or reservations visit
www.chicagodramatists.org.