City Lit Theater has re-announced programming for its 41st year of production, according to Producer and Artistic Director Terry McCabe. The 2021-22 subscription season will open with a world premiere adaptation – THE VIRGINIAN: A HORSEMAN OF THE PLAINS. Owen Wister’s novel, which was adapted as a 1946 feature film and a TV series that aired from 1962-1971, has been adapted for the stage by Chicago playwrights L.C. Bernadine and Spencer Huffman. McCabe will direct the production.
A study of the meaning of honor in the Old West, City Lit's production will feature a diverse cast. "The value of any national myth lies in its availability to everyone," McCabe stated. The show will also feature a small herd of puppet horses, created for the show by The Puppet Company. Three quarters the size of real horses, the puppet horses will be able to do the things horses in Westerns do, from dodging the lariat to brushing away flies with their tails. THE VIRGINIAN will open to the press on January 16, 2022, following previews from January 7, and will play through February 20, 2022.
The season will continue in April with EMMA’S CHILD, a drama by City Lit Resident Playwright Kristine Thatcher (pictured) about a Rogers Park couple who plans to adopt the child of Emma, a pregnant teenager. What follows threatens their marriage and reshapes what they think of parenthood. Thatcher’s play was the first play ever commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Its 1996 Chicago premiere at Victory Gardens was directed by Terry McCabe, who will direct this City Lit production. City Lit’s world premiere of Thatcher’s play THE SAFE HOUSE, which the company commissioned, was a 2019 Jeff award nominee for Best New Play. EMMA’S CHILD will open to the press on April 24, 2022, following previews from April 15. It will play through May 29, 2022.
Next up will be J.M. Synge’s THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD, to be directed by Brian Pastor (pictured). In this classic comedy, Christy Mahon comes into Flaherty's tavern on the west coast of Ireland and claims to have killed his father with a shovel. The locals are charmed by his boldness and daring, and he becomes a local hero--until the old man shows up. The production will open to the press on July 10, 2022, following previews from July 1, and play through August 14, 2022.
City Lit’s ‘21-’22 season will end with AZTEC HUMAN SACRIFICE, a musical by Chicagoan (and City Lit regular performer) Kingsley Day (pictured) and Hollywood screenwriter Philip LaZebnik (POCAHONTAS, MULAN, THE PRINCE OF EGYPT), authors of the legendary Chicago musical comedy SUMMER STOCK MURDER. The musical concerns the “Chosen One” to be sacrificed to the Sun God, but who has instead run off with the Emperor’s daughter.
The community pursues the young man, who must be found and sacrificed so that the world does not end. AZTEC HUMAN SACRIFICE will open to the press on Sunday, September 3, following previews from August 26, and will play through October 9, 2022.
Season subscriptions are available at $90.00, good for all performances, or $68.00 for preview performances. Subscriptions may be ordered online at www.citylit.org. Single tickets for the 21-22 season (beginning with THE VIRGINIAN) are priced at $30 for previews and $34 for regular performances and will be on sale soon at www.citylit.org . Senior prices are $25 for previews and $29 for regular performances. Students and military are $12.00 for all performances.
Single tickets are currently on sale for the previously announced seven-week run of THIRTEEN DAYS, which was in previews when performances were suspended in response to the COVID-19 health crisis. THIRTEEN DAYS is a world premiere adaptation of Robert F. Kennedy’s book detailing the events of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, written and directed by Brian Pastor, City Lit’s Resident Director. As with City Lit’s acclaimed production 2017 production of Archibald MacLeish’s J.B., which Pastor also directed, the roles in THIRTEEN DAYS are played by a diverse ensemble of women. All the characters in the book are white males; none of the actors onstage will be. THIRTEEN DAYS will open to the press on September 19, 2021, following previews from September 10 – 17. It will play through October 24, 2021.
From the March 2020 preview of THIRTEEN DAYS. L-R: Sheila Willis, Cameron Feagin, Kat Evans, Julia Kessler, Maggie Cain. Photo by Steve Graue.
HEALTH PRECAUTIONS AT CITY LIT
Everyone at City Lit--casts, crews, and office staff alike--is or will be fully vaccinated by the time performances begin. We will also be following CDC ventilation guidelines on a daily basis to ensure a complete exchange of air in the theatre between performances. City Lit will of course comply with the full set of whatever official health guidelines are in place at any time.
LISTING INFORMATION
PRE-SEASON PRODUCTION
THIRTEEN DAYS
- World premiere adaptation of the book by Robert F. Kennedy
- Adapted and directed by Brian Pastor
- September 10 – October 24, 2021
- Previews September 10 - 18, 2021
- Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 3 pm.
- Preview ticket prices $28.00, seniors $25, students and military $12.00 (all plus applicable fees)
- PRESS OPENING September 19 – 3 pm
- Regular run September 19 – October 24, 2021
- Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm. Mondays October 11 and 18 at 7:30 pm
- Regular run ticket prices $32.00, seniors $29.00, students and military $12.00 (all plus applicable fees)
- Performances at City Lit Theatre, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Chicago 60660 (Inside Edgewater Presbyterian Church)
- Info and tickets at www.citylit.org and by phone at 773-293-3682.
A world premiere adaptation of THIRTEEN DAYS by Robert F. Kennedy, his memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. On October 16, 1962, long-range Soviet missiles carrying nuclear warheads aimed at the United States were discovered in Cuba. For the next thirteen days, President John Kennedy maneuvered his way through conflicting counsel from his advisors, some of whom urged a military response likely to bring on World War III, ambiguous and sometimes deceitful information from the Soviet Union’s representatives, and ever-shifting facts on the ground. City Lit has received permission from the Kennedy family to insert as dialogue into our script excerpts from recently-made-public transcripts of JFK’s strategy sessions during the climax of the Cold War, the thirteen days the world came its closest to nuclear war. As with City Lit’s acclaimed production last season of Archibald MacLeish’s J.B., the roles in THIRTEEN DAYS will be played by a diverse ensemble of women. All the characters in the book are white males; none of the actors onstage will be.
CITY LIT THEATER'S 2021/22 SEASON:
THE VIRGINIAN: A HORSEMAN OF THE PLAINS
- by Owen Wister
- World premiere adaptation by L.C. Bernadine and Spencer Huffman
- Directed by Terry McCabe
- January 7 – February 20, 2022
- Previews January 7 - 15, 2022
- Preview ticket prices $30.00, seniors $25.00, students and military $12.00 (all plus applicable fees)
- PRESS OPENING Sunday, January 16 - 3 pm
- Regular run Sunday, January 16 – February 20, 2022
- Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm. Mondays February 7 and 14 at 7:30 pm.
- Regular run ticket prices $34.00, seniors $29.00, students and military $12 (all plus applicable fees)
- Performances at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Chicago 60660 (inside Edgewater Presbyterian Church)
- Info and tickets at www.citylit.org and by phone at 773-293-3682.
A world premiere adaptation of the novel that originated the archetype of the American cowboy. Never named, rough-hewn but soft-spoken, living on the frontier between nature and civilization, the Virginian pursues his own singular code of honor. On a ranch near Sunk Creek, Wyoming, the cowpuncher from Virginia struggles to uphold this code in conflict with his deadly enemy, a former ranch hand turned rustler, as well as in his courting of the fiercely independent schoolmarm, whose own personal code is as strong as his. A study of the meaning of honor in the Old West, City Lit's production will feature a diverse cast. "The value of any national myth lies in its availability to everyone," McCabe stated. The show will also feature a small herd of puppet horses, created for the show by The Puppet Company. Three quarters the size of real horses, the puppet horses will be able to do the things horses in Westerns do, from dodging the lariat to brushing away flies with their tails.
EMMA'S CHILD
- by Kristine Thatcher
- directed by Terry McCabe
- April 15 – May 29, 2022
- Previews April 15, 16 and 22-23, 2022 (No performance Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022)
- Preview ticket prices $30.00, seniors $25.00, students and military $12.00 (all plus applicable fees)
- PRESS OPENING Sunday, April 24 - 3 pm
- Regular run April 24 – May 29, 2022
- Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm. Mondays May 16 and 23 at 7:30 pm.
- Regular run ticket prices $34.00, seniors $29.00, students and military $12 (all plus applicable fees)
- Performances at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Chicago 60660 (Inside Edgewater Presbyterian Church)
- Info and tickets at www.citylit.org and by phone at 773-293-3682.
One of the great Chicago plays. By City Lit's resident playwright, author of VOICE OF GOOD HOPE and THE SAFE HOUSE, it won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and a half-dozen other playwriting awards when Terry McCabe directed the Chicago premiere at Victory Gardens twenty-five years ago. A Rogers Park couple plans to adopt the child of Emma, a pregnant teenager. What follows threatens their marriage and reshapes what they think of parenthood.
THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD
- by John Millington Synge
- directed by Brian Pastor
- July 1 – August 14, 2022
- Previews July 1-9, 2022
- Preview ticket prices $30.00, seniors $25.00, students and military $12.00 (all plus applicable fees)
- PRESS OPENING Sunday, July 10 - 3 pm
- Regular run July 10 – August 14, 2022
- Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm. Mondays August 1 and 8 at 7:30 pm
- Regular run ticket prices $34.00, seniors $29.00, students and military $12 (all plus applicable fees)
- Performances at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Chicago 60660 (Inside Edgewater Presbyterian Church)
- Info and tickets at www.citylit.org and by phone at 773-293-3682.
Christy Mahon comes into Flaherty's tavern on the west coast of Ireland and claims to have killed his father with a shovel. The locals are charmed by his boldness and daring, and he becomes a local hero--until the old man shows up. The play's world premiere triggered three nights of riots in Dublin, and fistfights in the aisles when it transferred to New York. City Lit's audience is much better behaved.
AZTEC HUMAN SACRIFICE
- music & lyrics by Kingsley Day
- book by Kingsley Day and Philip LaZebnik
- directed by Terry McCabe
- August 26 – October 9, 2022
- Previews August 26 – September 3, 2022
- Preview ticket prices $30.00, seniors $25.00, students and military $12.00 (all plus applicable fees)
- Press Opening Sunday, September 4 at 3 pm
- Regular run September 4 – October 9, 2022
- Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm. Mondays September 26 and October 3 at 7:30 pm.
- Regular run ticket prices $34.00, seniors $29.00, students and military $12 (all plus applicable fees)
- Performances at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Chicago 60660 (Inside Edgewater Presbyterian Church)
- Info and tickets at www.citylit.org and by phone at 773-293-3682.
It's the night before the beginning of the Aztec empire's new millennium, and the Chosen One--so named because he is to be sacrificed in order to make the sun rise next morning--has run off with the Emperor's daughter. If he is not found, the sun will not rise, and the world will end. By the writers of the legendary Chicago musical comedy SUMMER STOCK MURDER.
Brian Pastor (Adapter, Director THIRTEEN DAYS; Director, THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD) is a writer, director, and actor in Chicago, IL Their short play INHUMAN NATURE was presented by Brave New Word as part of the SLAM Festival at the Arcola Theatre in London, was presented by and made the Wildcard Finals of the Short+Sweet Festival in Sydney, Australia, and was a finalist for the Short+Sweet Festival in Queensland, Australia. Their co-adaptations of Mark Twain's PUDD'NHEAD WILSON and Washington Irving's THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW received successful runs at City Lit Theater, where they directed last fall’s acclaimed production of George Bernard Shaw’s ARMS AND THE MAN, and 2017’s production of Archibald MacLeish’s J.B. Brian is the Artistic Director of Promethean Theatre Ensemble, where they have directed THE LION IN WINTER, THE WINTER’S TALE, and GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE, as well as HENRY V and THE DARK SIDE OF THE BARD. Brian is also the Executive Director of Sideshow Theatre Company.
John Millington Synge, (Playwright, THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD) was an Irish poet and playwright who by the start of the 20th century had helped rediscover and redefine the spirit of native Ireland and introduce to its theatre a realism sympathetic to the working class. A founding playwright of the Abbey Theatre, a.k.a. the National Theatre of Ireland, his best-known work is perhaps THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD, a landmark exploration of morality and Romance that resulted in Irish nationalist riots. City Lit produced Synge’s DIERDRE OF THE SORROWS IN fall, 2017.
L.C. Bernadine (Co-adapter, THE VIRGINIAN: HORSEMAN OF THE PLAINS) is a Chicago-based playwright who has worked with Underscore Theatre, the Writers Room program at New Colony Theatre, and the Playwrights Lab at Jackalope Theatre. In addition to THE VIRGINIAN for City Lit Theater, she is currently at work on a musical titled IS YOU IS, about false racial science and the 1933 “Races of Mankind” exhibit at The Field Museum. Past plays include YARD WORK (New Colony Theatre); WILL THE CIRCLE (Chicago Musical Theatre Festival); and BORDERLANDS, an adaptation of the book ‘A Guitar and A Pen’(Underscore Theatre). She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, and co-founder of a new play development support project for playwrights in Chicago, called Broken Bell Reads.
Spencer Huffman (Co-adapter, THE VIRGINIAN: HORSEMAN OF THE PLAINS) is a playwright, actor, and director based in Chicago. His plays include: WHEN WE WERE LITTLE, SHINE DOWN ON US, THE SWAMP PLAY, LIKE SOME DEEP BOOMING, and IF ONLY WE WERE GHOSTS. His plays have earned finalist and semi-finalist nominations from The National Playwrights Conference, American Stage’s 21st Century Voices New Play Festival, and the Landing Theatre Co. New American Voices Festival among others and staged readings from Three Cat Productions (Chicago, IL) and Relative Theatrics (Laramie, WY). He was a member of the Writers Room 7.0 at the New Colony in Chicago and is currently a writer in residence at The Marble House Project in Dorset, VT. He is a member of the School at Steppenwolf class of 2019.
Kristine Thatcher (Playwright, EMMA'S CHILD) is City Lit’s resident playwright. Her 2017 City Lit commission THE SAFE HOUSE was Jeff-nominated for Best New Work. She was formerly a member of the Victory Gardens playwrights ensemble. She is an award-winning actress, director and playwright and began acting at age 16 with the BoarsHead Theatre in Michigan. She has since appeared on stages in New York and Chicago, and in regional theaters across the country from Seattle to Sarasota. Her published plays include NIEDECKER, UNDER GLASS, EMMA’S CHILD (winner of the 1995 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; a 1997 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, the 1997 RESOLVE Award for Excellence in the Arts; the 1997 Cunningham Prize for Playwriting from DePaul University; and the 1997 After Dark Award for Outstanding New Work), APPARITIONS, VOICE OF GOOD HOPE (nominated for the 2000 Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work), and AMONG FRIENDS (winner of the 2000 Scott McPherson Memorial Award). She also wrote THE BLOODHOUND LAW, the concluding play of City Lit’s Civil War Sesquicentennial Project.
Kingsley Day (Composer, Lyricist, Co-bookwriter AZTEC HUMAN SACRIFICE)
Kingsley Day has composed the scores for City Lit’s productions of PROMETHEUS BOUND, LONDON ASSURANCE, THE TEMPEST, and VOLPONE. With Philip LaZebnik, he cowrote the comedy TOUR DE FARCE, which premiered in Chicago starring Steve Carell and Hollis Resnik under the direction of Terry McCabe and has since been performed across the United States and Europe, and the book for the musical STATE STREET, premiered by City Lit as directed by Chicago theater legend Sheldon Patinkin. Day’s other collaborations with LaZebnik include writing the music and lyrics and cowriting the books for the musicals SUMMER STOCK MURDER, which ran for 18 months and won a record-setting eight Jeffs in its premiere production; DEAR AMANDA, which starred Alene Robertson at Pheasant Run Playhouse; BYRNE, BABY, BYRNE, which with its sequel ran a total of three years at Zanies Comedy Club; THE JOY OF SOCKS, premiered and revived by the Chicago Premiere Society; and the upcoming AZTEC HUMAN SACRIFICE.
Philip LaZebnik (Co-bookwriter AZTEC HUMAN SACRIFICE) has written screenplays for films including POCAHONTAS, MULAN, THE PRINCE OF EGYPT, THE ROAD TO EL DORADO, He wrote the book for the musical FAIRY TALE, about Hans Christian Andersen with songs by Stephen Schwartz, and wrote the book and lyrics for DreamWorks' theatrical musical version of THE PRINCE OF EGYPT with songs by Stephen Schwartz. LaZebnik also wrote episodes for WINGS, STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, THE TORKELSONS and ALMOST HOME.
Terry McCabe (Producer, Artistic Director, Director THE VIRGINIAN: HORSEMAN OF THE PLAINS, EMMA'S CHILD, AZTEC HUMAN SACRIFICE) has been City Lit’s artistic director since February 2005 and its producer since July 2016. He has directed plays professionally in Chicago since 1981. He was artistic director of Stormfield Theatre for four years, resident director at Wisdom Bridge Theatre for five years, and worked at Body Politic Theatre three separate times in three different capacities over a span of 14 years. His City Lit adaptations of HOLMES AND WATSON, GIDGET (co-adapted with Marissa McKown), THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, SCOUNDREL TIME, and OPUS 1861 (co-adapted with Elizabeth Margolius) were Jeff-nominated. He won two Jeff Citations for directing at Stormfield and has been thrice nominated for the Jeff Award for Best Director, for shows at Court Theatre, Wisdom Bridge, and Victory Gardens. He has directed at many Chicago theatres either long-gone or still with us, as well as off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre and at Vienna’s English Theatre. His book MIS-DIRECTING THE PLAY has been denounced at length in American Theatre magazine and from the podium at the national convention of The Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas but has been used in directing courses on three continents and is now available in paperback and Kindle e-book.
ABOUT CITY LIT
For over forty-one years, City Lit Theater has been dedicated to the vitality and accessibility of the literary imagination. City Lit produces theatrical adaptations of literary material, scripted plays by language-oriented playwrights, and original material. City Lit Theater was founded with $210 pooled by Arnold Aprill (at the time the Body Politic Theatre’s box office manager), David Dillon, and Lorell Wyatt on October 9, 1979 and was incorporated on March 25, 1980. There were still so few theatres in Chicago that at City Lit’s launch event, they were able to read a congratulatory letter they had received from Tennessee Williams.
City Lit is in the historic Edgewater Presbyterian Church building at 1020 West Bryn Mawr Avenue. We are two blocks east of both the Bryn Mawr Red Line stop and the #36 Broadway and the #84 Peterson buses. We are one block west of the #147 Sheridan and #151 Sheridan buses. Divvy bike stations are located at Bryn Mawr & Lakefront Trail, and at Broadway & Ridge at Bryn Mawr. The metered street parking pay boxes on Bryn Mawr have a three-hour maximum duration and are free on Sundays. $10 valet service is available at Francesca's Bryn Mawr at 1039 W Bryn Mawr diagonally across the street from us on the SW corner of Kenmore and Bryn Mawr and is available whether you are dining at the restaurant or not. There are additional details about parking and dining options at www.citylit.org.
City Lit is supported by the MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Ivanhoe Theater Foundation, the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency and is sponsored, in part, by A.R.T. League.