Refracted Theatre Company, recipient of eight Jeff Awards for its most recent production Tambo & Bones, is honored to present Coronation, by Laura Winters and directed by Tova Wolff, October 11 - November 16, in the Bookspan Theatre at The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. Previews are Friday, Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 13 at 3 p.m. and Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m. with the press opening Thursday, Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets go on sale Thursday, Aug. 1 at RefractedCo.com.
After another female candidate loses the 2044 presidential election, three passionate but disillusioned women dream up a new branch of government - a monarchy to be run by none other than the Queen of America. This three-act femme-futurist, political satire features a gas mask fashion show, a ball gown made out of blue jeans and a walking, talking, plotting Siri.
Coronation will have audiences doubled over in laughter and trembling with fear. The play positions female autonomy against the power and prestige of artificial intelligence, as it asks eerily topical questions like: Can we work within a system that was never meant to work for us? When it comes to the government, AI and the public, who is really in control?
The cast of Coronation includes Jodi Gage (she/her, Actor 1); Amber Washington (she/her, Actor 2); Mary Tilden (she/they, Actor 3); Dylan J. Fleming (he/him, Actor 4); Hannah Hammel (she/her, Actor 1 U/S); Kandace Mack (she/her, Actor 2 U/S); Katie Bevil (they/it, Actor 3 U/S) and Tristan Odenkirk (he/him, Actor 4 U/S).
The production team includes Laura Winters (she/her, playwright); Tova Wolff (she/her, executive producer/director); Graham MIller (he/him, co-producer); Johnnie Schleyer (he/him, production manager); Anna Vu (she/her, stage manager); Mariah Bennett (she/her, props designer); Abboye Lawrence (he/him, projections designer); Ethan Korvne (he/him, sound designer); Garrett Bell (he/him, lighting designer); Gregory Graham (he/him, costume designer); Becca Venable (she/her, scenic designer/technical director); Emily Marie Szymanski (she/her, assistant stage manager); Jackson Mikkelsen (he/him, lead electrician); Kira Nutter (they/she, fight & intimacy coordinator); Kenya Ann Hall (she/her, dramaturg) and Hannah Andruss (she/her, makeup/hair/wigs designer).
ABOUT LAURA WINTERS, playwright
Laura Winters is a playwright/screenwriter working in New York City and Los Angeles. Her play All of Me had an off-Broadway premiere with The New Group this spring. All of Me was also a winner of the Burman New Play Prize and had its world premiere at Barrington Stage Company last fall. Additional acknowledgements for All of Me include a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nomination, Relentless Award Honorable Mention, Drama League Next Stage Residency, Princess Grace Award Semi-Finalist. Her other plays include Emerson Loses Her “Miand” (Powers New Voices Festival at the Old Globe, semi-finalist at the National Playwrights Conference, Semi-Finalist in The Bechdel Test Festival), Coronation (finalist for National Playwrights Conference), Gonzo (Burman New Play Award Semi-Finalist, Rough Draft Festival), and Space Mission #5379: Saving Rachel, Nevada (East Valley Children's Theatre world premiere, winner of Arizona Theatre Excellence Award). She received her BA from Northwestern University and is represented by CAA/Anonymous Content.
ABOUT TOVA WOLFF, director
Tova Wolff is a director and producer based in Chicago. Her recent directing credits include A Play about David Mamet Writing a Play about Harvey Weinstein, I Couldn’t Tell You Why (Refracted Theatre Company), Clearing House (The Swell), Contrition: A Long Voicemail (The Swell), The King’s Speech (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre amd National Tour, associate director), Monica: This Play Is Not About Monica Lewinsky (59E59 Theaters and Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019), Security (Secret Theatre), A Bad Night (The Frontier), Fade (Victory Gardens, associate director), For the Loyal (Interrobang Theatre Project, associate director), Still Rising (The Tank), Pam’s Key (Gallery Players) and Bachelorette (Walkerspace at Soho Rep). In 2016, Wolff won Best Director for her production of Between Men at the Midtown International Theatre Festival. She was a 2017/2018 Directing Fellow at Victory Gardens Theater and a 2017 participant in the Director’s Lab Chicago. She is a co-founder and artistic director of Refracted Theatre Company. Wolff received her BA from Northwestern University.
ABOUT REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY
Refracted Theatre Company was started by co-founders and co-artistic directors Graham Miller and Tova Wolff in 2019 in New York City. At the time of Refracted’s conception, Miller and Wolff observed a fractured nation, polarized and insular in its political/social motivations, a world inhabited by people deeply distrustful of those with whom they did not share ideological overlap. Graham and Tova ventured to create a theatre company that would challenge their audience’s biases, a space to become a mental and emotional fitness center where audiences could use theatre to grapple with the issues/feelings/forces in their lives. They wanted to inspire healthy discourse and empathic discussions, to encourage people to seek nuance and understanding again.
In their first season ever, they were able to produce a Refracted Reading...before everything came to a screeching halt. The pandemic changed the landscape of theatrical engagement in a way Tova and Graham could never have predicted. But they stuck true to their mission, which seeks not only to provide Refracted content, but also Refracted form. While most theaters shuttered their doors, Tova and Graham relied on adaptivity and innovation to continue to produce safety driven, live theatrical events that combined audio, immersive and movement theatre. In 2021, Refracted moved from New York to Chicago, where it continues to invite audiences to engage with new forms of storytelling, forms that are sure to upend their expectations.
In just two years in Chicago, Refracted has set a new standard for storefront theatre in a city renowned for its theatre scene. In 2023, the company was heralded as a “Rising Star in Storefront Theatre” by NewCity, nominated for the Broadway in Chicago Emerging Theatre Award, saw sold out performances, received rave reviews and swept the Joseph Jeff Awards, winning eight awards for their production of Tambo & Bones by Dave Harris, including Best Production. Refracted aims to always remain a home for people seeking to understand the world through a more nuanced, empathic lens. The truth, like a prism, has many sides and in order to see the light, they ask to show the spectrum of colors that comprise it.
Coronation is sponsored by the Feinberg Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council and the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation.
Top row: Jodi Gage, Amber Washington, Mary Tilden and Dylan J. Fleming
Second row: Hannah Hammel, Kandace Mack, Katie Bevil and Tristan Odenkirk