The company’s entire 2020-21 subscription season will be presented at its longtime home in Chicago’s Lakeview East neighborhood, located at
615 W. Wellington Avenue, and will feature two theatrical classics, a Chicago premiere, and the world premiere of a new play developed through TimeLine’s Playwrights Collective.
TimeLine Theatre’s four-play 2020-21 subscription season includes:
- The world premiere of Campaigns, Inc. by TimeLine Company Member Will Allan, directed by TimeLine Associate Artistic Director Nick Bowling, a new play developed through TimeLine’s Playwrights Collective that is a hilarious and timely true story about the power that persuasion, deceit, and perception hold in the U.S. electoral system.
- The Tony Award-winning Best Play The Last Night of Ballyhoo by Alfred Uhry, directed by TimeLine Associate Artist Kimberly Senior, a funny and thought-provoking exploration of love, religion, and prejudice within a southern Jewish social circle.
- Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, directed by TimeLine Company Member Ron OJ Parson, a scathingly funny backstage drama about interracial politics and the complex, difficult, and often emotional way people talk about race.
- The Chicago premiere of The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh, directed by Helen Young, a piercing and darkly poetic portrait of America as seen through the eyes of the first Chinese woman to arrive in the United States.
Save on tickets to TimeLine’s 2020-21 Season with a FlexPass Subscription. Four different tiers, priced from $97 to $235, are now on sale. For more information and to purchase, call (773) 281-8463 x6 or visit timelinetheatre.com.
“TimeLine is thrilled to announce our 24th season, with four plays that explore our past while hitting upon issues that dominate our collective conversations today,” said TimeLine Artistic Director PJ Powers. “As our country approaches a new chapter and a national election, TimeLine’s Company Members have curated a collection of plays filled with great comedy, depth of emotion, and amazing theatricality that touch upon issues of political gamesmanship, family dynamics, religion, and identity.”
Powers continued: “As we continue planning for TimeLine’s new facility in Uptown, we will present our entire 2020-21 season at our longtime home at 615 W. Wellington Avenue, welcoming our audience to this uniquely transformative and intimate space that extends the experience beyond the stage into an immersive lobby for exhibits and continued exploration of the plays’ themes. We are delighted to feature a team of renowned directors—Nick Bowling, Kimberly Senior, Ron OJ Parson, and Helen Young—all of whom have played significant roles in TimeLine’s evolution. And they are paired with four writers—Will Allan, Alfred Uhry, Alice Childress, and Lloyd Suh—whose work speaks poignantly to these times.”
Casting will be announced at a later date.
THE 2020-21 TIMELINE THEATRE SUBSCRIPTION SEASON IS:
World Premiere
Campaigns, Inc.
by TimeLine Company Member Will Allan
directed by TimeLine Associate Artistic Director Nick Bowling
August 13 – September 27, 2020 (previews 8/5 – 8/12)
It is 1934, and famous novelist Upton Sinclair is all but guaranteed to become the first Democratic governor of the state of California—until a young, unknown pair of consultants from the shadows of the challenger’s campaign attempt to take him down. As Frank Merriam and Sinclair battle it out in the spotlight—seeking endorsements from the likes of Charlie Chaplin and FDR—Leone Baxter and Clem Whitaker work behind-the-scenes to methodically construct one of the most spectacular, unbelievable, and star-studded smear campaigns ever.
Based on the true story of Baxter and Whitaker, who formed the first political consulting firm in U.S. history, Campaigns, Inc. is a hysterical and jaw-dropping inside look at the underbelly of politics through the lens of two of the undeniable founders of “fake news.”
This world premiere play was developed through TimeLine’s Playwrights Collective, launched in 2013 to support Chicago-based playwrights in residence and create new work centered on TimeLine’s mission of presenting plays inspired by history that connect to today’s social and political issues.
Campaigns, Inc. is the third play developed through the Collective to receive a full production, following Brett Neveu’s To Catch a Fish, which was presented at TimeLine in 2018, and Tyla Abercumbie’s Relentless, which will be the final production in the company’s current season, running May 6 – June 27, 2020. Campaigns, Inc. received its first public reading as part of TimeLine’s inaugural First Draft Playwrights Collective Festival in December 2018.
The Last Night of Ballyhoo
by Alfred Uhry
directed by TimeLine Associate Artist Kimberly Senior
November 12 – December 27, 2020 (previews 11/4 – 11/11)
From the Pulitzer Prize, Academy Award and Tony Award-winning playwright Alfred Uhry comes this Tony Award-winning Best Play—a funny and thought-provoking exploration of love, religion, and prejudice within a southern Jewish social circle.
Atlanta, 1939. Clark Gable and Gone with the Wind are the talk of the town, Hitler has invaded Poland, and the American South’s party of the year is only days away. The Freitags—a Jewish family so highly assimilated they have a Christmas tree in the front parlor—are obsessed with preparing for Ballyhoo, the lavish annual German-Jewish country club ball. Concerned with the pressures of societal appearances and expectations, young Lala is determined to make a unique splash at this year’s event. But life turns upside down when her uncle brings home his new employee, a handsome bachelor from Brooklyn who begins to court Lala’s charming cousin Sunny, home visiting from college. As romances blossom and obstacles arise, everyone must confront their own beliefs, prejudices, and desires in an effort to move forward.
Inspired by stories Uhry heard growing up in a southern Jewish family and acclaimed as “an insightful look into an era” and “an engaging family portrait” by The New York Times, The Last Night of Ballyhoo is a captivating drama that reveals the power of personal progress when we discover that who we are can be so much more than just where we are from.
Trouble in Mind
by Alice Childress
directed by TimeLine Company Member Ron OJ Parson
February 11 – March 28, 2021 (previews 2/3 – 2/10)
Acclaimed by The New York Times as “a rich, unsettling play that lives up to its title [and] lingers in one’s memory long after its conclusion,” this scathingly funny backstage drama about interracial politics explores the complex, difficult, and often emotional way people talk about race.
On stage at a Broadway theater in New York City in the mid-1950s, a group of actors has gathered for their first day rehearsing a new play called Chaos in Belleville, an anti-lynching Southern drama. But as the cast rehearses, tensions flair between Wiletta, the Black actress in the starring role, and her white director about his interpretation of the play. The result is an explosive conversation about equality, power, and how race is portrayed in the American theatre.
Written by Alice Childress (the first Black woman to have a play professionally produced in New York City) and featuring a play-within-a-play structure, Trouble in Mind is a groundbreaking backstage satire of egos and attitudes and an insightful look at the importance of honest representation.
Chicago Premiere
The Chinese Lady
by Lloyd Suh
directed by Helen Young
May 13 – June 26, 2021 (preview 5/5 – 5/12)
Inspired by the true story of the first Chinese woman to arrive in the United States, playwright Lloyd Suh unearths hidden history with humor and insight, asking us to explore the way we consider both ourselves and others.
Brought to the United States at age 14 from China in 1834 by enterprising American merchants, Afong Moy is put on display so the American public can get its first view of an authentic “Chinese Lady.” Over the course of 55 years, she performs an ethnicity that both defines and challenges her own views of herself, as she witnesses stunning transformations in the American identity. As these dual truths become irreconcilable, Afong must reckon with herself and the history of her new home with startling discovery and personal revelations.
During this piercing and darkly poetic portrait of America as seen through the eyes of a young Chinese woman, “this quiet play steadily deepens in complexity,” wrote The New York Times. “By the end of Mr. Suh’s extraordinary play, we look at Afong and see whole centuries of American history. She’s no longer the Chinese lady. She is us.”
ABOUT TIMELINE THEATRE COMPANY
TimeLine Theatre Company, recipient of the prestigious 2016 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, was founded in April 1997 with a mission to present stories inspired by history that connect with today's social and political issues. Currently celebrating its 23rd season, TimeLine has presented 82 productions, including 10 world premieres and 38 Chicago premieres, and launched the Living History Education Program, which brings the company's mission to life for students in Chicago Public Schools. Recipient of the Alford-Axelson Award for Nonprofit Managerial Excellence and the Richard Goodman Strategic Planning Award from the Association for Strategic Planning, TimeLine has received 56 Jeff Awards, including an award for Outstanding Production 11 times.
As TimeLine looks to its future, the company has purchased property in Uptown—encompassing a five-story, 45,500-square-foot warehouse building plus a vacant lot near the corner of Broadway and Argyle—to be the site of its new home. Preliminary plans feature two intimate and flexible black box theatres seating up to 225 and 125 audience members, respectively.
TimeLine’s new home also provides an expanded area for the immersive lobby experiences that are a TimeLine hallmark, new opportunities for education and engagement, room to allow audience members to arrive early and stay late for theatergoing experiences that extend far beyond the stage, and more. TimeLine also has announced the selection of HGA as architect for its new home project, which is expected to take approximately three years to complete. In the meantime, TimeLine continues to maintain its operations and present the majority of its productions at its current home in Lakeview East.
TimeLine is led by Artistic Director PJ Powers, Managing Director Elizabeth K. Auman and Board President Eileen LaCario. Company members are Tyla Abercrumbie, Will Allan, Nick Bowling, Janet Ulrich Brooks, Wardell Julius Clark, Behzad Dabu, Charles Andrew Gardner, Lara Goetsch, Juliet Hart, Anish Jethmalani, Mildred Marie Langford, Mechelle Moe, David Parkes, Ron OJ Parson, PJ Powers, Maren Robinson, and Benjamin Thiem.
Major corporate, government and foundation supporters of TimeLine Theatre include Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, The Crown Family, Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation, Forum Fund, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Irving Harris Foundation, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Laughing Acres Family Foundation, A.L. and Jennie L. Luria Foundation, MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Pauls Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, and The Shubert Foundation.
For more information, visit timelinetheatre.com on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (@TimeLineTheatre).
BIOGRAPHIES (in alphabetical order)
Will Allan (Playwright, Campaigns, Inc.), a TimeLine Company Member and former member of the Playwrights Collective, is a Chicago actor and playwright who recently moved west to Los Angeles. His Chicago debut was as a member of the original cast of TimeLine's Chicago premiere of The History Boys (directed by Nick Bowling, Equity Jeff Awards—Production and Ensemble). Campaigns, Inc. is his first full-length play, and he is thrilled that the place he got his start as an actor is the place he'll get his start as a professional playwright. During his decade in Chicago, he performed in numerous productions with Steppenwolf, Goodman, Chicago Shakespeare, Victory Gardens, Remy Bumppo, Theater Wit, and more. Regionally, he has performed with Milwaukee Repertory, Indiana Repertory, Cardinal Stage, and The Human Race Theatre Company. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Allan studied at Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia and earned his BA degree in Theatre Performance from North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.
Nick Bowling (Director, Campaigns, Inc.) was the founding Artistic Director and is now Associate Artistic Director and a Company Member of TimeLine Theatre, where he has directed more than 30 productions. He is the recipient of eight Jeff Awards for Outstanding Direction (The History Boys, The Normal Heart, Fiorello!, This Happy Breed, and The Crucible at TimeLine, Ragtime at Marriott Theatre, Sondheim on Sondheim at Porchlight Music Theatre, and Another Part of the Forest at Eclipse Theatre) and also received Jeff Award nominations for Blood and Gifts, The Farnsworth Invention, Hauptmann, and The Lion in Winter at TimeLine; Closer Than Ever at Porchlight Music Theatre; and City of Angels, The King and I, and Man of La Mancha at Marriott Theatre. Other recent credits at TimeLine include the Chicago premiere of J.T. Rogers’ Oslo at Broadway In Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse, Master Class, The Audience, A Disappearing Number and The Last Wife. Other Chicago credits include Marriott’s Oliver! and The Bridges of Madison County, Paramount's A Christmas Story, Northwestern University’s Guys and Dolls and Cabaret, Porchlight’s A Catered Affair, Writers Theatre's Bach at Leipzig, and Shattered Globe Theatre's Time of the Cuckoo and Frozen Assets.
Alice Childress (Playwright, Trouble in Mind, 1916 – 1994) was raised during the Harlem Renaissance under the watchful eye of her beloved maternal grandmother and grew up to become first an actress and then a playwright and novelist. A founding member of the American Negro Theatre, she wrote her first play, Florence, in 1949. The script was written in one night on a dare from her close friend, the actor Sidney Poitier, who had told Alice that he didn’t think a great play could be written overnight. She proved him wrong, and the play was produced Off-Broadway in 1950. In 1952, Childress became the first African-American woman to see her play (Gold Through the Trees) professionally produced in New York. In 1955, Childress’ play Trouble in Mind opened Off-Broadway at the Greenwich Mews Theatre. The production was a critical and popular success and immediately drew interest from producers for a Broadway transfer. In an ironic twist echoing the tribulations of the characters in the play itself, the producers wanted changes to the script to make it more palatable to a commercial audience. Childress refused to compromise her artistic vision, and the play never opened on Broadway, ending her chance of being the first African-American woman playwright to have a play on Broadway. Trouble in Mind received a well-reviewed Off-Broadway revival in 1998 by the Negro Ensemble Company and has since been produced by a multitude of prestigious theatres such as Yale Repertory Theatre, Centerstage, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, and Arena Stage. Childress is known for A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich, her 1973 novel about a 13-year-old Black boy addicted to heroin, which was subsequently made into a movie in 1978. Other plays written by Childress include Just a Little Simple (1950), Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White (1966), and Gullah (1984). Throughout her career, Childress examined the true meaning of being Black, and especially of being Black and female. As she herself once said, “I concentrate on portraying have-nots in a have society.”
Ron OJ Parson (Director, Trouble in Mind) became a TimeLine Company Member in 2016. His TimeLine credits include Tyla Abercrumbie’s Relentless, Jiréh Breon Holder’s Too Heavy for Your Pocket, Brett Neveu’s To Catch a Fish, Dominique Morisseau’s Paradise Blue and Sunset Baby, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, and the upcoming world premiere of Tyla Abercrumbie’s Relentless. He is a native of Buffalo, New York, and a graduate of the University of Michigan’s professional theater program. He is the co-founder and former Artistic Director of Onyx Theatre Ensemble of Chicago and a co-founder and co-director of Ripe ManGo Productions. Parson is a Resident Artist at Court Theatre and an Associate Artist with Teatro Vista, and an Associate Artist at Writers Theatre. Since moving to Chicago from New York in 1994, he has worked as both an actor and director. His Chicago credits include work with The Chicago Theatre Company, Victory Gardens, Goodman, Steppenwolf, Chicago Dramatists, Northlight, Court, Black Ensemble Theatre, Congo Square, Northlight Theatre, Urban Theatre Company, City Lit Theater, ETA Creative Arts, and Writers. Regionally, Parson has directed shows at Studio Arena Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Milwaukee Repertory, South Coast Repertory, Pasadena Playhouse, Geva Theatre, Virginia Stage, Roundabout Theatre, Wilshire Theatre, The Mechanic Theatre, CenterStage, St. Louis Black Repertory, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, Signature Theatre (New York), Kansas City Rep, and Portland Stage, among others. In Canada, he directed the world premiere of Palmer Park by Joanna McClelland Glass at the Stratford Festival. He is a member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and SDC. For further information, visit ronojparson.com.
Kimberly Senior (Director, The Last Night of Ballyhoo) is an Associate Artist at TimeLine, where her credits include Inana, My Name is Asher Lev, All My Sons, and Dolly West’s Kitchen. On Broadway, she directed Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Disgraced. Her Off-Broadway credits include Bella Bella (starring Harvey Fierstein, Manhattan Theatre Club); The Niceties (Manhattan Theatre Club); Disgraced and The Who & the What (Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3); Aasif Mandvi's Sakina's Restaurant and Dan Rather's Stories of a Lifetime (Audible Theatre at Minetta Lane); Chris Gethard's Career Suicide (produced by Judd Apatow); Discord (Primary Stages); and Engagements (Second Stage Theatre). Senior’s regional theatre credits include Sweat, The Niceties and Our Daughters, Like Pillars (Huntington Theatre Company); Margaret Trudeau's Certain Woman of an Age (Second City, Just for Laughs Montreal and Toronto, Audible); Byhalia, Mississippi (The Kennedy Center); The Niceties (McCarter Theatre Center and Geffen Playhouse), Disgraced (Goodman, Seattle Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, and Mark Taper Forum); Rapture, Blister, Burn and Support Group for Men (Goodman); Photograph 51 (South Coast Repertory); Sheltered (Alliance); Other Than Honorable (Geva Theatre Center); Buried Child, The Scene, Marjorie Prime, The Diary of Anne Frank, Hedda Gabler, and The Letters (Writers); Sex with Strangers (Geffen Playhouse); Little Gem (City Theatre); Discord, 4000 Miles, and The Whipping Man (Northlight); and Want and The North Plan (Steppenwolf); among others. Television credits include “Chris Gethard's Career Suicide” (HBO). She was a 2013 finalist for the SDCF Joe A. Callaway Award and the Zelda Fichandler Award, and recipient of the 2016 Special Non-Equity Jeff Award, the 2016 Alan Schneider Award (TCG), and the 2018 Einhorn Award (Primary Stages). She is a resident director of Writers Theatre and a member of the Artistic Collective at the Goodman Theatre.
Lloyd Suh (Playwright, The Chinese Lady) is the 2019 winner of the Herb Alpert Award for Theater. His play The Chinese Lady was hailed as a New York Times Critics’ Pick during its New York run. Past and upcoming productions include Barrington Stage, Ma-Yi, Milwaukee Repertory, Long Wharf Theater, Magic Theater, Artists at Play, and Artists Rep. His other plays include Charles Francis Chan Jr’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery (NAATCO, Theater Mu), The Wong Kids in The Secret of the Space Chupacabra GO! (Ma-Yi, Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, NEA Arena Stage New Play Development Grant) and American Hwangap (Magic Theatre, Ma-Yi/PlayCo, Tanghalang Pilipino). Named one of “50 to Watch” by the Dramatists Guild, Suh has received additional grants, awards and fellowships from the Dramatists Guild, the Jerome Foundation, the Lark Play Development Center, Second Generation, Pan Asian Repertory and NAATCO.
Alfred Uhry (Playwright, The Last Night of Ballyhoo) is the only American writer to win a Pulitzer Prize, an Academy Award and a Tony Award. He began his career as a lyric writer under contract to the late Frank Loesser. In that capacity, he made his Broadway debut in 1968 with Here’s Where I Belong. He then wrote the book and lyrics for The Robber Bridegroom, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. In 1987 his first play, Driving Miss Daisy, opened at Playwrights Horizons Theatre in New York. It was subsequently moved to the John Houseman Theatre, where it ran for more than 1,300 performances. The play earned many awards, including the Outer Critics Circle Award and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. For the film version, he won an Academy Award and the film itself was voted Best Picture of the Year. Other films include Mystic Pizza and Rich in Love. Uhry's second play, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, which was commissioned by the Cultural Olympiad for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, opened on Broadway in February 1997. It was chosen Best Play by the American Theatre Critics Association, The Outer Critics Circle, and the Drama League, and received the 1997 Tony Award for Best Play. Other theatre credits include Parade, for which he received a second Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical; Edgardo Mine; LoveMusik; Apples & Oranges; and Angel Reapers; among others.
Helen Young (Director, The Chinese Lady) returns to TimeLine, where she previously directed the TimePieces reading of The Chinese Lady, The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin, and served as Associate Director of The Audience and Assistant Dramaturg of Chimerica. Chicago credits include directing Wild Boar and director lead for New China Festival (Silk Road Rising), directing American Hwangap (Jeff Recommended) and Tiny Dynamite (Halcyon/A-Squared), and directing Tea (Jeff Recommended, Prologue Theatre). Other directing credits include work with Chicago Dramatists, Remy Bumppo, Our Perspectives, Indie Boots (reading festival winner), Polarity Ensemble (reading festival winner), Artemisia, Artistic Home, and Miranda Theatre's upcoming Liz Smith Reading Series at the Cherry Lane in New York City. Young is also an actor and serves on the boards of Token Theatre and Chicago Dramatists.