TimeLine Theatre Company, acclaimed for presenting plays that explore today’s social and political issues through the lens of the past, is thrilled to announce that it will celebrate its 25th Anniversary season with a return to live productions starting in January 2022.
The company’s 2021-22 subscription season will feature two previously announced productions that were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic but that continue to offer poignant and timely reflections on today’s social and political issues: the world premiere of a new play developed through TimeLine’s Playwrights Collective, plus an award-winning Chicago premiere.
Pictured (from left): Relentless playwright Tyla Abercrumbie and director Ron OJ Parson; The Chinese Lady playwright Lloyd Suh and director Helen Young.
TimeLine’s 2021-22 subscription season includes two riveting plays that link past, present and future:
- The world premiere of Relentless by TimeLine Company Member Tyla Abercrumbie, directed by TimeLine Company Member Ron OJ Parson, previously scheduled to conclude TimeLine’s 2019-20 season. Set just over 100 years ago in 1919, Relentless weaves a complicated tale of family, legacy, and progress and features characters who have weathered a great deal—revolution, change, even a pandemic—in ways that we see mirrored in our present day.
- The Chicago premiere of The Chinese Lady by Lloyd Suh, directed by Helen Young, previously scheduled last spring as part of TimeLine’s shuttered 2020-21 season. This piercing and darkly poetic portrait of the United States as seen through the eyes of the first Chinese woman to come here illuminates the roots of the prejudice, bigotry, and hate facing today’s Asian American and Pacific Islander community and inspires us to see and understand each other anew.
Both productions will be presented at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., in Chicago. This alternate location was chosen to best support current COVID-19 safety protocols for audiences, artists, and staff.
Alongside a growing coalition of more than 65 performing arts venues and producers across Chicagoland, TimeLine has agreed to ensure COVID-19 vaccination and mask requirements for audiences, artists, and staff. In general, current protocols require that patrons be masked and fully vaccinated with an FDA-authorized vaccine, or provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test, in order to attend. These protocols are subject to change as the pandemic evolves; for more information about TimeLine’s current COVID-19 safety protocols, visit timelinetheatre.com/health-and-safety.
Save on tickets to TimeLine’s 2021-22 Season with a 2-Admission FlexPass Subscription. Four different tiers, priced from $52 to $121, are now on sale. For more information and to purchase, call (773) 281-8463 x6 or visit timelinetheatre.com.
TimeLine’s last live, in-person presentation was a performance of James Ijames’ Kill Move Paradise, directed by Wardell Julius Clark, on March 12, 2020, before the theatre was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the company has explored new ways to fulfill TimeLine’s mission—hosting two virtual convenings of TimeLine South, its summer arts programs for teens; offering streaming versions of Kill Move Paradise and To Master the Art to audiences across the globe; creating online programs that dug deeper into TimeLine productions and programs, including Relentless, The Chinese Lady, and the Playwrights Collective; looking “Back to Our Future” at an entirely virtual fundraising gala; and furthering its plans to establish a new home in Uptown.
“We can’t wait to welcome audiences back for Season 25 and at long last, to gather together as one in the same space,” said Artistic Director PJ Powers. “And as we celebrate a quarter century as an organization, TimeLine is embracing a new beginning. We have our eye on the future, with a renewed commitment to being a place for discussing and learning, for healing and processing, for grappling with the past and looking toward a better tomorrow—and for basking in the beauty of live theatre.”
To view and embed the season announcement video, click here.
THE 2021-22 TIMELINE THEATRE SUBSCRIPTION SEASON IS:
World Premiere
Relentless
- by Tyla Abercrumbie
- directed by Ron OJ Parson
- January 27 – February 26, 2022 (previews 1/19 – 1/26)
- presented at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave.
Developed through TimeLine’s Playwrights Collective, this world premiere by TimeLine Company Member Tyla Abercrumbie offers a startling and vibrant look at the secrets we keep to protect the ones we love most, weaving a mother’s past with her daughters’ present in a complicated tale of family, legacy, and progress.
After the death of their mother, two sisters return home to Philadelphia in 1919 to settle her estate. Annelle is a happy socialite desperate to return to the safe illusion of a perfect life with her husband in Boston. Janet is a single, professional nurse, determined to change history and propel Black women to a place of prominence and respect. Upon discovering a series of diaries left by their late mother, they find themselves confronted with a woman they never really knew, exposing buried truths from the past that are chillingly, explosively Relentless.
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. Relentless is the second play developed through the Collective to receive a full production at TimeLine, following Brett Neveu’s To Catch a Fish in 2018. Relentless received its first public reading as part of TimeLine’s inaugural First Draft Playwrights Collective Festival in December 2018, and was included as part of TimeLine’s virtual Setting the Stage public program series in an event titled “Relentless: The Journey from the Black Victorian to Black Lives Matter.”
Chicago Premiere
The Chinese Lady
- by Lloyd Suh
- directed by Helen Young
- May 14 – June 18, 2022 (previews 5/8 – 5/13)
- presented at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave.
Inspired by the story of the first Chinese woman to arrive in the United States, The Chinese Lady unearths hidden history with humor and insight.
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.”
The Chinese Lady was included in TimeLine’s TimePieces Play Reading Series in January 2020, and was featured in TimeLine’s virtual Setting the Stage public program series in May 2021 in an event titled “The Chinese Lady: Building a Bridge Toward Asian Visibility.”
Casting for both plays will be announced at a later date.
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 entering its 25th 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 58 Jeff Awards, including an award for Outstanding Production 11 times.
The company has long been bursting at the seams of its current leased home located at 615 W. Wellington Avenue in Chicago’s Lakeview East neighborhood, where the theatre has been in residence since 1999. In December 2018, TimeLine announced the purchase of property at 5033-35 North Broadway in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood to be the site of its new home. Plans feature an intimate black box theatre seating up to 250 audience members, 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 is working with HGA as architect for its new home project, which is expected to be completed in early 2024.
HGA design rendering of TimeLine’s future new home at 5035 N. Broadway in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood
TimeLine is led by Artistic Director PJ Powers, Managing Director Elizabeth K. Auman and Board President John Sterling. 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 the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, Allstate Corporation, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, City of Chicago, Crown Family Philanthropies, Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation, The Forum Fund, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Laughing Acres Family Foundation, MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince, National Endowment for the Arts, Pritzker Traubert Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and the United States Small Business Administration.
For more information, visit timelinetheatre.com or Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (@TimeLineTheatre).
BIOGRAPHIES (in alphabetical order)
Tyla Abercrumbie (Playwright, Relentless) is a TimeLine Company Member and 2016-2018 Playwrights Collective member whose plays include Who’s Afraid of Deepak Chopra, Asylum (aka Life), Psychological Terrorism, Only Women Bleed, Naked and Raw, Affair of Ambiguity, Normality and The Straw. Abercrumbie’s work has been produced by TimeLine Theatre, Pittsburgh Playwright’s Theatre, MPAACT Theatre, and Chicago Cultural Center, and she was a recipient of the Raven Theatre Playwrights Initiative 2021. She has appeared on stage at TimeLine in Paradise Blue and In Darfur, as well as, at Huntington Theatre, Goodman, Court, Northlight, Victory Garden, Chicago Shakespeare, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. Television credits include: The Chi, The Big Leap, Somebody Somewhere, Utopia, Proven Innocent, Chicago PD, Chicago Med, Shrink, Empire, Easy, Crisis, Mob Doctor, Detroit 187, Chicago Code, and Shameless, among others. You may also have seen her at comedy clubs around town testing jokes for her stand-up show, Naked & Raw 3 (The Takers and the Tooken). She is a poet, invited to showcase her work at venues, events, and media outlets around the country, presenting before respected keynote speaker The Reverend Jesse Jackson and radio and media mogul Cathy Hughes. She holds a BA degree from Columbia College and is a proud member of AEA and SAG/AFTRA.
Ron OJ Parson (Director, Relentless) became a TimeLine Company Member in 2016. His TimeLine credits include 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.
Lloyd Suh (Playwright, The Chinese Lady) is the author of plays including The Chinese Lady, Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery, American Hwangap, Jesus in India, The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go!, Franklinland, Great Wall Story, and others, including Bina's Six Apples, which will premiere with Children's Theatre Company and the Alliance Theatre in 2022. His work has been produced with Ma-Yi, Magic, NAATCO, EST, La Mama, The Guthrie with Mu, Milwaukee Rep, ArtsEmerson and others, including internationally at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and with PCPA in Seoul, Korea. He is a current Guggenheim Fellow and has received the Horton Foote Prize, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, and the Helen Merrill Award. He served from 2005-10 as Artistic Director of Second Generation and Co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and from 2011-2020 as Director of Artistic Programs at The Lark. He was elected in 2016 to the Dramatists Guild Council.
Helen Young (Director, The Chinese Lady) returns to TimeLine, where she previously directed the online event “Setting the Stage: The Chinese Lady — Building a Bridge Toward Asian Visibility,” the TimePieces readings of The Chinese Lady and 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, Token Theatre, and Miranda Theatre's Liz Smith Reading Series at the Cherry Lane in New York City. Helen is also an actor and serves on the boards of Token Theatre and Chicago Dramatists.