Chicago’s Artemisia Theater will return to in-person performances in 2022, providing platforms for fiercely feminist viewpoints with two daring new productions.
This summer, Artemisia will premiere Roe v US, a world premiere written and directed by Kelcey Anyá, July 14-17, 2022, at Filament Theatre, 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood.
Roe is your teacher, your sister, your mother, your cousin. Roe is your friend, your mentor, your pastor’s wife. Roe is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company; Roe is the 5-star athlete; Roe is you or someone you’re close to. In a society that views human rights as an issue of right and wrong, Roe v US puts on trial society’s commentary on morality and confronts the grueling real-life consequences of choice. How do you handle your right to choose? Are you redeemable and by whose standards are you judged? Is redemption inherent or is it earned?
With Roe v. Wade in jeopardy like never before, Roe v US gives voice to the women who made the choice. Show times for this workshop-style production are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets, $25, go on sale May 6 at artemisiatheatre.org.
In fall, Artemisia will premiere Title X by Julie Proudfoot, a world premiere docudrama, co-directed by Proudfoot and Kelcey Anyá, about abortion rights in America from 1974 to now. The play is told through the lens of eight radically different female characters: A 17-year-old wrestles with her choices under Title X. The director of a women’s clinic defends her patient’s right to reproductive justice. A member of Operation Rescue protests in front of an abortion clinic. An asylum officer interviews detainees, victims of the refugee crisis, at the U.S.-Mexico border. A woman in her twenties confronts haunting memories of sexual harassment by her professor during a visit to her former college campus. A conservative congresswoman urges her pro-life supporters to fight the battle for the unborn with Christian love. A survivor of sexual assault reclaims her life after taking her boss to trial for rape. A lesbian exposes her complicated but loving relationship with her partner, who died of AIDS. In the end, the 17-year-old, now a mature woman, discovers the empowering life lessons she has learned.
“I wrote Title X over the course of a year while sheltering at home,” said Proudfoot, “while Trump was succeeding in reverse funding under Title 10 via coercion tactics. It exposes the way the system works against women and keeps women from having autonomy.”
The venue, performance schedule and ticket sales for Title X are to be announced.
Leading up to the return of live performances, Artemisia will offer a series of live, online workshops for emerging professionals taught by Artemisia’s artistic team. The following workshops, designed to help artists focus their career, trust their voice, embrace their unique talent and build winning relationships, will run Sundays and Mondays, May 2-June 12:
The Business of Acting with Julie Proudfoot (May 1, 15 and June 5)
Prepare a Great Theater Audition with Julie Proudfoot (May 22 and June 12)
How to “Make It” as an Early Career Professional with Willow James (May 1 and 15)
Making Music for Theater taught by Willow James (May 22 and June 5)
Social Media & Website Etiquette for Performing Artists with Kelcey Anyá (May 2 and 16)
The “Teaching” Artist with Kelcey Anyá (May 9 and May 23)
All workshops will be taught via zoom and include Q&A and open discussion. Cost is $39 per 90-minute session, $60 for two workshops. To register, visit artemisiatheatre.org.
For more information about Artemisia’s plans in 2022, visit artemisiatheatre.org or follow the company on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
About Artemisia Theatre
Artemisia Gentileschi was a great feminist painter, forgotten by history. Now, she’s celebrated as the greatest female artist prior to the modern period. It shows why women’s stories are important. They change our perspective, on the past, the present and the future.
That’s why Chicago’s Artemisia Theatre was founded, to share women’s untold stories. Since 2011, Artemisia has enriched Chicago’s culture by taking creative risks, achieving artistic excellence, and engaging the audience directly to inspire compassion and social justice for women. Through its celebrated productions of classic and all-new feminist plays, its past Fall Fest of staged readings, and its current virtual works, and upcoming world premieres, Artemisia creates career-altering opportunities for African American, Latinx, Asian, Arab and Native American (ALAANA), Caucasian and LGBTQ theater artists.
Julie Proudfoot is founder and artistic director of Artemisia Theatre. Kelcey Anyá was hired as Artemisia’s first managing director in February 2022, marking a key moment of institutional growth and renewed commitment to elevating women’s voices.
Artemisia’s leadership team is 100 percent women, because “women still struggle to find a place where they can share their stories and be their true selves as artists,” said board president E. Faye Butler. “That’s what I love about Artemisia. It’s a sisterhood of leaders, who empower women as writers, directors, performers. A place where women can bring their fire, passion and lived experience and share true stories from their perspective.”
Artemisia Board President E. Faye Butler
Artemisia Theatre is a recent recipient of a Chi Biz Strong Grant and is also supported by the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund, Arts Work Fund, DDT Law Group, Echo Limousine, Fox Pest Control, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, HKM Employment Attorneys LLP, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Illinois Humanities, The MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity and the Arts at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Rebellious Magazine for Women and Salvi Schostok & Pritchard Trial Lawyers.
For more, visit artemisiatheatre.org where you can sign up for the company’s e-newsletter and subscribe to its feminist podcast, We Women. Or, follow the company on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
Artemisia Theatre Biographies
Kelcey Anyá (managing director) is a multi-disciplinary performing artist originally from the bayous of South Louisiana. She began her performance career at the age of two as a dancer, fell in love with all things performance, and her motto became “as long as I can touch the stage, I’m happy.” Kelcey Anyá received her Master's of Arts in Theatre, Performance and Practice with certificates in both Teaching and Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. In 2019 she merged her love for education and the arts when she began her career as a teaching artist in New York City. Since then, she has juggled serving as the director of Colt Coeur Theatre Company’s annual education initiative (New York City), as a teaching artist and dance instructor with The Joffrey Ballet, and as a teaching artist with Pegasus Theatre. Now in Chicago, she is also Founder and Director of the Kelcey Anyá Performing Arts Academy, LLC (KAPAA), an organization geared towards amplifying the voices of young Black and Brown storytellers through the arts.
Julie Proudfoot (founder and artistic director) has been seen on major network TV, in national and regional commercials and in independent film, with credits that include Chicago Med, where she has a recurring role as Dr. Amy Watkins, The Chi, Chicago Justice and Boomtown. At Artemisia, she has created roles in world premiere feminist plays, including Marla in Goods, by Lauren Ferebee, and Lauren in Visiting, by Ed Proudfoot, for which she was nominated for Broadwayworld Awards. She has extensive experience performing in new and classic plays in regional theatre and Off-Broadway and has been seen on stage at TimeLine, Midsommer Flight, Shakespeare Project, and Equity Library Theatre in Chicago. At Artemisia, Proudfoot directed world premiere productions of Belfast Girls, by Jaki McCarrick, and Sweet Texas Reckoning, by Traci Godfrey, to critical acclaim. Proudfoot is a writer, dramaturg and story analyst who has worked extensively with regional theaters and Hollywood studios in the development of new works for stage and screen. She is represented as an actor by Grossman & Jack Talent.
Willow James (resident sound designer and photographer) is a Chicagoland-based theater artist, photographer and podcast producer. He is passionate about new works and amplifying the voices of historically underserved communities, which has influenced his career as an actor, director and sound designer. In addition to Artemisia Theatre, he's worked with Definition Theatre, Phoenix Theatre Indianapolis, Pegasus Theatre and others. willow-james.org