Download CONTACT: Denise Schneider/Kiana Harris/Ramsey Carey FOR

CONTACT:
IMAGERY:
Denise Schneider/Kiana Harris/Ramsey Carey
312.443.5151 or [email protected]
PressRoom.GoodmanTheatre.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2015
CASTING SET FOR GOODMAN THEATRE’S 2015 NEW STAGES FESTIVAL, OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 15;
FREE TICKETS FOR ALL SEVEN OFFERINGS AVAILABLE NOW
***ANNUAL NEW PLAY FESTIVAL CREATES PLATFORM FOR DIVERSE PLAYWRIGHT VOICES***
(Chicago, IL) Newcomers and Chicago favorites are cast in Goodman Theatre’s 12th annual New Stages, a festival of
new plays designed to give playwrights an opportunity to experience their work with set, lighting, costume and sound
elements and to implement audience response. The 2015 festival includes three developmental productions in
repertory—Mother Road by Octavio Solis, directed by Juliette Carrillo; Objects in the Mirror by Charles Smith, directed by
Chuck Smith; and King of the Yees by Lauren Yee, directed by Joshua Kahan Brody. Four staged readings join the lineup during the festival’s final weekend (“Professionals Weekend”) including Lady in Denmark by Dael Orlandersmith,
directed by Chay Yew; The Amateurs by Jordan Harrison, directed by Oliver Butler; Rödvinsvänster (Red-Wine Leftists):
1977 by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Wendy C. Goldberg (part of Gilman’s trilogy that also includes Soups, Stews, and
Casseroles: 1976, which appears May 21 – June 19, 2016 at the Goodman); and On The Exhale by Martín
Zimmerman, directed by Marti Lyons. New Stages runs October 28 – November 15 in the Goodman’s Owen Theatre;
tickets are free, but reservations are required: call 312.443.3800, click GoodmanTheatre.org/NewStages or visit the
box office (170 N. Dearborn). For more information about “Industry Professionals Weekend” (November 13 – 15), visit
GoodmanTheatre.org/Professionals.
The Goodman is grateful for the generosity of its New Work sponsors, including: the Time Warner Foundation, Lead
Support of New Play Development; the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, Major Support of New Work Development; The
Pritzker-Pucker Foundation, Major Support of New Work Development; The Glasser and Rosenthal Family, Support of
New Work Development; the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Support of New Work Development; Kirkland
& Ellis LLP, New Stages Festival Reception Sponsor; and The Joyce Foundation, Principal Support for Diverse Artistic
and Professional Development. King of Yees was originally commissioned with support from the Virginia B. Toulmin
Foundation.
“The New Stages Festival is really the heart of the Goodman’s many efforts to develop new plays,” said Artistic Director
Robert Falls. “We are incredibly proud to support these unique and diverse playwrights, as we have for over a decade,
and are pleased to offer the Chicago community and professionals from across the country the first look at this
inspiring work.”
Since its inception at Goodman Theatre in 2004, New Stages has offered theatergoers a glimpse into the development
process of new plays, many of which have gone on to receive full productions at the Goodman and elsewhere. Of the 65
plays seen in a developmental production or staged reading at New Stages over the years, 65% were written by
playwrights of color and/or women. As the festival has grown, technical aspects of the productions have advanced as
well. The three developmental productions, Mother Road , Objects in the Mirror, and King of the Yees, all receive full
technical support with a design team including Kevin Depinet (Set Design), Jesse Klug (Lighting Design), Christine
Pascual (Costume Design) and Mikhail Fiksel (Sound Design).
Casting for the 2015 Developmental Productions
*Denotes Actors’ Equity Association
Mother Road
By Octavio Solis
Directed by Juliette Carrillo
October 28 – November 14
A Developmental Production; appears in repertory
Casting Announced for 2015 New Stages Festival at Goodman Theatre
Annual Free Festival Promotes Diverse Playwrights (October 28 – November 15)
Page 2 of 4
Inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Mother Road is set in the present day and introduces William Joad.
Hardworking and hard-living, Joad hung on to the family farm, but now has no blood kin to whom he can pass down the
land. No one, that is, until a private detective uncovers an unexpected relation: Martín Jodes—a young Mexican
American descendant of Steinbeck’s protagonist, Tom Joad. The two men meet at the site of the former government
work camp that was once home to Steinbeck’s Joads, and is now home to migrant workers like Martín’s mother, who
lived and died laboring in the fields. Together these unlikely cousins travel from California back to Oklahoma, reversing
the Joads’ mythic journey in an epic story about land, family and survival.
CAST:
Brenda Barrie*
Ricardo Gutierrez*
Christopher Meister
Ronnel Taylor
Tommy Rivera*
Chelcie Ross*
Angelica Roque
Lisandra Tena
Lakin Valdez*
Chorus/As Cast
Chorus/As Cast
Roger/Chorus/As Cast
James/As Cast
Curtis/Chorus/As Cast
William Joad/As Cast
Mo/Chorus/As Cast
Amelia/Chorus/As Cast
Martín Jodes/As Cast
Objects in the Mirror
By Charles Smith
Directed by Chuck Smith
October 30 – November 15
A Developmental Production; appears in repertory
In 2009, playwright Charles Smith traveled to Adelaide, Australia, to see a production of his play Free Man of Color,
which featured Shedrick Yarkpai, a young Liberian actor, in the title role. Smith learned about the actor’s tumultuous
journey from war-torn Liberia through a number of refugee camps in Western Africa, before his final relocation to
Australia. Shedrick’s remarkable odyssey inspired Objects in the Mirror—the story of a young immigrant’s journey and
his search for a new family, identity and safe place to call home.
CAST :
Charles Andrew Gardner*
Lily Mojekwu*
Jeff Parker*
AC Smith*
Shedrick Kennedy Yarkpai
Luopu Workolo / Zaza Workolo
Rob Mosher
John Workolo
King of the Yees
By Lauren Yee
Directed by Joshua Kahan Brody
November 1 – 15
A Developmental Production; appears in repertory
For nearly 20 years, playwright Lauren Yee’s father Larry has been a driving force in the Yee Family Association, a
seemingly obsolescent Chinese American men’s club formed 150 years ago in the wake of the Gold Rush. But when her
father goes missing, Lauren must plunge into San Francisco’s Chinatown and confront a world both foreign and
familiar. Bitingly hilarious and heartbreakingly honest, King of the Yees is an epic joyride across cultural, national and
familial borders that explores what it means to truly be a Yee.
CAST :
Melissa Canciller
Rammel Chan
Francis Jue*
Deanna Myers
Daniel Smith
Lauren
Actor 3
Larry
Actor 2
Actor 1
Casting Announced for 2015 New Stages Festival at Goodman Theatre
Annual Free Festival Promotes Diverse Playwrights (October 28 – November 15)
Page 3 of 4
About Goodman Theatre
The Goodman’s 2015/2016 Season features nine productions on its two stages—six in the 856-seat Albert Theatre and
three in the 400-seat flexible Owen Theatre plus the annual New Stages Festival, including three developmental
productions; a world premiere special event production of 2666; and partner productions with The Second City and
Albany Park Theater Project. The 2015/2016 Season starts with Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar, directed by Kimberly Senior
(through October 25 in the Albert), and Feathers and Teeth by Charise Castro Smith, directed by Henry Godinez, a world
premiere (through October 18 in the Owen); Next up is the annual New Stages festival (October 28 - November 15 in
the Owen); the 38th annual production of A Christmas Carol adapted by Tom Creamer, directed by Henry Wishcamper
(November 14 – December 27 in the Albert); The Second City’s Twist Your Dickens by Peter Gwinn and Bobby Mort
(December 4 – 27 in the Owen); Another Word for Beauty by José Rivera, directed by Steve Cosson, a world premiere
Goodman commission (January 16 – February 21, 2016 in the Albert); 2666 adapted and directed by Robert Falls and
Seth Bockley, a world premiere special event (February 6 – March 13, 2016 in the Owen); The Matchmaker by
Thornton Wilder, directed by Henry Wishcamper (March 5 – April 10, 2016 in the Albert); Carlyle by Thomas Bradshaw,
directed by Benjamin Kamine, a world premiere Goodman commission (April 2 – May 1, 2016 in the Owen); The Sign in
Sidney Brustein’s Window by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Anne Kauffman (April 30 – June 5, 2016 in the Albert);
Soups, Stews, and Casseroles: 1976 by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Robert Falls, a Chicago premiere (May 21 – June
19, 2016 in the Owen); Wonderful Town music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, book
by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov, directed by Mary Zimmerman (June 28 – August 7, 2016 in the Albert); and a
production still to be announced with the Albany Park Theater Project.
Casting Announced for 2015 New Stages Festival at Goodman Theatre
Annual Free Festival Promotes Diverse Playwrights (October 28 – November 15)
Page 4 of 4
Chicago’s flagship theater since 1925, Goodman Theatre is an artistic and community institution dedicated to the art of
theater and to civic engagement in the issues of the contemporary world. The Goodman has transformed over the past
35 years into a world class theater and premier Chicago cultural institution distinguished by the quality and scope of its
programming and its culturally and aesthetically diverse creative leadership; artistic priorities include new plays,
reimagined classics, culturally specific works, musical theater and international collaborations. Under the leadership of
Artistic Director Robert Falls and Executive Director Roche Schulfer, achievements include the Goodman’s state-of-theart two-theater complex in the heart of the downtown Theatre District. Over the past three decades, the Goodman has
generated more than 150 world or American premieres and more than 30 new-work commissions. “A mainstay of
Chicago and beyond” (Chicago Sun-Times), the Goodman is internationally acclaimed for its “fresh work of magnitude
and ambition (and) bold, risky theatrical choices” (Chicago Tribune). From new plays to “first-class revivals” (The New
York Times), the Goodman has earned numerous awards for its productions: two Pulitzer Prizes; 22 Tony Awards,
including Outstanding Regional Theatre (1992); and nearly 160 Joseph Jefferson Awards. Joan Clifford is Chair of
Goodman Theatre’s Board of Trustees, Swati Mehta is Women’s Board President and Gordon C.C. Liao is President of
the Scenemakers Board for young professionals.
Visit the Goodman virtually at GoodmanTheatre.org, and on Twitter (@GoodmanTheatre), Facebook and Instagram.
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