Download Noah Haidle`s SMOKEFALL Starts Oct. 5 at Goodman Theatre

CONTACT:
IMAGERY:
Denise Schneider/Amanda ReCupido/Elizabeth Elliott
312.443.5151 or [email protected]
PressRoom.GoodmanTheatre.org/PressArt/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2013
THE WORLD PREMIERE
PREMIERE COCO-PRODUCTION OF SMOKEFALL BY NOAH HAIDLE BEGINS OCTOBER 5,
5,
DIRECTED BY OBIE AWARDAWARD-WINNER ANNE KAUFFMAN
***
***MEET HAIDLE AT “THE INTERVIEW SHOW” AT THE HIDEOUT ON OCTOBER 4, AND HEAR HIM DISCUSS THE PLAY WITH
KAUFFMAN AT THE OCTOBER 13 ARTIST ENCOUNTER
ENCOUNTER EVENT***
EVENT***
(Chicago, IL) Set in Grand Rapids, Michigan, acclaimed playwright and screenwriter Noah Haidle explores the passage of
time and the fleeting pleasures of life through three generations of one family in Smokefall, his newest work. The Michigan
native playwright, who describes Smokefall as “an incredibly personal play that has been with me for a long time,” most
recently wrote the 2012 film Stand Up Guys (starring Alan Arkin, Christopher Walken and Al Pacino) and previously authored
Mr. Marmalade, Vigils (at the Goodman in 2006) and Persephone for the stage. Directed by Obie Award-winner Anne
Kauffman in her Goodman debut, Smokefall is a world-premiere co-production with South Coast Repertory, running October
5 – November 3 in the Owen Theatre (opening night is Monday, October 14). Tickets ($10-$40; subject to change) are on
sale now at GoodmanTheatre.org/Smokefall, by phone at 312.443.3800 or at the box office (170 North Dearborn). Bank of
America is the 2013/2014 Owen Season Sponsor. Time Warner Foundation and The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation are
the Major Supporters of New Play Development; and The Glasser and Rosenthal Family and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg
Charitable Trust are Supporters of New Work Development. The Joyce Foundation is the Principal Supporter of Artistic
Development and Diversity Initiatives.
Meet-the-artists events include the monthly Chicago-based talk show “The Interview Show,” on Friday, October 4 at 6:30pm
at The Hideout (1354 W. Wabansia, $8, doors open at 6pm); and the “Artist Encounter” on Sunday, October 13 at 5pm at
the Goodman featuring Haidle and Kauffman in conversation with Tanya Palmer, the Goodman’s Director of New Play
Development—and to whom Haidle dedicated Smokefall. Tickets are free for Goodman Subscribers, $5 general public.
Smokefall has been in gestation for five years, inspired in equal parts by Thornton Wilder’s simple evocative humanity,
Samuel Beckett’s bleak poetry and Haidle’s own “formidably talented, with a sort of freewheeling intuitive daring” (The New
Yorker) theatrical imagination. Act One and part of Act Two were originally included in a larger Haidle-authored project called
Local Time: 12 two-hour, real-time plays that spanned 24 hours in a Midwestern town, each play named for the time in
which it took place, such as 11am to 1pm and 5 to 7pm, etc. Smokefall was first developed as part of the Goodman’s New
Stages new play reading series, and was subsequently featured in the prestigious Pacific Playwrights Festival at South Coast
Repertory in Costa Mesa, California (where it was produced this past spring, directed by Kauffman).
Change is in the air as Violet (Katherine
Katherine Keberlein)
Eric Slater and Guy Massey as
Keberlein prepares to bring twin boys into the world (Eric
Fetus One and Fetus Two, respectively). Inside her womb, her unborn sons contemplate life after birth, the fragility of love
and the meaning of home, while outside her body her world is in transformation: her husband, Daniel (Slater
Slater)
Slater is making
plans of his own, her father The Colonel (Mike
Mike Nussbaum)
Catherine
Nussbaum is slipping into senility and her daughter, Beauty (Catherine
Combs)
Combs has taken a vow of silence. In the third act, one of the twins—now an old man—reflects on his life and family when
an unexpected visitor arrives. The design team includes Kevin Depinet (set), Lindsay Jones (sound), Ana Kuzmanic
(costumes) and David Weiner (lighting). Kim Osgood is the production stage manager.
Headshots, bio information and rehearsal photos can be found in the Press Room.
Noah Haidle (Playwright) returns to the Goodman, where his play Vigils premiered in 2006. His plays have premiered at
Lincoln Center Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Regionally, his plays have been
produced at the Huntington Theatre Company, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, South Coast Repertory, Long Wharf
Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and many others, both nationally and abroad. He is the recipient of three
Lincoln Center Lecompte Du Nuoy awards, the 2005 Helen Merrill Award for emerging Playwrights, the 2007 Claire Tow
Award and an NEA/TCG theater residency grant. His plays are published by Methuen in London, Suhrkamp in Berlin and
— continued —
Noah Haidle’s Smokefall, Directed by Obie AwardAward-winner
winner Anne Kauffman,
Kauffman, Begins October 5
Meet
Meet-thethe-Artist Events include an Oct. 4 Appearance at The Hideout and the Oct. 13 Artist Encounter
Page 2 of 3
Dramatists Play Service in New York City. His first produced screenplay, Stand Up Guys, starring Al Pacino, Christopher
Walken and Alan Arkin opened last year’s Chicago International Film Festival and opened nationally in February 2013.
Smokefall opened at South Coast Repertory in April. Haidle is currently working on new play commissions from Lincoln
Center Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, and is set to direct his original screenplay The Rodeo Clown,
produced by Stanley Tucci and Steve Buscemi’s company Olive Productions and Mosaic Media Group. Haidle is a graduate
of Princeton University and The Juilliard School and is a proud resident of Detroit.
Anne Kauffman (Director) is an Obie Award–winning director. Production highlights include Somewhere Fun at
Vineyard Theatre; Detroit at Playwrights Horizons; Belleville at New York Theatre Workshop, Yale Repertory Theatre and
Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Tales from My Parents’ Divorce at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and The Flea
Theater; This Wide Night at Naked Angels; Becky Shaw and Body Awareness at The Wilma Theater; Slowgirl and
Stunning at LCT3; Sixty Miles to Silver Lake with Page 73 Productions at Soho Rep; God's Ear at Vineyard Theatre and
New Georges; The Thugs at Soho Rep and the new musical We Have Always Lived in the Castle at Yale Repertory
Theatre. Upcoming productions include Cherokee at The Wilma Theater and 100 Days at Z Space. Kauffman is a
recipient of the Joan and Joseph F. Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, a Lilly Award, the Alan Schneider
Director Award and several Barrymore awards. She is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, a member of Soho
Rep’s Artistic Council, on the New Georges’ Kitchen Cabinet, an alumna of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab and The
Drama League, a founding member of The Civilians and an associate artist with Clubbed Thumb.
Tickets to Smokefall ($10
($10 – $40;
$40; subject to change)
change) are on sale now at GoodmanTheatre.org.
GoodmanTheatre.org. Tickets and
subscriptions, including the Goodman WILD CARD, can also be purchased at the box office (170 North Dearborn), by
phone at 312.443.3800 or at GoodmanTheatre.org/Subscribe. Mezztix are half-price mezzanine tickets available at
12 noon at the box office, and at 10am online (promo code MEZZTIX) day of performance; Mezztix are not available by
telephone. 10Tix are $10 rear mezzanine tickets for students available at 12 noon at the box office, and at 10am
online on the day of performance for Albert Theatre productions and in advance for all Owen Theatre productions;
10Tix are not available by telephone; a valid student I.D. must be presented when picking up the tickets; limit four per
Noah Haidle’s Smokefall, Directed by Obie AwardAward-winner
winner Anne Kauffman,
Kauffman, Begins October 5
Meet
Meet-thethe-Artist Events include an Oct. 4 Appearance at The Hideout and the Oct. 13 Artist Encounter
Page 3 of 3
student with I.D. All tickets are subject to availability and handling fees apply. Discounted Group Tickets for 10 persons
or more are available at 312.443.3820. Purchase Goodman Gift Certificates in any amount at
GoodmanTheatre.org/GiftCertificates. The flexibility of Goodman Gift Certificates allow recipients to choose the
production, date and time of their performance. Artists, dates and ticket prices are subject to change.
The Goodman’s 2013/2014 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 series that includes two additional workshop
productions. Pullman Porter Blues by Cheryl L. West, directed by Chuck Smith, is currently running in the Albert Theatre
(September 14 – October 20). Still to come in the 2013/2014 Season is the 36th annual production of Charles Dickens’ A
Christmas Carol,
Carol directed by Henry Wishcamper (November 16 – December 29, 2013 in the Albert); the annual New Stages
series (December 7 – 22, 2013 in the Owen); the world premiere of Luna Gale by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Robert Falls
(January 18 – February 23, 2014 in the Albert); Buzzer by Tracey Scott Wilson, directed by Jessica Thebus (February 8 –
March 9, 2014 in the Owen); the Chicago premiere of Venus in Fur by David Ives, directed by Joanie Schultz (March 8 – April
13, 2014 in the Albert); the Chicago premiere of The White Snake written and directed by Mary Zimmerman, based on the
classic Chinese fable (May 3 – June 8, 2014 in the Albert); the world-premiere Goodman commission of Ask Aunt Susan by
playwright-in-residence Seth Bockley, directed by Henry Wishcamper (May 24 – June 22, 2014 in the Owen); and a major
revival of Alan Jay Lerner’s Brigadoon,
Brigadoon directed and choreographed by Rachel Rockwell (June 27 – August 3, 2014 in the
Albert).
About Goodman Theatre
Named “Best Regional Theatre” by Time magazine and “top dog of the Chicago theater scene” by Frommer’s, Goodman
Theatre is world renowned for the quality and scope of its artistic programming and its commitment to improving life in the
community. Artistic Director Robert Falls’ and Executive Director Roche Schulfer’s leadership has earned unparalleled
artistic distinction and experienced unprecedented success, staging more than 80 world premieres, earning numerous
awards for its productions—including the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre (1992) and the Pulitzer Prize for
Ruined (2009)—and producing more than 25 new-work commissions. Founded in 1925 and housed in a state-of-the-art twotheater complex in the downtown Chicago Theatre District, the Goodman is Chicago’s oldest and largest not-for-profit
producing theater. American Airlines is the Exclusive Airline of Goodman Theatre. Ruth Ann M. Gillis is Chairman of the
Board of Trustees, Sherry John is President of the Women’s Board and Lauren Blair is President of the Scenemakers Board,
the Goodman’s young professionals auxiliary group.
Visit the Goodman virtually: watch artist interviews, view production photos, catch the latest news and more at
GoodmanTheatre.org and our blog. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, peek behind the scenes on YouTube.
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