Alabama Story and actor Scott Olson were featured in The Columbia (College) Chronicle this week.
In the piece, Olson says that the show is very “multi-layered,” and that he thinks those watching will be “surprised at how much humor exists in the play as well.”
Audiences have six more performances to catch Alabama Story by Kenneth Jones beginning tonight! All remaining performances will be held in Haymarket Books at Haymarket House, 800 W Buena Ave., Chicago [Oct. 11-13 and Oct. 18-20].
(From left) Maria Burnham as Emily Wheelock Reed and Tom Goodwin as Sen. E.W. Higgins in Ghostlight Ensemble’s production of Alabama Story by Kenneth Jones. (Photo by Pete Guither)
More glowing reviews for Ghostlight Ensemble’s production of Alabama Story by Kenneth Jones. New City Stage and Third Coast Review both recommend the production saying “The play is smoothly directed by Robison, who uses the bookstore event space smartly to change scenes and move characters in and out” (Third Coast) and “The cast delivers brilliant performances all around.” (New City)
Alabama Story runs two more weekends, Oct 11-13 & Oct 18-20, at Haymarket House, 800 W Buena Ave, Chicago .
From left: Haley Basil as Lilly, Justin Broom as Thomas, Maria Burnham as Emily and Khnemu Menu-Ra as Joshua in Ghostlight Ensemble’s production of Alabama Story by Kenneth Jones. (Photo by Pete Guither)
“The production’s commitment to historical storytelling, combined with the bookstore setting, makes Alabama Story a compelling and evocative piece of theater.” — The Reader
Ghostlight Ensemble’s Alabama Story by Kenneth Jones is Reader AND audience recommended. The drama about censorship, book banning and Civil Rights has struck a chord with patrons who, in only one weekend, have returned to see it multiple times. Join us this weekend at After-Words Bookstore for this “daring production,” directed by Holly Robison. (Read the full Reader review here.)
The play, set in 1959 Montgomery, Alabama, is the story of a segregationist senator (the fictional-characterization-based-on-a-real-person, Sen. E.W. Higgins) and the state librarian (based on a very real Emily Wheelock Reed) who clash over the content of a children’s book about bunny rabbits. The play contrasts that story with a reunion of childhood friends — a Black man and a woman of white privilege — providing a private counterpoint to the public events swirling in the state capital.
Alabama Story is taking place at two site-specific, book-centric locations: After-Words Bookstore (23 E. Illinois St., Chicago) and Haymarket Books at Haymarket House (800 W. Buena Ave, Chicago). There is one more weekend of performances at After-Words Bookstore, Oct. 4-6; followed by two weekends at Haymarket Books, Oct. 11-13 and Oct. 18-20. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and at 2:30 p.m. on Sundays.
Eric Schelkopf from The Total Scene (presenting the best of arts and entertainment in the Chicago area) recently sat down with Alabama Story director Holly Robison to discuss the play, Ghostlight’s return to mainstage productions, book bans and more.
“Part of our mission is to do timeless stories and to ask questions. And I think a story like this, even though it's set in the 1950s, shows that there's still sort of nothing new. It's still happening. It looks a little bit different, but in a lot of ways, it's the same.” - Holly Robison
Did you catch our Member Profile on the Northcenter Chamber of Commerce’s website? We were interviewed by DePaul College Prep student Ivy Frater as part of the Chamber’s Member Spotlight program.
Ghostlight’s For Your (Re)Consideration is featured in this week’s The Chicago Reader.
As a whole, the (Re)Consideration series is about challenging the idea that anything outside the heteronormative, white male creative realm is in any way "revolutionary" or a product of recent culture.
Our new Co-Artist Director Kayla White was on Fox32 this morning, featured in their Voice of Change segment. She discussed Ghostlight desire to become a voice of change in the theatre scene, as well as our plans for the upcoming season.
Block Club Chicago recently covered our leadership change and plans for the upcoming season.
Learn more about our new Co-Artistic Director Kayla V. White and the company’s plans for the future in that piece.
“I’m really excited about centering newer Black and Brown playwrights, particularly Chicago-based ones, for the upcoming season and helping them shape their piece and create something new,” White said. “That’s so exciting to me.”
White said the company also will have a reading series highlighting “lost plays” from female writers of color, with an emphasis on works from Black women.
“A lot of people tend to do the same shows. Chicago does mix it up but often it’s a retelling the same types of stories,” White said. “So this series will have a special emphasis on people of color to go back and explore a lot of different plays that are available to us. They exist, but people just aren’t really using them.”
The Chicago Reader has announced its Best of Chicago 2019: ARTS & CULTURE winners and Ghostlight was awarded runner up for Best Off Loop company.
This is an amazing honor, especially considering we are only three years old, there are over 200 theatre companies in the Chicago area and from all those choices, Chicago readers voted us second only to the storied Steppenwolf Theatre — a company that was founded in 1974, has a multi-million dollar budget, owns its own theater complex and regularly sends plays on to Broadway.
Thank you to everyone who voted for us.
We're also thrilled to announced that our Co-Artistic Director Maria Burnham was named Best Director and Best Playwright.
In addition, Stefanie Johnsen, one of our regular guest artists (who worked with us on Krampus and An Ideal Husband), was named Best Designer and Improvised Jane Austen (who worked with us on Gingerbread Grindhouse and will be featuring in our upcoming Holiday Cabernet) was named Best Improv Group.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Norman J. Burt has an announcement for all the tiniest members of the Land of Contentment, where he reigns as King on the weekends:
"IF YOU DRESS IN YOU BEST ROYAL OUTFIT, OUR ROYAL COURT WILL TAKE A PICTURE WITH YOU AS THE RULER OF THE LAND OF CONTENTMENT. SO BRING YOUR CROWNS, YOUR SHIELDS, YOUR HELMETS AND ARMOR, YOU ARE WELCOME!"
Burt will put on his duct tape crown only two more times, this Saturday and Sunday, as the show he is acting in – Ghostlight Ensemble's The Princess Without Pots – comes to a close. But he wants to make sure they go out with a bang…or maybe a flourish of trumpets would be more appropriate.
Read more about Norm and his work on The Princess Without Pots in the Lakeview Patch.
Every weekend Sydney Ray transforms herself from an average Chicago resident into the Queen of the Land of Contentment and then watches as the eyes of the children around her light up at getting to meet royalty. To the Uptown actress it's pure joy.
"I love performing shows for young audiences," she says. "I love the honesty that children bring to an audience."
Read more about Sydney and her work on The Princess Without Pots in the North Center Patch.
What actor Sean Hendrickson relishes most about his current production, Ghostlight Ensemble's The Princess Without Pots, is the opportunity to share stories and ideas with children.
"Many of us didn't have opportunities like this growing up," he said, "So seeing them get excited and engaged with the show is wonderful."
Read more about Sean and his work on The Princess Without Pots in the North Center Patch.
For Lakeview actress Isa Ramos, the best part about being in a show geared toward young audiences is having the freedom to think like a kid.
"I love that when performing for children, I have to kick my imagination into overdrive," Ramos said. "Childhood is the best stage of life because imagination rules our reality, and fills us with endless possibility and potential. Being an adult performing for children is the second best stage of life, because the kids challenge me to let my imagination roam big and free, the way it was intended to be."
Read more about Isa and her work on The Princess Without Pots in the Lakeview Patch.
The latest edition of Chicago Parents magazine features an article on our young audiences series, Nightlight, and this series' inaugural production, The Princes Without Pots, which opens Saturday.
Pick up the magazine today and then get your tickets for this world-premiere production!
Victoria Jacobson (right) rehearses for the holiday horror play "Nutcracker Nightmare," which opens on Friday, Dec. 8.
In Victoria Jacobson’s book, things that slither along the ground are scary. Dolls are not. And yet in her latest role as Zipakna, a worry doll that comes to life and terrorizes the Stahlbaum family in “Nutcracker Nightmare,” she is tasked with making an audience think just that.
“The biggest challenge was trying to find the balance between doll and creepy in a movement sense, Jacobson said. “What I consider to be bump-in-the-night scary are things that slither or move lower to the floor, while a doll would not necessarily be the type of creature to do so. Exploring a spectrum of movements in that sense is something that I worked on the hardest.”
Read more about Jacobson and her work in The Chicago Tribune and the Lakeview Patch.
Cary native P. Tyler Nielsen (second from right) rehearses for "Nutcracker Nightmare," which opens this week.
Words may be the weapon most closely associated with an actor's trade, but for P. Tyler Nielsen taking on the iconic role of The Nutcracker in "Nutcracker Nightmare" meant acting with his body…and with actual weapons.
"I love the physical challenge of portraying such an iconic character who has so few lines," Nielsen said. "There is much to convey without the chance to verbalize the Nutcracker's internal journey.
"In addition, the chance to discover how a nutcracker might move, fight and express love is a joy," he added.
Read more about Tyler and his work in the Chicago Tribune or the Crystal Lake Patch.
Chicago Magazine calls our live movie reading series "always entertaining," so don't miss the latest installment in which we trade the big screen for the small one to celebrate Turkey Day.
Must Eat TV: A Live Reading of Your Favorite Thanksgiving Episodes is coming up on Tuesday, November 14, 2017, at the Celtic Crown. The lineup features selections from How I Met Your Mother, Friends and WKRP in Cincinnati Click on the link above for all the details! We'll see you turkeys there!
Ghostlight was recently lucky enough to sits down with Karen Topham (aka chicagodramagirl) of Chicago on Stage and talk about our origin and what made us think we could make it in the crowded Chicago theatre scene.
According to the League of Chicago Theatres, there are about 200 theatre companies in the city of Chicago. Wikipedia also lists about this many, as well as thirty long-standing companies that are now defunct. And that doesn’t even begin to include the multitudes of companies that have appeared for a show or three only to vanish into the competitive haze of the Chicago theatre community, which is, without doubt, one of the most incredible live theatre markets in the country, but also one of the most unforgiving.
Amid this whirl of dramatic achievement and failure, it must take a certain kind of people with a specific kind of audacity to start a whole new company from the ground up, yet that is precisely what Holly Robison and Maria Burnham, late of Strangeloop Theatre, and Chad Wise, founding member of New Millennium Theatre, and seven other founding members including co-artistic director Michael Wagman, are doing with Ghostlight Ensemble Theatre.
