Up next….I’m getting excited!

Casting complete for Griffin’s Spring Awakening

After receiving nearly 500 submissions and auditioning dozens of young actors, Griffin Theatre Company and director Jonathan Berry have their cast for the Chicago premiere ofSpring Awakening. Some of the actors cast as the troubled teens of 19th-century Germany may be familiar faces, such as Lindsay Leopold (Ilse) and Whitney White (Martha), but many of these actors—some of them new arrivals in Chicago, others still undergrads at area schools—will be unknowns to even the most tireless theatergoers (using myself as a gauge, anyway). Spring Awakening will play Theater Wit November 27–January 8. Tickets go on sale September 1. Find the full cast list, with which Griffin has helpfully provided the actors’ alma maters or current schools, after the jump.

MELCHIOR - Josh Salt (Columbia College)
MORITZ - Matthew Fletcher (Northwestern University)
HANSCHEN - Adam Fane (Roosevelt University)
ERNST - Adam Molloy (Roosevelt University)
GEORG - Harter Clingman (Columbia College)
OTTO - Matt Babbs (Cornell College)
WENDLA - Aja Wiltshire (Oklahoma City University)
MARTHA - Whitney White (Northwestern University)
ILSE - Lindsay Leopold (Theater School at DePaul University)
ANNA - Paige Collins (University of Illinois-Champaign)
THEA - Lauren Paris (Loyola University-Chicago)

And in the adult roles:
MAN- Larry Baldacci (last seen at Griffin in Berry’s production of Company)
WOMAN - Vanessa Greenway (Griffin ensemble member and 2-time Jeff Award winner)

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Current Show…Life is a Dream with Vitalist Theatre

Now Playing May 10 – June 11, 2011

The U.S. Premiere of Calderón de la Barca’s
Life is a Dream

in a New Version
by Helen Edmunson

directed by Liz Carlin-Metz

Life is a Dream is one of the most revered plays of the Spanish Golden Age. Its 16th century themes explode in every contemporary political circumstance where leaders are called upon to sacrifice narrow ambition, relinquish personal gain, and stand instead for social justice. Yet every leader confronts some moment when the temptations of power—wealth, licentiousness, vengeance, fame—collide with the obligation to serve the common good. Acclaimed British playwright Helen Edmundson’s new version of Life is a Dreamcaptures the original play’s power with elegant language and characters as fully human and recognizable as Shakespeare’s. Honor, humility, self-awareness, accountability, and dignity are values that define human aspirations the world round, but, as Calderón demonstrates, they are hard-won and fragile: without them, we are beasts.

Drawing upon years of experience in both traditional and experimental theatre, Elizabeth Carlin-Metz has served as Artistic Director of Vitalist Theatre since 1997 and received a Chicago After Dark Award for her direction of Mother Courage and Her Children. Under her guidance, Vitalist Theatre has developed its distinctive fusion of physical theatre, psychological dynamism, and magical-realism. The cast includes returning actors Paul Dunckel (The Night Season); Vitalist Jeff Award nominated Madrid St. Angelo (A Passage to India); and Vitalist Jeff Award winning Vanessa Greenway (The Night Season). Vitalist welcomes Chicago actors Lyndsay Kane, Gregory Isaac, BF Helman, Matthew Allis,Will Gillespie, and co-founding Executive Director director of UrbanTheater Company, Ivan Vega. Set designer Tracy Otwell (puppetry design: Anung’s First American Christmas) and fight designers R & D Choreography join the Vitalist award winning design team ofRichard Norwood (lighting), Rachel Sypneiwski (costumes), and Gregor Mortis (sound).

Chicago Reviews

“A monster of a play comprised of many labyrinths of expository details….Vanessa Greenway is splendid as Rosaura. She brings strong presence and exceptional depth to her part with impressive intelligence and grace.”

 

—Chicago Stage Review full review

  

“Love, honor, and duty compete with sudden independence and entitlement”

—Chicago Now full review

“Life Is A Dream is a remarkable production, small in budget, but large in talent..”

—Around the Town Chicago full review

“Baroque and often beautiful, Calderon’s ornate language abounds in glorious declamation”

—Chicago Theater Blog full review

“Plato’s allegory of the cave has spawned many creative explorations, right up to Neo and his excellent adventures in The Matrix. But none are as poetic as Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s 1635 drama”

—Chicago Tribune full review

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Next up: Jackie and Me with Chicago Children’s Theatre!

Adapted by Steven Dietz from the novel by Dan Gutman and directed by Jeff Award winner Derrick Sanders, Jackie and Me tells the story of one of history’s greatest baseball players, Jackie Robinson. I’m part of a terrific cast and crew on this one! Check it out at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street right here in Chicago. Recommended for theatre and baseball fans 8 years and older! www.chicagochildrenstheatre.org

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Non-Equity Jeff Awards 2010

Vanessa Greenway won the Best supporting Actress Non-Equity Jeff Award for her work in “The Night Season”  -   Vitalist Theatre i/a/w Premiere Theatre & Performance. The ceremony was held Monday, June 7th at Park West in Chicago, IL. Vanessa also won the 2008 Non-Equity Jeff Award for Best Actress in a principal role for her work in The Constant Wife, Griffin Theatre. 

The Jeff Awards has been honoring outstanding theatre artists annually since it was established in 1968.  With up to 50 members representing a wide variety of backgrounds in theatre, the Jeff Awards is committed to celebrating the vitality of Chicago area theatre by recognizing excellence through its recommendations, awards, and honors.  The Jeff Awards fosters the artistic growth of area theatres and theatre artists and promote educational opportunities, audience appreciation, and civic pride in the achievements of the theatre community.  The Jeff Awards Committee evaluates over 250 theatrical productions and holds two awards ceremonies annually. Originally chartered to recognize only Equity productions, the Jeff Awards established the Non-Equity Wing in 1973 to celebrate outstanding achievement in non-union theatre. The next Equity Awards Ceremony, honoring productions presented under union contracts, will be held on Monday, October 25, 2010, at the Drury Lane Oakbrook in Oakbrook Terrace.

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Into The Woods @ Porchlight Music Theatre

Vanessa will be appearing in Porchlight Music Theatre’s (www.porchlighttheatre.com) production of Into The Woods, opening April 5, 2010 and running through May at The Theatre Building Chicago.

www.porchlighttheatre.com

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