Directed by
Kels Ervi
Previews:
April 1st & April 2nd at 7:30pm
(Pay What You Can)
Opening:
April 3rd
(reception to follow)
Run:
April 1st - April 18th
Inspired by the real letters between Mary Woolley and Jeannette Marks spanning from 1899 to 1937, this fast-paced comedy asks: What is revolution? What does it mean to be at odds with the world? How do we fulfill our potential? And how the hell do we grow old together?
a co-production with
Fort Worth’s
playwright
BRYNA TURNER
Bryna Turner is a Brooklyn-based playwright originally from Northern California.
Their play At the Wedding had its world premiere at LCT3 at Lincoln Center Theater. It received the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation’s Theatre Visions Award, a NY Times Critic’s Pick, and was featured in the NYT Best of 2022 “Unforgettable Theatrical Moments” category. The play was developed in part by TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Upcoming production: Studio Theatre in DC.
Their play Bull in a China Shop also premiered at LCT3 at Lincoln Center Theater before going on to be produced and presented around the world. Notable productions include: About Face; Aurora; Diversionary Theatre; and a staged reading at the National Theatre in London directed by Phyllida Lloyd, starring Fiona Shaw and Jade Anouka.
Other plays include Phases of the Moon and How to Separate Your Soul from Your Body (in ten easy steps!).
Bryna is a member of New Dramatists; a MacDowell Fellow; and an alum of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers Group and WP Theater’s 2018-2020 Lab. They have taught in the MFA Playwriting Program at Rutgers University. They are currently under commission from Lincoln Center Theater and received their 2018 Emerging Artist Award.
BA: Mount Holyoke College, MFA: Rutgers University.
director
KELS ERVI
Kels Ervi (they/them) is a Texas-born, queer, trans-masc, nonbinary theatre artist currently based in Chicago, IL. Their interests include queer stories, devising, ensemble-driven work, stories about cross-generational connection, body-inclusive stories, classic stories reimagined, and community-based work.
Kels earned their MFA from Northwestern University, creating work focused on identity, community, and loss which culminated in a thesis production of Indecent by Paula Vogel. Following grad school, Kels served as the Manager for Drunk Shakespeare Chicago & the Lion Theatre. Prior to grad school, Kels was the Associate Artistic Director for WaterTower Theatre (WTT) in Dallas-Fort Worth from 2016-2019. During their full tenure on the artistic staff at WTT (2013-2019), they directed many plays and musicals as well as produced multiple festivals including the annual Out of the Loop Fringe Festival and the inaugural DETOUR: A Festival of New Work. Most notably, Kels was the conceiver, director, and co-creator of the celebrated The Great Distance Home (DFW Theater Critics Forum Award - Outstanding Creative Contribution), an imaginative and nearly wordless story about the search for life’s purpose told through movement, music, and object puppetry.
Prior to Chicago, Kels spent eight years in the Dallas-Fort Worth region where they worked with many area theaters including Dallas Theater Center, Cry Havoc Theater, Stage West, Junior Players, Echo Theatre, Uptown Players, Shakespeare Dallas, Rite of Passage Theatre Company, Festival of Independent Theaters, and Shakespeare in the Bar. Regionally, they have also worked with Goodman Theatre, Theatre For One, Cape Cod Theatre Project, and Greyman Theatre Company.
