365 Plays- Awesome Theatre Festival

So, have any of you heard of this play festival “365”?

Check it out here.

It’s taken Chicago by storm and starts in a few short weeks!

Here’s the idea:
Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks wrote a play a day for an entire year with the idea that we need to keep art in our lives every single day. She pitched it at the Steppenwolf studio theatre a few months ago and I went to the meeting. 52 theatres in Chicago will each produce a week’s worth of plays from the series= 7 plays.

It’s such a cool idea, to link 52 theatres in Chicago, to work on a collective piece that is bigger than any one play, bigger than any one theatre company. And I’m doubly lucky. I am affiliated with 2 Chicago theatre companies that are participating:
Bailiwick Repertory and
Bohemian Theatre Ensemble

It gets better…

This festival is BIGGER than Chicago even. So far, 14 cities across the US will be participating in this year-long festival which begins November 13, 2006 and ends November 12, 2007.

So cool! I’m so excited!

Here’s the press release:



365 DAYS/365 PLAYS
c/o Next Theatre Company
Noyes Cultural Arts Center office: 847-475-6763
927 Noyes Street fax: 847-475-6767
Evanston, IL 60201 email: info@365chicago.org
www.365chicago.org

Press Contact: Jason Loewith, 847-475-1875 x14

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 15, 2006

52 Chicagoland Theaters To Collaborate On
Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays

National Festival With Over 600 Theaters Launches November 13

CHICAGO – A “Hub Council” of seven Chicagoland theaters – Congo Square Theatre, Goodman Theatre, The Hypocrites, Next Theatre Company, Steppenwolf Theatre, Uma Productions and Writer’s Theatre – in association with Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and Producer Bonnie Metzgar announces a diverse roster of 52 local theater companies participating in the year-long world-premiere production of Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays. The companies, which submitted proposals over the summer, were selected by Parks and Metzgar with the aid of the Hub Council based on the originality of their ideas for the plays, and the diversity of the represented artists and neighborhoods.

Each of the 52 selected companies will present the world premieres of seven short plays by Suzan-Lori Parks – one week’s worth of the festival, in venues and productions of their choosing – in a single week between November 13, 2006 and November 12, 2007. All performances will be free and open to the public. For details and a week-by-week schedule, visit www.365chicago.org.

Suzan-Lori Parks says, “365 Chicago rocks! What a great theatre town and your glorious 365 Hub Council has gathered together such a brilliant and diverse group of participants!”

“This is an extremely dynamic group of companies,” adds Next Theatre’s Jason Loewith, the project’s Executive Producer in Chicago. “From the tiniest storefront to the largest companies in town; from the lake to the western suburbs, from Hyde Park to Lake Forest, nearly every kind of theater artist and theater audience will have an opportunity to participate in this nationwide festival. It’s a wonderful contribution for Chicago to the national theater scene, and an incredible, collaborative gift for the community to share.”

A “Midway Celebration” will be mounted half-way through the festival on Monday, June 18, 2007 at the Claudia Cassidy Theatre in Chicago’s Cultural Center, at which the 26 companies so far represented will each present a single play. Details will be available on the website www.365chicago.org in the spring. Similar plans for a closing celebration are in the works for November 2007.



The selected companies, listed by week of production:

*indicates Hub Council Member


Dog and Pony Theatre Company (11/13/06)
The Gift Theatre Company (11/20/06)
Urban Theatre Company (11/27/06)
Rubicon Theater Company (12/4/06)
Bailiwick Repertory Theatre (12/11/06)
Serendipity Theatre Company (12/18/06)
American Theatre Company (12/25/06)
Artistic Home Theatre Company (1/1/07)
Collaboraction Theatre Company (1/8/07)
Moving Dock Theatre Company (1/15/07)
Teatro Vista (1/22/07)
The Mill Theatre Company (1/29/07)
Raven Theatre (2/5/07)
Piven Theatre Company (2/12/07)
The Neofuturists (2/19/07)
Uma Productions* (2/26/07)
Infamous Commonwealth Theatre (3/5/07)
GroundUp Theatre Company (3/12/07)
Lifeline Theatre (3/19/07)
Soul Theatre Company (3/26/07)
Sansculottes Theatre Company (4/2/07)
The Journeymen (4/9/07)
Court Theatre (4/16/07)
New Branch Theatre Company (4/23/07)
Citadel Theatre Company (4/30/07)
The Goodman Theatre* (5/7/07)
Silk Road Theatre Company (5/14/07)
Estrogen Fest (5/21/07)
Northlight Theatre (5/28/07)
Vitalist Theatre Company (6/4/07)
Fleetwood Jourdain Theatre (6/11/07)
Congo Square Theatre* (6/18/07)
Rivendell Theatre Ensemble (6/25/07)
Sandbox Theatre Project (7/2/07)
Bohemian Theatre Ensemble (7/9/07)
Chicago Dramatists (7/16/07)
500 Clown (7/23/07)
Western Springs Theatre Co. (7/30/07)
The Hypocrites* (8/6/07)
Victory Gardens (8/13/07)
HealthWorks Theatre Company (8/20/07)
Stage Left (8/27/07)
Eclipse Theatre Company (9/3/07)
DMG Productions (9/10/07)
Shattered Globe Theatre (9/17/07)
Adolescent Health Theatre (9/24/07)
MPAACT (10/1/07)
Next Theatre Company* (10/8/07)
Writers Theatre* (10/15/07)
Remy Bumppo Theatre Company (10/22/07)
The Side Project (10/29/07)
Steppenwolf Theatre* (11/5/07)



The National Festival

In November 2002, Pulitzer-winner Parks committed to writing a play a day for the next 365 days. The world premiere of this play cycle will be performed as a yearlong national festival simultaneously in major cities and communities around the country. From November 13, 2006 to November 12, 2007, over 600 theaters in Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle, New York, San Francisco, Austin, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, the Carolinas, Mississippi River towns, and university campuses will create the largest theater collaboration in U.S. History. The series of brief, brilliant theatre pieces from one of the country’s most innovative voices will be performed in a variety of spaces, fully staged or as readings, representing the dynamism and diverse spirit of theater artists throughout the United States.


Parks says: "One day Bonnie Metzgar asked me 'What's up with those 365 plays?' 'I've done them,' I said. 'Yeah, but now you've got to do them,' Bonnie said. And together we created a production model which would speak to the spirit of my plays: a simultaneous and shared world premiere involving hundreds of theatres around the country."