Elaine Carlson

The Old Lady Project presents readings of 'The Matter with Family,' 'Women of a Certain Age,' and 'Elephants' Graveyard' on November 4th at Piven Theatre in Evanston. The project aims to develop plays and screenplays featuring female characters over 50. Submissions for the 2024 cycle open on November 5th.

City Lit will return from the holidays with THE BIRTHDAY PARTY, Harold Pinter’s first produced full-length play. Artistic Director Terry McCabe, who will direct this dark comedy, has announced the cast and creative team.

Promethean Theatre Ensemble will return from its pandemic hiatus with a modern dress storefront production of Shakespeare's epic RICHARD III. The play will be directed by Steve Scott, an Artistic Associate with the Goodman Theatre, where he most recently directed VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE.

With the conclusion of the 2019-2020 Chicago non-Equity theater season, the Jeff Awards announced the nominees for the 47th annual awards for theater excellence that include 120 theater artists across 21 categories.

The second production in Promethean Theatre Ensemble's 2019-20 season of plays exploring the rights and roles of women in society will be MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION - George Bernard Shaw's satirical take on the limited opportunities for women in late 19th Century British society. One of Shaw's earliest plays, it is representative of Shaw's gift for delivering biting social criticism with humor. Promethean's production will be performed in a brand-new world premiere adaptation by Melanie Spewock that streamlines Shaw's text and makes it more woman-centric, focusing on the mother-daughter relationship between Mrs. Warren and her daughter Vivie.

The 2019 Christopher Durang Season conclude with the political comedy, Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them. Durang turns political humor upside down with this raucous and provocative satire about America's growing homeland 'insecurity.' WHY TORTURE IS WRONG, AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM tells the story of a young woman suddenly in crisis: Is her new husband, whom she married when drunk, a terrorist? Or just crazy? Or both? Is her father's hobby of butterfly collecting really a cover for his involvement in a shadow government? Why does her mother enjoy going to the theatre so much? Does she seek mental escape, or is she insane? Honing in on our private terrors both at home and abroad, Durang oddly relieves our fears in this black comedy for an era of yellow, orange and red alerts.

Eclipse Theatre Company, the only Midwest theatre company to feature one playwright in one season, will conclude their 2019 Christopher Durang Season this winter with a production of Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them, with Steve Scott directing.

Promethean Theatre Ensemble will close its 2018-19 season with the Midwest Premiere of MAD BEAT HIP & GONE, by Steven Dietz, author of LAST OF THE BOYS and PRIVATE EYES and over thirty other plays that have been produced by regional theatres across the country, internationally, and off-Broadway in New York. MAD BEAT HIP & GONE, which had its world premiere in Austin, Texas in 2013, follows two young Nebraska men who meet beat generation writer Jack Kerouac. Rejecting the established order of mid-1950s America, they follow Kerouac's example and hit the open road in search of truth. Do they find it? And what can we learn from their travels?

Promethean Theatre Ensemble will continue its twelfth season with Jean Giraudoux's THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT. First produced in 1945, Giraudoux's satiric comedy reveals a plot by a group of corrupt business executives to dig up the streets of Paris, so they can pump oil that they believe lies beneath. Their plot is challenged by the titular Madwoman, the eccentric Countess Aurelia, an idealist who resolves to fight back and rescue humanityfrom the scheming and corrupt developers with the help of her fellow outcasts and her fellow madwomen.

J.B., the Pulitzer Prize and Best Play Tony Award -winner by the American playwright and poet Archibald MacLeish, takes place in a corner of an enormous circus tent, where two vendors prepare to perform a play based on the Book of Job. One vendor, Nickles (meant to signify the devil, who is sometimes called Old Nick ), will play the Devil. The other vendor, Zuss ( Zeus ), will play God. The two choose J.B., a wealthy banker, to play their Job. City Lit's production is directed by Brian Pastor and will be performed by an ensemble of nine women who take all twenty-three roles of men, women, and children in the play's cast of characters.

J.B., the Pulitzer Prize and Best Play Tony Award-winner by the American playwright and poet Archibald MacLeish, will be the second production in City Lit's 2017-18 season. Reviewing the original Broadway production in 1958, THE NEW YORK TIMES's legendary critic Brooks Atkinson called it A fresh and exalting morality that has great stature.

The Jeff Awards announced, via a special video presentation, a total of 127 nominations in 26 categories for the 44th Annual Non-Equity Jeff Awards for productions that opened between April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017.  Hosting the video presentation were Alexis Roston and Lillian Castillo, who will be this year's Mistresses of Ceremonies at the Awards event on June 5 at The Athenaeum.

Full casting has been announced for Promethean Theatre Ensemble's production of James Goldman's The Lion in Winter, according to Brian Pastor, director of this production and artistic director of the company. Leading the cast as King Henry II of England and his wife Eleanor of Acquitaine, the roles immortalized by Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn in the 1968 film version, will be Brian Parry and Elaine Carlson. Parry, a Jeff award winner for supporting actor in Redtwist's Shining City, is a four-time Jeff Award nominee and recently earned raves for his portrayal of George in Redtwist's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf along with his roles in Redtwist's Red and the currently playing The Drawer Boy. Parry has previously appeared with Promethean in The Lark. Carlson was a Jeff winner for Famous Door's Salt of the Earth and was seen recently in Eclipse's A Perfect Ganesh. She has performed previously with Promethean in Tiger at the Gates and A Study in Scarlet.

Robert Bills Productions will present THE ODD COUPLE (female version), Neil Simon's 1985 adaptation of his Tony Award-winning Broadway comedy, at Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave, running now through Sunday, November 10. 'Felix' and 'Oscar' are now 'Florence' and 'Olive' in this riotously funny play centered around two wildly mismatched roommates living together in New York City. Robert Bills directs. BraodwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivites on October 18th below!

Robert Bills Productions will present THE ODD COUPLE (female version), Neil Simon's 1985 adaptation of his Tony Award-winning Broadway comedy, at Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave, opening tonight, October 18 at 7:30 p.m. and running through Sunday, November 10. 'Felix' and 'Oscar' are now 'Florence' and 'Olive' in this riotously funny play centered around two wildly mismatched roommates living together in New York City. Robert Bills will direct. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below!

Robert Bills Productions will present THE ODD COUPLE (female version), Neil Simon's 1985 adaptation of his Tony Award-winning Broadway comedy, at Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave, previewing tonight, October 17, opening Friday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m. and running through Sunday, November 10. 'Felix' and 'Oscar' are now 'Florence' and 'Olive' in this riotously funny play centered around two wildly mismatched roommates living together in New York City. Robert Bills will direct.

Robert Bills Productions will present THE ODD COUPLE (female version), Neil Simon's 1985 adaptation of his Tony Award-winning Broadway comedy, at Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave, previewing October 17, opening Friday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m. and running through Sunday, November 10. 'Felix' and 'Oscar' are now 'Florence' and 'Olive' in this riotously funny play centered around two wildly mismatched roommates living together in New York City. Robert Bills will direct. Check out the just-released promo photos below!

Robert Bills Productions will present THE ODD COUPLE (female version), Neil Simon's 1985 adaptation of his Tony Award-winning Broadway comedy, at Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave, previewing October 17, opening Friday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m. and running through Sunday, November 10. "Felix" and "Oscar" are now "Florence" and "Olive" in this riotously funny play centered around two wildly mismatched roommates living together in New York City. Robert Bills will direct.

Promethean Theatre Ensemble presents a world premier adaptation of A Study in Scarlet, the novella that introduced the world to the beloved Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Scarlet will be adapted and directed by Paul Edwards. The company will feature PTE Ensemble Members David Fink, Nick Lake, and Brian Pastor. Guest artists will include Elaine Carlson, Jared Dennis, Richard Furin, Kevin Gladish, Evan Johnson, Ed Kuffert, Drew Longo, Cathlyn Melvin, and Dave Skvarla.

Promethean Theatre Ensemble presents a world premier adaptation of A Study in Scarlet, the novella that introduced the world to the beloved Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Scarlet will be adapted and directed by Paul Edwards. The company will feature PTE Ensemble Members David Fink, Nick Lake, and Brian Pastor. Guest artists will include Elaine Carlson, Jared Dennis, Richard Furin, Kevin Gladish, Evan Johnson, Ed Kuffert, Drew Longo, Cathlyn Melvin, and Dave Skvarla.