Northwestern Theater in October

EVANSTON, Ill. --- “The Laramie Project,” a documentary-style drama set in Wyoming that recounts the brutal murder of an openly gay college student and named by Time magazine as \"one of the 10 best plays of the year” will launch Northwestern University’s 2014-15 Mainstage season Oct. 24-Nov. 2.  Directed by Rives Collins, single tickets are $5 to $25.

The gripping play by Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theatre Project will be followed later this fall by the heart-warming musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” (Nov. 7-23) by Allan Knee and directed by Dominic Missimi. Single tickets are $5 to $30.

Both productions are part of Northwestern University’s 34th Mainstage season of plays and musicals presented by the Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts -- formerly known as the Theatre and Interpretation Center at Northwestern University. 

The 2014-15 season will feature award-winning directors and playwrights, acclaimed alumnae and faculty, groundbreaking plays and musicals and the annual The Waa-Mu Show. The season reflects on the evolving definitions of family and community and invites audiences to embrace the circumstances that unite and strengthen us.

The fall line-up includes two National Theatre Live broadcasts -- Ben Power’s newly adapted version of Euripides’ “Medea” (Oct. 7) -- and Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Nov. 4) directed by Benedict Andrews and starring Gillian Anderson. Single tickets for each screening range from $10 to $20.

The 2014-15 season continues this winter with a social satire as Northwestern MFA directing candidate Jerrell L. Henderson directs Lynn Nottage’s quick-witted “Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine” (Jan. 30-Feb. 8), the story of a once successful business woman fighting her way out of social ruin as she tries to reunite with her family. Single tickets range from $5 to $25.

Winter heats up with Andrew Lippa’s “Wild Party” (Feb. 13-March 1), a prohibition tale of loosened inhibitions, jealousy and a fateful gunshot. Tickets are $5 to $30. To close out winter, Northwestern’s dance lecturer, Jeff Hancock, will provide artistic direction to “Danceworks 2015: Ties that Bind” (Feb. 27-March 8), an evening of cutting-edge dance that explores the connectivity of families and communities. Tickets are $5 to $25. 

The Wirtz Center’s spring season begins with Northwestern MFA directing candidate Aaron Snook directing Frank Galati’s adaption of John Steinbeck’s Depression-era classic, “The Grapes of Wrath,” a testament to the strength of the American spirit and family bond. Tickets are $5 to $25.

Spring 2015 also will mark the 84th annual production of The Waa-Mu Show (May 1-10). The Waa-Mu Show is a Northwestern theatre tradition that continues to place itself at the forefront of new musical theatre writing, living up to its name as the “greatest college show in America” (Associated Press). Single tickets are $10 to $30 and will go on sale later this fall through the Wirtz Center box office. Subscribers may purchase tickets now with their season ticket order.

To end the season, Northwestern MFA directing candidate Lauren Shouse will direct Sarah Ruhl’s comedy “In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play” (May 15-24), an investigation of relationships, intimacy and what it means to seek connection. Tickets are $5 to $25.

Productions in the 2014-15 season will be held, as noted, in venues on the University’s Evanston campus, including the Josephine Louis Theater, 20 Arts Circle Drive; Ethel M. Barber Theater, 30 Arts Circle Drive; Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson Drive; or the Hal and Martha Hyer Wallis Theater, 1949 Campus Drive.

The seven-play subscription for $28 to $148 represents a 20 percent savings off single-ticket prices. Single tickets for all seven Mainstage productions are on sale now. Where applicable, ticket discounts are available for groups of eight or more. Subscriptions and single tickets can be purchased by phone through the Wirtz Center Box Office at 847- 491-7282 or online.

The following October events are open to the public and will take place on Northwestern’s Evanston campus, as noted.

OCTOBER 2014 MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION

“The Laramie Project,” by Moises Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25; 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30; 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, Ethel M. Barber Theater, 30 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston. Beginning in 1998, members of the Tectonic Theater Project made six trips to Laramie, Wyoming, over the course of a year-and-a-half in the aftermath of the beating and during the trial of the two young men accused of killing Matthew Shepard, an openly gay college student. During their visits, Tectonic members conducted more than 200 interviews with the people of the small western city, some directly connected to the case. The breadth of the community’s reactions to the crime is crafted into a theatrical collage that explores the depths to which humanity can sink and the heights of compassion of which we are capable. Directed by Northwestern faculty member Rives Collins (“The Hundred Dresses,” “The Bluest Eye”), a new generation of actors will bring to life a living mosaic of one community’s response to a tragedy that became a catalyst of cultural and social change in America. Talkback discussions will follow all performances. Tickets are $25 for the general public; 
$22 for seniors over 62, Northwestern faculty and staff members, and educators; 
and $10 for full-time students (at the door) or 
$5 for Northwestern students (advance purchase only.)

WIRTZ CENTER STAGE ON SCREEN

National Theatre Live (NT Live) is the National Theatre's groundbreaking project to broadcast the best of British theatre live from the London stage to cinemas across the United Kingdom and around the world. Launched in 2009, NT Live broadcasts have now been experienced by over 1.5 million people in 500 venues around the world. Call the Wirtz Center Box Office at 847-491-7282.

• National Theatre Live, Euripides “Medea,” newly adapted by Ben Power, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7, Josephine Louis Theater, 20 Arts Circle Drive. Medea is a wife and a mother. For the sake of her husband, Jason, she’s left her home and borne two sons in exile. But when Jason abandons his family for a new life, Medea faces banishment and separation from her children. Cornered, she begs for one day’s grace to give her enough time to seek revenge and destroy everything she holds dear. The production is directed by Carrie Cracknell and stars Helen McCrory. Watch Video Teaser.  Single tickets are $20 for the general public; $16 for Northwestern faculty and staff (in-person or phone orders only); or $10 for full-time students with valid IDs. Discounts available for groups of 8 or more. For more information on the 2014-15 Mainstage season events, visit wirtz.northwestern.edu.

CONSTRUCTION ALERT

A three-year construction project underway on the southeast end of the Northwestern University campus has closed Arts Circle Drive to traffic. Free parking for evening and weekend events remains available, but the project impacts handicapped parking and patrons requiring special access to Evanston campus theaters. For the most current information on the construction project and drop-off locations for patrons requiring special access to our theaters, visit wirtz.northwestern.edu.