AFT’s OUT FRONT Series: when last we flew
About Face Theatre’s OUT FRONT SERIES Presents
when last we flew
By Harrison David Rivers
Directed by Lisa Portes
January 25 & 26, 2014 at Stage 773
We’re pleased to continue our OUT FRONT SERIES, a year-round collection of free public readings and developmental workshops, with when last we flew by Harrison David Rivers, directed by Lisa Portes, playing Saturday, January 25 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, January 26 at 3 pm at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago.
when last we flew will feature About Face Artistic Associate Kelli Simpkins with Nathan Cooper, Ashleigh Lathrop, Jerry McKinnon, Sean Parris, and others.
Inspired by Tony Kushner’s Angels in America and a testament to the power of theatre, when last we flew is a moving and often humorous look at life in small town America from a contemporary teenage perspective. After stealing his local library’s only copy of Angels in America, misfit teenager Paul locks himself in the bathroom to begin reading the landmark play. He soon finds that his life and the lives of those around him in his small Kansas town are about to take flight, and over the course of a seemingly ordinary day, extraordinary things start to happen…
The OUT FRONT SERIES is FREE: however, reservations are strongly recommended. Click here to reserve your seats online or call (773) 784-8565.
About the Playwright:
Harrison David Rivers is a Harlem based playwright. His play when last we flew (About Face Theatre, Diversionary Theatre, NYFringe, Sundance Theatre Lab, Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab) received the 2011 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Off Off Broadway Play, the 2010 FringeNYC Excellence in Playwriting Award and was named one of the Top 10 LGBTQ 2010 FringeNYC productions by The Advocate. Other plays include: The Bandaged Place (Aurora Theatre Company Global Age Project, Classical Theater of Harlem, Harlem Stage, New York Theatre Workshop/Dartmouth); lydie, or (s)he who looks inside, awakes (Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, Williamstown, New Dramatists); Sweet (New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater); And She Said, He Said, I Said Yes (Joe’s Pub, HERE Arts Center); We Are Misquoted Texts (Under St. Marks, 3-Legged Dog, Dixon Place); Jack Perry is Alive (And Dating) (New York Musical Theatre Festival, Ars Nova ANT Fest); THE SEA & THE STARS (National Black Theatre); and Look Upon Our Lowliness (New York Theatre Workshop, The Movement Theatre Company). Harrison’s short plays have been produced at The Public Theater, Atlantic Theater, Atlantic Stage 2, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, Dixon Place, the 45th Street Theater, Harlem School for the Arts and the American Airlines Theater on Broadway. His monologue play Not Resentful At All was presented as part of Headlong Theatre Company’s 2011 production of Decade directed by Rupert Goold. The piece is also published in “Decade: An Anthology of New Plays About the Legacy of 9/11”. Harrison is the recipient of Van Lier (New Dramatists) and Emerging Artist of Color Fellowships (New York Theatre Workshop) and the John Golden Playwriting Award. He was a finalist for the Alec Baldwin Singers Forum Fellowship, the New York Stage & Film Founder’s Award, the Old Vic/New Voices US/UK Playwrights Exchange and a semi-finalist for the P73 Playwriting Fellowship. Harrison is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect and an alumnus of the 2012-13 Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater. MFA, Columbia University.
About the Director
Lisa Portes serves a head of directing at the Theatre School at DePaul University and artistic director of Chicago Playworks for Young Audiences. Primarily a director of new American work, her recent projects include: Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West by Naomi Iizuka (Timeline Theatre), the world premieres of Ghostwritten by Naomi Iizuka (Goodman Theatre), After 100 Years by Naomi Iizuka (Guthrie Theatre) and Night Over Erzinga by Adriana Sevahn-Nichols (Silk Road Rising). Other Chicago credits include: Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue by Quiara Alegría Hudes (Steppenwolf Garage with Teatro Vista and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble), Ski Dubai by Laura Jacqmin and Spare Change by Mia McCullough (Steppenwolf, First Look Rep), Permanent Collection by Thomas Gibbons (Northlight Theatre), The Piano Teacher by Julia Cho, In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks and Far Away by Caryl Churchill (Next Theatre), and Offspring of the Cold War by Carlos Murillo (Walkabout Theatre). New York credits include: Wilder by Erin Cressida Wilson and the Red Clay Ramblers (Playwrights Horizons), How to Write While You Sleep by Madeleine Olnek, Hurricane by Erin Wilson and Fur by Migdalia Cruz (Soho Rep). A director of new American plays and musicals, Lisa has directed numerous readings and workshops in such development programs as Sundance Summer Theatre Lab, Vineyard Arts Project, Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, New Stages at Goodman Theatre, New Work Now at the Public Theatre, Mondays@3 at New York Theatre Workshop, the Cherry Lane Alternative, Hispanic Playwrights Project at South Coast Repertory Theatre, the McCarter Theatre Lab, and the Cape Cod Theatre Project. Lisa served as the associate director for the Tony Award-winning musical, The Who’s Tommy mounting its international productions in Canada, the U.K., and Germany. Awards include the NEA/TCG Career Development Grant, the Drama League Directing Fellowship and a Fulbright/Hays award. Lisa received her MFA in directing from the University of California, San Diego.