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Festival Passes - $20 (includes six reading and all special events)
Individual Readings - $5
IGNITION Festival Passes are available by calling the Box Office at (773) 871-3000 or emailing tickets@victorygardens.org
Buy Tickets To:
The Imagine Man
A Better Babylon
The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity
Bathing Van Gogh
Year Zero
Fati's Last Dance
Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago’s #1 home of new plays presents, IGNITION: Emerging Writers of Color, a summer festival launched by a grant from the Ford Foundation.
IGNITION has a dual goal: to introduce exceptional new writers under the age of 40 to Victory Gardens and to jump start future productions of the winning plays around the country. The six plays were selected out of 120 submissions from throughout the U.S. and internationally. The six plays chosen for IGNITION and their performance times are:
Keynote Speech
by OyamO
Thursday August 7th, 7:30p
Acclaimed playwright and Associate Professor of Theatre at University of Michigan OyamO will kick off Ignition by giving the keynote speech.
The Imagine Man
by Christopher De Paola (Chicago)
Directed by Henry Godinez (Goodman Theatre, Chicago)
Thursday August 7th, 8:00p
In an unnamed country, it is illegal to buy and sell real estate. That doesn’t stop Daniel from brokering dangerous deals for people desperate to fulfill their dream of home ownership.
A Better Babylon
by Michael Lew (New York)
Directed by Andrea J. Dymond (Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago)
Friday August 8th, 7:30p
In 1960s UC Berkeley, a wave of student radicalism engulfs a young Chinese couple, a black protester, and a Chicana biologist. Personal dreams collide with political conscience, testing the limits of mentorship, friendship, and love.
Special Event: Spark Plug
Friday August 8th, 9:30p
After A Better Babylon, Spark Plug, a party presented by Victory Gardens’ Fresh Squeezed Series, will showcase emerging Chicago artists of color, featuring food, music and live performances by Sugarplum Catering; 2nd Story - Chicago's premiere storytellers; Havana Gallery - with live painting by Pablo Perea; Instant Theater - a project of Chicago Dramatists; the magic of Benjamin Barnes; and T-shirt printing - make your own wearable art with Alex Lee and Alex Sobolev of Modati (shirts provided).
Identity, Inspiration, and the Industry: A Playwrights Forum
Saturday August 9th, Noon
The six Ignition playwrights and several members of the Victory Gardens Playwright Ensemble will sit and discuss the inspiration of their work and the process and production of playwriting. E-mail Aaron Carter at acarter@victorygardens.org for reservations.
The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity
by Kristoffer Diaz (New York)
Directed by Eddie Torres (Teatro Vista, Chicago, IL)
Saturday August 9th, 3:00p
Macedonio Guerra is a pro wrestler who has discovered the next big thing: an impossibly charismatic hip-hop-influenced Indian kid from Brooklyn. His boss has the perfect idea for their characters: terrorists. An in-depth comic look at pro wrestling, geopolitics, and refrigerator crispers.
Bathing Van Gogh
by Brian Tucker (New York)
Directed by Derrick Sanders (Congo Square Theatre, Chicago)
Saturday August 9th, 7:30p
Bathing Van Gogh is a generational glance at four friends negotiating a dying friendship and coping the best they can—with drugs, booze, sketchpads, and jazz.
Year Zero
by Michael Golamco (Los Angeles)
Directed by Ilesa Duncan (Chicago Dramatists)
Sunday August 10th, 12:00p
Year Zero is a comedic drama about young Cambodian Americans in Long Beach, California – about reincarnation, redemption, and everything that we try to leave in the past… but we can’t leave behind.
Fati’s Last Dance
by France-Luce Benson (Pittsburgh)
Directed by Diane Rodriguez (Center Theater Group, LA)
Sunday August 10th, 3:00p
Can an aging Ballet diva, a princely break dancer, a reality show reject, and a Brazilian Guru move a sleeping beauty off the couch and into the spotlight? Fati’s Last Dance, a touching, off-beat comedy tells the story of a young Haitian woman’s journey from self-loathing to self-acceptance, and her family’s gracefully awkward steps towards overcoming grief.
All six winning playwrights are coming to Chicago to participate in the festival, and leading theater artists of color from Chicago and nationally are being tapped to direct and perform the new play readings.
An IGNITION Festival Pass, offering entry to every reading and special event, is only $20. Single tickets to individual readings and select special events are $5. For tickets, information, and the complete IGNITION schedule of events, call the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater box office, 773.871.3000, or purchase tickets online at VictoryGardens.org.
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