Displaying items by tag: Artemisia Theatre

Artemisia announces it’s 13th season will open with a immersive soundscape production of GOODS by Lauren Ferebee, directed by Erin Nicole Eggers. Performances are July 8th - July 28th, 2024 at the Little Studio in the Fine Arts Building at 410 S Michigan Ave.  

Embark on an intergalactic journey with Marla and Sam, two resilient women navigating the cosmos as seasoned trash collectors in the year 2100. Amidst the vastness of space, their compact spaceship serves as a sanctuary from the chaos of Earth’s turmoil. As they commemorate two decades of partnership, their routine anniversary route takes an unforeseen turn, thrusting them into a confrontation with the pressing issues they’ve sought to escape, including societal collapse and personal demons. Join them on a poignant exploration of friendship, identity, and the weight of the world they carry among the stars.

“This season is very exciting to me,” says interim Artistic Director Willow James. “Now in our 13th season, I think it's about time we revisit a few of the projects that shaped who Artemisia is. Our We Women Festival will finally bring back our beloved new play festival that was an Artemisia staple for years, and Goods launched us into the pandemic and allowed us to reshape how we wanted to respond to the world we live in. After an amazing 12th season with To Love & Be Loved and Inda Craig-Galván's A Hit Dog Will Holler, I hope our community will join us this year as we produce our season in residence at The Fine Arts Building.”

The first preview for GOODS is Monday, July 8th at 7 p.m. Press opening is Thursday, July 11th at 7:00 p.m. Performances continue through July 28th: Thursday through Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 p.m. All performances are Pay-What-You-Can. 

The GOODS production team includes Lydia Moss (Dramaturg), Kyle Anthony Cortes (Sound Designer), and Julie Jachym (Production Manager).

Artemisia is a resident company at the historic Fine Arts Building at 410 S Michigan Ave, Chicago IL, in downtown Chicago. All tickets to performances are Pay-What-You-Can. Purchase tickets online at artemisiatheatre.org

Access: All spaces within the Little Studio are accessible by wheelchair, with the exception of the restroom, which requires one step up to access. The nearest accessible restroom is on the sixth floor, which can be reached by elevator.

Visit artemisiatheatre.org for more information, including content warnings, and news of special events. Find and follow the company on social media @artemisiatheatre on Facebook and Instagram

Abortion and reproductive rights have been major issues throughout my life from the pre-Roe days to the calamitous post-Roe days I’d hoped never to see. I was really looking forward to seeing TITLE X.

Julie Proudfood *she/her wrote TITLE X in 2020 in response to then-President Trump’s 2019 gag order. The Title X Family Planning Program, created in 1970, required family planning clinics to provide pregnant women with three nondirective counseling protocols: referral for adoption, for prenatal care, and for abortion services. Trump’s 2019 directive prohibited any clinics receiving federal funding (virtually all clinics, including Planned Parenthood) from presenting pregnant women with Option #3. 

As heinous as this directive was, Proudfoot clearly saw that it was neither sudden nor isolated, but part of (and not the end of) the steady disintegration of the women’s rights hard-won in the 1960’s and 70’s. Proudfood intended TITLE X to educate and motivate people to ‘fight, rally, organize, vote, and dismantle’ this ongoing far-right agenda to return women and nonbinary people to the place decreed for them by God: barefoot, pregnant, and kitchen-bound.

The format of TITLE X, co-directed by Proudfoot and Willow James *he/his (also Sound Designer) is intriguing. The entire cast of eight characters is played by two actors – Melanie McNulty *she/her and Kaitlyn Cheng *she/her – in alternating scenarios:  a 17-year-old in 1978 awaiting results of her pregnancy test; a religious lobbyist addressing Congress in 2019; a Right to Lifer-er in 1988 protesting in front of an abortion clinic.  

And there Proudfoot stops. Not the play; it continues through several more scenarios, but the scenarios stop directly concerning abortion: an asylum officer at the Mexican border, a woman who’s just won a sexual harassment suit against her boss (with all the attendant ignominy and anguish); a woman describing an argument with her (female) partner. The final scene does return to Rachel (from the first scene), now grown, expressing her joy at having decided to have the abortion; I appreciate this attention to the Right-to-Lifer’s assumption that women will be deranged with remorse for their decision to abort.

OK, they’re all women’s issues, all relevant, vital women’s issues, but the name of the play is TITLE X, not “Women’s Issues”. Disappointing – and a damned shame, as everyone’s work is absolutely stellar.  McNulty and Cheng are brilliant, slipping into disparate characters as easily as changing Jessica VanWinkle’s *she/her excellent costumes. Charlotte Lastrashe/her multi-tasks well as Set & Props Designer and Stage Manager. I’ve already praised Ben F. Locke’s *he/his casting. Lighting and Projections Designer Sam Stephen *th/th makes the most of their interesting role, using lights and projected images to further define each of the disparate characters.

In summary, TITLE X is an outstanding play, well-written, skillfully produced, and superbly acted. It is not, however, the Clarion Call to Action that I hoped for, and that we so desperately need.