Under the leadership of Artistic Director Barbara Gaines and Executive Director Criss Henderson, Chicago A NOTE FROM DIRECTOR CAITRÍONA MCLAUGHLIN Shakespeare has redefined what a great American Shakespeare theater can be—a company that defies When Neil Murray and Graham McLaren (directors of theatrical category. This Regional Tony Award-winning the Abbey Theatre) asked me to direct Roddy Doyle’s theater’s year-round season features as many as twenty new play Two Pints and tour it to pubs around productions and 650 performances—including plays, Ireland, I was thrilled. As someone who has made musicals, world premieres, family programming, and presentations from around the globe. theatre in an array of found and site-sympathetic The work is enjoyed by 225,000 audience members annually, with one in four under the age of spaces, including pubs, shops, piers, beneath eighteen. Chicago Shakespeare is the city’s leading producer of international work, and touring flyovers, and one time inside a de-sanctified church, its own productions across five continents has garnered multiple accolades, including the putting theatre on in pubs around Ireland felt like a prestigious Laurence Olivier Award. Emblematic of its role as a global theater, the company sort of homecoming. I suspect every theatre director spearheaded Shakespeare 400 Chicago, celebrating Shakespeare’s legacy in a citywide, based outside of Dublin has had a production of yearlong international arts and culture festival, which engaged 1.1 million people. The Theater’s some sort or another perform in a pub, so why did nationally acclaimed arts in literacy programs support the work of English and drama teachers, this feel different? and bring Shakespeare to life on stage for tens of thousands of their students each school year. Over the summer, the company tours a professional production of Shakespeare’s work, free for Was it the fact that we were asking two of Ireland’s leading actors to perform all, to neighborhood parks across the city. In 2017 the Theater unveiled The Yard at Chicago in such close and intimate surroundings? Shakespeare—with its innovative design that has changed the shape of theater architecture. Together with the Jentes Family Courtyard Theater and the Thoma Theater Upstairs, The Yard Was it the fact that we were bringing a slice of Dublin to towns and villages positions Chicago Shakespeare as the city’s most versatile performing arts center. around Ireland and not the other way around? BARBARA GAINES CRISS HENDERSON Artistic Director Executive Director Perhaps it was that we were bringing a new Roddy Doyle play directly into the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Chair location in which it was set—a pub—before putting it on a stage? ARTISTIC ADVANCEMENT STAGE MANAGEMENT DANIEL LOPEZ Assistant Facilities Manager Or was it simply the fact that our National Theatre had finally realised that RICK BOYNTON E. BROOKE FLANAGAN DEBORAH ACKER Creative Producer Managing Director for Production Stage Manager/ FELIX ROSS it had an audience and future theatre artists often living three or four hours Associate Producer Custodial Supervisor BOB MASON Advancement and External Affairs away in parts of the country lacking in basic public transport or access to Artistic Associate/ DOTTIE BRIS-BOIS AMANDA LANDIS DWAYNE BREWER CST Two Pints Stage Manager FLOYD CONWAY live theatre, particularly new plays written and performed by exceptional Casting Director Associate Director of Development MARIBEL CUEVAS AISLINN FRANTZ JENNY SEIDELMAN SCENERY RESHARD HUFF theatre artists? Associate Producer Director of Partnerships OCTAVIOUS MOODY ANGELA MCMAHON TAMAL STEVENS DOREEN SAYEGH KRISTEN CARUSO ROBERT L. WILSON RICHARD TENNY Manager of International Senior Advancement Manager/ Scenery Supervisors SHENISE THOMAS and Special Projects Board Liaison Custodial Assistants FROM IRELAND: We wanted the experience for rural Irish audiences seeing this play in such CALEB MCANDREW ROSIE BROSS GRACE SCHNECK Technical Coordinator small and intimate spaces to be like seeing the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club, Producing Assistant Advancement Manager TICKETING, GUEST ABBEY THEATRE’S PETER REGALBUTO or at Manchester Free Trade Hall, before the rest of the country knew what DIEGO ZOZAYA BRYAN HOWARD Stage Crew Head SERVICES AND EVENTS Interim Casting Assistant Grant Writer was going on. We wanted them to be the first, and to give them the sense of BRADLEY BURI MAKEDA COHRAN MIKEY GRAY EMILY MCCLANATHAN Stage Carpenter Head Events Director being let in on a secret, before anyone else, as opposed to being the last. It Assistant to the Advancement Communications CAITLIN DUNLAP Creative Producer Coordinator JACK BIRDWELL was a very punk aesthetic. I just loved that idea. And hence, the Two Pints TYLER GUYNES Front of House Coordinator/ ALYSSA SOTO KARL SISSMAN ADAM HELD House Manager tour was born. Casting Intern VIP Concierge and Stewardship MICHAEL JANSSENS VICTORIA GILBERT Coordinator ADAM TODD JENN OSWALD MANAGEMENT VIKTORIA STEFANOVA House Carpenters XAVIER ROE TWO DEBORAH VANDERGRIFT Donor Records and Data ALEX ROGGOW WRITTEN BY When you get hold of a play like Two Pints, you know fairly quickly you COSTUMES House Managers General Manager Coordinator have something special on your hands. Before reading the script I admit I RYAN MAGNUSON DANIEL J. HESS FRANCZESKA VELEZ MEL GILL RODDY DOYLE Costume Shop Manager Concessions Supervisor was thinking: two men sitting at a bar talking about life and themselves, Company Manager Advancement Coordinator CATHY TANTILLO KEVIN SPELLMAN MICHAEL RUSSELL what’s new? As it turns out: everything. With this masterful piece of writing, MELANIE LEFTAKES Costume Design Assistant Assistant Concessions Manager Associate General Manager Advancement Intern Roddy Doyle teaches us an old lesson that we have perhaps lost sight of in REBECCA DOROSHUK KATE LASS SAMANTHA BRAZILLER Wardrobe Supervisor JACQUELINE POJASEK PINTS Executive Assistant HANYI WANG contemporary drama: plays are about the people we live with. He has written Gala Intern JESS KENYON Concessions Leads BEN GATES-UTTER Laundry BESSIE BESS a play that is utterly true to the banter you might hear between any two men Company Management Associate MARKETING ERIN HUNTER in their sixties sitting in the pub, and yet it never once dips into any kind of EDWARD MCCREARY JULIE STANTON ELECTRICS Interim Box Office Supervisors KRISSI MCEACHERN Director of Marketing and Sales JEFF GLASS ANTHONY BALDASARE bigoted, judgmental, or sexist remark. Arts Leadership Fellows HANNAH KENNEDY Lighting Supervisor DANIEL BALSAMO Public Relations Director REBECCA BOERMAN EDUCATION AND ALEC THORNE TYRA BULLOCK CATHY TAYLOR Assistant Lighting Supervisor MEGAN CLAUHS Roddy is not only teaching those of us in the theatre how to write character COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Public Relations Consultant JOAN E. CLAUSSEN BYRON COOLIE MARILYN J. HALPERIN AMANDA CANTLIN ANGELA COTEY for a more informed and respectful world, he is showing us that empathy Director of Education Lighting Crew Head Senior Marketing Manager SCOTT COWAN is created by listening. What he allows us to do is eavesdrop on the hopes, and Communications SARA CROUNSE Ray and Judy McCaskey Chair ABIGAIL TOTH SOUND NICK CUELLAR fears, desires, and disappointments of two simple, but in their own way, JASON HARRINGTON Digital Marketing Manager JOSEPH DISBROW GRACE GLASGOW Education Outreach Manager Sound Crew Head JEFFREY GOUGIS extraordinary men. Yes, the language is colourful. Yes, there are a few four- AARON WEGNER TIFFANY GOUGIS MOLLY TRUGLIA Marketing Manager, DAN SCHRECK BRITTNEY GRANT letter words. But there is also much laughter, much love, much comedy, and Learning Programs Manager Insights and Analytics House Sound Technician MAYA HOPKINS SARA B.T. THIEL, PH.D JESSICA CONNOR ALLIE LYKE much life, too. Eavesdropping on these two men, you’ll see that, like great BRI MCCABE Public Humanities Manager Marketing and Communications WIGS AND MAKE-UP Associate ALEX MEYER jazz musicians, they riff off each other, and off their own experiences. PASSION ROCHELLE RICHARD JARVIE WILL NICHOLSON ANASTASIA WRENN DANIEL WALTERS Wig and Make-up Supervisor DIANNE NORA Education Interns Marketing and Communications MIGUEL ARMSTRONG ZACHARY PARKHURST Designer Wig and Make-up Assistant DARA PRENTISS And as I sit here in a hotel bar wondering have I said too much or not enough MAYA PRENTISS FINANCE MIKAYLA SHAW MEGAN PIRTLE KATIE RANEY in writing this, the conversation of two men at the bar floats into earshot: LINDA ORELLANA Marketing Assistant Wig and Make-up Apprentice ANTHONY SANTIAGO Director of Finance RACHEL HOLDERMAN SAM SCHNEIDER-BEHEN One: He’s mad for the ambience, that’s what they used to call STEVE SHREVE #CHICAGOSHAKES #TWOPINTS MADISON KESSELRING PROPERTIES DAN GRYCZA JOEY STARCHER it anyway, ambience! Human Resources Manager/ Marketing Interns CASSANDRA WESTOVER AUDREY SIMON Two: I hear they’re building a hotel now, sixteen stories high! Finance Associate Properties Supervisor EMIL SUECK ALANA RYBAK PRODUCTION MARA RICH NICOLE TINI Annual support perennially provided by The Davee Foundation WorldStage Fund One: F*cking sharks, where’s it going? Assistant Director of Finance CHRIS PLEVIN Assistant Properties Supervisor HANNAH WILLIAMS Director of Production SHONDA WILLIAMS Two: Jesus Christ! I told you what I know! ALYSSE HUNTER LISA GRIEBEL Guest Services Associates MAJOR 2018/19 SEASON SUPPORTERS Accounting Manager JEFF WILLIAMS Properties Carpenter Associate Director of Production SARA BENBELLA BECKY