Dehnert Will Make New Peter Pan Fly at Lookingglass; Season Announced | Playbill

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News Dehnert Will Make New Peter Pan Fly at Lookingglass; Season Announced Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago announced three world premieres for its 2010-11 season, to include a dark new adaptation of Peter Pan by director Amanda Dehnert, Laura Eason's new version of Edith Wharton's novel "Ethan Frome" and a Lookingglass original play, The Last Act of Lilka Kadison.

Artistic director-elect Andy White stated, "Our first show, Peter Pan, looks at life through the prism of childhood — with wonder and awe, yearning for flight, fear of pirates and fearsome crocodiles, and all the delight and terror that might accompany any child's dreams. Ethan Frome drills deep into the choices made in middle age, and the fierce passions and regrets that accompany those choices and their consequences. And The Last Act of Lilka Kadison brings us an older woman looking back at her life, her loves, and her losses — a woman who is simply trying to make peace with the secrets and stories that have haunted her past."

Here's the company's 23rd season at a glance:

Peter Pan
World Premiere
Adapted for the Stage by Amanda Dehnert
From the books by J.M. Barrie
Directed by Amanda Dehnert
October 20-Dec. 12

"Nationally-known director Amanda Dehnert will direct her adaptation of Peter Pan, the classic tale from J.M. Barrie's books of the boy who wouldn't grow up. Bombastic, playful, and darkly comic, Dehnert's adaptation brings innovative theatricality, aerial arts, and a soulful understanding of yearning and regret to this legendary childhood adventure of pirates, fairies and fantasy. [Dehnert's] student production was developed at Northwestern University's Theatre and Interpretation Center in 2009 and resulted in a sold-out run on campus. For Lookingglass, she is creating a new adaptation that will feature Lookingglass Ensemble members."

Ethan Frome
By Edith Wharton
Written and directed by Laura Eason
A World Premiere of the Lookingglass Original
Feb. 23-April 17, 2011

"Fervent desire burns just beneath the surface of a snowy New England farm. Stoic farmer Ethan Frome trudges through a joyless marriage with his ailing wife, Zena, until they hire her young cousin to tend to the house. Her vibrant spirit awakens a passion in Ethan that neither of them dare acknowledge. This classic, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Age of Innocence,' is a deeply poetic story about the staggering beauty of true love and the desolation of the unalterable life choices we make."

The Last Act of Lilka Kadison
A World Premiere of the Lookingglass Original
Written by Nicola Behrman, David Kersnar and Abbie Phillips
Directed by David Kersnar
June 1-July 24, 2011

"The season closes with an original story about a spirited woman in the twilight of her life. Now in her 87th year, Lilith Kadison (Lilka) is struggling to reconcile with her distant son, fend off ghostly visitations from her irreverent artistic partner and lover from 1939 Poland, and relinquish her independence to Menelik Moses, an Ethiopian caregiver from Jewish Family Services. A classic hoarder of both objects and memories, Lilka now faces the universal dilemma of what to cling to and what to let go in this powerful piece about art and survival. The play is dedicated to Johanna Cooper and inspired in part by the audio series, 'One People, Many Stories,' produced for Los Angeles Public Radio." Lookingglass Theatre Company is located inside Chicago's historic Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. at Pearson.

For season subscription and ticket information, call the Lookingglass Theatre box office at (312) 337-0665 or visit lookingglasstheatre.org.

 
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