The Goodman Theatre of Chicago will borrow neighboring Steppenwolf Theatre Company's ensemble member, Rick Snyder, for its 1999 production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Snyder, who recently starred in Steppenwolf's productions of Warren Leight's Side Man and Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane, will play Ebenezer Scrooge.
As proof that Snyder is an actor of range, several seasons back he appeared in the same play at the Goodman, but as Bob Cratchit.
Carol will run Nov. 21-Jan. 2, 2000. Henry Godinez will direct. * In other news, the Goodman Theatre's Odyssey will go on until Nov. 6. The Mary Zimmerman epic began previews Sept. 17 and opened on Sept. 27 to positive reviews. The production was originally due to run through Oct. 30.
Last year, Zimmerman won the prestigious MacArthur fellowship, more commonly known as the "genius grant." The prize carried a $240,000 prize with no stipulations as to how the recipient is to spend the money.
Recent projects by Zimmerman include Midsummer Night's Dream at Boston's Huntington Theatre, Eleven Rooms of Proust, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, S/M, Arabian Nights and Mirrors of the Invisible World. The new piece is based, of course, on Homer's classic. Zimmerman, who is a member of Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre and is an artistic associate at the Goodman, fashions work characterized by stylized movement and athletic choreography.
The remainder of the Goodman mainstage season is as follows:
€ The new revival of O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten, starring Cherry Jones, and directed by Dan Sullivan, which will land on Broadway in March 2000, will try out in Chicago at the Goodman Theatre, Jan. 14-Feb. 19, 2000. The Goodman date replaces a scheduled stop at the Kennedy Center.
€ The world premiere of Rebecca Gilman's Boy Meets Girl (March 3 April 8, 2000). In Boy Meets Girl, a man and a woman go out on a blind date. Things are going fine until he turns out to be the kind of guy "who won't take no for answer." Michael Maggio (All the Rage and Black Snow) directs.
€ Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (April 21-May 27, 2000). The production will be directed by Chuck Smith.
€ Luis Valdez' Zoot Suit (June 18-July 22, 2000). Based on an actual trial of a young Chicano gang arrested for a suspected murder, the musical Zoot Suit mixes mambo, swing and traditional Latin songs to create the atmosphere of Chicano life in 1943. Henry Godinez will direct.
In addition to these four shows, the Goodman will present their annual production of A Christmas Carol. For ticket information, call (312) 443-3800.
The 1999-2000 mainstage season is the Goodman's final season in the company's current location, before they move to a new home in the North Loop in fall 2000.
*
Playwright Wendy MacLeod's latest, Schoolgirl Figure, will receive its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre of Chicago's Studio space. Previews will begin March 31, 2000, for an opening on April 10 and a run through April 30.
MacLeod is the author of The Water Children, which received an acclaimed run at Playwrights Horizons in New York in 1998, and The House of Yes, which was later made into a film starring Parker Posey.
Schoolgirl concerns a clique of high school girls who, in their to the-death competition to land a class hunk, try to attain a perfect size 4 by any means necessary. The play examines the mores of teenage society and the madness of applying "magazine model" perfection to the real world.
David Petrarca, who directed The Water Children, will stage the play.
As previously reported, Millennium Mambo, the one-woman piece conceived by actress- playwright Regina Taylor which was due to open the new season at the Studio space, has pushed its opening date back from Oct. 8, 1999 to Feb. 4, 2000, for a Feb. 13 opening and a run through March 5. The theatre said Taylor has taken a movie offer, forcing the postponement of the work.
Mambo will feature one of Taylor's plays, along with the work of five other prominent, African-American women playwrights. Taylor, an artistic associate at the Goodman, has previously been represented at that theatre by her plays, Escape from Paradise and Oo-Bla-Dee, performing in the first and co-directing the second. For Mambo, Taylor asked scribes Kia Corthron, Adrienne Kennedy, Suzan-Lori Parks, Ntozake Shange and Cheryl L. West to either write or select a 15-minute text which could be performed by one actress -- in this case, Taylor. Taylor -- who contributed a short play herself -- then penned some connective text, linking the half-dozen playlets.
Henry Godinez, another Goodman artistic associate, will direct.
Regina Taylor recently appeared in Cheryl L. West's Jar the Floor at New York's Second Stage.
The rest of the Goodman's 1999-2000 has yet to be announced. For information, call (312) 443-3800.
