When Jenny Magnus moved to Chicago in 1987, her career objective was to “do stuff.” Among the first stuff she got done was cofounding Curious Theatre Branch, the cramped, amenity-free North Avenue storefront that became the epicenter of the nascent Wicker Park theater movement. That movement exploded and helped transform an ossifying off-Loop scene into a vital playground for artistic experimentation and aesthetic innovation.
Thu 2/20, 8 PM; Sat 2/22, 6 PM; Sun 2/23, 9 PM
Sat 2/22, 2:30 and 9 PM; Sun 2/23, 6:30 PM
“Room was actually one of the first shows I worked on after moving to Chicago. I was the board operator for the original run [which Magnus performed solo]. Her performance was cemented in my mind, as it was in KellyAnn [Corcoran‘s] mind [the actress who will perform the show]. We both wondered if we would be able to forget how Jenny had done it. But I quickly realized that the text for the show contains a gift in the very first line. ‘Don’t think, don’t prepare, don’t imagine or envision, don’t expect or defend.’
“The Lucky Ones is about—for me, at this moment in rehearsal—the constant battle we fight against time, and the fear that fate is pulling us along. Throughout the play, the characters are trying to forestall something; there’s rejection of the future and of one another at every turn. But it’s not that they’re negative, it’s that they’re voicing that anxiety we all have about the limits of our agency.
“Judith Harding, who plays Heave in The Trips, calls it ‘postmodern Laurel and Hardy.’ It’s a genuine, rich look at how our current generation careens around looking for connection.
All performances are at Prop Thtr3502 N. Elston773-539-7838propthtr.org Admission is $15 or pay what you can.
