YOGA PLAY & More announced for the Chicago premiere of Strawdog Theater Company's 2022-2023 season (2023)

Strawdog Theater Company, under the direction of the Artistic Directorkamille dawkins*, welcomes audiences to its 35th season, Propellant, with a Chicago premiere, a new twist on a comedy classic, and the return of a popular holiday hit. Strawdog offers free admission to all its productions, guided by the company's mission of equity, anti-racism and inclusion.

The 2022/23 season kicks off this winter with the return of annual family favorite Hershel and the Chanukkah Goblins for the fifth year. Based on the award-winning book by Eric Kimmel, Hershel is adapted by a cast member.daily michael*, with music and lyrics by Jacob Combs and direction by Hannah Todd. Hershel is featured in TheEdge-TeatroOff Broadway, 1133 W. Catalpa Ave. in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago.

The season will continue next spring with the Chicago premiere ofDipika Guha's Yoga Play, a raucous exploration of cultural appropriation, exploitation, consumerism, shame, and yoga pants, was held at the new Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark St. in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago.

Strawdog season 35 ends next spring/summer with a bizarre recount ofOscar WildeThe classic comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Elizabeth and also set at the Bramble Arts Loft.

During the month of June 2022, Strawdog will also be hosting their fundraiser, A Chance to Blossom. Throughout the month, the company's performers bring you the inside scoop on new hires, upcoming shows, and a new gaming schedule. Help Strawdog thrive by donating belowwww.strawdog.org.

Comments Artistic Directorkamille dawkins“We are delighted with the support we have received in our first season of live performances. We are now using this moment to start our next season with the motto "Driver". Enjoy innovative, inspiring comedy and new work directed by brilliant artists as we continue to offer free tickets to our shows. Show your support for these jobs and our efforts by making a donation to Strawdog this month."

Tickets for the Strawdog Theater 2022-23 season will go on sale at a later date.

*Indicates members of the Strawdog Ensemble/Company.

December 2022/January 2023

Hershel e os Goblins de Hanukkah

Based on the book by Erik Kimmel

Adapted fromdaily michael*

Music and lyrics by Jacob Combs

Directed by Hannah Todd

NoEdge-TeatroOff Broadway, 1133 W. Catalpa Ave., Chicago

In this adaptation of the Caldecott Honor Award-winning book, a traveling troupe of actors comes to town to find no one celebrating Hanukkah. You must put on a show to save the holidays! Will they bring the Hanukkah spirit back to town? Will Hershel of Ostropol be able to defeat the goblins lurking in the old synagogue?

April/May 2023

yoga game

Written byDipika Guha

im Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark St., Chicago

Joan was hired to stabilize yoga apparel giant Jojomon after its CEO was ousted in a shameful scandal. But once she finds her groove, more problems arise and sales plummet. Joan has a plan so risky that it could derail the company and her career, and what she asks of her CFO, Raj, goes way beyond the call of duty. This racy comedy asks what it takes to find one's authenticity in a world determined to sell enlightenment.

May/June 2023

The urge to be serious

Written byOscar Wilde

Directed by Elizabeth Swanson

Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark Street, Chicago

John Worthing, a happy-go-lucky young gentleman, is the inventor of a fictional brother, 'Ernest', whose mischievous nature sometimes gives John an excuse to leave his country home and travel to London, where he is reunited with those close to him. friend and trusted resides, Algernon Moncrieff. Algernon has a cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax, with whom John is deeply in love. During his sojourns in London, under the name Ernest, John has won the love of the Gwendolens, who are eager to marry someone with the trusted name of Ernest. But when he asks the formidable Lady Bracknell for Gwendolen's hand, John discovers that he must reveal that he is a foundling left in a bag at Victoria Station. Algernon falls head over heels for the beautiful Cecily, who has long been in love with her mysterious and scheming brother Ernest of hers. Chaos ensues with the arrival of Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen.

About the artists:

Eric Kimmel (Book, Hershel and the Hanukkah Leprechauns) is the author of more than 130 children's books, including Anansi and the Mossy Rock and the classic Hanukkah story, Hershel and the Hanukkah Leprechauns. He is a five-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award and the Sydney Taylor Lifetime Achievement Award.

daily michael(Adapter, Hershel and the Chanukkah Goblins) has been a member of the Strawdog Company since 1997. He has starred in 24 Strawdog productions. His writing includes three radio plays presented on Radio Theater 7, co-author of the late-night series The Adventures of Picklebot and Lawfer, and script editor for the Strawdog productions of 1001 Afternoons in Chicago, Julius Caesar, and Measure for Measure.

Jacob Combs (Music and Lyrics, Hershel and the Chanukkah Goblins) is a Los Angeles-based writer, composer, and director. Jacob wrote the music and lyrics for Hershel and the Chanukkah Goblins (based on the popular children's book by Eric Kimmel), which Chicago's Strawdog Theater has produced annually since 2018. Past theater projects include Selling Out (Strawdog Theatre), Legends & Lore (New York Theater Barn, Musical Theater Workshop) and Palin! The musical. A lifelong movie fan, Jacob has recently worked in the writers' rooms on two top-secret Pixar projects and has written several episodes of the Disney+ documentary series Inside Pixar. Jacob also wrote the short film Messrs., which launches at the festival, and his first short film as a writer/director, Without, screened at various festivals in 2019 and 2020.

Hannah Todd (Director, Hershel and the Chanukkah Goblins) is a director based in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Directing credits include Thrones! A musical parody at the Apollo Theatre, Cambodian rock band in Victory Gardens/Merrimack Repertory Theater(associate director) and works at Theater Alliance, Lean & Hungry Theater and We Happy Few (co-founder) in D.C. Assistant directors include Northlight, Lookingglass,Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Folger Theatre, Studio Theater and Shakespeare Theater Company. Hannah received her MFA from her in the direction ofNorthwestern University.

Dipika Guha(playwright, Yoga Play) was born in Kolkata and grew up in India, Russia and the UK. She is the first recipient of the Shakespeare Sisters Playwriting Fellowship, a Hodder Fellow at the Lewis Center for the Arts in Princeton and a Venturous Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center. Her pieces include Yoga Play (South Coast RepertoireTheatre, SF Playhouse, Gateway Theatre, entre otros), I Enter the Valley (Theatreworks New Play Festival, finalista del Ruby Prize '15). The Art of Gaman (Theatre 503 London, Berkeley Rep. Ground Floor) y Unreliable (Kansas City Rep.). Actualmente está a cargo de ACT y Z Space, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep y MTC/Sloan.

Elizabeth Swanson (Director, The Importance of Being Earnest) is a Chicago-based director creating new plays and musicals with innovative playwrights and composers that challenge form and expand our notions of what theater can be. Elizabeth often tells strange stories that explore our desires and imagine new possibilities for relationships and institutions. Her recent works include Lungs (Granary Theatre, Cork), Restore (Three Brothers Theatre) and Where All The White Sneakers At?: A Sketch Review (Second City). Recent assistant directors include Vardo for the 2014 Dublin Theater Festival (Anu Productions, directed by Louise Lowe), A Work Of Art (Chicago Dramatist, directed.Heinrich Godinez) and Love's Labor Lost (Chicago Shakespeare Theater, for you. Martin Maraden). Other projects include the 2016 Artist's Laboratory (Scenario 773) and stage readings forChicago playwright, Chicago Irish Theatre, The Jades and Chicago Theater Marathon. Elizabeth obtained her MFA from the Lir National Academy of Dramatic Arts, Trinity College, Dublin. She is a two-time recipient of Chicago's DCASE Individual Artist Fellowship and recipient of the Francis LeMoyne Page Award from Princeton University.

About the Strawdog Theater Company

Since its inception in 1988, Strawdog Theater Company has provided Chicagoland's first in-store theatrical experience and has received multiple Non-Equity Jeff Awards for its commitment to ensemble acting and an immersive approach to design. The acclaimed company creates new works, reinvents classics, fuses music with theatre, asks provocative questions, and delivers the unexpected to audiences.

Strawdog Theater Company is supported in part by the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation MacArthur Endowment for the Arts and Culture, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, and the Illinois Agency for the Arts Council.