Pictured: Robert Falls

Goodman Theatre announced today that Artistic Director Robert Falls will replace Tony Speciale as director of its season-opening production of “We’re Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time,” written and performed by David Cale.

Cale’s solo piece is a musical memoir, featuring original songs he has written with arrangements and underscoring composed by Matthew Dean Marsh. “We are thrilled to open our new season with ‘We’re Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time’ — a strikingly beautiful new work from one of the most gifted artists I’ve been privileged to collaborate with over the course of 30 years,” said Falls. “Highly personal and unusually intimate, David’s play is a complex journey of survival and transformation—and we are grateful to Tony Speciale for the role he played in the process of its development. I look forward to sharing this extraordinary story with Chicago audiences—many of whom first welcomed him here, so many years ago.”