Jackalope Theatre Company has announced its 11th season. The season begins in October with the world premiere of IN THE CANYON by company member Calamity West, which deals with abortion rights, charting a course from now until 2067, as society destructs and a resistance is born. Elly Green directs. Following in February is the Midwest premiere of DUTCH MASTERS by Greg Keller, directed by Wardell Julius Clark. If follows two kids  – one white and one black – in 1992 NYC as they meet on the Uptown D Train. The season concludes with the world premiere of LIFE ON PAPER directed by Jackalope Artistic Director, Gus Menary. Kenneth Lin’s drama concerns a mathematician who uses complex algorithms to value lives for insurance companies.

Jackalope’s mainstage productions, as well a Summer 2019 collaboration with youth-driven theater company The Yard, will take place in the fully heated and air-conditioned theater space within Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N Broadway. Jackalope will also present a season of work in The Frontier space at 1106 W Thorndale, including a new program called GroundWorks which will develop new plays, the Circle Up! reading series in collaboration with The Chicago Inclusion Project, and the 10th Living Newspapers Festival.

“Jackalope’s 11th season reaffirms our commitment to new work by collaborating with some of the most exciting playwrights working today on American issues that affect us in the here and now,” says Artistic Director Gus Menary. “Each of these plays, whether their setting is the past, present, or future, has an immediacy that speaks to our identity as Americans, with the exhilaration and creativity they’ve come to expect from a Jackalope show. We’re also thrilled to announce new Jackalope programming in The Frontier. Between the continuation of the Circle Up! Reading Series in conjunction with the Chicago Inclusion Project, the launch of Jackalope’s GroundWorks Series of staged workshops, and the presentation of Jackalope’s commissioned production of Calamity West’s IN THE CANYON, Jackalope can finally say it produces and supports new work at every stage of development. Collaboration has been central to our work of the past couple years, and Jackalope is proud to continue our mission to present works that redefine the American identity. Welcome to Jackalope’s 11th season.”

Season tickets and more info at www.jackalopetheatre.org.

Jackalope’s 2018-19 Season (from the press release):

MAINSTAGE SEASON

IN THE CANYON
World Premiere
By Calamity West
Directed by Elly Green
October 16 – November 24, 2018 | Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway

IN THE CANYON is a new American saga by Calamity West spanning from 2007 to 2067. In an exploration on the present attack on abortion, a time in which Roe v. Wade is overturned, this world-premiere imagines a broken society rapidly declining into a future world set in the rocks and walls of a canyon, where a story of resistance is birthed.

DUTCH MASTERS
Midwest Premiere
By Greg Keller
Directed by Wardell Julius Clark
February 25 – May 6, 2019 | Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway

New York City, 1992. Summer. In NYC’s hazy pre-Giuliani, pre-cellphone, pre-Metrocard days, a black kid and a white kid meet in a chance encounter on an uptown D train, chatting hoops, hip hop, and history. Over the course of one afternoon, fear, guilt, and longing allow one kid to take the other to a place neither even imagined possible.

LIFE ON PAPER
World Premiere
By Kenneth Lin
Directed by Gus Menary
May 13 – June 22, 2019 | Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway

After his proof for the Riemanm Hypothesis (one of the world’s last great math puzzles) disastrously flames out, Mitch Bloom, a brilliant mathematician finds himself working as a consultant using complex algorithms to set the value of human lives in wrongful death cases. His knack for devaluing lives has made him the darling of the insurance companies, but what will he do when the wrongful death of a billionaire philanthropist crosses his desk, and the future of a small town hangs in the balance?

ARTISTIC COLLABORATION WITH THE YARD
Summer, 2019 | Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway

Jackalope Theatre is proud to continue their Artistic Alliance with Senn Arts and The Yard. Theatre relevant to young people; performed by young people, The Yard is a collective of Chicago area theatre students who have formed artistic alliances with professional theatre companies throughout Chicago. Through this partnership, Jackalope provides a professional environment and mentorship to the developing theatre artists.

THE GROUNDWORKS SERIES
The Frontier, 1106 W. Thorndale

The Groundworks Series is Jackalope’s newest initiative to cultivate bold new theatre in Chicago. A series of staged workshop productions that get new works on their feet for the first time.

GIRL WITH A GUN
by Nora Leahy
October 4th-7th, 2018

ARMONICA’S (WHICH WAS CASSAVETTE’S), THE SECRET GEM OF THE SOUTHWEST SIDE
by Nate Whelden
December 14th-17th, 2018

ENOUGH TO LET THE LIGHT IN
by Paloma Nozicka

THE ITINERANT
by Kaiser Ahmed
(one-act double bill)
May 3rd-5th, 2019

THE CIRCLE UP! READING SERIES
In conjunction with The Chicago Inclusion Project
The Frontier, 1106 W. Thorndale

CIRCLE UP! is dedicated to amplifying diverse stories of scope and providing safe harbor for evolving work. Each reading includes a post-show discussion, encouraging our audience to share and engage with the play over drinks and light fare.

“cullud wattah”
by Erika Dickerson
October 15th, 2018

EXOTIC ANIMALS
by Emma Stanton
February 25th, 2019

WOLVES EAT ELK
by MJ Kaufman
May 13th, 2019

THE 10th ANNUAL LIVING NEWSPAPERS FESTIVAL
6 new short plays based on current American Newspaper Articles
August 23 – 27, 2019 | The Frontier, 1106 W. Thorndale

In homage to the 1930’s Living Newspapers of the Federal Theatre Project, Jackalope assembles an exciting group of Chicago playwrights, directors, and actors to dramatize stories ripped from recent newspaper headlines.