Pictured: Fin Coe and Stephanie Shum. Photo by Joe Mazza/Brave Lux.

The New Colony, under the new artistic direction of Fin Coe and Stephanie Shum, has announced the full line-up for its 2018-19 season, along with several new staff positions.

The 18/19 season kicks off this fall with the world premiere of FUN HARMLESS WARMACHINE, a kinetic journey down the rabbit hole of online masculinity cults, written by Co-Artistic Director Fin Coe and directed by James Fleming.

The winter brings the world premiere of SMALL WORLD, a twisted comedy in the happiest place on earth, co-written by Jillian Leff and Joe Lino and directed by Andrew Hobgood.

The season concludes next summer with The New Colony UNCHARTED Festival, a two-week showcase of plays at different points in their journeys to production.

“We’re immensely proud to bring these exciting world premieres to life in The New Colony’s tenth and our first season as Co-Artistic Directors,” comment Fin Coe and Stephanie Shum. “As we head into the next decade, we’re reflecting on our past traditions of experimentation and excellence, as well as our vision for new projects with new artists for new audiences. “Fun Harmless Warmachine,” developed through our Writers’ Room education program, and “Small World,” created through our company’s unique new plays process, promises to add to the company’s storied tradition of bold new work that speaks to the world we live in and how we choose to survive within it.”

The New Colony has also announced the addition of Michael Peters (Associate Artistic Director), Laura Stephenson (Managing Director), James Fleming (Director of New Work), Elyse Dolan (Director of Education), Kristi Parker-Barnhart (Education Liaison) and Zoe Benditt (Grant Writer) to its staff.

The New Colony’s 2018-19 Season (from the press release):

October 3 – November 4, 2018
World Premiere
FUN HARMLESS WARMACHINE
Written by Co-Artistic Director Fin Coe
Directed by James Fleming

By day, Tom works a dead end job for the man and can’t get a date. But by night, he’s top of the leader board, a master gamer. Othered and lonely, Tom is sucked into the Order of the Sword, an online community that seems to promise him his digital personal in real life. Developed through The New Colony’s Writers’ Room and inspired by Gamergate and online hate movements, FUN HARMLESS WARMACHINE is a cautionary tale of the power of fear and the seductive pull of the alt right.

March 27 – May 5, 2019
World Premiere
SMALL WORLD
Written by Jillian Leff and Joe Lino
Directed by Andrew Hobgood

It’s the end of the world…maybe? There’s no way to confirm for the three “cast members” trapped inside the Small World ride in Disney World. The music won’t stop, there’s a body in the moat and one of the group is impaled under a smiling animatronic. Can they force their way off the ride? And what waits for them on the other side? It’s a world of hopes, it’s a world of fears. It’s a small world, after all.

July 11 – 21, 2019
The New Colony UNCHARTED Festival
Full line-up to be announced

UNCHARTED is a two week festival showcasing bold new works from Chicago playwrights developed, incubated and curated by The New Colony. This festival highlights plays at different points in their journeys toward production and aims to demystify the creative process for audiences. We provide Chicago playwrights with support from professional directors, actors and designers to help them take the next step in the creation of a new work. UNCHARTED was founded in recognition and celebration of the Chicago community’s passion for creating and producing new American plays, and aims to connect audiences and theatrical producers with today’s stories and tomorrow’s playwrights.

Comments TNC’s Director of New Work James Fleming, “In the spirit of risk and adventure, the UNCHARTED festival serves to encourage playwrights to further develop their works and think about the three-dimensional life of a play to expand their vision from page to stage. Our audiences are an essential part of our development and we invite the community to be a part of these new play’s ‘first breath.’ It is our sincere hope that audiences will see every play in UNCHARTED have a continued life on stages in Chicago and across the country.”

For more information visit thenewcolony.org.