AUDITIONS at Dream Theatre

AUDITIONS

Dream Theatre Company will be holding auditions from 6:30pm - 9pm on Tuesday, October 1st for AUDIENCE ANNIHILATED PART TWO: GOLD STAR STICKER. This is a 15 minute audience interactive horror play that performs 5 times per night. Performances are October 19th - November 3rd.

We are casting men and women ages 22-40. We also need one man who can play guitar. Please send resume and recent snapshot to auditionsdtc@gmail.com.

Dream Theatre Company is Looking for a few good men.

Director Rachel Martindale is holding auditions for A Christmas Carol - Abridged. This is a 3 person, 85 minute adaptation of the Dickens' Classic. One actor portrays Scrooge - old and young. One actress portrays all the female roles and a Narrator. And, the last actor portrays all the remaining male characters as well as another Narrator.

We are looking for the two male actors for this season's production. These are challenging and rewarding roles, as the men will be portraying several characters in a short span of time and must inhabit the characters completely and quickly. Being comfortable with some accents (Brit, Cockney, Scottish or Irish) could be very helpful. 

Auditions will be readings from the script at Dream Theatre (556 West 18th Street, Chicago) on Monday, September 30th from 7pm to 9pm. Please bring a headshot and resume. The show dates are: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings with Matinees on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, November 29th through December 29th. 

To schedule an audition slot, email us at auditionsdtc@gmail.com 

Jeremy interviewed by SunTimes blogger!

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ourtown/2013/09/jeremys_dream.html

Blog by Sarah Terez Risenblum

WOMEN! A Comedy

This might be our first actual comedy ...

Seven short plays

Fourteen actresses (and Greg)

Nineteen-plus deaths (we swear it's a comedy)

WOMEN! A Comedy showcases 14 Chicago actresses in a bloody, blackly comedic exploration of beauty, political correctness, family dysfunction, magic, and lesbian cowboys.

Featuring Janice Rumschlag, Megan Norman, Katie Bellantone, Mal Marcus, Erin Caswell, Lilliana Winkworth, Yazmin Ramos, Catherine McNamara, Emily Williams, Amanda Lynn Meyer, Ramona Kywe, Kate Donoghue, Nicole Roberts and Anna Lee Anderson. Special appearance by Greg Callozzo. Direction by Jeremy Menekseoglu, Anna W Menekseoglu and John J Enright.

Mal Marcus, Ramona Kywe and Amanda Lynn Meyer in "Infans Satani"

Catherine McNamara in "Into the Machine"

Dream Theatre hosts Barely Concealed Productions new play

Anna has been working on a directing project. 

They're a great cast and already have some good press!

Congrats on a great opening weekend, and see you Thursday!

Closing Weekend

It's always sad for us to close a show at Dream Theatre. The ensemble has formed bonds, and we don't know when we'll get to work together again. We've grown to love and admire our characters, even if their stories are scary or sad, and it's difficult to say goodbye to them. I am extremely proud of this production and sincerely hope everyone gets to see these amazing and unique performances.

 

The cast of The Samaritan Syndrome

Meet the cast backstage. 

This is Adam M. Overberg who plays Mr. Suit, the lead role in The Samaritan Syndrome. He wants to be the next Dr. Who, but right now will settle for touring the Chicago Storefront & Fringe theatre scene performing in back to back shows in 2013.

This is Megan Merrill. She plays Night Nurse and costume designed the show. She continuously graciously smiles every time someone says to her "hello nurse" even when it gets old, because, let's face it, she looks FANTASTIC in her nurse costume. She will also melt your heart through a sensitive hardness with this character. Megan is also a writer, dancer, freelance Russian/English translator, model, and a member of Dream Theatre Company. She would love to be a lingerie designer. (She's also an amazing mom and cook!)

 This is Hasket Morris who plays Charming. He is also the only person who has been in all three of Dream Theatre's plays in 2013, first as the character based on H.H. Holmes in LIGHTS OUT, EVERYBODY, then as the Dogmaster in AMLETH. He's a great character actor and also consistently the funniest person in the dressing room. And when working on THE SAMARITAN SYNDROME, we all can use a few laughs. 

This is the vivacious Kristi Parker-Barnhart. She is one of the three in the rotating cast of Patients that play Saint, Ada and Grace. Here she is made up and ready to play Grace. She hails from Oklahoma and meets and exceeds the stereotype of southern charm. Her enthusiasm and character have made her a wonderful addition to this ensemble.

Meet Hisako Sugeta. She is another of the Patient rotating cast members, here she is as Saint. Hisako has travelled all over the world and is from Japan. She is our youngest cast member. She is incredibly captivating on stage. You can't look away! She works with Redmoon down the street. She's always willing to try anything and participates with eagerness and skill. She brings a special uniqueness to each of the roles.

Here is our third ensemble Patient, Ophelia Thorne. We also call her Megan Norman. Here she is getting ready to play Ada, and she also understudied NightNurse. She hasn't been around on stage in Chicago recently, however she has been all over the modeling scene. She is intensely creative and does a lot of  her own styling and makeup on photo shoots. She may tower over all of us in her giant platform shoes, but her Gothic fashion can't conceal her compelling natural style of acting as well as her joyous, whimsical sparkle.

This is Dana Von. She helped with pretty much everything in this production including making some props and even understudying the role of Saint. She always helps us see when we are all taking ourselves too seriously and also helps us all bring out the inner children within us.

And that's me - Anna. I play Pepper in the play and I also directed this ensemble. 

Glad you could meet us backstage, now see the show onstage now through June 30!

Reviews of LITTLE DUCK & SAMARITAN SYNDROME

“It takes the form of a confessional, his story jumping from trigger to trigger, forming a patchwork of childhood trauma and emotional abuse and culminating in a recount of the moment that seals his fate. As a writer, specificity is one of Menekseoglu’s greatest strengths. Little Duck is a remarkably vivid character, and each detail of his life feels credible. Menekseoglu takes on the role himself, and he commands your attention and sympathy throughout” -Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, TimeOut Chicago

“a relentless vision of a paranoid, deranged man, contains moments of inspiration” —Suzanne Scanlon, Chicago Reader

“Overberg’s enigmatic Suit skulks from horrifically-damaged girl to horrifically-damaged girl, the play becoming a funhouse of pain and trauma, impressively brutal”, “The actors all give wonderful performances, and the design—the bright sterile lighting, the white and gray palette—perfectly captures a sleek institutional horror.”  -Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, TimeOut Chicago

“In The Samaritan Syndrome, Menekseoglu takes on the parasitic relationship between patient and doctor, illness and health, pathology and caretaking. It's intriguing”, “Are we meant to sympathize with these traumatized young women?” —Suzanne Scanlon, Chicago Reader

Dream Theatre 

Double Feature at Dream Theatre - rhyme of the day

A blogger and frequent audience member saw opening night performance of THE BALLAD OF LITTLE DUCK & THE SAMARITAN SYNDROME last night. He had some great things to say:

The Ballad Of Little Duck is a one-man show about a broken man. The basement space has been convincingly transformed into an outdoor spot in a railroad yard, complete with steadily dripping water. It's a tale of a man driven mad, told in an apparently rambling stream-of-consciousness style, but with a clear story that is revealed bit by bit until the chilling conclusion is reached. It's got a bit of that Southern Gothic quality of a gritty based-in-reality horror tale. Jeremy Menekseoglu always compels attention, riding a roller coaster of emotion, funny and then pitiable, stupid and then cunning. He has created a character that stays with you. Rachel Martindale directed, evidently with a sure touch, because I felt no false notes.

Read his blog here:

http://johnjenright.blogspot.com/2013/06/drama-on-two-levels.html?m=0

OPENING THIS THURSDAY

Dream Theatre presents two plays by Jeremy Menekseoglu dealing with the perilous quest for redemption. In THE BALLAD OF LITTLE DUCK, a beaten and broken man is forced to relive his conscience-stricken past after his baby is taken away and his girlfriend abandons him. In THE SAMARITAN SYNDROME, a man visits the women's ward of a mental hospital (which nightly converts into a brothel catering to client's perverse need to "save" the un-savable) in order to rescue a girl who he believes can rescue him from his childhood demons. Due to the adult nature of these plays, they are intended for mature audiences only.

opens this Thursday, June 6
Dream Theatre Company

 

It is not easy to take on a play with centuries of history, performance and scholarship behind it, and Dream Theatre's work is not easily summed up in one listing-worthy sentence. Never is that more apparent than with The Tragedy of Amleth, Princess of Denmark, Jeremy's reimagining of Hamlet.
 
Our Amleth, Princess of Denmark, stands alone as a powerful story of adolescence, love, duty and betrayal. And playing Ophelia, I can tell you that the love story between Amleth and Ophelia is one of the sweetest, saddest, truest love stories I've ever read. Imagine coming home from college for the first time, for your father's funeral, to find you cannot return to the simple and straightforward childhood you left. You are different, the home you knew is different, and though the sweetheart you left behind loves you as deeply as when you went away, you and your life now are so different that innocent love you had before you left for college is impossible now. 

The Ophelia of our world is left behind to serve the royal household as her childhood love, Princess Amleth, goes off to be educated. When Amleth comes back, she is not the same girl Ophelia said goodbye to -- and the months away from her love have affected Ophelia too. When Amleth comes home, Ophelia expects the love of her life to be the same girl whose letters she reads over and over in her bed, and for a simple escape to be all they need to live happily ever after. But of course, that is not to be. 

The love between Amleth and Ophelia is so honest and innocent it breaks my heart every night to be part of the tragedy as it unravels. Anna Menekseoglu astounds me every night as Amleth, and I want the whole city to witness the force of her story, a "dark, sexy, and deeply immersive tragedy" that the Chicago Reader says Shakespeare himself would be proud of: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-tragedy-of-amleth-princess-of-denmark/Event?oid=9016142

Gertrude played by Rachel Martindale

"Protocol is the greatest weapon in a queen's arsenal"

Recommended!

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/EventSearch?keywords=Amleth&sort=range#fromMobile

Rhyme-of-the-Enright

My favorite blogger wrote this about our AMLETH: http://johnjenright.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-tragedy-of-amleth-princess-of.html?m=1

Article in NewCity Stage!

http://newcitystage.com/2013/03/04/to-sleep-perchance-to-dream-the-immersive-world-of-dream-theatre-companys-amleth/

The details.

Putting up a show at dream theatre is a lot about the details. Here are some details I can share with you.

Claudius in AMLETH

Claudius is now the king of Denmark, but how did he truly gain his thrown? See amleth.brownpapertickets.com to get tickets for the performance.

AMLETH Gala Night - Saturday, March 9th

Please join Dream Theatre Company on Saturday, March 9th at 8:00pm for:

"The Tragedy of Amleth, Princess of Denmark" GALA NIGHT!

There will be an informal talk back with the cast,  crew, and designers immediately following the performance! Light refreshments will be served!

Get tickets at amleth.brownpapertickets.com

 

The Tragedy of Amleth, Princess of Denmark
by Jeremy Menekseoglu

March 7th - April 7th
Thursdays, Fridays, & Saturdays at 8pm & Sundays at 7:30pm.
Dream Theatre is located at 556 W 18th St., Chicago.
Tickets are $17 - $20

On a dark and stormy night, princess Amleth returns to Denmark for her father's funeral only to discover that the body has been buried, her mother is remarried and the house is filled with drunken partygoers. Amleth seeks comfort in the arms of her lover Ophelia, but not even their innocent romance can stop her from questioning every truth she has ever believed. Amleth's once innocuous view of life spirals out of control until a climactic ending that not even the bard himself could have foreseen.

"To fulfill my duty and live in the real world, or leave and regain my ignorance: That is the question."

The Tragedy of Amleth, Princess of Denmark features: Anna Weiler Menekseoglu as Amleth, Megan Merrill as Ophelia, Rachel Martindale as Gertrude, Jeremy Menekseoglu as Claudius, Leana Savoie as Mrs. Polonius, Hasket Morris as Dog Master, John-Paul Kostecki as Artificer, & Laura Gouin as Mother Clare.

Production Team: Direction by Jeremy Menekseoglu & Anna W Menekseoglu; Set Design by Anna W Menekseoglu; Set Construction by Greg Callozzo & Paul Knappenberger; Lights by Paul Knappenberger; Sound by Jeremy Menekseoglu; Projections by Jeremy Menekseoglu; Costume Design by Mab Graves & Anna W Menekseoglu; Illustrations by Mab Graves; Costume Construction by Anna W Menekseoglu, Rachel Martindale & Megan Merrill; Hats by Megan Merrill; Props by Dana Von & Colin Carroll; Weapons Master is Paul Knappenberger; Marketing by Janice Rumschlag; Photos by Giau Truong & Megan Merrill; Kickstarter Managing by Shannon Daly; Stage Managers are Dana Von & Colin Carroll..

Lights Out, Everybody - a tribute in horror to Arch Oboler

Tursdays through Saturdays at 8:00pm and Sundays at 7:30pm. Dream Theatre is located at 556 W 18th St., Chicago. Tickets are $17 - $20
"Lights Out brings you stories of the supernatural - and the supernormal, dramatizing the fantasies and the mysteries of the unknown. We tell you this frankly - so if you wish to avoid the excitement and tension of these - imaginative plays, we urge you calmly, but sincerely, to turn off your radio- now." - Arch Oboler

Lights Out, Everybody - a tribute in Horror to Arch Oboler features: Sasha Walloch, Rj Voltz, Denise Smolarek, Janice Rumschlag, Suzanna Ziko and Hasket Morris. It is directed byGiau Truong.