T7 Wins the 2012 Emerging Theatre Award!

April 27, 2012 – 2:55 pm

Thank you, Chicago.

We are so fortunate to be the recipients of the 2012 Emerging Theatre Award, presented by the League of Chicago Theatres and Broadway in Chicago. We’ve been nominated for the award three years running, and are so, so honored to be this year’s winner – and we share the award with all the 200+ artists whose work has been on the T7 stage since 2007.

There’s a lot we’re excited about today: starting with a $5,000 cash prize (much appreciated and much needed) and a marketing package and consultation from Broadway in Chicago that will help us reach a larger audience interested in our work. Cassy and I will also have the opportunity to accept the award at the League’s annual gala where the other honorees are Charles Newell from Court as well as Brian Dennehy and Nathan Lane. I know I’m excited to both A. tell Nathan that my girlfriend will always love him more than me, and B. talk about our work for a brief moment in front of some seriously committed Chicago theatre supporters.

But truly, the most exciting element of today’s great news is knowing that the award was voted on by our colleagues at Chicago theatres across town. We place a high value on community at Theatre Seven. We try to tell important stories that, whether they’re set in Chicago or not (and many are), invite an audience to consider the essential issues facing our city today. And whether those plays celebrate or critique the Chicago experience, this company is organized around the principle that local stories matter, and that great art is both a product of and creator of strong communities. So to be honored in this way by our colleagues across the Chicago community is incredibly rewarding, touching and boo-ya exciting.

Chicago theatre is a diverse, robust, supportive, wonderful community. Theatre Seven and the other fantastic finalists for this award, 16th Street Theater, Sideshow Theatre Company, Red Tape Theatre and The Music Theatre Company, are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the diversity, power and artistry offered in this city. We’re going to use this award to deepen our commitment to strengthening our community by telling stories that matter to Chicago today, and supporting the artists that tell them. Please join us, and let’s all keep making great art together!

 

Brian Golden

Managing Artistic Director, Theatre Seven of Chicago

By TaylorFenderbosch | Posted in 2011 - 2012 Season, General | Comments (0)

Meet the Artist: Fawzia Mirza

March 13, 2012 – 4:07 pm

Fawzia MirzaFawzia plays the role of Fairouz in T7′s current production, In the Heart of America. We took a few minutes to get to know the woman behind this character.

T7: What scared or scares you the most about being a part of In the Heart of America?
FM: Honestly? I was scared for two reasons: First, that as an actor, I could live the journey of my character, Fairouz and secondly, that our audiences would be willing to go on this intense, poetic and beautiful journey with us.

T7: What is your favorite of your character’s lines?
FM: “There are three kinds of people: those who kill, those who die, and those who watch.”

T7: How long have you been acting?
FM: On and off for 6 years.

T7: What is your relationship to the US Military?
FM: I perform a show, “Sex Signals” with a company called Catharsis Productions. The show is a sexual violence prevention show that uses humor as a way of talking about a divisive issue. The show tours to colleges nationally, but also military installations. I’ve had the privilege of performing in front of the Army, Marines, Air Force and Navy all over the United States but also all over the world.

T7:What would you tell someone to encourage them to see this play?
FM: This play tells the story of the love between two men, of a sister searching for her brother, of brown people in America struggling with their identity, and of the cycle of violence and loss in war.

T7:What was the best moment of the rehearsal process?
FM: Theatre creates a magical creative space, which begins in the rehearsal room. Director, Brian Golden gave us exercises before we started working with the text itself where he’d break us into groups. Each exercise had certain parameters, like, “there has to be a line of dialogue from your character” or “you must use a prop” or “find a moment of triumph”. Through these, I truly began to trust the energy and connection to every other person in our cast.

By TaylorFenderbosch | Posted in 2011 - 2012 Season, In the Heart of America, Inside Look | Comments (0)

Meet the Artist: Anthony DiNicola

March 6, 2012 – 10:00 am

In his first role on the T7 stage, Anthony DiNicola brings depth and sensitivity to his role as Remzi in In the Heart of America. Here’s a quick introduction to this brilliant and talented actor.
Anthony DiNicola
His favorite line as Remzi? DiNicola told us he never gets tired of “Then he said something that changed my life: ‘The Army will give you a quiet sense of pride.’”

He plays a soldier onstage, but we wanted to know what kind of relationship Anthony had to the military when he’s not performing. He says, “I have the utmost respect for each and every member of the United States Armed Forces. These men and women put their country ahead of themselves each and every day, and that deserves all the honor that they can get from us back here stateside.” He shows just as much respect for the story that Naomi Wallace has written. When asked what scared him most about being a part of this production, he explained, “There is a lot of weight that this show asks us to bear as actors and storytellers. This play tells a very important tale, and comes at a very timely point in our nation’s history. My hope is that we will be able to lift this show up to the pedestal where it asks us to be held to, and that our audiences will lean in and engage fully in the experience that we are all a part of.”

If he had the chance to market our play any way he wanted, he’d sum up In the Heart of America this way: “War, love, and loss. Things get intimate, nasty, beautiful, ugly, and funny. Come ready to be a part of something very special.” Maybe we’ll have to add him to our marketing team!

By TaylorFenderbosch | Posted in 2011 - 2012 Season, In the Heart of America | Comments (0)

Presenting: Our Newest Ensemble

February 11, 2012 – 6:16 am

As T7 prepares to take you In the Heart of America, take a moment to meet the five talented actors that will share this powerful story with you.

Anthony DiNicolaAnthony DiNicola Nick VidalNick Vidal Kaori AoshimaKaori Aoshima George ZeranteGeorge Zerante Fawzia MirzaFawzia Mirza

Stay tuned for future e-mails to learn more about In the Heart of America and the talented team that is bringing it to life.

By BrianGolden | Posted in 2011 - 2012 Season, In the Heart of America | Comments (0)

A New Journey Begins

February 1, 2012 – 10:55 pm

Brian Golden, Theatre Seven’s Managing Artistic Director and the Director of In the Heart of America talks to us about why we chose to produce this play now.

Brian Golden

I’ve wanted to direct In the Heart of America for about eight years. When I first read the play, I was blown away by the lyricism and poetry of its language as well as the size and ambition of its ideas. This is a play bursting with boundless energy – its arms spread wide to contain ghosts, sex, violence, betrayal, history and forbidden love; it is funny and serious and tragic and mystical, all the while making a definitive statement about war and its shattering effects. We’re opening this production, T7′s most politically charged ever, a week before the Super Tuesday primaries, when voters across the nation will cast votes in the Presidential nominating contests. The time is ripe for a re-examination of what war means, not on the world’s shifting political maps, but to the lives of ordinary people: a Palestinian-American woman searching for her missing brother, the AWOL American soldier who may have been his lover, a Vietnamese peasant chasing her killer across time and space. This incredible, haunting play offers a vision of both destruction and hope in the aftermath of unspeakable tragedy. If we do our job, you will see it and be changed.

I hope you’re here to experience it with us.

By admin | Posted in 2011 - 2012 Season, In the Heart of America | Tagged , | Comments (0)