What Happens:
Bess is a hunter, a straightforward college student who tells the world exactly what she wants and usually gets it. Ruth is a gatherer, a frustrated romantic who’s lived in thirty apartments in fifteen years, and still hasn’t found “the one”. A chance meeting between strangers leaves Ruth wondering: does a woman have to be a predator to survive? Theatre Seven presents the Chicago Premiere of Brooke Berman’s lightning-quick comedy about the meaning of home and the endless quest for a perfect apartment.
Brooke Berman Playwright
T7 Credits: Hunting & Gathering; The Chicago Landmark Project- Honore & Milwaukee: Una Mae's Freak Boutique (Writer)
Brooke has had plays produced and developed across the US at theaters including: Primary Stages, The Second Stage, Steppenwolf, The Play Company, Soho Rep, Williamstown Theater Festival, Naked Angels, MCC, New Dramatists, New Georges, WET, SPF, The Hourglass Group, The Bay Area Playwrights Foundation and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. In the UK, her work has been developed at The Royal Court Theatre, The National Theatre Studio and Pentabus. Her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing, Playscripts, Backstage Books and Smith & Kraus. Brooke is the recipient of a Berilla Kerr Award, a Helen Merrill Award, two Francesca Primus Awards, two LeCompte du Nuoy awards and a commissioning grant from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. She recently completed a seven-year residency at New Dramatists, where she served on the Board of Directors and developed countless plays. She has received support for her work from the MacDowell Colony and the Corporation of Yaddo and commissions from Arielle Tepper Productions and Childrens Theatre Company in Minneapolis. Her memoir No Place Like Home was published by Random House in 2010.
Website: www.brookeberman.net
updated september 2012
Brian Golden Director
T7 Credits: Is Chicago, Killing Women, The Sand Castle, Diversey Harbor, Hunting and Gathering, The Water Engine: An American Fable, In the Heart of America, American Storm (Director); Yes This Really Happened to Me, We Live Here, Cooperstown (Writer), Mimesophobia (Man Who Speaks...), Boys & Girls (Frank - Never Swim Alone), The Chicago Landmark Project (Co-Coordinator; Writer - 63rd & Woodlawn: Robust Coffee Lounge; Director - 63rd & Kedzie: Arab American Community Center)
Brian Golden is the Managing Artistic Director and a founding member of Theatre Seven of Chicago. During his leadership, Theatre Seven’s work has been seen by 12,000+ patrons and the company has been nominated for three Jeff Awards, two Black Theatre Alliance Awards, been a three-time finalist and the 2012 winner of Broadway in Chicago’s Emerging Theatre Award, and paid over 200 artists for their work. Brian was the Co-Coordinator of Theatre Seven’s 2011 The Chicago Landmark Project, 12 World Premiere short plays about 12 specific Chicago landmarks. His play Cooperstown was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award, and he was one of eight co-authors of We Live Here, which was nominated for 2 Jeff Awards, including Best New Work. Brian works for Catharsis Productions as the company’s Literary Manager, developing new artistic programs with an emphasis on social justice and violence reduction. Brian is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, a two-time winner of the A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Contest, and recipient of the Leota Diesel Ashton Playwriting Prize and John J. Jutkowitz Award.
updated october 2012
Benjamin Brownson Assistant Director
Benjamin is an arts administrator, playwright, director, and dramaturg who has been with Theatre Seven since 2009. He is a member of Theatre Seven's 7P Literary Circle. His plays Beautiful Broken and Based on a True Story were performed as a part of the Saturday Series at Chicago Dramatists, Nightingale was given a staged reading at the InchWorm Playreading Series, and Logan Square Comfort Station, 1933 was produced as a part of Open Source Theatre’s Comfort Station Plays. He has worked as assistant director on I Am Montana (Mortar Theatre Company) and Hunting and Gathering (T7), and as dramaturg for the world premieres Córazon de Manzana (Mortar) and We Live Here (Theatre Seven of Chicago). He earned his Master’s Degree in Humanities from the University of Chicago, where he conceived and directed Two Faces of Salome, an evening with Oscar Wilde and the Bible at Rockefeller Chapel. In addition to his work with Theatre Seven, he is also the Front of House Services Manager of the Greenhouse Theater Center and Managing Director of Mortar Theatre Company.
T7 Credits: Lies & Liars (Assistant Stage Manager), Hunting & Gathering (Assistant Director), We Live Here (Dramaturg), In the Heart of America, Exit, Pursued By A Bear (Audience Services Director), Shikaakwa: Principal Principle (Director)
updated october 2012
Tracey Kaplan Performer
T7 Credits: Is Chicago (Stephanie - Diversey Harbor, Deborah - Sexual Perversity in Chicago), Killing Women (Gwen), Yes, This Really Happened To Me (Megan & Ensemble), The Sand Castle (Sasha), Diversey Harbor (Stephanie), Cooperstown (Dylan), Hunting and Gathering (Ruth), The Chicago Landmark Project (Irene - State & Madison: The Chicago Grid System), Exit, Pursued by a Bear (Nan)
Website: http://www.traceylaurenkaplan.com
updated september 2012
Michael Salinas Performer
T7 Credits: Shikaakwa: Heads (Jack), Mimesophobia (Henry), Hunting and Gathering (Jesse)
Michael Salinas is an ensemble member of Steep Theatre, where his credits include Under the Blue Sky, Pornography, Festen, A Brief History of Helen of Troy, The Hollow Lands, and In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings (Non-Equity Jeff Award for Best Ensemble). Other Chicago credits include Girl You Know It’s True (Pavement Group); The Gog/Magog Project (MoonPie Prod./Steep); Fedra: Queen of Haiti (Lookingglass); As Told by the Vivian Girls (Dog & Pony); Hatfield & McCoy (The House). He has also worked with Collaboraction, Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens and The Goodman. Regional: Spinning Into Butter (Southern Repertory Theater). His film credits include Freshman Orientation (2004 Sundance premiere).
updated september 2012
Todd Garcia Performer
T7 Credits: Hunting & Gathering (Astor)
Todd's theater credits include, Khalid in Return to Haifa (Next Theater Company), U.S. Harun Al-Rashid in Arabian Nights, (Lookingglass Theatre), George Tessman in The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler (Dog & Pony), Understudy for Miguel in Esperanza Rising (Chicago Children’s Theater) and Understudy for Benji in Gas for Less (The Goodman Theater). He is a recent graduate of Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Musical Theater performance. Todd is also a member of the Theatre Seven's 7P Literary Circle.
updated september 2012
Paige Collins Performer
T7 Credits: Hunting & Gathering (Bess), We Live Here (Kit, Ensemble)
updated october 2012
Sarah Burnham Scenic Designer
T7 Credits: Mimesophobia (Props Designer), Hunting & Gathering (Set & Props Designer), The Chicago Landmark Project (Props Designer)
Sarah's most recent work includes properties design for Rantoul and Die (American Blues Theater), Lakeboat (Steep Theater), and State(s) of America: Regina Taylor Project (Northwestern University). She is an ensemble member at American Blues Theater, where she is also on staff as their production manager. She began working at ABT as the technical director for their acclaimed It’s a Wonderful Life: Live at the Biograph! She recently graduated from the University of Oklahoma summa cum laude with a BFA in acting and scenic design. Since moving to Chicago, Sarah has designed properties and sets for companies such as Theater Seven of Chicago, SiNNERMAN Ensemble and Steep Theater Company. When not at the theatre Sarah is an avid reader and enjoys spending time playing with her puppy, Piper.
updated september 2012
Justin Wardell Lighting Designer
T7 Credits: American Storm, ls Chicago, Killing Women, Cooperstown, Boys & Girls, Diversey Harbor, Lies and Liars, The Water Engine: An American Fable, The Chicago Landmark Project (Lighting Design); Yes, This Really Happened to Me, Election Day, The Sand Castle (Lighting Design & Technical Director)
Justin Wardell is a company member at Theatre Seven and is a member of 7P, Theatre Seven's Literary Circle. Justin has been designing lighting for theatre, dance, and special events for over 10 years. He has had the opportunity to work in many Chicago Landmarks, including the Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, Museum of Science and Industry, Union Station, and many more. Justin was an early addition to Theatre Seven of Chicago, and has been the resident lighting designer since its inception. In his role as an Account Executive for Intelligent Lighting Creations, Justin now has the opportunity to design lighting for trade shows, galas, corporate events, and permanent installations. In addition to design work, Justin has had the honor of guest-lecturing on lighting design and lighting technology for several colleges, universities, and professional organizations. Other theatrical credits include work at the Springfield Municipal Opera, the Building Stage, Flamenco Sin Limites, Porchlight Music Theatre, and many other talented companies.
updated september 2012
Brenda Winstead Costume Designer
T7 Credits: BlackTop Sky, American Storm, Killing Women, The Water Engine, Boys & Girls, The Sand Castle, Diversey Harbor, Cooperstown, Hunting & Gathering, We Live Here, In the Heart of America, Exit, Pursued by a Bear (Costume Designer), The Chicago Landmark Project (Supervising Costume Designer)
Brenda Winstead loves Theatre Seven! She is a company member with T7 and has designed numerous shows there. Other Chicago area design credits include Making God Laugh, Guys and Dolls, The Wiz, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Man of La Mancha, Crazy for You, Leading Ladies, The Producers, Hello Dolly and Fiddler on the Roof (Theatre at the Center); Ragtime (Drury Lane); It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play (Noble Fool); Kingsville (Stage Left); and The Price (Shattered Globe). Regional Credits include Born Yesterday, Rumors and Mousetrap (Peninsula Players); All Shook Up, High School Musical (Forestburgh Playhouse). Brenda holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut.
updated october 2012
Joe Court Sound Designer
T7 Credits: Hunting & Gathering, The Chicago Landmark Project (Sound Designer)
Joe serves as sound engineer for the Chicago production of the Tony Award-winning musical Million Dollar Quartet. He is also a company member with Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company. Recent credits include: The Homecoming (Mary-Arrchie), That Was Then (Seanachai), and Arnie the Doughnut (Lifeline). His work has also been heard with A Red Orchid (Jeff Nomination, The Unseen), Emerald City, The Gift, The Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and The Clarence Brown Theatre (Knoxville, TN.).
updated september 2012
Navid Afshar Stage Manager
T7 Credits: Hunting & Gathering (Stage Manager)
Navid is a member of the Sideshow Theatre staff as Company Stage Manager. After earning his B.A. in Theatre at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Navid went on to complete a season long internship at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Upon moving to Chicago he has stage managed Heddatron & Theories of the Sun with Sideshow Theatre Company, and Peter and the Wolf with Lookingglass and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His regional credits include The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later at Actors Theatre of Louisville and Wait Until Dark at The Alley Theatre in Houston. Navid is also a Founder and Managing Director of Sour Mash Theatre Company.
updated september 2012
"the best storefront design…we’ve seen of late"
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"Theatre Seven has come up with a show that reflects the life of a very generation that rolls the Lincoln Avenue strips of bars in to which the Greenhouse Theater is squeezed"
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"you’re always on the side of this woman with the sad eyes, willing her to find a home"
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"Berman’s witty observations should pierce to the heart of the audience she seems to be writing for"
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"refreshing video wizardry"
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"their united efforts conspire to send us home elated"
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Not every homeless person lives on the street or in their car. Brooke Berman's play, making its world premiere under the auspices of Theatre Seven of Chicago, presents us with four young people trapped in that residential limbo between one room w/shared bath in their parents' house and a bed they can call their own.
That last defining factor can be literal, as illustrated by the slackerly Astor, newly-advanced from couch-surfing to ownership of a futon AND an air-mattress ( for guests ) in his own SRO. His brother, Jesse, an earnest low-level professor at Columbia University, is recently divorced with no clue how to set up his own household—but Bess, a spoiled student chafing under the compromises associated with roommates, is perfectly willing to supervise his resettlement according to her own ( always impeccable, doncha know? ) taste. And then there's Ruth, wandering like a stray puppy through a series of house-sits and sublets as she fantasizes about an apartment with a bona fide-grownup lease.
Most "New York" plays reflect middle values—age, class and Manhattan district—but Berman's urban nomads are a breed proliferating in prose literature, but rarely found in modern drama. The less-affluent parts of town ( not disguised as a futuristic dystopia, as in most youth-oriented scenarios, but realistic down to the cross-streets pictured on the Rand-McNally screen projections ) are shown to harbor pilgrims haunted by the swirl of hope and despair comprising a rite of passage immediately recognizable to audiences of all ages and regions—for what free-roaming American citizen has not fallen prey to anomie at some time in their lives?
Berman never condescends to her personnel with easy sentiment, however, but takes each of her four waifs as seriously as THEY do. Neither does Theatre Seven, whose reputation is founded on their sensitive and unhurried approach to material that, in lesser hands, could verge on cloying. Sarah Burnham and Tamar Daskin's scenic decor—consisting mostly of packing boxes—evokes the oxymoron of sorrow at one journey's end vying with excitement at another's beginning, while the quartet of actors lend urgency to personalities too often shrugged off nowadays as sitcom stereotypes. Despite a few first-night flaws ( notably, the almost inaudible volume of the videophone sequences ) , their united efforts conspire to send us home elated at the progress augured by the irony-laced resolution.
Not every homeless person lives on the street or in their car. Brooke Berman's play, making its world premiere under the auspices of Theatre Seven of Chicago, presents us with four young people trapped in that residential limbo between one room w/shared bath in their parents' house and a bed they can call their own.
That last defining factor can be literal, as illustrated by the slackerly Astor, newly-advanced from couch-surfing to ownership of a futon AND an air-mattress ( for guests ) in his own SRO. His brother, Jesse, an earnest low-level professor at Columbia University, is recently divorced with no clue how to set up his own household—but Bess, a spoiled student chafing under the compromises associated with roommates, is perfectly willing to supervise his resettlement according to her own ( always impeccable, doncha know? ) taste. And then there's Ruth, wandering like a stray puppy through a series of house-sits and sublets as she fantasizes about an apartment with a bona fide-grownup lease.
Most "New York" plays reflect middle values—age, class and Manhattan district—but Berman's urban nomads are a breed proliferating in prose literature, but rarely found in modern drama. The less-affluent parts of town ( not disguised as a futuristic dystopia, as in most youth-oriented scenarios, but realistic down to the cross-streets pictured on the Rand-McNally screen projections ) are shown to harbor pilgrims haunted by the swirl of hope and despair comprising a rite of passage immediately recognizable to audiences of all ages and regions—for what free-roaming American citizen has not fallen prey to anomie at some time in their lives?
Berman never condescends to her personnel with easy sentiment, however, but takes each of her four waifs as seriously as THEY do. Neither does Theatre Seven, whose reputation is founded on their sensitive and unhurried approach to material that, in lesser hands, could verge on cloying. Sarah Burnham and Tamar Daskin's scenic decor—consisting mostly of packing boxes—evokes the oxymoron of sorrow at one journey's end vying with excitement at another's beginning, while the quartet of actors lend urgency to personalities too often shrugged off nowadays as sitcom stereotypes. Despite a few first-night flaws ( notably, the almost inaudible volume of the videophone sequences ) , their united efforts conspire to send us home elated at the progress augured by the irony-laced resolution.
Not every homeless person lives on the street or in their car. Brooke Berman's play, making its world premiere under the auspices of Theatre Seven of Chicago, presents us with four young people trapped in that residential limbo between one room w/shared bath in their parents' house and a bed they can call their own.
That last defining factor can be literal, as illustrated by the slackerly Astor, newly-advanced from couch-surfing to ownership of a futon AND an air-mattress ( for guests ) in his own SRO. His brother, Jesse, an earnest low-level professor at Columbia University, is recently divorced with no clue how to set up his own household—but Bess, a spoiled student chafing under the compromises associated with roommates, is perfectly willing to supervise his resettlement according to her own ( always impeccable, doncha know? ) taste. And then there's Ruth, wandering like a stray puppy through a series of house-sits and sublets as she fantasizes about an apartment with a bona fide-grownup lease.
Most "New York" plays reflect middle values—age, class and Manhattan district—but Berman's urban nomads are a breed proliferating in prose literature, but rarely found in modern drama. The less-affluent parts of town ( not disguised as a futuristic dystopia, as in most youth-oriented scenarios, but realistic down to the cross-streets pictured on the Rand-McNally screen projections ) are shown to harbor pilgrims haunted by the swirl of hope and despair comprising a rite of passage immediately recognizable to audiences of all ages and regions—for what free-roaming American citizen has not fallen prey to anomie at some time in their lives?
Berman never condescends to her personnel with easy sentiment, however, but takes each of her four waifs as seriously as THEY do. Neither does Theatre Seven, whose reputation is founded on their sensitive and unhurried approach to material that, in lesser hands, could verge on cloying. Sarah Burnham and Tamar Daskin's scenic decor—consisting mostly of packing boxes—evokes the oxymoron of sorrow at one journey's end vying with excitement at another's beginning, while the quartet of actors lend urgency to personalities too often shrugged off nowadays as sitcom stereotypes. Despite a few first-night flaws ( notably, the almost inaudible volume of the videophone sequences ) , their united efforts conspire to send us home elated at the progress augured by the irony-laced resolution.
Not every homeless person lives on the street or in their car. Brooke Berman's play, making its world premiere under the auspices of Theatre Seven of Chicago, presents us with four young people trapped in that residential limbo between one room w/shared bath in their parents' house and a bed they can call their own.
That last defining factor can be literal, as illustrated by the slackerly Astor, newly-advanced from couch-surfing to ownership of a futon AND an air-mattress ( for guests ) in his own SRO. His brother, Jesse, an earnest low-level professor at Columbia University, is recently divorced with no clue how to set up his own household—but Bess, a spoiled student chafing under the compromises associated with roommates, is perfectly willing to supervise his resettlement according to her own ( always impeccable, doncha know? ) taste. And then there's Ruth, wandering like a stray puppy through a series of house-sits and sublets as she fantasizes about an apartment with a bona fide-grownup lease.
Most "New York" plays reflect middle values—age, class and Manhattan district—but Berman's urban nomads are a breed proliferating in prose literature, but rarely found in modern drama. The less-affluent parts of town ( not disguised as a futuristic dystopia, as in most youth-oriented scenarios, but realistic down to the cross-streets pictured on the Rand-McNally screen projections ) are shown to harbor pilgrims haunted by the swirl of hope and despair comprising a rite of passage immediately recognizable to audiences of all ages and regions—for what free-roaming American citizen has not fallen prey to anomie at some time in their lives?
Berman never condescends to her personnel with easy sentiment, however, but takes each of her four waifs as seriously as THEY do. Neither does Theatre Seven, whose reputation is founded on their sensitive and unhurried approach to material that, in lesser hands, could verge on cloying. Sarah Burnham and Tamar Daskin's scenic decor—consisting mostly of packing boxes—evokes the oxymoron of sorrow at one journey's end vying with excitement at another's beginning, while the quartet of actors lend urgency to personalities too often shrugged off nowadays as sitcom stereotypes. Despite a few first-night flaws ( notably, the almost inaudible volume of the videophone sequences ) , their united efforts conspire to send us home elated at the progress augured by the irony-laced resolution.
Not every homeless person lives on the street or in their car. Brooke Berman's play, making its world premiere under the auspices of Theatre Seven of Chicago, presents us with four young people trapped in that residential limbo between one room w/shared bath in their parents' house and a bed they can call their own.
That last defining factor can be literal, as illustrated by the slackerly Astor, newly-advanced from couch-surfing to ownership of a futon AND an air-mattress ( for guests ) in his own SRO. His brother, Jesse, an earnest low-level professor at Columbia University, is recently divorced with no clue how to set up his own household—but Bess, a spoiled student chafing under the compromises associated with roommates, is perfectly willing to supervise his resettlement according to her own ( always impeccable, doncha know? ) taste. And then there's Ruth, wandering like a stray puppy through a series of house-sits and sublets as she fantasizes about an apartment with a bona fide-grownup lease.
Most "New York" plays reflect middle values—age, class and Manhattan district—but Berman's urban nomads are a breed proliferating in prose literature, but rarely found in modern drama. The less-affluent parts of town ( not disguised as a futuristic dystopia, as in most youth-oriented scenarios, but realistic down to the cross-streets pictured on the Rand-McNally screen projections ) are shown to harbor pilgrims haunted by the swirl of hope and despair comprising a rite of passage immediately recognizable to audiences of all ages and regions—for what free-roaming American citizen has not fallen prey to anomie at some time in their lives?
Berman never condescends to her personnel with easy sentiment, however, but takes each of her four waifs as seriously as THEY do. Neither does Theatre Seven, whose reputation is founded on their sensitive and unhurried approach to material that, in lesser hands, could verge on cloying. Sarah Burnham and Tamar Daskin's scenic decor—consisting mostly of packing boxes—evokes the oxymoron of sorrow at one journey's end vying with excitement at another's beginning, while the quartet of actors lend urgency to personalities too often shrugged off nowadays as sitcom stereotypes. Despite a few first-night flaws ( notably, the almost inaudible volume of the videophone sequences ) , their united efforts conspire to send us home elated at the progress augured by the irony-laced resolution.
Not every homeless person lives on the street or in their car. Brooke Berman's play, making its world premiere under the auspices of Theatre Seven of Chicago, presents us with four young people trapped in that residential limbo between one room w/shared bath in their parents' house and a bed they can call their own.
That last defining factor can be literal, as illustrated by the slackerly Astor, newly-advanced from couch-surfing to ownership of a futon AND an air-mattress ( for guests ) in his own SRO. His brother, Jesse, an earnest low-level professor at Columbia University, is recently divorced with no clue how to set up his own household—but Bess, a spoiled student chafing under the compromises associated with roommates, is perfectly willing to supervise his resettlement according to her own ( always impeccable, doncha know? ) taste. And then there's Ruth, wandering like a stray puppy through a series of house-sits and sublets as she fantasizes about an apartment with a bona fide-grownup lease.
Most "New York" plays reflect middle values—age, class and Manhattan district—but Berman's urban nomads are a breed proliferating in prose literature, but rarely found in modern drama. The less-affluent parts of town ( not disguised as a futuristic dystopia, as in most youth-oriented scenarios, but realistic down to the cross-streets pictured on the Rand-McNally screen projections ) are shown to harbor pilgrims haunted by the swirl of hope and despair comprising a rite of passage immediately recognizable to audiences of all ages and regions—for what free-roaming American citizen has not fallen prey to anomie at some time in their lives?
Berman never condescends to her personnel with easy sentiment, however, but takes each of her four waifs as seriously as THEY do. Neither does Theatre Seven, whose reputation is founded on their sensitive and unhurried approach to material that, in lesser hands, could verge on cloying. Sarah Burnham and Tamar Daskin's scenic decor—consisting mostly of packing boxes—evokes the oxymoron of sorrow at one journey's end vying with excitement at another's beginning, while the quartet of actors lend urgency to personalities too often shrugged off nowadays as sitcom stereotypes. Despite a few first-night flaws ( notably, the almost inaudible volume of the videophone sequences ) , their united efforts conspire to send us home elated at the progress augured by the irony-laced resolution.