After three tours in Afghanistan, Jess returns home to a changed world, and body. With biting dark humor and virtual reality therapy, she begins to rebuild her life one puzzle piece at a time, confronting scars both seen and unseen in this powerful story of how beauty endures beneath the surface.
About this show
Running Time
This production runs at about 90 minutes without an intermission
This production includes the following: Mature/Adult themes, Drug Abuse, Death, Strong Language, and Flashing Lights
DIGITAL PROGRAM
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Content advisory
Accessible Performances
Audio-Described and Touch Tour:
Friday, Nov 7th at 7:30 pm
(6:15 pm touch tour, 7:30 pm curtain)
Open-Captioned Public Performance:
Sunday, Nov 9th at 3 pm
What Should Audiences Expect?
The Artists
PLAYWRIGHT: Lindsey Ferrentino
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Berry
SET DESIGN: Lindsay Mummert
COSTUMES: Kotryna Hilko
LIGHTING: Brandon Wardell
PROPS: Saskia Bakker
ORIGINAL MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN:
Christopher Kriz
STAGE MANAGER: Tina Jach
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Adam Schulmerich
FEATURED ENSEMBLE MEMBERS
Christina Gorman, Tina Jach, Adam Schulmerich
The Cast
JESS: Christina Gorman
KACIE: Cyd Blakewell
STEVIE: Christopher Acevedo
KELVIN: Eddie Martinez
VOICE/MOM: Barbara Figgins
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Lindsey FerrentinoLindsey is a playwright whose work includes The Fear of 13 (Donmar Warehouse; Olivier Award nominations for Best New Play and Best Actor, starring Adrien Brody), The Queen of Versailles (Broadway; The Emerson Colonial Theatre), Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout Theatre Company; The National Theatre, UK; NYT Critic’s Pick), Amy and the Orphans (Roundabout Theatre Company), This Flat Earth (Playwrights Horizons), The Year to Come (La Jolla Playhouse), The Artist (Theatre Royal Plymouth).
According to The New York Times, Lindsey writes with, “a muscular empathy, which seeks to enter the minds of people for whom life is often a struggle of heroic proportions.” Whether writing about a female burn survivor or the first leading role for a person with Down syndrome, she has been called, “a brave playwright of dauntless conviction, whose unflinching portraits are hard to come by outside of journalism,” and she possesses, “a moral compass second to none among her generation of playwrights” (Variety).
Lindsey is also an accomplished screenwriter with various projects in development. Most recently announced, she is writing and directing a film adaptation of her celebrated play Amy and the Orphans (Aggregate Pictures), writing a project based on Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire (Sony), and adapting Rebecca Yarros’ beloved novel In the Likely Event (Netflix).
Lindsey is the recipient of the 2016 Kesselring Prize, a Laurents/Hatcher Citation of Excellence, the ASCAP Cole Porter Playwriting Prize, the Catalyst Award for Entertainment Industry Excellence, the Paul Newman Drama Award, the NYU Distinguished Young Alumna Award. BFA, NYU; MFA, Hunter; and the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.
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Jonathan BerryJonathan is excited to be back in Chicago, after three years of serving as Artistic Director of The Penobscot Theatre Company in Bangor, Maine. He is a proud ensemble member of both Steep Theatre and Griffin Theatre and a former Artistic Producer at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He directed the Steppenwolf productions of: Lindiwe, The Children, You Got Older, Constellations, and the SYA productions of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, The Crucible, and A Separate Peace. Steep Theatre Company: Paris, Red Rex, Earthquakes in London, Posh, The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle, If There Is I Haven’t Found it Yet, The Knowledge, Festen, Moment, The Hollow Lands and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. At Griffin, productions include: The North American premiers of Simon Stephens Punk Rock (Jeff award Director, Lead Actor, and Ensemble) Port, and On the Shore of the Wide World, as well as The Harvest, Winterset, Pocatello, Balm in Gilead, Golden Boy, The Burnt Part Boys, Spring Awakening Company, Picnic, Time and the Conways, Dead End, The Hostage and Journey’s End. He was the Assistant Director for Anna D Shapiro’s Broadway productions of Of Mice and Men and This is our Youth. Gift Theatre: Obliteration (2 nd production) The world premiers of both Dirty and Suicide, Incorporated, as well as Othello. Goodman Theatre: The Solid Sand Below and The World of Extreme Happiness for their New Stages Festival. Other work includes: American Theatre Company: Kill Floor, American Blues: Little Shop of Horrors and Sideman; Redtwist: Look Back in Anger and Reverb, Chicago Dramatists: I am Going to Change the World, Jackalope Theatre: The Casuals, Strawdog: Conversations on a Homecoming, Remy Bumpo: The Marriage of Figaro, Theatre Mir: The Sea and Caucasian Chalk Circle, Lifeline Theater: The Piano Tuner (Afterdark award – Best Production) He pursued his MFA in directing from Northwestern University. He has taught acting, directing, and viewpoints at University of Michigan, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Act One Studios, Columbia College and served as the director for the ensemble training program The School at Steppenwolf.
The Guardian
“Ferrentino gives a tough but tender account of Jess’s struggle to reintegrate … Jess herself must reimagine who she is and what life can now be.”
Exeunt Magazine