The Chicago Writers Bloc Festival 2009 will take place at the Theatre Building, 1225 West Belmont on Chicago's North Side, throughout October and early November 2009.  A partial play schedule follows.  This schedule will be updated frequently over the next month, so please check back for the latest information.

Chicago Writers Bloc New Play Festival 2009 Schedule

ALL PLAYS START AT 8:00 PM, UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. 
Admission to regular play performances is $5.00; admission to the October 5 benefit is $15.00. 
Reservations/info: 773-929-7367, x260, or email info@writersblocfest.org

Monday, October 5
GALA BENEFIT PERFORMANCE AND PARTY, STARTING AT 7:00 PM!
The evening will include refreshments, raffle and "The Joy of Collaboration."
Chicago Writers Bloc president Joanne Koch will present an evening centered on The Joy of Collaboration, featuring excerpts from musicals by Joanne Koch, with Sarah Blacher Cohen and composers Mark Elliott (Sophie, Totie & Belle, Soul Sisters, and Danny Kaye: Supreme Court Jester),  as well as Ms. Koch's collaborations with composer Ilya Levinson and lyricist Owen Kalt (American Klezmer and  Belle Barth: If I Embarrass You, Tell Your Friends.)  Actress Bethany Thomas, who was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for her performance in the original production of Belle Barth: If I Embarrass You, Tell Your Friends, will perform, accompanied on the piano by Gerald H. Bailey.
Admission: $15.00 ($10 for students, seniors, and industry folk)

Tuesday, October 6
Intelligent Design, by Jill Elaine Hughes
Directed by Jenn SavaRyan
Set in the Washington DC of the "W" era at the National Academy of Sciences Human Genome lab, INTELLIGENT DESIGN examines what might happen if the White House imposed its "faith-based initiatives" on the most hallowed institution of American science.  An entirely fresh look at the creationism-versus-evolution debate.  This play was a finalist for both the 2007 Julie Harris Playwriting Award and the 2007 Christopher Brian Wolk Playwriting Award.

Wednesday, October 7
The White City: Burnham's Dream, Book and Lyrics by June Finfer; music by Elizabeth Doyle
Directed by Lara Tibble Filip
Will Chicago get to host the Great Event?  If we do, can we build it on time?  Will the world come to see it?  Will the people of Chicago benefit?  Will it be worth the effort?  What must be sacrificed to build a dream?  Not the 2016 Olympics, but the 1893 World's Fair.  Same issues, same problems, same dangers and sacrifices.  How will it all turn out?  Look back to look forward.

Monday, October 12
My Kind of Town, by John Conroy
Directed by Thomas Weicz
This play presented to honor the late Joe Savit, playwright member of Writers' Bloc and an individual dedicated to social justice.
Set in Chicago between the years 1982-2006, this play follows the perpetrators, victims, and families caught up in the Chicago Police Torture scandal.  A young prosecutor must decide wether to accomodate the torture in his case.  A charming police torturer's family rationalizes and debates his role in the atrocities.  And the parents of a not-so-innocent victim argue whether to fight to save their troublesome son.  This play dramatizes the award-winning investigative journalism work of John Conroy of the Chicago Police Torture Scandal,  which Conroy was instrumental in exposing.  In 2003, four of the victims were pardoned after serving many years on death row, and five years later, when the City of Chicago settled their lawsuits for $19.8 million, the mother of one of the men told the New York Times that she thought her son would be dead but for Conroy’s articles.

Tuesday, October 13
When the Bough Breaks, by Bev Rosen
This play asks the following question:  What happens when a woman is faced with the problem of having to choose between Neiman Marcus and her family?

Wednesday, October 14
Sincerely Yours, Book by Barbara Georgans, Music and Lyrics by Philip Seward
Directed by Joan Mazzonell; musical direction by Jessica Hunt
"Why can’t you tell the truth for once?" versus "Why must I have to lie? Duck? Run?" Lust, lawsuits, fame, fur, neighborly sex, and anonymous letters are all play a part in the full-length musical comedy SincerelyYours. Who wins? Who loses? Marriage is a draw.

Monday, October 19
St. Peter’s Wife, by Kenan Heise, with Arnold Greenberg 
Directed by Claudea Heise                                                                                                                                                 
This "what if" drama portrays the St. Peter the Apostle's spouse, Sarah, as a Cushite (Ethiopian Jew).  At the Council of Jerusalem in 50 AD, Sarah works with Doubting Thomas behind her husband's back in an attempt to throw open the gates of heaven to all God's children.

Tuesday, October 20
Whales, by Jan Johnson
Directed by Gillian Gibson
This two-act play centers on an elderly man's battle with hospitals, nursing homes, and death.  Hero Charles Cosgrove is a faithless, bitter old man facing the end.  His struggle is not unique.


Monday, October 26
Another Menagerie, by Zan Skolnick
Directed by James McDermott
Greek tragedy in a once-middle-class family. It's about loving people to death.

Tuesday, October 27
Eastland Secrets, by Chloe Bolan
A survivor of Chicago's Eastland Disaster of 1915, the beautiful and gifted Alma returns to the Chicago River one hundred years later, trying to cross over to spiritual evolution.  She relives the capsizing of the Eastland, in which 840 people drowned, and the aftermath for herself and other survivors.  She recounts the blind injustice of the state and struggles to find her own blind spot so she can free herself from the earthly past.