THE READ THROUGH SERIES: Jack & Melissa by Matthew McLachlan
In a cabin, on a mountain, during a rainstorm, Melissa wakes up to find herself tied to a chair and in the company of a kind-hearted Dexter-like serial killer named Jack...and he just wants a friend. This gruesome comedy explores the outrageous things we do to not feel so alone and the unlikely people who end up helping us along the way.
Runtime: Approx. 100 min
Directed by Mary Grace Seigel+
Stage Manager/Directions: Tim Ashby
Jack: Tommy Martin
Melissa: Molly Kempfer
+Denotes Ways & Means Company Member
What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck
Playwright Heidi Schreck’s boundary-breaking play breathes new life into our Constitution and imagines how it will shape the next generation of Americans. Fifteen-year-old Heidi earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In this hilarious, hopeful and achingly human new play, she resurrects her teenage self in order to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives.
Community Production Partners: Chicago League of Women Voters, The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence, Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
What the Constitution Means to Me premiered off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop on September 12, 2018. The play opened on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre on March 31, 2019. Initially announced for a 12-week engagement, the Broadway production extended twice and fully recouped its investment, shattering box office records, for a total run of 24 weeks. Following Broadway, What the Constitution Means to Me played a record-breaking limited engagement run at the Eisenhower Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Finalist: 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Winner! 2019 Obie Award, Best New American Play
Winner! 2019 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, Best American Play
Winner! 2019 Off-Broadway Alliance Award, Best New Play
Nominee: Two 2019 Tony Awards, including Best Play
Nominee: Two 2019 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Play
Season One Announcement & Silent Auction
Join Ways & Means Theatre as we announce our very first season! We’ve got a silent auction featuring items like tickets to some of our favorite theatres in the city, restaurants, and swag!
Season One Announcement at 8pm!
$20 per person gains admittance and one free drink. Proceeds go to Ways & Means Theatre, a 501(c)(3) non-profit theatre company.
Seminar by Theresa Rebeck
In Seminar, a provocative comedy from Pulitzer Prize nominee Theresa Rebeck, four aspiring young novelists sign up for private writing classes with Leonard, an international literary figure. Under his recklessly brilliant and unorthodox instruction, some thrive and others flounder, alliances are made and broken, sex is used as a weapon, and hearts are unmoored. The wordplay is not the only thing that turns vicious as innocence collides with experience in this biting Broadway comedy.
Directed by Company Member Leanna Gianoutsos Oliveira
Featuring Artistic Director Douglas Atkins and Company Members Salome Mergia and Mary Grace Seigel. Also featuring Tim Ashby and Julie Partyka.
littlespace, or the daddy play by Marjorie Muller
On a scale of 1 to 10, Bea's pain is a 10, but she'll tell you it's an 8. After putting plans of a family on hold indefinitely, Bea pushes her doctor to test for endometriosis. But normalcy fractures when her husband reveals he's been contacted by a daughter he didn't know he had. littlespace, or the daddy play, exposes a system that discredits women’s bodily knowledge, both in their pain and in owning their desires.
Directed by Company Member Leanna Gianoutsos Oliveira
Re/Generation Studio: Le Switch
Marriage equality finally reaches the U.S. and commitment-shy David finds himself unsure how to react to the nation’s honeymoon phase. Nervous in the face of “wedding fever,” he retreats to his home full of unopened books and his grieving activist roommate. When his best friend’s bachelor party takes him to Montreal, he’s unexpectedly swept off his feet by a beautiful young florist. In the months that follow, David and his non-traditional family must decide for themselves what it really means to be committed, what it means to be married and what it means to be queer.
Cast
David
Douglas Atkins*
Founding Artistic Director
Benoît
Layke Fowler
Zachary
Malachi Marrero
Sarah
Anne Trodden
Company Member
Frank
Jelani Julyus
* * *
Creative Team
Director
Leanna Gianoutsos Oliveira
Company Member
Stage Manager
Mary Grace Seigel
Company Member
Dramaturgy & French Language Consultant
Am Wyckoff
Intimacy Director
Courtney Abbott
* Member, Actor’s Equity Association
The Read Through: Death Tax by Lucas Hnath
It's December 2010. Infirm Maxine thinks her daughter is paying Nurse Tina to gently nudge her into the grave before the new year. Maxine thinks Tina's doing this so her daughter doesn't have to pay hefty estate taxes, taxes that take effect on January 1. Nurse Tina adamantly denies Maxine's accusations, but when Maxine offers Tina a portion of her sizable estate on the condition that she lives until the 1st, Tina changes her tune. But of course, the plan doesn't go according to plan.