ATC celebrates its 25th Anniversary with The Silver Project, a year-long festival of 30 world premiere short plays penned by some of the country’s leading playwrights. The Silver Project will run over ten evenings between February 8 and June 20, 2010 at American Theater Company

To celebrate the company’s 25th Anniversary, Artistic Director PJ Paparelli asked over 30 playwrights across the country to choose a year between 1985 and 2010 and write a short play that explores the company’s mission: “what does it mean to be an American?” Directed and performed by over 50 Chicago artists, the plays will be presented in five parts throughout the year and as a complete cycle during the annual Theatre Communications Group Conference June 16-20, 2010 here in Chicago. As a prologue for the evening, Paparelli will collaborate with internationally-acclaimed Cuban playwright Maria Irene Fornes on a world premiere piece exploring America over the last 25 years.

“We are celebrating our anniversary by creating an historic event that brings together some of the country’s leading playwrights with Chicago’s most innovative artists to explore 25 years of American life,“ said Paparelli. “Both The Silver Project and our new ensemble members exemplify our company’s future. We see ourselves as a theatrical crossroads for extraordinary artists that give voice to America today.”

THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Usman Ally (Public Enemy and American Ethnic)

Stephen Belber (Emmy-nominated writer of The Laramie Project and Tape)

Kristiana Rae Colon (Chicago Def Poet; writer of The Darkest Pit)

Kristoffer Diaz (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Welcome to Arroyo's)

Zayd Dohrn (Sick, Magic Forest Farm, Long Way Go Down)

Laura Eason (Sex with Strangers, Around the World in 80 Days)

Maria Irene Fornes (Promenade, Mud, The Conduct of Life)

Yussef el Guindi (Back of the Throat, Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat)

Steve Harper (Urban Rabbit Chronicles, The Escape Artist's Children)

Andrew Hinderaker (Suicide, Incorporated)

David Henry Hwang (Tony Award-winning writer of M. Butterfly)

Naomi Iizuka (Award-winning writer of 36 Views, Language of Angels)

Laura Jacqmin (And When We Awoke There Was Light and Light, Ski Dubai)

Kyle Jarrow (Obie Award-winning writer of A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant)

Rolin Jones (The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow; Showtime’s Weeds and NBC's Friday Night Lights)

Joel Drake Johnson (A Blue Moon, The Fall to Earth)

Stephen Karam (Speech & Debate, columbinus)

Nambi E. Kelley (Hope VI, How Kintu Became a Man)

Greg Kotis (Tony Award-winning writer of Urinetown, Yeast Nation, Pig Farm)

Joe Kraemer (The American Occupation; Literary Manager/Dramaturg of The Juilliard School's Drama Division)

Neil LaBute (Tony-nominated writer of reasons to be pretty; The Shape of Things)

Dan LeFranc (60 Miles to Silver Lake)

Craig Lucas (Pulitzer and Tony-nominated writer of Prelude to a Kiss, The Light in the Piazza)

Laura Lynn MacDonald (Peer Gynt at Gorilla Rep, Mattress World with Blue Damen Pictures)

Rohina Malik (Unveiled)

Itamar Moses (Bach at Leipzig, Celebrity Row, The Four of Us)

Carlos Murillo (Dark Play or Stories for Boys, Diagram of a Paper Airplane)

Justin D. M. Palmer (As Fat as You Can, War with the Newts)

PJ Paparelli (columbinus, Raven Odyssey)

Joshua Rollins (American Rex)

Tanya Saracho (Our Lady of the Underpass, The House on Mango Street)

Regina Taylor (Award-winning writer of Crowns, Magnolia)

Brian Tucker (St. James Infirmary, Bathing Van Gogh)

Beau Willimon (Farragut North)

American Theater Company
1909 West Byron, Chicago, IL 60613
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