The Hypocrites Present ENDGAME

The Hypocrites are pleased to continue their 2014-15 season with Samuel Beckett’s comic masterpiece ENDGAME, directed by Company Member Halena Kays*, playing February 20 – April 4, 2015 at their new home, The Den Theatre Mainstage, 1329-1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets are currently available at www.the-hypocrites.com.

ENDGAME will feature longtime Company Members Kurt Ehrmann* as Hamm and Donna McGough* as Nell, joined by Brian Shaw as Clov and Sean Sinitski as Nag.

Hamm is blind and cannot stand. His servant, Clov, cannot sit. And then there’s his legless parents Nagg and Nell who live in trashcans. Trapped in a tiny house by the sea after some sort of apocalyptic disaster, they trudge through an absurd, cyclical existence. In true Hypocrites fashion, the actors and audience alike share a full and lush visual world to experience Beckett’s classic comedy.

“Endgame will allow me to play to the absurdity of life with the clowns I love,” comments Director Halena Kays. “Our design team is also full of long-time collaborators who will create an absurdest landscape that will involve and heighten the audience’s experience with this classic. It’s one of my favorite texts – physical, funny and beautiful – and there’s no better group of artists to join me in exploring it,” adds Kays.

The production team includes: Elizabeth Bracken (scenic design), Jessica Kuehnau (costume design), Maggie Fullilove-Nugent (lighting design), Nick Keenan (sound design), Danielle Case (props design) and Justine B. Palmisano (stage manager).

PRODUCTION DETAILS

Title: ENDGAME

Playwright: Samuel Beckett

Director: Company Member Halena Kays

Cast: Kurt Ehrmann* (Hamm), Donna McGough* (Nell), Brian Shaw (Clov) and Sean Sinitski (Nag)

Previews: Friday, February 20 at 8 pm, Saturday, February 21 at 8 pm, Sunday, February 22 at 3 pm and Tuesday, February 24 at 8 pm

Regular Run: Friday, February 27 – Saturday, April 4, 2015

Curtain Times: Mondays, Friday and Saturdays at 8 pm; Sundays at 3 pm

Tickets Prices: $28. Tickets are currently available at www.the-hypocrites.com.

About the Director
Halena Kays’ Chicago credits include: Ivywild, Six Characters in Search of an Author at The Hypocrites; The Magic Play at The Goodman, Lord of the Flies at Steppenwolf theatre company; Burning Bluebeard, 44 Plays for 44 Presidents, Daredevils, Daredevils Hamlet and Fake Lake at The Neo-Futurists (artistic associate); Roustabout at Concordia College; Buried in Bughouse Square at The University of Chicago. Kays is a former artistic Director of The Hypocrites, co-founder and former artistic director of Barrel of Monkeys, where she directed the majority of their public performances. She is The Hyprocrites’ Artistic Council, a founding member of the artistic collaborative The Ruffians, a UT-Austin and Northwestern grad, former member of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care unit and a visiting professor at North Central College. Halena has been nominated for a Jefferson Citation for Best Supporting Actress and Best Direction, was the recipient of the prestigious 3Arts Award and was named one of the top 50 “players” in Chicago theater by Newcity.

About The Hypocrites

Artistic Director Sean Graney created The Hypocrites in 1997. The Hypocrites, one of Chicago’s premier off-Loop theater companies, specializes in startling and thoroughly entertaining adaptations of classic plays and stories, mounting bold productions that challenge preconceptions and redefining the role of the audience through unusual staging (such as promenade and in-the-round) and direct engagement. The mission is to explore recognizable stories—mixing the familiar and the strange—to make theater that thrills and provokes, defying expectations with humor, staging, and surprise. The company has a reputation in Chicago for creating exciting, surprising, and deeply engaging theater as it re-interprets well-known works for contemporary audiences, reveling in the absurd while revealing the core of what makes classics classic.

The company has grown significantly in the past few years, receiving acclaim for productions at the Steppenwolf Garage, Goodman Theatre, Museum of Contemporary Art, DCASE Storefront and Chopin Theater. The company’s smash-hit production of Our Town, directed by David Cromer, transferred in 2009 to Off-Broadway, Los Angeles and Boston. The Pirates of Penzance has appeared at Actors Theater of Louisville and American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.). A.R.T. has also brought Romeo Juliet, 12 Nights and The Mikado (forthcoming). The American Theatre Wing, best known as the creator of the Tony Awards, presented The Hypocrites with one of the 2013 National Theatre Company awards in 2013. The critically acclaimed fall 2013 production of All Our Tragic is being brought back by popular demand in June 2015. For more information, please visit www.the-hypocrites.com.

The Hypocrites’ 18th season is supported in part by The Alphawood Foundation, The Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Illinois Arts Council, Negaunee Foundation, Scholl Foundation and Venta.

*Denotes The Hypocrites Company Members.

+Denotes The Hypocrites Artistic Associates