#dorothymilne

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131 The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate adapted by James E. Grote dir Dorothy Milne. Originally mounted in 2015 in our season of traumatizing children (Velveteen Rabbit, Lions in Illyria where death of a sibling is discussed at length and then Ivan), The One and Only Ivan was going to be one of our first forays into touring a show. Giggle Giggle Quack toured in the fall of 2018, and Ivan was going to tour in Winter of 2019. Right around the time we were in tech for Frankenstein, Dorothy emailed me out of the blue and asked if I would be interested in doing the tour. I had nothing lined up, I knew the play was great and would be going to a lot of states I had never been to before. So I said yes. I played Mack the owner of the mall who was keeping Ivan the gorilla and Stella the elephant in captivity, and also Bob the dog, a stray who lives in the mall and is Ivan’s friend. There are a whole bunch of Dispatches from the Road I posted about the tour last year. The first two weeks were plagued by a polar vortex in the midwest and 4 named winter storms and sub-zero temps as we drove across the country. Olympia - which is where we were supposed to do 10 shows got hit by two blizzards in 48 hours. So we did the last show we could possibly do on Friday and then flew back to Chicago for two weeks. The second leg of the tour was much easier and ran like clockwork. The book is based on the true story of Ivan the Gorilla, raised in captivity in a mall in Tacoma for 27years, until he was liberated to the Atlanta Zoo, where he lived in a habitat for the remaining 23. We went to the mall and visited the statue of Ivan at the Point Defiance Zoo. I really loved the Pacific Northwest and the tour ended in Modesto, CA so I popped down to LA to see some folks I hadn’t seen in over a decade. I skipped the tour this year to work on a show closer to home. This year they went to Miami. Son of a… #retrospective #2019 #lifelinetheatre #theoneandonlyivan #katherineapplegate #jamesegrote #dorothymilne #bobthedog #blizzards #mountrushmore #olympiawa #funko https://www.instagram.com/p/B8__g8IpTjV/?igshid=bf97hzetg93e

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121 Lifeline Reading Series - Sylvester by Georgette Heyer adapted by Christina Calvit dir Dorothy Milne. We did something different for the reading series that year. Instead of remounting past hits for an evening, we used it as an opportunity to try out new material. I was part of Sylvester; Or the Wicked Uncle, Christina Calvit returning to Georgette Heyer, after previously penning the Jeff Citation winning Pistols for Two and the Talisman Ring. Lifeline would eventually decide to give the script a full production in 2017. #retrospective #2016 #lifelinetheatre #sylvester #thewickeduncle #georgetteheyer #christinacalvit #dorothymilne #dogsandchildren (at Lifeline Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8mCpaNJemQ/?igshid=1ur40nln7m01w

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114 Following the Elephants - Lifeline Storytelling Project at Filet of Solo - written by Chris Hainsworth dir Dorothy Milne. Around the end of 2014 I was asked if I wanted to participate in Lifeline Storytelling Projects’s entry in what would be the 2015 session of Filet of Solo. Other than drunkenly rambling on at bars and parties, personal storytelling was a venue I had never entered into so, so I thought I would give it a shot. The Lifeline Storytelling Project was started by Dorothy Milne, who has a passion for the art form, as both outreach and opportunity for Lifeline friends, staff, ensemble and board. We were called Five from Rogers Park, and everyone else told deeply personal stories about conflict and growth and I told stories about having to carry port-a-potties up and down stairs as part of my Steppenwolf internship. You can watch the whole thing here: https://vimeo.com/117766425 I can be on stage in character and not feel any nerves, but appearing as myself is an entirely different animal, So you can see some nerves, but overall I’m proud of it, and grateful for the opportunity. #retrospective #2015 #lifelinetheatre #lifelinestorytellingproject #fivefromrogerspark #filetofsolo #followingtheelephants #dorothymilne #chrishainsworth (at Lifeline Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8T_CGJpbGx/?igshid=zer18rdiq8tk

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113 Lifeline Reading Series Presents Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne adapted by John Hildreth dir Dorothy Milne. Originally stage in 2002, 80 Days won multiple Jeff Citations for the year of its consideration including Ensemble, Director, New Adaptation, Supporting Actor, Scenic and Sound. So we did a staged reading for our Lifeline Reading Series. With several returning original cast members and some newbies like myself, (I played Inspector Fix) this is an ingenious globetrotting script that uses some delightful stage magic, even in the reading. We were able to break out Alan Donahue’s elephant puppet to great comedic effect once again. #retrospective #2014 #lifelinetheatre #lifelinereadingseries #aroundtheworldin80days #julesverne #johnhildreth #dorothymilne #alandonahue #elephantbutt (at Lifeline Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8RBuQspoNe/?igshid=1i81npammqi7t

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110 Pistols for Two - The Georgette Heyer Reading Series - adapted by Christina Calvit dir Dorothy Milne for Lifeline Theatre. In addition to our 3 mainstage shows and our 3 kid series shows we do every year, in recent years, we’ve been doing one night only concert readings of some of our past hits. Pistols for Two was originally done in 2000. In fact, it won the Jeff Citation for Best New Adaptation that year. It is an adaptation of 3 different Heyer short stories that culminates in the protagonists from each story helping to solve a different protagonists story. A charming evening of regency theatre, I actually got to play a romantic lead who was not a terrible person in this, so it’s obvious why we could only do this for one night. Using only a handful of actors, we performed this reading with the three real life couples in the company, Jenifer Tyler and Peter Greenberg, Elise and Robert Kauzlaric, and Katie and Myself. I performed it a week after Killer Angels closed, and the day before my next round of rehearsals began. #retrospective #2013 #lifelinetheatre #georgetteheyer #readingseries #christinacalvit #dorothymilne #regencyromance (at Lifeline Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8JSpljJesX/?igshid=r91gt2c3u7m6

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106 The City and The City by China Miéville adapted by Christopher M. Walsh dir Dorothy Milne for Lifeline Theatre. The City and The City is a speculative fiction novel by China Miéville about two cities that exist in the same time and space, but the citizens of each city, Besźel and Ul Qoma, actively “unsee” each other. Any violation of this agreement involves Breach, a shadowy organization existing between the two worlds. And none of this involve magic or science fiction, it’s all through the choice and will of it’s citizens. Things get complicated when Inspector Tyador Borlú, of the Extreme Crime Squad of Besźel is called into a case involving a body discovered in Besźel of an American Exchange student studying in Ul Qoma. I played Detective Quissum Dhatt of the Ul Qoma police force, tasked with helping Borlú when his investigations lead him to Ul Qoma, and naturally kind of a prick. This was by its nature a challenging show. Representing on stage what is already a mindblowing concept to hold while reading the book was a daunting task, but I think we succeeded. And China Miéville was in town at the time and he came! So that was super exciting. Especially since I have been a fan for years. I should also mention retroactively that Elise Blackwell came to see Hunger as well, and was also super pleasant and amazing. That’s the strange province of being an adapter. When you are at this level, you only do it because you love the material. No one is paying you a living wage or Hollywood money to do it. You do it because you love the material. When the author is dead and has been for maybe a century, you just kind of go to town on it. When they are alive, (and somehow we actually get the rights to a living authors work) and actually come to see it, it puts you in this weird place of “I love this material but what if I have done something to it that they don’t like and they hate it?” That didn’t happen. But it could. And that fear is always out there. #retrospective #2013 #lifelinetheatre #thecityandthecity #ChinaMiéville #christophermwalsh #dorothymilne #quissumdhatt #ulqoma #Besźel #breach (at Lifeline Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7_hyVMpp7V/?igshid=340ztp065cor

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90 Talking it Over, an adaptation of the book by Julian Barnes by Peter Greenberg dir Dorothy Milne for Lifeline Theatre. True story, I auditioned for this play in August, got called back didn’t get it. Katie in it, we opened Butterscotch on Friday, Monday I got a call at work from Dorothy Milne saying they lost the person they cast, and would I be interested in TAKING it over (get it?) and they started rehearsal THAT NIGHT. So of course I said yes, and 8 hours later I was rehearsing a show. The novel is about the relationship between three people, Oliver, Stuart and Gillian, and how they come together, fall apart and destroy each other, and the book is divided into first person chapters. I was Oliver, John Ferrick was Stuart and Elise Kauzlaric was Gillian. Katie played an old friend named Val and Ann Wakefield played Gillian’s mother and a French Neighbor. So it was only five actors and a lot of direct address. I wish I could tell you that I was good in this play, but honestly, and this is the first time I am admitting it publicly, I don’t feel that I was. I felt behind the whole time, on accent, on knowing the character, my Mangan beard felt completely wrong for the character and was distracting for the first month of rehearsal while I still had it. I felt I was working harder (because of my own personal hang ups, not direction) at NOT being the interpretation of the character I brought into auditions than actually working on the character. Luckily everyone else was great and spackled over my shortcomings. The OTHER non-related me problem was, because Lifeline has A space but often is running a kid’s show and a mainstage at the same time, at the end of performances, you have to strike the set to a place where the other set can put up. The way this particular set was designed, every single piece of scenery had to be taken apart and stacked into two piles. And this was a show that only had five people in it. Which I loved about the show, but man it made changeover a PROCESS. #retrospective #2008 #talkingitover #lifelinetheatre #petergreenberg #dorothymilne #julianbarnes #oliver #threecigarettesinanashtray (at Lifeline Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7WT5dbJq19/?igshid=1xx2q7g0q59sr