Displaying items by tag: Keira Fromm

Chicago's Raven Theatre Company today announced the cast and production team for Dave Malloy's OCTET, directed by Keira Fromm and running April 30 - June 7, 2026 (previews April 30 - May 3). Tickets ($30 - $45) on sale at www.raventheatre.com. 

In an anonymous meeting room, a group of people —always eight—gather to sing. Best known for the Broadway hit NATASHA, PIERRE, & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, Dave Malloy's  OCTET uses chamber-inspired a cappella music to explore the total impact of life online. Hailed by the New York Times as "the most original and topical musical of the year" for its 2019 Off-Broadway premiere, this inventive and acutely relevant piece reflects the perils of the digital age.

"OCTET is the perfect first musical for Raven," says Executive Artistic Director Sarah Slight. "It tackles the urgent topic of technology addiction in a way that feels right at home on our stage. With an entirely a capella score, OCTET offers something our audience has never experienced here before. It is an extraordinary show to bring to Chicago."

The cast features Joryhebel Ginorio (Velma), Neala Barron (Jessica), Grace Steckler (Karly), Teressa LaGamba (Paula), Elliot Esquivel (Toby), Jordan Golding (Marvin), Sam Shankman (Henry), and Jonah D. Winston (Ed). Understudies are Dani Pike (u/s Jessica), Collin Quinn Rice (u/s Henry), Diana Marilyn Alvarez (u/s Paula), Caitlyn Cerza (u/s Karly), Danny Bennett (u/s Ed), Jonah Cochin (u/s Toby), Joe Giovannetti (u/s Marvin), and Mizha Lee Overn (u/s Velma).

The production team, led by director Keira Fromm, includes JC Widman (Stage Manager),  Nick Sula (Music Director), Laura Savage (Choreographer), Milo Bue (Scenic Designer), Paloma Locsin (Props Coordinator), Maegan Pate (Costume Designer), Maximo Grano de Oro (Lighting Designer), Christopher Kriz (Sound Designer), Ruby Lowe (Master Electrician), Lucy Whipp (Production Manager), Mads Wren (Assistant Director), Faith Locke (Assistant Stage Manager), Hannah Kwak (Assistant Sound Designer), Emmitt Socey (Assistant Master Electrician), Wynn Lee (Associate Scenic Designer), and Catherine Miller (Dramaturg, Casting Director).

Raven Theatre's OCTET runs April 30 - June 7, 2026, with previews April 30 - May 3. Performances are held Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m. on the Johnson Stage at Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St. Tickets are $45, with discounts available for students, military, and industry ($30 previews); to purchase tickets and for more information about Raven Theatre's 43rd season, visit www.raventheatre.com. 

OCTET

Written By: Dave Malloy

Directed By: Keira Fromm

Cast: Joryhebel Ginorio (Velma), Neala Barron (Jessica), Grace Steckler (Karly), Teressa LaGamba (Paula), Elliot Esquivel (Toby), Jordan Golding (Marvin), Sam Shankman (Henry), and Jonah D. Winston (Ed). Understudies are Dani Pike (u/s Jessica), Collin Quinn Rice (u/s Henry), Diana Marilyn Alvarez (u/s Paula), Caitlyn Cerza (u/s Karly), Danny Bennett (u/s Ed), Jonah Cochin (u/s Toby), Joe Giovannetti (u/s Marvin), and Mizha Lee Overn (u/s Velma).

Production Team: JC Widman (Stage Manager),  Nick Sula (Music Director), Laura Savage (Choreographer), Milo Bue (Scenic Designer), Paloma Locsin (Props Coordinator), Maegan Pate (Costume Designer), Maximo Grano de Oro (Lighting Designer), Christopher Kriz (Sound Designer), Ruby Lowe (Master Electrician), Lucy Whipp (Production Manager), Mads Wren (Assistant Director), Faith Locke (Assistant Stage Manager), Hannah Kwak (Assistant Sound Designer), Emmitt Socey (Assistant Master Electrician), Wynn Lee (Associate Scenic Designer), and Catherine Miller (Dramaturg, Casting Director).

Dates: April 30 - June 7, 2026 (Previews TBD)

Schedule: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m.

Location: Raven Theatre (6157 N. Clark St.)

Tickets: General Admission: $45; Student, Military, and Industry tickets $20. Previews $30.

Box Office: www.raventheatre.com 

Never has a play about journalism, the presidency and Cold War with Russia seemed more relevant than now. And The Columnist, performed by The American Blues Theater at Stage 773, is all of that and more. In a story that could have easily been set during today’s heated political environment, The Columnist is a scintillating tale of family, power, betrayal and personal struggle.

Written by the Pulitzer and Tony award-winning author David Auburn and directed by Keira Fromm, The Columnist is based on real-life journalists Joe Alsop (Philip Earl Johnson) and his brother Stewart Alsop (Coburn Goss). Once a power writing duo, the play begins with Joe, now one of America’s most influential columnists - both feared and beloved, caught in a revealing and compromising position in a Moscow hotel.

That affair and its consequences runs like an undercurrent throughout the entire play as we see Joe battle for power, his ideas on what American exceptionalism entails and how the president (both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson) should achieve it no matter the costs. We also see his struggle to keep his private life separate from the illusion he creates for the public.

Johnson is exquisite and brilliant in the role of Joe Alsop and very capably humanizes such a towering political figure of the time.

Joe is a man who loves his country and family with equal and blinding passion but in the rapidly changing world of the 1960’s, against the backdrop of the Vietnam war, his inability to see beyond his own beliefs pushes away those closest to him. He manages to alienate even some of his most ardent admirers and colleagues.

However, despite the growing distance between Joe and his family – his perfectly cast, dutiful and charming wife Susan (played by the equally charming Kymberly Mellen), his precocious stepdaughter Abigail (Tyler Meredith) and his sincere and loyal brother Stewart, what is conveyed even at some of his lowest points is how much they still love him despite his many flaws.

Stewart and Abigail are perhaps two of Joe’s most pivotal relationships. Several key moments come when they both show not only how much they understand him, as well as what drives him, but also their acceptance of the contradiction of his public figure and private life. This understanding and acceptance comes even though they often disagree with his passionate defense of the war as well as his methods of squashing the dissenting views of fellow journalists. Both Goss and Meredith play their roles with such depth and nuance that it’s easy to feel their characters’ compassion for such a complex man.

The ability of Auburn to delve so deeply into these relationships and to keep the plot moving at the fast pace of an intriguing spy novel is impressive. Also, very impressive and effective is the staging and the way several of the more dramatic moments are highlighted, especially during transitions. After several poignant and emotional scenes, having Joe stand in a single spotlight as the darkened set changes behind him is a powerful effect, and whether intended or not, is a reflection of the often-tumultuous changes happening in his life.

The creative team for The Columnist: Joe Schermoly (scenic design), Christopher J. Neville (costume design), Jared Gooding (lighting design), Christopher Kriz (original music and sound design), Alec Long (props design), Sarah E. Ross (production manager), Eva Breneman (dialect coach), Sara Illiatovitch-Goldman (dramaturg), and Dana M. Nestrick (stage manager), does an amazing job of enhancing an already powerful script and showcasing as Joe says: “human intercourse at its sublimely ridiculous.”

Highly recommended

American Blues Theater’s The Columnist runs through April 1, 2017, at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont. Tickets are available in online at americanbluestheater.com.

It's not often you see the words erotic and Dachau in the same sentence. Bent by Martin Sherman is one of the few literary works to address homosexuality and the Nazis. Under the direction of Keira Fromm, The Other Theatre Company presents this Pulitzer Prize nominated play as part of their freshman season.

Bent calls to mind many of the same themes and issues raised by Christopher Isherwood in his novel The Berlin Stories, later to inspire the musical Cabaret. What makes these stories so fascinating is the alternative narrative to the well-known story of Hitler's persecution of Jews. What many don't know is that the Nazi regime persecuted gays, gypsies, the handicapped or anyone who was different. Also, that non-Jewish Germans simply went along with the darkening tide, terrified or unaware of its ultimate goal: ethnic cleansing.

Sherman set out to write a play that mirrored his own time, a closeted late 1970s on the cusp of the AIDS epidemic. While there are some glaring historical inaccuracies in this play - he makes his point. Philandering Max (Nik Kourtis) lives both and in and out of the closet as it suits him, until he finds himself imprisoned at Dachau for "perversion." While en route, he befriends fellow "queer" Horst (Alex Weisman) who helps him stay alive. Over the course of their internment at Dachau the two become lovers in uniquely staged sexual encounters.

While the play is quite faithful to its source material, the direction could have been stronger. Weisman is quite sure of himself and turns in a top notch performance as tragic Horst. Kourtis on the other hand stumbles through the emotional peaks and valleys of his anti-heroic character. By now, there are countless literary interpretations of the Holocaust and what this particular production misses is the bewilderment victims of concentration camps must have felt. These characters never seem to step back and address the atrocity and disbelief of the exaggerated instances of cruelty in the script. They're prematurely numb to the horrors of camp life and in the end, the inherent sense fear doesn't translate to the audience in the way many other Holocaust dramas have succeeded. The underlying themes get a little mixed up and you're never sure exactly what The Other Theatre Company would like you to take away.

Through July 26th at The Other Theatre Company. 3829 North Broadway. (773)528-9696