Collision Theatre Company - Chicago

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Shotgun Wedding

Written & Directed by Chris Garcia Peak

Tickets | Group Sales | Directions | Press Info

In this original dark comedy playwright Chris Garcia Peak imagines a society where a religious zealot maintains total control, loose women, singles and gay people have been outlawed, and extremists have ruined the nation.

Tickets

Tickets are $15 and Industry tickets are $10 with headshot/business card/AEA card. To purchase tickets call the Collision hotline at (312) 281-8041.

Group Sales

Looking for an event for your organization? Collision offers group rates to parties of 10 or more. To book your party, please contact Erica Peregrine at 773-851-1546 or ericaperegrine@collisiontheatre.org

Directions

Via Public Transport -- Take the L to the Irving Park Brown Line or Sheridan Red Line Station.

Via Automobile -- Click on the map below for driving directions.

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Press Info

For information or to request interviews, press tickets, photographs please contact Erica Peregrine at (773) 851-1546 or ericaperegrine@collisiontheatre.org

Download Press Release

Cast List

Marjorie Armstrong, Kate Cares, Sarah Charmoli, Stephanie Court, Stephen Dunn, Maggie Graham, Mary Grill, Paul Joseph, Dan Muck, Seth Unger, Kerri Van Auken, and Llyod Young

The Director

Chris Garcia Peak (Interim Artistic Director) holds an M.F.A from The Theatre School at DePaul University and a M.A. in Acting and Musical Theatre from London's Mt. View Theatre Academy (where he directed at-risk youth at the Elm Street Theatre). Recently Chris served as the assistant director to Henry Godinez on Electricidad at The Goodman Theatre and was selected to direct the staged reading of Mariela in the Desert by Karen Zacarias for the New Stage Series at The Goodman. Mariela how now been selected to be in the Goodman's 2004 - 2005 season. He is one of the 2003 - 2004 recipients of The Micheal Maggio Directing Fellowships, a Nordan Fine Arts Awards and has studied under Anne-Lynn Kettles from HB Studios, The Groundlings and Rachel Rosenthal. He has been a company member of Innerview Theatre and The Underground Company in Dallas, and is currently an associate member of the Lonestar Ensemble in Los Angeles. His previous directing credits include Mac Wellman's Dracula, Jack or the Submission, The Future is in Eggs, Christie in Love, Sore Throats, Desdemona and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.

Shotgun Wedding was inspired by Charles Mee's (re)making project.

The Changeling
Written by Middleton and Rowley
Directed by Ernie Nolan

A changeling is variously defined as: 1) a fairy child, often ugly or mentally deficient, substituted at birth (sometimes applied to the stolen child), 2) any person substituted for another in secret, 3) an inconstant person, one given to change, 4) a fool or simpleton.

The Story

In some ways The Changeling is a simple play told quickly. A young man falls in love with a girl who is betrothed to someone else. She contrives to have her first lover murdered by her father's servant, whom she despises. Hate turns to love, or just passion, and she finally transfers her affections from her second lover to her first's murderer. But like all Jacobean tragedies there is a deeper significance to this narrative. The Changeling is about being possessed by love. Love draws Alsemero to Beatrice-Joanna. Love draws De Flores to do murder for Beatrice-Joanna, who in turn finally finds her hatred for him turned to love. Corrupt love is played here, and mirrored in the sub-plot where madmen are possessed in bedlam. But in the madhouse there is sometimes less madness than in real life as Antonio's 'change' demonstrates. Each world reveals the other.

From the Director

One might approach this play by way of our modern penchant for tales of suspense, by treating its title (as much as it can be) as a gerund: The Changing. Doing so calls attention to not only the various forms of transmutation, but also the ways in which these forms are interrelated (e.g., love and madness) and the psychological motivations at work in the characters and in ourselves.







This summer Collision Theatre Company produced three readings. These readings have a three fold purpose. First they were designed to introduce Collision Theatre Company to the Chicago community. Secondly they were a vehicle through which we could receive audience reaction to several play we were considering producing. Finally it offered us, as a new theatre company, the opportunity to learn how we work together and through our mistakes and successes, be fully prepared for our first season.

Shotgun Wedding

	Written & Directed by Chris Garcia Peak Featured Tracey Bonner, Kate Cares, Stephanie Court, Patrice Egleston, Jason Fleitz, Ally Fletcher, Mary Grill, Lisa Joyce, Calvin Marty, Dan Muck, Erica Peregrine, and Seth Unger. Stage Directions read by Mackenzie Kyle

A family is brought together by the marriage of a daughter. Each person on the brink of a life changing decision results in hilarious pandemonium that is all together chilling.

"The most exhilarating aspect of preparing for this reading was witnessing the velocity with which Chris wrote. We had discussed Chuck Mee's (re)making project, and then within a month Chris came back with not only a comprehensive script, but an exciting and compelling story." - Jason Fleitz Artistic Director

*The Flu Season*

	Written by Will Eno Directed by Brennan Parks Featured Eustace Allen, Barry Brunetti, Jason Fleitz, Mary Grill, Calvin Marty and Erica Peregrine Stage Directions read by Matt Pierce

Set in a mental hospital, The Flu Season, explores the nature of love as experienced by two young patients, their doctor and nurse, and two unorthodox narrators.

"It was exciting to prepare for this reading. At rehearsal we would read the play aloud, and it would confuse us - or me at least -, then, out of nowhere, we'd delve into a conversation that would take over the rest of the rehearsal concerning love and sanity. The subtle language and complex structure was a challenge." - Jason Fleitz Artistic Director

Chest Red Blew

	Written by Megan Breen Directed by Libby Ford Featured Kate Cares, Stephanie Court, Dan Muck, and Seth Unger Stage Directions read by Eliza Burmester

Poetry and plant. Cigarettes and Seagull. The language of love. Four writers woo each other and their artistic ideals in the raw eruption of storytellers at war with their words and desires. Inspired by the lives and art of Romantic poets and friends Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Williams Wordsworth.

Check out the SUMMER READING SERIES Photo Gallery



three piece suit

	Written, produced, and performed by Jason Fleitz, Dan Muck, and Seth Unger. Three men lost in an urban wasteland left with only one thing between them, a three-piece suit. Short vignettes explore the stereotypes that surround the three-piece suit in a fast-paced, physically daring, edge-of-your-seat performance.

"We gave ourselves three weeks to write, produce, and perform a full length show. We knew it was going to be a challenge, but we met it head on. We would go to the theatre early in the morning to brainstorm and play in the space, then we would go home and write everything down. In those early days we began to establish a way of working together to create something that was our own." - Jason Fleitz Artistic Director

Check out the three piece suit Photo Gallery

The Middling Season

	Written by Adam Simon Directed by Lindsey Becker Featuring Rob Cohn, Jason Fleitz, and Seth Unger

	Two brothers. A mother dead. Life insurance checks start to pile up. A stranger calling ends up one in a long line of men conned into taking out a policy in her name. A comic tragedy in which three desperate men find hope in each other.

"The whole idea came to me at a party after having performed the play as a workshop. I thought it would've been crazy not to take the project to the next level, so we did. We put the play up in less than two weeks, played to packed houses, and did it all from our living room." - Seth Unger Managing Director