Tinsley finds deep connection in theatre by, for women

Actress Patrica Tinsley likes to be called just that – actress.

“I greatly dislike being called a ‘female actor,’” Tinsley said. “I feel that women find too many ways to diminish themselves and wish more women would embrace the term actress instead of seeing it as lesser title.”

But for the Glenview resident it goes beyond just a title. She feels a strong connection to theatre by and for women. 

Read more about Patricia, including more about her role in Mitera, in the Chicago Tribune.

Casting announced for world premiere of Mitera, opening at Berger Park's North Mansion in April

Casting has been announced for Strangeloop Theatre's world premiere of Mitera by Maria Burnham.

Directed by Company Member Letitia Guillaud, Mitera stars Allison McCorkle as Olga Sheridan, Holly Robison as Nitsa Sheridan, Lilly Apostolou as Dimitra Sheridan, Patricia Tinsley as Sharon Kaskalis and Michael Wagman as Dimitris Kokkinakis.

Set amongst a small Greek community in the American Deep South during the months preceding the Supreme Court's landmark decision in the gay marriage case Obergefell v. Hodges, Mitera tells the story of the Sheridan sisters who discover their mother, upon her death, has left their entire inheritance contingent on the youngest sister marrying within a year. If she fails to do so everything goes to their oldest male cousin in Greece. But the youngest sister is an unattached romantic who believes in marrying for love.

While the script is steeped in Greek-American culture and deals with the familial politics of same-sex relationships, Burnham said the script will be accessible to anyone who has ever disagreed with a family member, and especially to anyone who has ever been in love.

“Ultimately this is a story about love. Love between family members, the things people do for love, the bad choices people make in the name of love, the ridiculous lengths we go to out of love. That’s what makes all stories relatable regardless of setting,” Burnham said.  “It’s not the trappings of a play that make a story compelling or interesting to an audience, it’s the heart of the story being told.”

Burnham, who was raised in a small Greek-American community in Jackson, Mississippi, by her Greek mother and American father, said she pulled from her own life to create the characters in this play, but they are not based on any one person, and the story is completely imaginary.

“Although,” she added, “I could totally see my mom pulling something like this because she is really getting desperate for grandchildren.” 

You can find more backstory on Mitera via this blog or in this interview with the playwright from our fall fundraiser.

Mitera runs Thursdays through Saturdays April 7 through May 14 at 7:30 p.m. The site-specific production takes place at The North Mansion in Berger Park (6219 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60660).

Tickets are $5 for previews and $18 for the regular run and are available in advance through Brown Paper Tickets.

French With Me 6: Lover's Eclipse

It wouldn't be French With Me without the love-based stories that started it all. So this week, leading up to the gala on Saturday, February 13, we'll be spotlighting the original performance pieces that have been created for this event.

First up, Lover's Eclipse - The Untold Story of the Sun and the Moon conceived by Letitia Guillaud, is the silly, unscientific and unseen love story that unfolds between the sun and the moon during an eclipse.

Performers: Letitia Guillaud, Tim Lee and Miona Lee.

 

French With Me 6: Le Salon takes place at 8 p.m. on Saturday, February 13, at Vagabond School of the Arts (4001 N Ravenswood Ave #504, Chicago, IL 60613). Tickets are $25 in advance or at the door, and are available now through Brown Paper Tickets.

Krampus! is already creeping out Chicago...

Krampus! is featured in The Chicago Creepout on Chicago Now. 

Strangeloop Theatre presents a delightfully frightful way to start out December properly with four nights of KRAMPUS! While based on the darker side of history, this play will ensure enough humor to keep any fears of Christmas devils at bay. As long as children are good, the cloven-hoofed, long-tongued, horned Krampus won't make an appearance to beat them with a stick, stuff them inside his bag, and kidnap them.

 Read the whole article here. And then get your tickets here!

Season 8 fundraiser wrapping up

We are winding up our fundraising campaign for Season 8 next week. This entire season we are focused only on new works, which while exciting are always a challenge to produce and market effectively. Known plays come with a built-in audience, but new plays by unknown or lesser-known playwrights require a bigger leap of faith on the part of companies to produces. But if no one produces these new works, how will your next new favorite play ever be seen?

Help us uncover these hidden gems by supporting their productions. Learn more about our season here and more about our development process here. We chatted with playwright Maria Burnham last weeks to learn more about her play Mitera, which will be our spring mainstage show. Read her interview here and watch a video about her inspiration for the show below.

Mother always knows best...even after she's dead

Strangeloop is in the middle of a capital campaign to raise funds for our 8th Season. Your donations will help support new and exciting works like Mitera — Strangeloop's mainstage production, which will go up in the spring of 2016. We recently sat down with playwright Maria Burnham to chat about her inspiration for the play.

What is Mitera about? Mitera is the story of three, single adult sisters who live at home and have their lives turned upside down when they find out their mother is still micromanaging their lives from beyond the grave. As the play begins, they discover their mother has left their entire inheritance contingent on the youngest sister marrying within a year of her death, otherwise everything goes to their oldest male relative in Greece. But the youngest sister is an unattached romantic who believes in marrying for love.

What does Mitera mean? Mitera, or (ἡ) Mητέρα, means mother in Greek.

Where did you get the idea for this story? There were several different things going on when I decided to write this piece. One was simply that I wanted to write roles for Greek-American actresses because that’s not something that exists. We play a lot of other ethnic groups that are more prevalent in theater – Italian, French, various Middle Eastern nationalities. I have no idea if Greek-American actresses will be cast in these roles, but I wanted to create that opportunity. Then when I started thinking about the actual story that I wanted to write, I kept coming back to my own mother and her desperate desire that my brother or I get married and produce some grandchildren. I wanted to explore how far a mother might go to force that desire onto her children.

Is this a story that will be relatable to people who aren’t Greek? Ultimately it is a story about love. Love between family members, the things people do for love, the bad choices people make in the name of love, the ridiculous lengths we go to out of love. That’s what makes all stories relatable regardless of setting. Audiences relate to Les Miserables despite having no firsthand experience with the French Revolution. It’s not the trappings of a play that make a story compelling or interesting to an audience, it’s the heart of the story being told.  


Can a Greek story be told without a wedding? Ha ha ha! Yes. I’m sure it’s possible, but ceremony and celebrations are a huge part of Greek life, and so it feels like there is always a wedding on the horizon. It seems like for most of my life there’s been talk of someone getting married or babies being baptized or someone’s funeral or memorial service…every time I talk to my parents I get the update on all these points from back home. 

And back home is? Jackson, Mississippi. It’s probably not the first place that pops to mind when people think of Greek-American communities, but there is a small Greek community there with ties to the larger Greek communities in Memphis and New Orleans. You can find us everywhere. 

Because everywhere needs diners? You joke, but that’s pretty true. 

So is this play influenced by your own life? In some ways, yes. I’d say the larger world I’ve set this in is most influence by my own life. The sisters in this play grew up in an insular community, like we have in Jackson, where everyone knows everyone else’s business – where people can be friendly to you, even as they are gossiping about you behind your backs. They are half Greek, like me, which makes you an outsider to two difference communities. Character-wise, Sharon, the youngest sister’s godmother, is definitely modeled on my own godmother, and the Greek cousin has shades of my oldest male cousin back in Greece – though Adonis is not quite as nefarious as Demitrios. The sisters, though, are not based on anyone. They just sort of sprung to life on their own.

Do you want to explain the photograph that is accompanying this interview? That is the playwright at the tender young age of 4 being forced to recite something at a Greek Independence Day celebration at my church. It’s probably the least humiliating of the things Maria was made to do as a child to celebrate her Greek heritage. Most of the others involved funny hats.   

What can people do to support this production? We can always use help raising awareness of the productions we mount. More immediately we have a fundraising campaign going on that will help pay for rehearsal and performance space rentals and costuming, set and prop needs. It’s not a play with a lot of spectacle, but it still costs money to produce. We have a karaoke fundraising party coming up on Saturday, October 17, at Matilda’s in Lakeview. It’ll be a lot of fun and I’ll be there reading futures in coffee grounds if you want a glimpse into one of the more bizarre Greek customs. Plus, of course, karaoke. But if people can’t make that, we also have a Kickstarter campaign going on through October. You can help us out from the comfort of your own home.

Come a little closer...The Krampus is waiting for you

October is a spooky time of year. Ghouls and goblins come out to play. Cold winds blow in. Drunk football fans spill out of bars. And Strangeloop is deep into planning for our upcoming production, Krampus! But this devil isn't meant for Halloween. Oh no. This Christmas demon is as old as Saint Nick himself.

Strangeloop recently sat down with playwrights Jaclyn Jensen and Mike Wozniak to learn a little more about Krampus — the tradition and the script.

Who is Krampus?

Mike: Krampus is the bad cop to St. Nicholas' good cop. He began as an Austrian-German folk tale to frighten children into being good.

Jaclyn: As far as being Santa’s counterpart - You don’t get coal in your stocking if you’ve been naughty. Krampus comes for you if you’ve been naughty. From the lore, he would chain up the naughty children and beat them with reeds. Or put them in a burlap sack to toss in a river and drown them. It’s pretty dark.

Why Krampus and why now?

M: It started with the Christmas song It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. A few years ago I noticed the lyric: “There'll be scary ghost stories, and tales of the glories of the Christmases long, long ago”. Since we love ghost stories, I wanted to know where that came from, and how we could incorporate it into our holidays. Turns out it was a Victorian tradition to tell ghost stories. But when looking for that, I rediscovered Krampus.

J: I seriously didn’t know that until now. That’s awesome.

Where did you get the idea for this script?

J: Mike is the one who introduced me to Krampus. He’s a natural storyteller and always has ideas for great stories. He actually had several other possible Krampus plotlines in mind, including some really complicated period pieces. But we decided we wanted to explore the idea of Krampus terrorizing one family that could be just like ours.

M: We combined a lot of ideas. A story my third grade teacher Sister Clarissa told me, and a lot of campy horror movies, like the Evil Dead series.

Tell us about your love of horror?

J: Some of my earliest movie memories are horror movies. I was raised on it. And I actually find that the older I get, the more horror movies scare me. I love being scared. Haunted places, ghost stories, all of it.

M: I’ve always watched horror movies on Halloween as far back as I can remember. And much to my mother’s chagrin, my grandmother told me ghost stories growing up.

What was the most difficult part about writing this script?

M: For me, it was paring down ideas. I kept bombarding Jackie with ideas, and she’d have to edit me so that we could have a manageable number of things happening.

J: There were lots of difficult parts. But I would say writing actual scary moments was the hardest part. We had a lot of funny ideas, but we hope to actually scare people.

What other writing have you done? 

J: I had a few random projects from when I was a student in high school and college. And I did a bit of sketch writing when I first moved out to Chicago, to try to bring some of my own ideas in to a troupe I was performing with. But my writing projects prior to Krampus! were always “assignments”, and not something I wanted to do for me. I really enjoyed writing this, and Mike was a great writing partner. 

M: Other than helping out a bit on TV and web spots for work, I haven’t done much.

Is this a play that non-horror fans would enjoy?

J: I think so! There is a lot of humor as well, and I think everyone will be able to find characters and moments to identify with.

M: It has something from everyone. To paraphrase Bill Murray, it’s a meatloaf of a play.

What can people do to support this production?

J: So many things – We’ve got a fundraiser party coming up at Matilda’s on October 17th, and a Kickstarter campaign going on right now. Helping fund this project would be a huge help to make sure we can afford to give audiences a proper scare.

M: Come see it as many times as you can, and tell your friends.

What else would you like people to know about this play?

J: There is so much more to know about Krampus than can fit in one play. There is SO much lore that is very interesting. So learn more about Krampus. There are tons of Krampus stories, books, and movies – and every story will be unique.

M: It’s the dark side of Christmas, and we want you to discover it.

Help support Krampus! and all of the unique and original programming that will make up Strangeloop's 8th Season. Come party with us at our Seventh Anniversary Party and Fundraiser, 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, October 17, at babyATLAS (Matilda’s downstairs room), located at 3101 N. Sheffield Ave., Chicago, IL 60657. Admission is $10. OR, consider a donation of any amount here, and take home some sweet or scary gifts.

Strangeloop Season 8 Announced

For those of you who missed the announcement during this summer's Loopshop, Strangeloop has announced our 8th Season lineup. See below for details. And keep your eye out for our fall fundraiser fete.

The 2015-2016 Strangeloop Season

July

Loopshop 8: The company’s annual short play and new works series, with five pieces from up-and-coming playwrights, each performed both nights of this two-night run. This year's production features an array of bite-sized plays on topics ranging from Swedish furniture to time travel.

December

Krampus!: A holiday-themed show written by Company Member Jaclyn Jensen and resident graphic designer Mike Wozniak. It's not enough that a family has to deal with the usual drama that comes with Christmas, but the Murray family has to do it in the isolation of a cabin in the woods, during a snow storm with a holiday devil running amok and only some peppermint schnaps to get them through it.

 

 

February

French With Me: Our popular gala affair returns, revamped and refilled with love — just in time for Valentine’s Day.

 

 Spring 2016

Mήτερα (Mitera): Three, single sisters have their lives turned upside down when they find out their Greek mother is still micromanaging their lives from beyond the grave. Written by Company Member Maria Burnham, Mitera pokes and prods the boundaries of family loyalty and examines the idea that sometimes the people we’ve known our entire lives are the people we know the least.

Things To Do in Chicago Today: Loopshop 8

Loopshop 8 is one of the Red Eye's Things To Do in Chicago Today. And let's be honest, you really DO want to see a play about a potato-powered time machine, don't you?

This is your last chance to catch these five plays! Loopshop 8 begins at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28, 2015, at The Charnel House, 3421 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago. Tickets for the show are $10 at the door or online at Brown Paper Tickets.

Loopshop 8: All The World's An IKEA

To get you in the mood for Loopshop 8 — which happens next week at The Charnel House in Logan Square — we've been sharing some short teasers about all five of our featured plays here and on Facebook. (Like us if you haven't already.)

Our last play is All The World's An IKEA by Strangeloop Company Member Maria Burnham.

The intricate comedy and drama of a relationship unfolds in the unintentionally theatrical setting that is a "living in" display at an IKEA, fueled by cinnamon rolls and environmentally sustainable wood.

Directed by Strangeloop Associate Member John Morrison, All The World's An IKEA stars Strangeloop's Jean E. Burr as Liyah and Mark Lancaster as Andy.

Loopshop is Chicago-based Strangeloop Theatre's annual short play and new works series. This year's production features original short plays on topics ranging from Swedish furniture to time travel. 

Performances for Loopshop 8 will be at 8 p.m. on Monday, July 27, and Tuesday, July 28, 2015, at The Charnel House, 3421 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago. Tickets for the show are $10 and are available at the door or online at Brown Paper Tickets. 

Loopshop 8: Birthday

To get you in the mood for Loopshop 8 — which happens next week at The Charnel House in Logan Square — we'll be sharing some short teasers about all five of our featured plays here and on Facebook. (Like us if you haven't already.)

Today we take a look at Birthday, written by Chicago playwright, songwriter and actor Jeff Bouthiette.

A same sex couple gets word they've been approved to adopt a child, but as they prepare to bring home the baby a new issue of familial identification arises that takes one partner by surprise.

Directed by Emmi Hilger, Birthday stars Alison Dornheggen as Ellen and Taylor Raye as Delia.

Loopshop is Chicago-based Strangeloop Theatre's annual short play and new works series. This year's production features original short plays on topics ranging from Swedish furniture to time travel. 

Performances for Loopshop 8 will be at 8 p.m. on Monday, July 27, and Tuesday, July 28, 2015, at The Charnel House, 3421 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago. Tickets for the show are $10 and are available at the door or online at Brown Paper Tickets. 

Loopshop 8: Pity & Guilt

To get you in the mood for Loopshop 8 — which happens next week at The Charnel House in Logan Square — we'll be sharing some short teasers about all five of our featured plays here and on Facebook. (Like us if you haven't already.)

 Pity & Guilt, written by Los Angeles-based writer L.M. Frank.

Set in London during the 1970s, Pity & Guilt tells the story of a couple with a tumultuous relationship still haunted by their previous marriages. Their lives are further complicated by the arrival of a letter.

Directed by Maria Burnham, Pity & Guilt stars Justin Fill as Harry and Caitlin Jackson as Viviana.

Loopshop is Chicago-based Strangeloop Theatre's annual short play and new works series. This year's production features original short plays on topics ranging from Swedish furniture to time travel. 

Performances for Loopshop 8 will be at 8 p.m. on Monday, July 27, and Tuesday, July 28, 2015, at The Charnel House, 3421 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago. Tickets for the show are $10 and are available at the door or online at Brown Paper Tickets. 

Loopshop 8: Here's My Card

To get you in the mood for Loopshop 8 — which happens next week at The Charnel House in Logan Square — we'll be sharing some short teasers about all five of our featured plays here and on Facebook. (Like us if you haven't already.)

Here's My Card, written by Chicago playwright, actor and director Paul Tinsley.

A naive antiques dealer, who is new to town, meets a less-than-reputable stranger at a bus stop who advises him on how best to keep his condo and all its valuables safe from robbers.

Directed by Breahan Pautsch, Here's My Card stars Linsey Falls as Mr. Loozer and Joe Giovannetti as Bart.

Loopshop is Chicago-based Strangeloop Theatre's annual short play and new works series. This year's production features original short plays on topics ranging from Swedish furniture to adoption. 

Performances for Loopshop 8 will be at 8 p.m. on Monday, July 27, and Tuesday, July 28, 2015, at The Charnel House, 3421 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago. Tickets for the show are $10 and are available at the door or online at Brown Paper Tickets. 

Casting announced for Loopshop 8

Casting is complete for Loopshop 8 and we've packed a lot of amazing talent into these bit-sized plays.

Check back next week for a more detailed look at each piece, but in the meantime let this wet your appetite.

• All the World’s An Ikea, written by Maria Burnham and directed by John Morrison,  crams massive relationship issues into a tiny "Living In 377 Sq. Ft." display space.  
• Birthday, written by Jeff Bouthiette and directed by Emmi Hilger, shows us the unexpected struggles of a lesbian couple trying to adopt. 
• Get Back, written by Keith Gatchel and directed by Spenser Davis, tells the story of two boys determined to make a potato-powered time machine that will let them right a playground wrong.
• Here’s My Card, written by Paul Tinsley and directed by Breahan Pautsch, warns us not to talk to strangers at bus stops.
• Pity & Guilt, written by L.M. Frank and directed by Maria Burnham, follows a married couple struggling to leave their past marriages behind.

Actors for these pieces include: Jean E. Burr, Alison Dornheggen, Linsey Falls, Justin Fill, Joe Giovannetti, Caitlin Jackson, Mark Lancaster, Christopher Paul Mueller, Taylor Raye and Gage Wallace.

Performances for Loopshop 8 will be at 8 p.m. on Monday, July 27, and Tuesday, July 28, 2015, at The Charnel House, 3421 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago. Tickets for the show are $10 at the door or online at Brown Paper Tickets.

Scripts, directors announced for Loopshop 8

Loopshop 8 kicks off Strangeloop's eighth season this July with an array of bite-sized plays on topics ranging from Swedish furniture to time travel. Scripts and directors have been selected and casting is underway.

The annual series, which showcases short plays or scenes from full-length scripts in development, is set for 8 p.m. on Monday, July 27, and Tuesday, July 28, at the Charnel House in Logan Square.

The selected pieces are:

• All the World's An Ikea written by Maria Burnham and directed by John Morrison
• Birthday written by Jeff Bouthiette and directed by Emmi Hilger 
• Get Back written by Keith Gatchel and directed by Spenser Davis 
• Here's My Card written by Paul Tinsley and directed by Breahan Pautsch 
• Pity & Guilt written by L.M. Frank and directed by Maria Burnham

Tickets for Loopshop 8 are $10 and on sale now at Brown Paper Tickets. Check back here soon for casts and summaries of each piece!

Save the date! Loopshop 2015 in Logan Square

Loopshop 8 is coming up this summer with a whole slate of new works in bite-sized portions.

The annual series, set for 8 p.m. on Monday, July 27, and Tuesday, July 28, at the Charnel House, showcases short plays or scenes from full-length scripts in development.

Strangeloop is committed to producing new or newly adapted work, and Loopshop gives Chicago audiences the chance to see a number of new works by emerging playwrights in one sitting.

Our development process focuses on production-oriented collaboration between writers and artists, as well as readings and performances of scenes that allow audiences to experience and react to the work.

The Charnel House is located at 3421 W Fullerton Ave, in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. More information on the plays involved in this year's Loopshop will be available soon. 

Now accepting script submissions for Loopshop 8!

Strangeloop Theatre is committed to producing new or newly adapted work, and our annual workshop series, Loopshop, gives Chicago audiences the chance to see a number of new works by emerging playwrights in one sitting.

The series, now in its eighth year, showcases short plays or scenes from full-length scripts in development for two nights in July.

Submission details are as follows:

• All submissions must be performable in 10 minutes or less. 
• All submissions must be original works that have never been fully produced before. Works that have been developed in a workshop environment are acceptable.
• Adaptations and translations are also acceptable as long as any necessary permissions and rights with copyright holders have been obtained. 
• In the case of submissions from larger works, the playwright must choose and/or edit the scene or cutting they want submitted to Loopshop and submit that scene or cutting only. We will not accept any submissions longer than 10 minutes for Loopshop. 
• The deadline for submissions is May 31.

Strangeloop Theatre is committed to play development and the growth of works in progress. Our development process focuses on production-oriented collaboration between writers and artists, as well as readings and performances of scenes that allow audiences to experience and react to the work. To that end, we also welcome submissions that are in early draft or unfinished forms.

You can find information about past Loopshop productions on this blog, on our website and Facebook page.

To submit your work or to ask questions about Strangeloop new play production and development, please contact plays@strangelooptheatre.org.  Please include "Loopshop 8 script submission" in your subject line.

Strangeloop presents a staged reading of the new play, 'Mitera'

Join us for a free staged reading of Mitera, a new work written by Strangeloop Company Member Maria Burnham.

Three, single sisters have their lives turned upside down when they find out their mother is still micromanaging their lives from beyond the grave. Mitera pokes and prods the boundaries of family loyalty and examines the idea that sometimes the people we’ve known our entire lives are the people we know the least.

The reading is directed by Breahan Eve Pautsch and stars Allison McCorkle as Olga Sheridan, Holly Robison as Nitsa Sheridan, Cyra K. Polizzi as Dimitra Sheridan, Lona Livingston as Sharon Kaskalis and Tim Lee as Dimitris Kokkinakis.

Mitera is part of Strangeloop Theatre's development series. A scene from Mitera was originally featured in our short play and new works development series, Loopshop, in 2013. That version was directed by Elana Elyce, and starred Allison McCorkle as Olga, Stella Martin as Nitsa and Cyra K. Polizzi as Dimitra.

The reading takes place in upstairs room of the Celtic Crown (4301 N. Western Ave., Chicago).

Thank you from Strangeloop

Thank you to everyone who made it out to French With Me: A Classic Affaire. We had a lot of fun with all of you and the tubas (if you are wondering what that means, you weren't there and we feel very sad for you).

We'd especially like to thank our event sponsors: Finch's Beer Company, Honey Baby Bakery, 525 Executive Sweets and Cafe Bella.

We'd also like to thank our auction donors: Sarah Satre De Reyes at Salon 833, The Mistress, Second City, MAKA Designs, M Henry, Albina Tritina, Universal Wellness Source, Bollywood Groove, Sweets by Meghan McClure, Good & Honest Natural Soaps, Jaclyn Garland, Your Edible Backyard, The Burlington, Starbucks Coffee, Adriatic Cafe and New England Seafood Company.

And thanks to all our volunteers who helped things run smoothly and all the actors, directors, writers and musicians (We're looking at you, Aces of Basses: William Russell, Aden Beery, Ben Darneille and Chris Smith!) who donated their time to put on such a successful event.

If you missed our fundraising gala, but would still like to donate you can do so through our website,  strangelooptheatre.org. Simply click on the donation button and you'll be able to set up the amount you wish to give. Or you can do it the old-fashioned way by sending us a check to made out to "Strangeloop Theatre, NFP" to 2616 N. Spaulding Ave. #2, Chicago, IL 60647.

*Photos from French With Me: A Classic Affair by Jaclyn Garland

Strangeloop presents 'French With Me 5' on Feb. 10

Strangeloop Theatre is back in February with French With Me, our fifth annual musings on love presented in vignette form just in time for Valentine's Day. 

The gala event will feature short original works by up-and-coming playwrights including our ever-popular mime romance storyline, and it showcases the amazing talents of Chicago storefront actors and directors. This year, we add un peu de romantisme to the romance for French With Me 5: A Classic Affaire.

This year's pieces include a mix of old favorites (it is a CLASSIC affaire after all) and new works:

• French With Me conceived and directed by Maria Burnham*
• Purple Girl Faces Reality by Keith Gatchel*; directed by Dante Charlton
• OK Stupid by Letitia Guillaud*; directed by Jessica Kent
• Violent Femmes by Joe Janes; directed by Chad Wise
• Married Bliss by Jean Koppen; directed by James Sparling
• Kitchen Sink Drama by John C. Davenport; directed by Kit Ryan

Join us at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 10, at the The Charnel House in Logan Square, 3421 W Fullerton Ave. in Chicago, for a reception with food, drink and a silent auction. The performances begin at 8 p.m. with live music from Hollywood's golden age and dessert to follow. 

Tickets are available at the door or in advance at Brown Paper Tickets.

*Denotes Strangeloop Company Member