Join us as we continue our season at Theater Wit…

The

ElephantMan

by Bernard Pomerance

January 7 – February 6, 2011

Directed by June Eubanks

In Victorian London, Dr. Frederick Treves discovers the misshapen, stunted John Merrick cruely treated and on display in a freak show. Treves rescues him in order to study his peculiar deformity, but Merrick turns out to be unusually bright and articulate, and soon becomes the toast of high society. But has he only traded one form of exhibitionism for another? Based on a true story.

Directed by Lara FilipProduced by Peter Blair

CompanyArtistic Director Peter Marston Sullivanexecutive Director Peter BlairArtistic ADvisor Stephen Genoveseexecutive ADvisor Thomas J. SamorianAssociAte Artistic Director Peter RobelMAnAging Director Ryan GuhdecAsting coorDinAtor Stephanie SullivancoMpAny secretAry Mary Kate RobelMeDiA Director Charles Riffenburg IVcoMpAny Anna Hammonds, Rebecca Mauldin, Sean Thomas

BoardStephen Genovese, president; Thomas Samorian, vice-president;

Mary Kate Robel, secretary; Kaela Altman; Steve Goodman; Robert Kimmeth; Richard Maxen; Sara Youngblood-Ochoa,

Jean Zuiker

Artistic AffiliatesAnthony Apodaca, Brenda Didier, Patrick Ham,

Theresa Ham, Jon Steinhagen, A. Scott Williams,and John Zuiker

Bohemian Theatre Ensemble is a not-for-profit 501 (c) 3 organization. Our events and productions are made possible by your generous donations and patronage. Please visit our

website at www.bohotheatre.com or speak with our house manager to learn about more ways to contribute time, money, and talent to helping support art in Chicago.

Mission & VisionBoHo Theatre’s mission is to create theatre that incorporates the arts as a whole — Art for art’s sake. Our vision is to challenge convention through literary originality and eclectic expression while fostering an ever-evolving artistic environment in which people are inspired to learn, think, dream, and feel. To teach others and ourselves how to expand, create, and present art through theatre while reveling not only in the process, but also in the journey.

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presents

Dirty Blondeby Claudia

Shear

OpeningApril 1

Directed by Artistic Advisor

Stephen Genovese

Icarusby Edwin Sanchez

OpeningJune 25

Directed by Artistic DirectorP. Marston Sullivan

BECoME A PArT of THE ArT!BoHo Theatre is growing quickly! Now in our seventh season, we are a resident company at Theater Wit, which increases our capacity and visibility, as well as maintaining our home at the Heartland Studio for new works, rehearsals, and to foster up-and-coming young theatre companies. As part of our transition, we are actively seeking board members to join our outgoing and artistic family.

For more information on becoming a board member, visit us online at www.bohotheatre.com/jointheboard

PerformersEric Loughlin | KeyBoArDEric is thrilled to be making his BoHo Theatre debut in Striking 12. Eric moved to Chicago from Buffalo, NY, and has spent time in the city working as both an actor and a musician. Recent roles include Manuel Martinez in Jedlicka Performing Arts Company’s production of The Magical Ice Cream Suit, as well as Orpheus in Moon Come for Simple Theatre’s K.I.S.S. Fest in August. As a pianist, Eric had the opportunity to play piano for Bootstraps Comedy Theatre’s production of The Better Doctor, a live silent movie fully underscored with music. Eric has been playing and studying piano for 15 years, mostly in the area of jazz and blues. He is also a graduate of Northern Illinois University, where he majored in Theatre.

Mallory nees | guitAr, BAssMallory is thrilled to be making her BoHo debut! Since graduating from The Theatre School at DePaul, Mallory has worked with several great theater companies: Theatre-Hikes (Sleepy Hollow, also directed by the lovely Lara Filip), Strawdog (The Good Soul of Szechuan), Rivendell (Mercury 13), The (a)Symmetry Cycle (blindsight), 16th Street (Menorca), and, more often than not, right down the street at Lifeline Theatre (Dooby Dooby Moo, The Last of the Dragons, The Blue Shadow, Mrs. Caliban, Neverwhere, and Click, Clack, Moo). If you’re dying to hear more from Mallory or her purple concertina squeezebox, you can catch them both this spring in Theatre Mir’s Caucasian Chalk Circle, directed by Jonathan Berry.

Amy steele | vioLinAmy is thrilled to be a part of this show! A graduate of Indiana University with her degree in vocal performance, she is happy to again be using her violin skills. Favorite Chicago credits include: Godspell (Provision Theatre), Uri-netown (Mercury Theatre), Doubt (Steel Beam Theatre), The American Girl Revue (American Girl Place), Tortoise and the Hare (Chicago Kids Company) and Shout! The Mod Musical (Drury Lane Water Tower). Represented by Gray Talent. Love and thanks to all!

Dustin Valenta | percussionThis is Dustin’s first production with BoHo Theatre. Most recently he was a part of the core artistic team behind Redmoon Theatre’s multimedia spectacle, The Astronaut’s Birthday, which performed at the MCA this fall. Over the summer, Dustin toured Brazil—also with Redmoon— performing in the acclaimed production of The Cabinet. In addition to a number of other Redmoon collaborations, Dustin has worked with Mary Arrchie, Emerald City, and the Inconvenience, as well as the Guthrie Theatre in Min-neapolis, and the Flynn Theatre in Burlington, VT. He holds a BFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University. With the other minutes in the day, Dustin teaches yoga, makes music, and enjoys running around, jumping, and generally embracing expression through movement.

DirECTor’s noTEs“I sat in front of a blank white screen several times, trying to write these director’s notes. I made several attempts. All I could come up with was, “music is awesome.” Earth shattering, right? But the truth is, music IS awesome. It speaks for itself (and for us) in ways that we can’t begin to articulate in mere words. It tells stories in ways that highten the beauty, humor and depth of our feelings. Striking 12 is, for me, the perfect example of this, the universal ability to get lost in a story. Lost in music. Transported to another place, while suddenly feeling like we are closely related to every other person in the room. Writing director’s notes for this piece didn’t come easily to me because I feel like there was no “direction” to be done. It was all just a sense of opening doors and windows, in a big, cozy, hilarious house. Letting the sounds waft out into the winter air. Asking the audience to come inside and hang out for awhile while we all sit around and share a great story in the best way possible...through music. Awesome music.”

-Lara Filip

Continuing GratitudeThank you to Michael James for allowing BoHo the latitude to use this space as we will; the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, and The Saints for all their financial and artistic support; Robert Kimmeth and Jean Zuiker for the time and energy they take out their lives to make this company even better; BoHo company members who strive daily to make this a place where artists can learn, grow, and fulfill their dreams; and, anyone else who we may have neglected to thank at the time this was printed.

Production TeamLara filip | DirectorLara is thrilled to be joining the BoHo family once again. She previously adapted and directed Sophocles’ Electra here at the Heartland Studio space. Other directing credits include projects for Theatre-Hikes, Ouroboros Theatre Company (where she was the founding Artistic Director), Metropolis Perform-ing Arts Centre, Theatre Building Chicago, The Morton Arboretum, and many independent new musical workshops. Lara is also a playwright, actor, and singer/songwriter. She has performed onstage at The Marriott Lincolnshire, Drury Lane, The Royal George, Ravinia Music Festival, Porchlight Music The-atre (where she is also an Artistic Associate), and in several National tours. Her band, Birdie Wing is currently recording its debut album. She doesn’t get much sleep. But it’s worth it. Many thanks to all her dear friends at BoHo and to this spectacularly warm, funny, and talented cast. And thank you for being here to support live theatre and music.

Brendan Milburn | BooK, Music, AnD LyricsBrendan graduated from Pomona College and NYU’s MFA program in Musi-cal Theatre Writing. He does a lot of arranging for the band GrooveLily, and he’s an accomplished record producer as well. He often yearns for his native San Francisco. Along with his wife and longtime collaborator, Valerie Vigoda, Brendan is a 2009 winner of the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, as well as a two-time winner of the Jonathan Larson Award for Excellence in Writing for the Theatre. Other credits include Toy Story The Musical, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Wheelhouse (GrooveLily’s autobiographical concert-musical), Long Story Short, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s play), and Ernest Shackleton Loves Me.

rachel sheinkin | BooK, Music, AnD LyricsRachel’s other ther music theatre collaborations include The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, for which she won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Book for a Musical; Blood Drive (O’Neill National Music Theatre Conference) and Serenade (Baryshnikov Arts Center). She has been a Manhattan Theatre Club playwriting fellow and is currently an adjunct faculty member at NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

Valerie Vigoda | BooK, Music, AnD LyricsValerie is the founding member of the band GrooveLily. Originally from McLean, VA, Valerie is a classically-trained musician, honors graduate of Princeton University, and former Army lieutenant. She has toured the world with Cyndi Lauper (opening for Tina Turner and Cher), Joe Jackson and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. She founded GrooveLily (originally “The Valerie Vigoda Band”) in 1994, with a critically-acclaimed CD called Inhabit My Heart. Along with her husband and longtime collaborator Brendan Milburn, Valerie is a 2009 winner of the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, as well as a two-time winner of the Jonathan Larson Award for Excel-lence in Writing for the Theatre. Other credits include Toy Story The Musical, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Wheelhouse (GrooveLily’s autobiographical concert-musical), Long Story Short, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (a musical adapta-tion of Shakespeare’s play), and Ernest Shackleton Loves Me.

sally Weiss | scenic & LigHting DesignerMs. Weiss is a scenic and lighting designer in Chicago and is happy to be making her BoHo Theatre debut with Striking 12. She has worked with The Marriott Theatre, Next Theatre, The Neo-Futurists, Drury Lane Oakbrook, About Face Theatre, and the rhythmic ensemble Be The Groove. Sally received her B.A. in Theatre from the University of Maryland at College Park and recently finished the M.F.A. Stage Design program at Northwestern University. She is a proud company member of New Suit Theatre Company. Examples of her work can be seen at www.sallyweissdesign.com.

ryan Keller | stAge MAnAgerRyan is thrilled to be working with BoHo Theatre for the first time on such an amazing show! Recent credits include Playboy of the Western World, Rock & Roll, and Proof at Illinois State University, and Tobacco Road with American Blues Theatre. Ryan is a sophomore Theatre Design/Production major at Illinois State University, specializing in Stage Management & Lighting Design. He would like to thank his family, friends, and everyone at BoHo!

special Thanks for Their WorkFelicia Filip (aka “Mrs. B.”), Bob Gilmartin, Lisa Gonwa, Marcel Graham, Nick Guttierez, Brady Hyde, Peter Robel, Peter Sipla, and Andrew Wheatley