Our mission: The Plagiarists steal from literature, visual art, history, and the culture at large to create new theatre that finds the familiar in the strange, the unique in the commonplace and ultimately enlarges the world.
YEAR X
YEAR X 2017-18 Tenth Year Anniversary Season!
Image by Elissa Shortridge Jacobsen
Image by Elissa Shortridge Jacobsen
"...loud, brash fun..." Chicago Reader
"...an inexplicably depraved romp..." Chicago Theater Beat
"... a dark cartoon come to life..." Broadway World Chicago
Ubu II: Electric Boog-Ubu, or Free Ubu
Adapted from Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Enchaîné
Directed by Nick Freed*
August 31 – September 30 | Berger Park Coach House
This even nastier and dumber sequel to our nasty and dumb adaptation of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi sees the horrible Ubus visit a place even more depraved and corrupt than the 19th-century Poland they were chased out of in the first play: America. There, trapped in a sequel they never asked for (and are actively trying to destroy), they’ll discover freedom is slavery, knowledge is dumb, and doom looms large on the horizon. Featuring a farting corpse, unnecessary blasphemy, relentless stupidity, and bad jokes,Ubu II(based on Jarry’s the third play in the series, just to make things more confusing) is the perfect play to warm your hands by as the world burns.
Featuring:
Clara Byczkowski
Allison Grischow
Jyreika J. Evelyn Guest*
Raymond Jacquet
Derik Marcussen*
Stephen McClure*
Gregory Peters*
Jessica Saxvik*
Julia Stemper*
Nick Strauss
Photos by Joe Mazza of BraveLux
Production Team:
Director: Nick Freed*
Assistant Director: Paul Kastner*
Stage Manager: Christina Casano*
Production Managers: James Snyder*, Jack Dugan Carpenter*
Costume Designer: Emma Cullimore*
Sound Designer: Brendan Monte
Set/Props Designer: Noël Dominique Straley
Lighting Designer: John Jacobsen
Playwright: Gregory Peters*
* = the mark of a Plagiarist
Image by Elissa Shortridge Jacobsen
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED --Newcity Stage
"Fast-moving, broadly played and unapologetically goofy, Red is a hoot."
"... a must see..." --
RECOMMENDED! --Picture This Post
Some Like It Red
By Gregory Peters*
Directed by Jack Dugan Carpenter*
February 15 – March 17| Berger Park Coach House
Take Some Like It Hot and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, crush them under the bootheel of the totalitarian state; add 80’s songs, corny jokes, and explosions (of both the romantic and the literal kind) and you’ll start to get the flavor of our spring confection. Another shipwreck off the coast of Illyria brings ashore another set of castaways in need of disguises. Except it’s 1985, and the land once known as Illyria is now the Albanian People’s Republic, so when a 3-woman cruise ship ensemble washes up and witnesses the secret police in action, they must disguise themselves to survive. And that’s just the beginning of all the disguises, doubling, and deception…
Featuring:
VIOLET: Jessica Saxvik*
ROSE: Christina Casano*
DAISY: Sara Jean McCarthy*
COMMANDER OSMANI: Tony Kaehny*
LIEUTENANT MALUSH: Stephen McClure*
CAPTAIN MEKSI: Bryan Breau*
PETAR: Derik Marcussen*
MAJLINDA: Julia Stemper*
OLGA: Elaine Small
RESISTANCE LEADER/DUSSEX: Bill Daniel
Photos by Joe Mazza of BraveLux
Production Team:
Director: Jack Dugan Carpenter*
Assistant Director: Samantha Decker
Stage Manager: Becky Bishop
Production Managers: Greg Peters*/Emma Cullimore*
Set Designer: Pauline Olesky
Costume/Props Designer: Emma Cullimore*
Sound Designer: Isaac Mandel
Lighting Designer: John Jacobsen
Violence Consultant: Tristin Hall
Technical Director: Danny Drust
Mustache Consultant: Stesha Ross
Other Events:
Plagiarists Day!
Celebrating collaborators and friends, new and old
July 9, 2017
Salon 47
Year X , Part 1 "Rip It Up"
November 20 and 21
Image by Elissa Shortridge Jacobsen
What’s So Dangerous About Dancing?
January 14, 2018
Danny’s Tavern
Salon 48
Year X, Part 2 "Start Again"
April 23rd, 2018
Matilda-Baby Atlas, 3101 N Sheffield, 8 pm - 10 pm
Jonathan Lethem
"The Ecstasy of Influence, Ten Years Later"
May 30
Voice of the City
Image by Elissa Shortridge Jacobsen
OUR 2017-18 DONORS
Outlaw $2500 – $4999
The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at the Driehaus Foundation
The Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation
Bridget Barclay-Peters
Safecracker $1000 – $2499
The Saints
Bruce and Nancy Peters
Kay and Gary Saxvik
Rustler $750 – $999
Joe Wright Chicago Real Estate
Pirate $500 – $749
Voice of the City
John D. and Debra K. Carpenter
Bandit $250 – $499
Thelma Abels Krupp
Nina Riccardi
Highwayperson $100 – $249
Ashley Bassett, M.D., S.C.
Brian and Patty Blockovich
Tonya and Daniel Hillenbrand
Maureen R. Kelly, LCSW
John and Rosie McCarthy
Nancy Nichols
Lisa and Randy White
Jill Willis
Joanne Wright
Burglar $50 – $99
Tim and Bethany Bentley
Carol Connell and Doug Longhini
Kim Z. Dale
Ryan Adam Dickerson
John and Debbie Dickerson
Kimbra Druley
Joe Feliciano
Kate Glickman
Jacob Heger
Janet Higgins
Susan and Alan Melsky
Noel Nicoletti and Sara Lopez Nicoletti
Michael Ostrower
James Snyder
Judith B. Sugarman
Linda and Craig Walker
Pickpocket $25 – $49
Kate Nawrocki
M. A. Price
Julia Stemper
Brittany Stubbs
Sharon Sullivan
Lauren Waters
In Kind Contributors
The Plagiarists salute the following individuals and organizations who donated significant goods and/or services.
Barrel of Monkeys
The Biscuitman
Escape Artistry
The Factory Theatre
The Goodman Theatre
Interrobang Theatre Project
Lifeline Theatre
The Long Room
Lookingglass Theatre
Moksha Yoga
Nicolet
Nothing Special Productions
Oak Park Festival Theatre
Old Town School of Folk Music
Strawdog Theatre
Valuemags
Writers Theatre