Hell in a Handbag Productions is pleased to continue its 21st season with the Chicago premiere of I Promised Myself to Live Faster, an intergalactic queer extravaganza featuring closeted extraterrestrials, high stakes pursuits and nuns from outer space, featuring text by Greg Moss and Pig Iron, originally created and conceived by Pig Iron Theatre Company and directed by JD Caudill*. I Promised Myself to Live Faster will play through April 30, 2023 at The Chopin Downstairs Theatre, 1543 W. Division St. in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets are now on sale at buytickets.at/hellinahandbagproductions/825817 or handbagproductions.org.
The cast includes ensemble members David Cerda*, Sydney Genco*, Caitlin Jackson*, Tyler Anthony Smith* and Robert Williams* with Kim Boler, Taylor Dalton, Lolly Extract, Emmanuel Ramirez and Ben Stacy. Understudies include Connar Brown, Andres Coronado, Abbey Demorow, Ashley Graham, Rebecca Husk, Brian Knall, Michael Christopher Radford and Scott Sawa.
This space epic tells the tale of our reluctant hero Tim (Robert Williams*) who’s been put through an emotional ringer these past few months. Tim’s life takes a radical turn when an order of intergalactic nuns charge him with a quest: retrieve the Holy Gay Flame from the clutches of the evil emperor to save the race of Homosexuals and restore the balance of power in the universe. Once Tim is captured by the fabulously androgynous Ah-Ni (David Cerda*), Tim goes places he never dreamed in this ridiculous and delirious allegorical adventure.
Pictured (left to right) Taylor Dalton, Caitlin Jackson, Kim Boler and Robert Williams in Hell in a Handbag Productions’ Chicago premiere of I Promised Myself To Live Faster. Photo by Rick Aguilar Studios.
The production team includes Jonathan Berg-Einhorn (Scenic Designer), Beth Laske-Miller and Rachel Sypniewski (Costume Designers), Liz Cooper (Lighting Designer), Danny Rockett (Sound Designer), Bren Coombs (Props Designer), Jamal Howard (Choreographer), Lolly Extract/ Jabberwocky Marionettes (Puppet Designer and Puppetry), Sydney Genco* (Make-up Designer), Keith Ryan* (Wigs Designer), Carly Belle Cason (Violence Designer), Spencer Douglas Clark (Intimacy Designer), Leo Batutis and Scott Sawa (Assistant Directors), Rowan Doe (Technical Director), Jenna Raithel (Stage Manager) and Ashby Amory (Assistant Stage Manager).
COVID safety: Masking is recommended, but not required. COVID guidelines may change in accordance with public health guidelines.
*Denotes Handbag Ensemble Member
PRODUCTION DETAILS:
Title: I Promised Myself to Live Faster
Text by: Greg Moss and Pig Iron
Originally conceived and created by: Pig Iron Theatre Company
Director: JD Caudill*
Cast (in alphabetical order): Kim Boler (Mother Superior), David Cerda* (Ah-Ni), Taylor Dalton (Nun #2), Lolly Extract (Ensemble/Puppetry), Sydney Genco* (King Trout), Caitlin Jackson* (Nun #1), Tyler Anthony Smith (Movie Star Boy), Emmanuel Ramirez (Ensemble), Ben Stacy (Ensemble) and Robert Williams* (Tim).
Understudies: Connar Brown (Ensemble/Puppetry), Andres Coronado (Movie Star Boy), Abbey Demorow (Nun #1), Ashley Graham (Mother Superior), Rebecca Husk (King Trout), Brian Knall (Tim), Michael Christopher Radford (Ensemble) and Scott Sawa.
Location: The Chopin Downstairs Theatre, 1543 W. Division St., Chicago
Regular run: Thursday, March 30 – Sunday, April 30, 2023
Curtain Times: Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 4 pm
Tickets: $42 general admission ($25 Thursday special), $61 VIP/reserved seating with drink ticket. Group rates $34 for 10 or more. Tickets are now on sale at buytickets.at/hellinahandbagproductions/825817 and handbagproductions.org.
About the Artists
Pig Iron Theatre Company (Creator, Text) is an incubator and producer of experimental performance work. Pig Iron began as an interdisciplinary ensemble in 1995, creating works of performance collage that regularly toured to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. 27 years later, Pig Iron has emerged as a leader in the movement of alternative theater makers who seek to re-situate how audiences encounter performance. The company is now a platform for devised performance which scales up and down, moves from gallery to night club to proscenium theater, creating complete performance worlds with a shifting roster of remarkable actors, designers and collaborators from beyond the world of theater. In 2011, Pig Iron launched a two-year graduate program in physical and devised theater at a new home in North Philadelphia. Three years later in 2015, the company partnered with University of the Arts to offer both a Graduate Certificate and an MFA in Devised Performance, training the next generation of adventurous makers of hybrid performance. Most recently in 2022, Pig Iron received a Re:imagining Recovery Grant in order to hire its first director of a new digital, film and interactive initiative to lead the company's extension into digital content creation, in conjunction with an advisory group focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. Today the organization finds itself at a pivotal moment as we seek to transition our producing and training models to encompass new forms and new media. pigiron.org
Greg Moss (Text) is a writer, educator and performer from Newburyport MA. His work has been produced at Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, Steppenwolf, La Comédie-Française, EST-LA, Clubbed Thumb, Capital T Theatre and South Coast Rep, among others. His plays include Indian Summer, punkplay, Reunion, Billy Witch, House of Gold and sixsixsix. Upcoming: The Unauthorized Unofficial Hunter S. Thompson Musical at La Jolla Playhouse in September 2023. gregorymoss.com
JD Caudill (Director) is a queer director, artistic director, literary manager and music director, whose recent direction includes After the Blast (Broken Nose Theatre), Southern Comfort (Pride Films and Plays), Bechdel Fests 4-6 + 8 (Broken Nose Theatre), Book of Shadows (Broken Nose Theatre) and other plays at The New Colony, Haven Theatre, The Runaways Lab Theatre, New American Folk Theatre, Hobo Junction, 20% Theatre, Paragon Theatre, Otherworld Theatre, Arc Theatre, 16th Street Theatre, Stage Left, The Syndicates and Red Theatre. They are a proud ensemble member of Hell in a Handbag, where they have music directed countless shows, and recently became interim artistic director of Broken Nose Theatre, where they’ve served as a literary manager and ensemble member for the past five years.
About Hell in a Handbag Productions
Hell in a Handbag is dedicated to the preservation, exploration, and celebration of works ingrained in the realm of popular culture via theatrical productions through parody, music and homage. Handbag is a 501(c)(3) Not for Profit. For additional information, visit handbagproductions.org.