EROICA was named a Finalist in the American Theatre Co-op, Reva Shiner and Coldwater (MI) Playwriting Competitions, Semi-finalist in the Mill Mountain (VA) Playwriting and Reverie Productions (NY)competitions. It received its initial reading at Chicago’s Victory Gardens under the leadership of Dennis Zacek and was workshopped by NSP Productions (Elgin, IL).
EROICA explores the nature of faith, commitment and betrayal. What happens when political and social questions conflict with certainties of the heart? In the end, we see that sometimes there are no right or wrong answers, no winners or losers; only victims.
David Alex’s (Author) award winning plays have been staged in several cities. He has received three grants from the Illinois Arts Council and one from the Pilgrim Foundation, an award for plays that deal with issues of moral significance. He has written thirteen full-length plays and eighteen one-acts. Recent full-length productions include ENDS, an African-American Theatre Festival Award Winner (Univ. of Louisville), at New Jersey Repertory Company and Bowen Park Theatre Co., ADRIFT, Polarity Ensemble, CORPUS DELICTI, MadKap Productions, ONTO INFNITY, Azusa Productions, Bowen Park Theatre Company; THE SECOND-OLDEST PROFESSION (musical book), Tesseract Theatre, and BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON, Chicago Playwrights’ Center. Dramatic Publishing has published two of his plays and one monologue. He is a former Secretary of the Illinois Theatre Association and Chicago Alliance for Playwrights and a member of the Jeff Awards Committee that recognizes excellence in Chicago theatre. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
[email protected]
www.davidalex.net
Maggie Speer (Director) is Artistic Director of Azusa Productions, where she previously produced David Alex’s Onto Infinity, Adrift and most recently directed Michael Alessandro’s adaptation of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Other Azusa directing credits include Sam Shepard’s Chicago and Icarus’s Mother (co-director), Fool For Love, Killer’s Head, La Turista, The Unseen Hand (co-director), A Lie Of The Mind (co-director), Jesse & The Bandit Queen (co-director) and both the original and the reprise of Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (co-director) and Pulp Fiction. Maggie is also currently the Managing Director of Polarity Ensemble Theatre where she recently directed David Hammond’s adaptation of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones and, as part of Polarity’s 2011 Dionysos Cup Festival, Richard Engling’s play Absolution. She also served as Artistic Director of Waukegan’s Bowen Park Theatre, where, in addition to presenting great classics of the theatre, she proudly brought new work of Chicago playwrights to the North Shore. For ten years, Maggie taught theatre classes at Lake Forest College where her favorite class remains “Shakespeare to Tarantino: why violence endures and flourishes in theatre, film and literature.”
AZUSA PRODUCTION MISSION STATEMENT
Now celebrating it’s 20th anniversary, Azusa Productions was founded in 1996 as a free-wheeling ensemble – in our 16 year existence we have continued to strive to create and maintain the theatre as place of recognition, exploration, revelation, and celebration, to be shared by both audiences and artists alike. We present stories about everything from A to Z in the USA and beyond and we are also committed to creating opportunities for emerging and early career theatre artists. Azusa is best known for its popular and critically-acclaimed productions of many of the works of Sam Shepard and adaptations of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.
EROICA explores the nature of faith, commitment and betrayal. What happens when political and social questions conflict with certainties of the heart? In the end, we see that sometimes there are no right or wrong answers, no winners or losers; only victims.
David Alex’s (Author) award winning plays have been staged in several cities. He has received three grants from the Illinois Arts Council and one from the Pilgrim Foundation, an award for plays that deal with issues of moral significance. He has written thirteen full-length plays and eighteen one-acts. Recent full-length productions include ENDS, an African-American Theatre Festival Award Winner (Univ. of Louisville), at New Jersey Repertory Company and Bowen Park Theatre Co., ADRIFT, Polarity Ensemble, CORPUS DELICTI, MadKap Productions, ONTO INFNITY, Azusa Productions, Bowen Park Theatre Company; THE SECOND-OLDEST PROFESSION (musical book), Tesseract Theatre, and BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON, Chicago Playwrights’ Center. Dramatic Publishing has published two of his plays and one monologue. He is a former Secretary of the Illinois Theatre Association and Chicago Alliance for Playwrights and a member of the Jeff Awards Committee that recognizes excellence in Chicago theatre. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
[email protected]
www.davidalex.net
Maggie Speer (Director) is Artistic Director of Azusa Productions, where she previously produced David Alex’s Onto Infinity, Adrift and most recently directed Michael Alessandro’s adaptation of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Other Azusa directing credits include Sam Shepard’s Chicago and Icarus’s Mother (co-director), Fool For Love, Killer’s Head, La Turista, The Unseen Hand (co-director), A Lie Of The Mind (co-director), Jesse & The Bandit Queen (co-director) and both the original and the reprise of Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (co-director) and Pulp Fiction. Maggie is also currently the Managing Director of Polarity Ensemble Theatre where she recently directed David Hammond’s adaptation of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones and, as part of Polarity’s 2011 Dionysos Cup Festival, Richard Engling’s play Absolution. She also served as Artistic Director of Waukegan’s Bowen Park Theatre, where, in addition to presenting great classics of the theatre, she proudly brought new work of Chicago playwrights to the North Shore. For ten years, Maggie taught theatre classes at Lake Forest College where her favorite class remains “Shakespeare to Tarantino: why violence endures and flourishes in theatre, film and literature.”
AZUSA PRODUCTION MISSION STATEMENT
Now celebrating it’s 20th anniversary, Azusa Productions was founded in 1996 as a free-wheeling ensemble – in our 16 year existence we have continued to strive to create and maintain the theatre as place of recognition, exploration, revelation, and celebration, to be shared by both audiences and artists alike. We present stories about everything from A to Z in the USA and beyond and we are also committed to creating opportunities for emerging and early career theatre artists. Azusa is best known for its popular and critically-acclaimed productions of many of the works of Sam Shepard and adaptations of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.