ATC Extends COLUMBINUS Through 4/7

American Theater Company (ATC) announces new performance dates for its world premiere production of the revised version of columbinus, written by Stephen Karam and PJ Paparelli, with dramaturgy by Patricia Hersch, and conceived and directed by Artistic Director PJ Paparelli. The production is now extended through Sunday, April 7, 2013 at American Theater Company, 1909 W Byron St, Chicago, IL. columbinus has garnered rave critical reviews of its new third act, which premieres material devised from recent interviews with survivors of the Columbine High School Shootings, families of victims and residents of Littleton, Colorado. The new material includes never-before-released information on the shooters and their families and first-hand accounts of both the Columbine and Aurora shootings.

Tickets for the three-week-long extension are now on sale through the box office, www.atcweb.org and 773.409.4125.

Littleton, Colorado. 1999. Two teenagers devastate a community and shock the country when they walk into their suburban high school and kill twelve students and one teacher. Based on interviews with teenagers across the country and survivors and community members in Littleton, this haunting drama takes a hard look at modern teenagers through the lens of the most infamous high school shooting in American history.

ATC further announces that its musical production, a restored & revised Hair, will be moved from its current position to the spring 2014 spot. The ambitious revival, to be directed by Paparelli, will now close out the Company's 29th season. In its place, a revised remount of Stephen Karam's Speech & Debate will run from May 13 - June 10, 2013, also directed by PJ Paparelli. Speech & Debate made its Chicago Premiere at ATC in 2008 to critical and popular success; the limited-engagement production will feature original cast member Sadieh Rifai reprising her original role, as well as Will Allen in his ATC debut.

"We are so pleased to offer Chicagoans a longer run of columbinus. When looking at a shorter extension and a compromised production of Hair, we decided it was so important to run columbinus as long as possible and allow audience to experience this revised version of Hair as author Jim Rado and I envision it," says Artistic Director PJ Paparelli. "Audience members have asked me so many times if we were ever going to remount Speech & Debate, and I always have said no. However, this unique situation allows us to bring this show back to Chicago with some script revisions and a new production design. I'm thrilled that Stephen and I will be working together again on this wickedly funny play."

Speech & Debate is a quick-witted and timely comedy that tells the story of three misfits who team up to expose their teacher's online secrets while forming their high school's first Speech and Debate club. With a searing script by columbinus co-writer Stephen Karam, Artistic Director PJ Paparelli remounts this hysterical yet touching tale of three teens' quest for fame and free speech.

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