Original Chicago Cast Set for METAMORPHOSES at Lookingglass Theatre, 9/19-28

Lookingglass Theatre Company will open its 25th Anniversary Season with Metamorphoses, based on the Myths of Ovid, written and directed by Lookingglass Ensemble Member Mary Zimmerman. The show will play September 19 – September 28, 2012. The return of Lookingglass' seminal production, coinciding with the 10th Anniversary of the Broadway run, will open at Lookingglass in the fall of 2012 and will then move to Washington D.C.'s Arena Stage.

In 1998, Lookingglass debuted Metamorphoses, a play of such grace and power that the memory of it still lingers in the minds of audiences today. The critically-acclaimed, record-breaking Chicago engagement led to a Broadway production that garnered Mary Zimmerman the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director and catapulted Lookingglass onto the national stage.

From a simple, rippling pool of water, Ensemble Member Mary Zimmerman conjured the force of Ovid's ancient myths into gorgeous imagery and breathtaking storytelling. Metamorphoses' long-anticipated Chicago revival will feature a number of Lookingglass Ensemble Members and original cast members.

Metamorphoses will feature members of the original Lookingglass Chicago cast, Anjali Bhimani (Myrrha and Others), Lawrence E. DiStasi (Hermes and Others), Marilyn Dodds Frank (Therapist and Others), Raymond Fox (Midas and Others), Douglas Hara (Phaeton and Others), Chris Kipiniak (Erysichthon and Others), Louise Lamson (Alcyone and Others). The cast also includes returning cast member Anne Fogarty (Aphrodite and Others) and new cast members Usman Ally (Ceyx and Others) and Lauren Orkus (Eurydice and Others).

"Metamorphoses is one of those rare productions that truly has it all: beauty, mystery, humor, pathos. The brilliance of Mary's work is that these ancient myths feel at once very contemporary and totally timeless, simultaneously rooted in the very specific individuals onstage and completely universal," says Artistic Director Andy White. "These are some of the reasons it was our longest-running hit in Chicago, then toured the country, and finally ran for a year on Broadway. This show had a profound impact on all of us – Lookingglass, Chicago, and even the country – when we first produced it, and we've had an ache to revisit it for a long time. We are so proud to bring it back to Chicago now, and to have it kick off our 25th Anniversary Season."

In February 2013, Lookingglass Theatre's production of Metamorphoses, will transfer to The Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Last season, The Arena Stage brought Lookingglass' hit production of The Arabian Nights to its stage.

Mary Zimmerman has worked with Lookingglass Theatre Company for more than twenty years. She adapted and directed The Odyssey, The Secret in the Wings, Arabian Nights, S/M, Metamorphoses, the Lookingglass/About Face collaboration of Eleven Rooms of Proust and Argonautika. Zimmerman is also part of the Goodman Theatre artistic team where she adapted and directed The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (with several members of the Lookingglass ensemble), Silk, Journey to the West, Mirror of the Invisible World and a re-creation of The Odyssey. She has twice directed for the New York Shakespeare Festival in the Park. Her work has won awards in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Berkeley and New York including the 2002 Tony Award for her direction of Metamorphoses on Broadway. In the world of opera, she directed and wrote the libretto Galileo Galilei (Philip Glass, composer) which was produced at the Goodman Theatre and the Barbican Theatre in London. Additionally, she has directed three operas at The Metropolitan Opera in New York City: Lucia Di Lammermoor, La Sonnambula, andRossini's Armida. In 1998, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She lives in Evanston and is a professor of Performance Studies at Northwestern University.

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