The acclaimed Route 66 Theatre Company's production of A TWIST OF WATER will feature a special panel discussion regarding adoption following the 4 p.m. performance on Sunday, June 5 at the Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport Avenue, in Chicago. Guest panelists include State Representative Sara Feigenholtz who is an adoptee, Jackie Kaplan, an adoptive parent, and Rachel Wright, Adoption Counselor for The Cradle, an adoption agency in Illinois. Erica Weiss, Director of A TWIST OF WATER, will moderate the discussion, which will examine a multitude of issues related to adoption and how it was portrayed in the production.
A tribute to beloved Chicago and its unique history, the Jeff Award Recommended A TWIST OF WATER is a deeply funny and profoundly touching story of fathers and daughters, and what it means to be a family. Written by Caitlin Montanye Parrish and Directed by Erica Weiss who is also the co-creator, the production features Route 66 Artistic Director Stef Tovar, with Falashay Pearson, Alex Hugh Brown and Lili-Anne Brown.
A TWIST OF WATER has received glowing reviews from Chicago's critics, earning four stars from Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune who raved that the production "reaches with more passion, wisdom and lyricism towards civic definition than any Chicago work I've seen." Steve Oxman from Variety pronounced the play as "meaningful and affecting." Said Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times "a play full of passion, purpose, intelligence...bursts of poetic writing...Stef Tovar in a fervent, soulful, first-rate performance...very well acted." Highly recommended by Julienne Bilker of Time Out Chicago, A TWIST OF WATER is a "smart, affecting new play." Keith Ecker of Chicago Theatre Blog calls A TWIST OF WATER, "A contemporary masterpiece...an important play that speaks to our time...Four Stars." Mary Barnidge of Windy City Times praises, "Erica Weiss' direction highlights the intelligence anchoring this exploration of family dynamics." The play also received a great deal of attention when Mayor Elect Rahm Emanuel attended the production days after winning the mayoral seat.
A TWIST OF WATER features Stef Tovar as Noah, a gay, widowed history teacher, raising his adopted African-American daughter Jira, played by Falashay Pearson, alone in the wake of his husband's death in a car accident. When Jira decides that she wants to seek out her birth mother, Noah's already grief-stricken and strained relationship with his child is pressed to the breaking point. As he struggles to hold on to and rebuild his family, a burgeoning new romance with a younger man, played by Alex Hugh Brown, serves to complicate matters, but may also be a saving grace.
A TWIST OF WATER was the People's Choice Award winner for the XYZ Festival of New Work at About Face Theatre. It was also featured in the Victory Gardens Theater New Play Reading Series, Red Tape Theatre's Fresh Eyes Project 2009 and in Route 66 Theatre Company's Monthly Reading Series at Murphy's Irish Bistro.
Playwright Caitlin Montanye Parrish is a Route 66 Company member and a founding member of Hypatia Theatre Company. Her plays have been viewed Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theater, regionally at Portland Stage in Maine, and in Chicago at Victory Gardens Theater, Red Tape Theatre, PROP THTR, Chicago Dramatists, and The Inconvenience. She is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of Southern California in screenwriting.
Erica Weiss, the Co-Creator and Director, serves as the Literary Manager for Route 66 Theatre Company where she was the dramaturg for the world premiere of Scott Barsotti's McMEEKIN FINDS OUT. She also dramaturged Kristoffer Diaz's Jeff Award-winning play, THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Erica was the founding Artistic Director of Hypatia Theatre Company. The company dissolved in 2008 and is now The Hypatia Project, an ongoing theatrical partnership between her and playwright Caitlin Montanye Parrish, with whom she has collaborated for the past eight years.
