Photo Flash: First Look at Dead Writers Theatre Collective's TEA WITH EDIE AND FITZ

Photo-Flash-Tea-with-Edie-and-Fitz-20000101

Dead Writers Theatre Collective announces the Chicago premiere of Adam Pasen's Tea with Edie and Fitz, directed by Jim Schneider, April 26 - June 9, at the Greenhouse Theater Complex, 2257 North Lincoln Ave. Preview performances are April 26 - April 28. Opening/press night is Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. and will be followed by a reception. The performance schedule is Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Ticket prices are $15 for previews and $30 for the scheduled run. All tickets are available at deadwriters.net, greenhousetheater.org or 773.404.7336. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production below.

Tea with Edie and Fitz chronicles the tempestuous meeting of literary icons Edith Wharton (Judith Hoppe) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Madison Niederhauser) at her estate for tea in the 1920s. In scenes that jump backward and forward chronologically and span the entire globe (from glittering expatriate Paris to roaring post-WWI Manhattan), the play examines the lives of two authors at the height of their powers and imagines what may have happened in that meeting that led them to never speak again. Particular attention is paid to their relationships with their equally legendary partners: Fitzgerald and his beautiful and troubled Southern wife, Zelda (Nora Ulrey), and Wharton with the ghost of her mentor and longtime companion Henry James (Michael D. Graham). Tea with Edie and Fitz calls into question themes of gender, sanity, time, the purpose of art and the nature of love and loss.

Additional Tea with Edie and Fitz cast includes Christina Irwin, Luke Renn, Ben Muller, Peter Esposito, Bill Chamberlain, Sara Minton, Nelson Rodriquez, Megan Delay, BranDon Johnson and Bill Zorn.

The production staff also includes Kari Warfield, production stage manager; Matthew Bonaccorso, assistant stage manager; Reed Motz, assistant director; Kendra Kargenian, dialect coach; E. Matthew Walter, set designer; Elizabeth Wislar, costume designer; Jeffrey Shields, props designer; Angela Guest, properties mistress and Kris Kontour, technical director.

Photo Credit: Anthony La Penna