Photo Flash: Josh Odor, Sara Gorsky et al. in Pine Box's THE JAMMER

Pine Box Theater Company kicks off its 2012 Season with THE JAMMER by Rolin Jones, directed by Artistic Director Vincent Teninty, playing now through July 1, 2012 at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave., Chicago. THE JAMMER features Pine Box Ensemble Members Josh Odor and Greg Rothman with Bill Bannon, Sara Gorsky, Kersten Haile, Amy Jean Johnson, Michael Kevin Martin, Miguel Nunez, Levenix Riddle and Eliza Shin. Check out photos of the cast in action below!

THE JAMMER resurrects that greatest of American entertainments, the Roller Derby: half sport, half show, all action. In just over an hour, THE JAMMER packs multiple roller-derby sequences, a riot, a roller-coaster ride, vomit, spit, blood, sex and love. In short, it’s the King Lear of roller derby plays.

Rolin Jones received a Fringe First Award for Best New Writing at 2004's Edinburgh Fringe Festival for The Jammer. It was later produced at the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival. Jones' play The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and received the 2006 Obie Award for Excellence in Playwriting. He has written several short plays for the Actors Theater of Louisville's Humana Festival, including Sovereignty, Ron Robby Had Too Big A Heart, The Mercury and the Magic, Extremely and Chronicles Simpkins Will Cut Your Ass. Jones has also worked extensively in television, serving as a producer and writer on the series Weeds, Friday Night Lights and The United States of Tara. He currently serves as a co-executive producer on the television series Smash.

Vincent Teninty currently serves as Pine Box’s Artistic Director. He has been acting professionally in Chicago since 1999 at esteemed companies including Steppenwolf Theatre (Mother Courage and Her Children, A Lesson Before Dying), The Goodman Theatre (Talking Pictures, The Good Negro, Dartmoor Prison), The Hypocrites (Desire Under the Elms), Apple Tree Theatre (To Kill a Mockingbird), The Artistic Home (Savage Love), Steep Theatre (The Resistible of Arturo Ui, Insignificance), Strawdog Theatre (Julius Caesar) and TimeLine Theatre (A Cry of Players).

The production team for THE JAMMER includes: Bob Groth (scenic design), Joshua Allard (costume design), Todd Clark & Matt Miller (lighting design), Harrison Adams (sound design), Jenniffer Thusing (props design), Matt Hawkins (fight/movement choreography) and Andrew Donnelly (stage manager).

The opening is set for Friday, May 25 at 8:15 pm, with a regular run of Saturday, May 26 – Sunday, July 1. Curtain Times: Thursdays & Fridays at 8:15 pm, Saturdays at 5 pm & 8:15 pm, Sundays at 7 pm.

Tickets for THE JAMMER are currently on sale at www.pineboxtheater.org or by calling the Athenaeum Box Office at (773) 935-6875. The Athenaeum Box Office is open from 12 pm – last curtain, Wednesdays through Sundays.

Pine Box Theater Company (Vincent Teninty, Artistic Director; Greg Rothman, Managing Director) has its genesis in a group of actors who all met and graduated from the School at Steppenwolf in 2004. Wanting to build upon this common experience and strengthen the relationships they had forged there, these actors agreed to form a company with a commitment to producing challenging theatre with a focus on intense character and relationship-driven stories. Seminal productions include: Life and Limb by Keith Reddin, This is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan, Hot 'N' Throbbing by Paula Vogel and Pine Box Ensemble Member Joshua Rollins’ A Girl With Sun In Her Eyes in the summer of 2011.

Photo credit: Michael Brosilow