Profiles Theatre Extends BACHELORETTE Through 5/27

Profiles Theatre announces an additional four weeks of performances of the Midwest premiere of Bachelorette by Leslye Headland, directed by Profiles Co-Artistic Director Darrell W. Cox. The full cast, Eric Burgher (A Behanding in Spokane, Kid Sister), Hillary Marren, Linda Augusta Orr, Rakisha Pollard, Amanda Powell and Adam Soule will continue with the production through the extension. The production will run through May 27, 2012, at Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway in Chicago.

Ten years out of high school, three unhappy friends show up “not-quite-invited” to their classmate’s hotel room for the perfect bachelorette celebration. Half a bathtub of booze later, the former prom queen is melting down, the nice-girl cokehead is on a mission to mend the mauled wedding dress, and the lacerating maid of honor finds her picture-perfect life less stable than it seemed. A smash hit Off- Broadway, Leslye Headland’s shrewd and biting play is an aria to the anxiety and self-loathing of a generation.

Bachelorette is the third production of Profiles Theatre’s 23rd season. The company’s World premiere of Assisted Living by Deirdre O’Connor was extended three times at Profiles’ Second Stage Theatre. The final show of the season will be the American premiere of In A Forest Dark and Deep by Neil LaBute, opening the theatre’s newest venue, The Main Stage, on April 19, 2012.

Bachelorette premiered at New York’s Second Stage Theatre Uptown in July 2010 where it enjoyed a sold-out extended run. Leslye Headland, a Los Angeles-based playwright and screenwriter, wrote and directed the Seven Deadly Plays series, which premiered at the IAMA Theatre Company in Los Angeles. Headland directed and adapted the film version of Bachelorette, which was shot in New York City last summer. The film, starring Kirsten Dunst, will premiere as part of the Sundance Film Festival's out-of-competition screenings in January 2012. Her recent play, Assistance, receives its New York premiere at the Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theater this season. She’s currently developing a pilot based on Julie Klausner’s memoir, I Don’t Care About Your Band for Gary Sanchez Productions (Adam McKay and Will Ferrell). Headland studied at the Playwrights Horizons Theater School where she won the Robert Moss Prize. Bachelorette opened at Profiles Theatre on January 20, 2012.

"I had this idea for writing a cycle of plays on each of the seven deadly sins,” said playwright Leslye Headland. “I was particularly interested in the shifting morality of people in their late twenties because it is a time when people are dealing with so many different competing standards of behavior. With Bachelorette I wanted to look at female drug abuse and female gluttony. I placed the story at a wedding because I realized a lot of what underlies party seeking behavior is self-pity. Where are women most self-pitying? It's probably other people's weddings. That’s probably the height of when women feel sorry for themselves—when one person is being celebrated and moving into adulthood and everyone else is just miserable."

Directed by Profiles Co- Artistic Director Darrell W. Cox, the cast of Bachelorette includes Profiles’ ensemble member Eric Burgher (A Behanding in Spokane, Kid Sister) along with guest artists Hillary Marren, Linda Augusta Orr, Rakisha Pollard, Amanda Powell and Adam Soule.

The designers are Scott Davis (set), Bekki Lambrecht (lights), Jeffrey Levin (sound and original music), and Erica Griese (costumes). Profiles ensemble member MaryAnn Carlson is the stage manager and Kristin Barnett is assistant stage manager.

More Articles by This Author...