TimeLine Theatre Company announces that it will present the internationally acclaimed play FROST/NIXON by Peter Morgan in its Chicago premiere. Directed by TimeLine Associate Artist Louis Contey, Frost/Nixon is currently slated to launch TimeLine's 2010-11 season in August 2010, with a specific schedule to be determined. Casting and additional productions for next season are still to be announced.
Peter Morgan's acclaimed play takes audiences inside the real-life 1977 television interviews between journalist David Frost and former president Richard Nixon. It has been three years since Nixon resigned from office in disgrace. The Watergate scandal is still on the minds of many, but the former commander-in-chief has yet to break his silence about his role in those events. Now Nixon has agreed to be interviewed by the up-and-coming British broadcaster David Frost. Behind-the-scenes it's a battle of egos for the upper hand in controlling history, but as the cameras roll, the world is riveted by a remarkably honest exchange between one man who has lost everything and another with everything to gain. "A gripping study of the politics of the media," wrote Michael Billington in The Guardian upon the play's premiere. And Charles Spencer in The Telegraph called it "a terrific new play that is as thought-provoking as it is gripping and entertaining. What's more, like all good history, it illuminates the present while examining the past."
Frost/Nixon premiered at London's Donmar Theatre Warehouse in August 2006, starring Frank Langella as Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen as David Frost. Upon rave reviews, it transferred to the West End and later played on Broadway for 137 performances in 2007. Frost/Nixon was made into a feature film in 2008 directed by Ron Howard and featuring Langella and Sheen reprising the title roles they played on stage.
"TimeLine is thrilled to be able to bring Peter Morgan's dynamic play to Chicago audiences for the first time," said TimeLine Artistic Director PJ Powers. "This play is an ideal fit for our mission of examining the past to better understand the present. And similar to other high profile Chicago premieres like The History Boys and our upcoming production of The Farnsworth Invention, TimeLine is able to provide a much more intimate experience than a Broadway production. Our flexible theatre will bring audiences up close to this provocative story."
Peter Morgan (Playwright) is British playwright/screenwriter whose uncanny ability to capture history's most notable leaders has earned him both critical acclaim and numerous awards. Morgan's credits include screenplays of The Deal, The Queen, The Last King of Scotland, Longford, The Special Relationship and The Other Boleyn Girl, and both the play script and screenplay of Frost/Nixon. Upcoming projects include writing the screenplay for the supernatural thriller Hereafter, being directed by Clint Eastwood, and being co-writer of the 23rd James Bond film.
Louis Contey (Director) is an Associate Artist at TimeLine. He received a Non-Equity Jeff Award for Outstanding Direction of Awake and Sing! and a Non-Equity Jeff Award nomination for It's All True, both at TimeLine. Other TimeLine productions include A House With No Walls, The General from America and Copenhagen. He has directed more than 60 plays, among them Requiem for a Heavyweight, A View from the Bridge, A Streetcar Named Desire, All My Sons, Rocket to the Moon, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Judgment at Nuremberg and Meet John Doe. He is an 11-time Jeff Award nominee and has received seven Non-Equity Jeff Awards. Contey has worked at The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Theatre at the Center, Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, Shattered Globe Theatre, Provision Theatre, Eclipse Theatre and American Theater Company, among others. He received his M.F.A. in directing from The Theatre School at DePaul University, where he is currently an adjunct instructor.
