Victory Gardens Presents The Gospel According to James 5/14-6/12

Victory Gardens continues its season with the Chicago Premiere of Charles Smith's The Gospel According to James directed by Chuck Smith. The Gospel According to James runs May 14-June 12, 2011 at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park.

Please note new opening date: The press opening for The Gospel According to James is on Wednesday, May 18, at 7:30 p.m.

It's 1930 in Indiana and five young people are eager to break out of their small town. They need a car. They have a gun. But years later, contradictory memories are all that's left of their grand plans. The Gospel According to James is based on the double lynching immortalized by the iconic Lawrence Beitler photograph. The play creates a fictional meeting between the man who survived the lynching and the only woman with them that night. As The Gospel According to James dramatizes the events leading up to the crime, it also explores how unreliable personal memory underlies what we believe to be an immutable public history. The Gospel According to James features two-time Tony nominated actor Andre DeShields (The Full Monty and Play On!).

Title: The Gospel According to James
Written by: Charles Smith
Directed by: Chuck Smith
Featuring: Andre DeShields
Previews: May 14 - 17 2011
Press opening: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Regular run: May 19- June 12, 2011
Schedule:
Tuesdays: 7:30 pm (except, no show on May 31)
Wednesdays: 2:00 pm (June 1 ONLY)
7:30 pm
Thursdays: 7:30 pm
Fridays: 7:30 pm (with 6pm Happy Hour on June 3)
Saturdays: 4:00 pm (except May 14)
7:30 pm
Sundays: 3:00 pm
Location: Victory Gardens Biograph Theater is located at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue,
in the heart of Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood
Tickets: Previews: $20 - $40
Regular run: $20 - $50
Box Office: The Box Office is located at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago.
773.871.3000; victorygardens.org

About Victory Gardens Theater
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Dennis Za?ek and Executive Director Jan Kallish, Victory Gardens Theater is home to the bold voices of world premiere theater. The company features the work of its own 14-member Playwrights Ensemble, as well as that of exciting playwrights who are changing theater in the U.S. and abroad. Since its founding in 1974, the company has produced more world premieres than any other Chicago theater, a commitment recognized nationally when Victory Gardens received the 2001 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. The company's dedication to developing, supporting and producing new work makes Victory Gardens an American Center for New Plays.

In 2006, Victory Gardens successfully completed an $11.8 million renovation of Chicago's famed Biograph Theater, and moved two blocks north from its longtime venue at 2257 N. Lincoln Avenue, to its beautiful new home in one of Chicago's most celebrated historic landmarks. Renamed Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, the new venue is a state-of-the-art 299-seat mainstage which has greatly expanded the company's artistic flexibility, while enhancing Victory Gardens' ability to welcome patrons old and new.

In 2009, Victory Gardens completed the second phase of renovation at the Biograph, building an intimate, new, 109-seat studio theater on the second floor. On March 1, 2010, at a special launch event for Victory Gardens $1 million Campaign for Growth, the theater's new studio was officially named the Richard Christiansen Theater, in honor of the Chicago Tribune chief critic emeritus and longtime champion of Chicago's live theater scene. Visit www.victorygardens.org/campaignforgrowth for more details.

Victory Gardens Theater receives major funding from Allstate Insurance Company, Alphawood Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, John T. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Shubert Foundation, and The Wallace Foundation. Additional funding is provided by: The Boeing Company, Motorola, Polk Bros. Foundation, REAM Foundation, and Charles & M.R. Shapiro Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, Edgerton Foundation, Exelon, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Illinois Arts Council, James S. Kemper Foundation, The McVay Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Seigle Family Foundation, Wrightwood Neighbors Conservation Association, and Bank of America, John R. Halligan Charitable Fund, Illinois Tool Works, and a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.