CoHo Season 22
April 20 – May 12, 2018
CoHo Productions with Danielle Weathers present
Luna Gale
by Rebecca Gilman
Directed by Brandon Woolley
Featuring Sharonlee McLean, Danielle Weathers, Shannon Mastel, Marian Mendez, Kelsey Tyler, Jacob Camp and Nick Ferrucci
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Luna Gale is a suspenseful, ethically-blurry play offering a candid look at an intra-family custody dispute for the right to raise a minor child, determined by cases of addiction, assault and conflicting religious beliefs.
What is best for the baby?
Social worker Caroline is over-burdened by desperate cases at an under-funded Child Protective Services agency, especially when her gut instincts contradict by-the-book protocol. In one case, infant Luna Gale is hospitalized and removed from her stressed-out teenage parents Karlie and Peter, who are court-ordered to attend rehab groups for methamphetamine abuse – but the waiting list is too long. Karlie’s divorced mother Cindy, a nurse’s assistant and born-again Christian, seeks to adopt Luna with her Pastor’s guidance, but against her daughter’s wishes. Unspoken motives surface through unconventional methods while belief systems and best intentions are tested as all question how to best take care of children.
Join us for a post-show discussion on Sunday April 29 following the 2pm matinee. More information available here.
REVIEWS
“Smart and absorbing” –New York Times
“One of this year’s most valuable additions to American drama…exploration of beaten up characters desperately searching for miracles, from drugs, from God and, yes, from even the DHS, where a social worker tries to heal her own wounds through helping others in distress.” –LA Times
“Social workers are rarely portrayed on stage and films as anything other than instruments of unfeeling bureaucracies. “Luna Gale” reminds you of what a thankless but essential job they do, with only the equivalent of watered-down Elmer’s Glue to patch cracks and fissures in a dysfunctional society.” –Seattle Times
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Rebecca Gilman is an Artistic Associate at the Goodman in Chicago. Ms. Gilman’s plays include Luna Gale, A True History of the Johnstown Flood, Dollhouse, Boy Gets Girl, Spinning Into Butter, Blue Surge (all of which were commissioned and originally produced by the Goodman), The Glory of Living, The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and The Crowd You’re in With.
Ms. Gilman is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Harper Lee Award, The Scott McPherson Award, The Prince Prize for Commissioning New Work, The Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, The Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, The George Devine Award, The Theatre Masters Visionary Award, The Great Plains Playwright Award and an Illinois Arts Council playwriting fellowship. Boy Gets Girl received an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Play and she was named a finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for her play, The Glory of Living.
She is a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild of America and a board member of the ACLU of Illinois. She received her MFA in playwriting from the University of Iowa. Ms. Gilman is an associate professor of playwriting and screenwriting at Northwestern University as part of its MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage program. She is the recipient of a Global Connections Grant by Theatre Communications Group and an American Scandinavian Foundation Creative Writing Grant for the development of a new play in conjunction with Göteborgs Dramatiska Teater in Gothenburg, Sweden: Rödvinsvänster (Red-Wine Leftists): 1977.
