Sometimes it's not so hard to be a woman: Alcyone Fest plans six Maria Fornes productions in January

November 4, 7:37 PMChicago Theatre Review ExaminerCatey Sullivan

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A good many companies pay fervent lip service to diversity programming, but few deliver with the consistency and depth of Jennifer and Tony Adams’   Halcyon Theatre Company. Jan. 21 – Feb. 27 , the company will devote its programming to Maria Irene Fornes, staging an ambitious six (!) productions by a playwright no less than Tony Kushner deemed one of America’s greatest.

The Alcyone Festival will feature a rich array Chicago premieres, including Letters from Cuba, Manual for a Desperate Crossing, Sarita, Summer in Gossensass and Tango Palace. What of the Night, also included in the festival, is the sole work that isn’t a Chicago Premieres. 

Halcyon produces the annual Alcyone Festival for a simple, crucial reason: Female playwrights are horribly underrepresented on stages across America. ( And anyone who argues with that premise just isn’t paying attention. ) Since 2008, the Adams family has been combatting this, putting their money and their - er - manpower on the line in order to celebrate the depth and breadth of women writers. In 2008, its inaugural year, the Alcyone Fest produced the works of 10 playwrights whose work spanned 1000 years. In 2009, they defied the notion that women only write small domestic dramas, and staged only works delving terrorism, the cult of martyrdom and its effects upon the innocents,  This year is unique in that it is devoted to a single playwright: Fornes.

“I think (Fornes) has had a greater impact on the American Theatre than any writer other than Eugene O'Neill, but most people don't know much of her work,” says Tony Adams, Halcyon Artistic Director.

He isn’t alone in that view. Tony Kushner is on record with the following: "America has produced no dramatist of greater importance than Maria Irene Fornes . . . Her plays and productions profoundly altered my understanding of what theatre is . . ."

Alcyone’s directors are a solid group :  Juan Castandea will helm Letters from Cuba, while Teatro  Luna co-founder Coya Paz direct Manual for a Desperate Crossing. Gina LoPiccolo tackles Sarita, while Lavina Jadhwani takes on Summer in Gossensass. Tango Palace and What of the Night will be directed by Adam Dodds and Margo Gray, respectively.

The Alcyone Festival plays at 8 p.m. Thursday and Fridays; 3 and 8 p.m.; Saturdays and 6 p.m .Sundays Jan. 21 through Feb. 27. (The exact rep performance schedule will be announced in early December.) Tickets to individual performances are an eminently reasonable $15; $10 for students and seniors. Festival passes are available for $50 . Both are available through the Halcyon Theatre box office at 773/413-0453, or online at halcyontheatre.org/boxoffice. For more information, click here