Program
Wells and Welles is coming to City Lit Theatre, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, in Edgewater.
Starring Pete Blatchford and Gerrit Wilford, directed by Amber Mandley, it will open the weekend of July 18 and close Sunday, August 11.
Tickets are through eventbrite here.
The Orson Welles website Welles Net has a nice write-up here.
We are a Hot Pick for summer by the Chicago Reader.
Gerrit Wilford and Pete Blatchford star as Orson Welles and HG Wells.
On playing Orson, Gerrit says, "One of the exciting things is getting inside the mind of one of the greatest filmmakers of his time. A challenge is to play a person who actually lived and is so well documented. Everyone who comes to the play will have an opinion about Orson Welles. That's a lot of pressure."
On playing HG, Pete says, "The character is a career highlight for me. I had no idea how influential he was as a writer. We know his early books, but his work was far more extensive than I thought."
Cast Bios:
Gerrit Wilford (Orson Welles), who hails from Brandon, South Dakota is delighted at the opportunity to portray such a titan of American radio, theatre, and film! His previous Chicago theatre credits include: Cat's Cradle, The Middle Passage (Lifeline Theatre), Hay Fever (City Lit Theatre), and The Secret Council (First Folio Theatre). Regional credits include: Much Ado About Nothing (Montana Shakespeare in the Parks), Othello, As You Like It, and Into The Woods (Texas Shakespeare Festival). Gerrit would like to thank his wife for her constant support, as well as Amy and Amber for inviting him to join this project.
Pete Blatchford (HG Wells) has appeared on stages in Chicago, New York, Buxton, England and Edinburgh, Scotland. Recent credits are: The False Years (Yippie Fest), The Gift of Prophecy (Rhino Fest), A Restoration Comedy, (On The Spot Theatre Company), Metadata, (Lucid Theater with Davjasfran Entertainment), Elevator Music, Missing Person and Around & Around We Go, Sons & Lovers, Called Home by the Sea, The Open Window and Roundelay (On The Spot Theatre Company), Leda, (Lucid Theater) and Lean Scenes (Yippie Fest) His play Witches Sabbath (2023) was produced by Dreamers YOLO. Other produced plays include: Pitch Black (2022), Dreamers YOLO, Not In Our Backyard (2021) Pride Arts, This Old Guitar (2021), Missing Person (2020), Around and Around We Go (2020) and The Open Window (2019) (On The Spot Theatre Company.) Pete is also the author of Wicked, Immoral, Utterly Bad: An Illustrated History of Chicago Theatre 1837-1974.
Jeff Broitman (Charles C. Shaw) Jeff's long career includes many Lucid productions: starring in our one-man show Charlie Johnson Reads All of Proust, and appearing in Leda (2017), A Legacy (Rhino Fest 2023), as well as staged readings of Poet and Warrior and The Hamster. Jeff is also the narrator of the audio recording of Amy Crider's novel Kells: a novel of the eighth century, which is on the Continuous Dream podcast.
Amber Mandley (Director) most recently directed Shakespeare's R & J for PrideArts. Other directing experiences include Rhinofest, Violet Fest, Clock Productions, school productions for CICS-Bucktown, City Lit Adaptation Festival, Abbie Hoffman Festival, Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, On the Spot Theatre Company, and Hass Ben Productions. Amber is the Managing Director for PrideArts. Amber believes in a collaborative process of directing and finding the heart of a piece with the cast.
Elijah McTiernan (Stage Manager) recently moved to Chicago from Boston, and stage managed Pride Arts' production of Shakespeare's R & J.
Kevin Rolfs (Set Designer) won a Jeff Award recently for his design of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, with Invictus Theatre.
Alvaro Ledesma (Lighting and Sound Designer) crisscrosses the nation doing tech design. He designed the sound for our previous production of Leda and sound and lighting for our production of Charlie Johnson Reads All of Proust.
Magic Consultant:
A big thank you goes out to Jeffrey Lyle Segal for providing Orson's magic trick. Jeffrey is a long time Chicago based performer. He performs magic and comedy hypnosis as Jeffrey Powers and The Hypno Party, as well as being a popular children's magician and balloon artist. Most recently, he has created a musical tribute to Tony Bennett he calls "Love, Tony B" in prosthetic makeup to look as well as sound like him. He appears this summer at "Sundays on State" on July 14. Look for more information about his Highwood Days performances, July 18 -21 at Maria's Bakery in Highwood, and elsewhere.
PR: Thanks to John Olson for his PR work on Wells and Welles.
Amy Crider (Playwright) Recent career highlights include winning the Tennessee Williams One Act Play Contest, the Heartland New Plays Contest, and Word Wave. Her murder mystery novel Disorder won the University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize, and her second novel, Kells: a novel of the eighth century, about monks creating the Book of Kells, came out last fall. Both books can be ordered at your favorite bookstores. Amy also writes and produces a podcast of audio theater, Continuous Dream. For more, please visit her website.
Our next play will be in April/May of 2025: Buddha's Birthday at The Edge Theatre.