Shawn Quinlan set to star in stage version of Award Winning Film "Girls Will Be Girls"

Hubris Productions presents the world premiere of Girls Will Be Girls, the stage production of the Richard Day film, adapted by Jacob Christopher Green.

The production runs February 28-April 5 at Hoover-Leppen Theatre, Sat.-Thurs. at 7:30pm. Tickets are $25 for general admission, $20 for students and seniors, and $10 industry Thursday nights.



Adapted for the stage by Jacob Christopher Green and directed by Anthony Guerrero, Girls Will Be Girls is the hilariously twisted tale of three actresses on very different rungs of the Hollywood career ladder. Evie (played by Green) is a washed-up booze hound still obsessing over her long ago “big break” that led nowhere…and who hasn’t yet figured out that her career is long dead. Coco (Jason Dabrowski), her long-suffering best friend and roommate, is a lounge singer consumed by memories of a dark secret from her past. Their lives are forever altered when they take in Varla (Shawn Quinlan), the small-town wannabe starlet with a big appetite and even bigger dreams of being discovered at Schwab’s Drug Store…just like Tina Turner. When the lives of the three collide, their aspirations and sordid pasts come to an unforgettable boiling point. It’s campy and it’s anything but politically correct!

The cast is rounded out by Adam Pasen, Michael Graham, Keith Survillas, Dennis Frymire and Charles Riffenburg.

Hubris Productions has been granted exclusive rights to bring to the stage an adaptation of the original film by Richard Day. An indie favorite, Girls Will Be Girls was originally conceived as a showpiece for characters created by Jack Plotnick (Evie Harris) and Clinton Leupp (Coco Peru). The idea became fully developed with the addition of Jeffery Roberson’s alter-ego, Varla Jean Merman. Described as “A likely cult classic” by Los Angeles Weekly, Girls Will Be Girls was an official selection of the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. The stage adaptation is a re-interpretation of the story, not an attempt to re-create the original characters made famous by the actors who created them. These Chicago actors are unequivocally placing their own stamps on these very juicy parts!

One reason the producers have granted exclusive rights to debut the stage production of Girls Will Be Girls is Hubris Productions’ commitment to giving back to the community. From each production, the company donates a portion of ticket sales to a designated charitable organization, chosen in relation to the content of the production. The designated recipient for Girls Will Be Girls is Center on Halsted, Chicago’s only community center dedicated to serving and empowering the LGBT community. For the past year, Hubris has been a tenant and community partner of Center on Halsted; according to Executive Artistic Director Anthony Guerrero, making the Center the recipient of the donation from this production was a logical choice.

The mission of Hubris Productions is to engage, challenge and inspire our community to acknowledge the diversity in the world around us. Through our outreach programs and main stage productions, we will create an ongoing dialog about social inclusiveness…and we think you should like what we like. Hubris Productions is a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization. To learn more about the company, please visit http://www.hubrisproductions.com/.

Choreography Update: The musical "Parade" set to open

I am currently working on the choreography for the musical "Parade" with St. Francis Highschool. The kids are super cool and the musical is not your typical highschool fair.

Earning the most Tony nominations, nine (and taking home two awards, for book and original score), was an honest-to-goodness new American musical by a young American composer-lyricist, Jason Robert Brown (who was 28 when the show premiered at Lincoln Center in December 1998 and was best known for his song cycle Songs for a New World). In addition, the subject matter is serious and dark, based on the true story of Leo Frank, a New York-born Jew living in Atlanta who was falsely accused of raping and murdering a young girl, and not surprisingly, the run was limited to 84 performances.
The original cast recording survives, however, and from the stirring opening anthem, "The Old Red Hills of Home," Brown's score is full of riches, mixing period American styles with strong melodies, intricate counterpoint, selective dissonances, and natural lyrics that give their characters true, expressive voices. Leading the strong ensemble cast are Tony nominees Brent Carver and Carolee Carmello as the persecuted Leo and his wife, Lucille, who had been drifting apart before the wrenching events pulled them back together. They express their relationship in some of the show's best songs ("Leo at Work/What Am I Waiting For," "You Don't Know This Man," "All the Wasted Time"). Masterfully evoking scene and character through his beautiful, bouncy, or harrowing music, Brown depicts youthful abandon ("The Picture Show"), the city's hysteria, the tender memories of the girl's mourners ("It Don't Make Sense"), and the murder trial, including its fantasy scenes of false testimony. Parade is a powerful work that will long linger in your memory, and it's one of the most important musical theater releases of 1999.

It has been fun working with these kids. My good friend Carolyn Brady is Director/Musical Director. The amazing Kevin Bellie (I have done most of my shows at Circle Theatre under is direction/choreography) usually choreographs these shows but had a heavy schedule this time around so I stepped in. I really think I did some good work here and the kids really stepped upto the plate. This show opens March 6, 2008.