THE END OF REALITY
By Richard Maxwell
Directed by Melissa Lorraine
May 15-June 15, 2025
Thursdays 7 pm, Saturdays 3 pm & 7 pm, Sundays 3 pm
"The End of Reality" is [Richard Maxwell’s] most eloquent statement to date on the blurring of despair and apathy in American lives.
- Ben Brantley, The New York Times
Theatre Y, after their Jeff Award-winning production of Ionesco’s RHINOCEROS, returns with the Chicago premiere of THE END OF REALITY by Richard Maxwell, one of the most important voices in the landscape of US experimental theater. In Theatre Y’s immersive interpretation of Maxwell’s wry hyperrealist satire, THE END OF REALITY examines the numbing of the American psyche as it seeks to insulate itself from the ambient brutalities of contemporary life.
Known for his subversive interrogation of realist aesthetics, Maxwell’s script blurs the mundane and the existential in an urgent meditation on the “banality of violence and the true nature of security” (critic Georgia Kirtland). A ragtag crew of security guards protects a building from an imminent threat, wavering between vigilance and distraction. Their idleness digresses into on-the-job chatter that, in all of its inconsequence, expresses a searching need for authentic connection to something beyond themselves.. Bouts of violence erupt without the glamour of spectacle; the unvarnished reality of violence is rendered awkward, routine, and vacuous for this security team. In such a precarious world, the politics of “protectionism” and “isolationism” assume personal, intimate dimensions.
Top: Matt Fleming (as Tom), Willie Round (as Brian), Marvin Tate (as 3)
Bottom: Shawn Bunch (as Jake), Kris Tori (as Marcia), Arlene Arnone (as Shannon)
In Theatre Y’s concept, the audience is the “object” of the security team’s protection, treated as if they have come to seek refuge from the menace of the outside world. The theater becomes a disorienting holding-pen in which actors and audience together wait out the danger. Director Melissa Lorraine’s staging brings to bear on Maxwell’s play a feminine relationship to violence and vulnerability.
Richard Maxwell was born in Fargo, ND, and studied acting at Illinois State University. In Chicago, he was a co-founder of the Cook County Theater Department until he moved to New York City in 1994. Maxwell is an Obie Award-winning playwright and theater director best known for his work with the New York City Players, a company he founded in 1999. The New Yorker calls Richard Maxwell “one of the more adventurous theatre artists that this country has produced in decades.” And the Whitney Museum of American Art explains that “Maxwell’s practice defines and radically reconfigures the boundaries of theater. Elizabeth Wiet In conversation with Maxwell wrote, “His work’s deep concern for finding a complex and rigorously designed reality has led to eschewing both avant-garde clichés and the entrenched theatrical techniques of naturalism.” Utilizing sparse sets and often laconic acting styles, Maxwell reduces theater to its most essential elements, creating plays that, in the words of critic Hilton Als, oscillate between the “mythic” and the “mundane.” Writing for The New Yorker, Als says that “Maxwell’s work is about distillation. “I never tell people to avoid realism or naturalism or what feels natural,” he has said. “It’s just that I’m saying you’re not obliged to pretend that you feel something. In Maxwell’s work, the script and actor live together in a generally bare space; the director finds the drama in being.”
Directed by Theatre Y Co-Founding Artistic Director Melissa Lorraine, THE END OF REALITY features North Lawndale’s own Marvin Tate, Willie Round, and Shawn Bunch (Ensemble Members and Artists in Residence for Theatre Y’s Friday Night Swerve) together with Ensemble Members Matt Fleming, Kris Tori, and Arlene Arnone.
Lighting Design by Melissa Lorraine (with technical support from Makoto Yamaguchi), costumes support from Marvin Tate and Iyanna Harris, sound design by Kimberly Sutton (with technical support from Christophe Preissing and James Clayton Bowman), Fight Choreography by RJ Cecott, Set Design by Melissa Lorraine (with carpentry support from Steve Stoll), Stage Management by Shawn Bunch, Assistant Stage Management by Dezyre Thomas and Ro Townsel, graphic design by Jimi Geiyer, production management by Deena Eichhorn, and technical support from E.R. Emison and Maxwell Gantner.
Performance Schedule: May 15-June 15, 2025
Showtimes: Thursdays 7 pm, Saturdays 3 pm & 7 pm, Sundays 3 pm. Location: Theatre Y - 3611 W Cermak Rd, Chicago, IL 60623
All performances are FREE to the public thanks to members who donate as li ttle as $5/month ($60/year). We welcome DONATIONS and MEMBERS!
About Theatre Y:
Theatre Y is a Chicago-based international incubator that creates connections between diverse artists seeking mutual growth through collaboration. Since 2006, Theatre Y has been a point of convergence for diverse activisms, and all of the uncomfortable conversations that happen as a result. Artistic director Melissa Lorraine and the Theatre Y ensemble are committed to continuously re-thinking the practice of theater as a tool of liberation and a revolutionary practice, bringing Theatre Y to venues ranging from La MaMa’s historical theater to Illinois prisons. Newly and permanently relocated to the West Side (on the border of North Lawndale and Little Village), Theatre Y, now in its 19th year of award winning experimental productions, challenging international content, and a member-based FREE theater model, occupies a unique place in Chicago's theater community.
More about our history and mission.
BIOS:
Production Team:
Melissa Lorraine - Director/Lighting/Set (she/her): Theatre Y Co-Founding Artistic Director - Born in France, graduating from Northern Illinois University with a B.F.A. in acting, Lorraine became a company member of Studio K in Budapest, Hungary. Co-founding Theatre Y with now deceased Director Christopher Markle. Premiered the English language version of Transylvanian writer András Visky’s JULIET with over two hundred performances worldwide. Starred in Visky’s I KILLED MY MOTHER, earning a Chicago’s Best Actress Orgie Award. Lauded by The Chicago Reader for turning even an “overwritten” and “implausible script” into “probing, harrowing, hallucinogenic truth,” for her Directorial work on VINCENT RIVER. In 2013 Lorraine directed the world premiere of THE BINDING, a collaboration between Theatre Y and two acclaimed Serbian/Hungarian choreographers, which was a cover feature of the Chicago Reader. Collaborating with Georges Bigot for one year (2015-16), Lorraine developed the Theatre Y Ensemble of 16 actors, according to the traditions of the Theatre du Soleil. She now leads this award winning ensemble to discover a common language and a new way to work, searching for a way to make theater without the “dictator”. In 2018 she began to research Movement Therapy for Trauma Rehabilitation, and works with men serving life sentences at Stateville Correctional Center towards reinstating parole in Illinois.
Kimberly A. Sutton - Sound Designer: Kimberly is a sound artist, cellist, and sound designer living in Chicago, Illinois. Her installations and sound design work explore the connections between the physical properties of sound and the cultural signifiers of its content. As a cellist her practice is improvisatory and explores the possibilities of expression and reflection through sound and the immediacy of a meditational connection to her instrument. Recent installations have been shown at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the Chicago Home Theater Festival. She has performed at Experimental Sound Studio, the Hideout and the Empty Bottle in Chicago, Yoshi’s in Oakland, Detroit Contemporary, and the Technosonics Festival at the University of Virginia. She has a BA in Political Science and Music from the University of Chicago and an MFA in Electronic Music and Recorded Media from Mills College. She has designed (Jeff Nominated) sound with Theatre Y since 2015.
RJ Cecott - Fight Choreographer: RJ is an award-winning actor and fight choreographer, and a proud graduate of Illinois State University. Notable works include COLUMBINUS (Eric Harris), Angels in America (Prior), EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL (Ash), BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS (Stanley; BWW Award Nom - Performer in a Play), MISERY (Fight Choreographer), HEATHERS: THE MUSICAL (JD), SPRING AWAKENING (Moritz; BWW Award Nom - Best Supporting Performer in a Musical), CLUE (Mr. Green / Fight Choreographer). You can see more at rjcecott.com/ or @rjcecott_actor
Makoto Yamaguchi - Assistant to Lighting: Makoto Yamaguchi was born and grew up in Japan. He is a writer, director, and performer. He became interested in acting and took some minor roles in TVs and films in his native country. When he was in a touring theater troupe, he was introduced to American method acting and decided to cross the ocean to learn theater art here. He attended the City College of New York and immersed himself in all different kinds of artistic expressions as well as theater. He has become interested in the physical theater of Jerzy Grotowski and primitive tribal rituals and has been developing a new form of performance called, “Jazz Theater.” He recently performed a solo piece called, HAMLET IN JAZZ, in the Elgin Fringe Festival and often presents his experimentation at the Friday Night Swerve in Theatre Y. He is very grateful to be able to work with all the people in this wonderful Chicago theater and hopes to continue working there.
Steve Stoll - Technical Director & Carpenter: Steven Stoll is a west side Chicago based set designer, woodworker, and musician. Drawing on his studies in sculpture and sound art at SAIC, he has spent the last 16 years creating all types of imagined environments around Chicago and across the country.
Ensemble:
Arlene Arnone - Actor (Shannon): became part of the Theatre Y Ensemble following her appearance in their production of Self-Accusation. Her last production was in The Elgin Theatre's production of Over The River and Through The Woods as Emma Cristano. This past November she appeared in Gallery Theatre's production of Last Romance and The Jewish Theatre of Elgin's production of Rosenstrasse as The Baroness. Arlene returned to her first love, the theatre, in 1997 when she retired to Florida after having run her own international advertising business. She immediately joined Curtain Call Playhouse in Pompano Beach and debuted in their first production, Last of the Red Hot Lovers as both 'Jeanette' & stage manager. She was involved in all aspects of that theatre, from acting and backstage work to Assistant Artistic Director.Her first love remained acting and she appeared in Romantic Comedy, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and Blythe Spirit. After her return to the Chicago area in 2013, she joined Theatre of Western Springs and has served on several crews, including Hospitality, Box Office, Paint & Costumes. She became TWS' Annual Costume Chair in 2014 and costumed Slaughterhouse Five, The Dinner Party, The Man Who Came To Dinner & Rumors. Her acting roles at TWS were Louisa Cortlandt in Design for Murder in 2014 and Jesse in Calendar Girls in 2015. In September 2016 she played both Helen & Mrs. Hedges in Elmhurst's GreenMan, Theatre Troupe's production of Born Yesterday and followed that with costuming GMTT's production of Nickle & Dimed in November. This past September she returned to the James Downing Theatre to reprise her role as Rose in Men Are Dogs, having played Rose in Old Ringers in September 2017. In 2015 she added film to her resume and since then has appeared in a number of student films for Colombia College, DePaul University as well as Northwestern and Loyola. She's also appeared in several short films, the most recent of which she shot in Milwaukee, WI called Walter's Wedding. Recently Someplace began playing on YouTube and she's done several stints on the Chicago TV shows....Fire, Med, PD, Empire and a brand new TV pilot, along with an episode of a new series called Proven Innocent.
Shawn Bunch - Actor (Jake): As a Chicago native, growing in this new experience for a while has taught me one thing and one thing for sure: You never know. My exploration into this side of myself, this newfound vigor in my inner child, allows me to have fun at play with my family at Theatre Y.
Matt Fleming - Actor (Tom): is a Theatre Y ensemble member who last appeared in the 2024 production of Rhinoceros. Prior to that, Matt was in Theatre Y’s 2018 production of Stories of the Body. Matt works as a paralegal at Sperling Kenny Nachwalter, has 3 grown children who are all off doing amazing grown-up things, is always genuinely excited to meet a fellow Iowan and is usually mentally planning his next road trip. Matt has theatre degrees from the University of Northern Iowa and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Willie Round - Actor (Brian): is a playwright, songwriter, hip-hop artist, actor and community activist. Born in May 20th 1991, Willie Round was raised in North Lawndale on the West Side of Chicago, a region with high rates of violence and low household incomes. Willie graduated bachelor’s degree in Communications/Broadcast Media from Central State University class of 2014. In 2015 Willie went back to Chicago to teach an elective video production class at Camelot Excel, an alternative school for at-risk youth. Willie was first introduced to theatre and the Chicago theatre scene by his long-time collaborator, playwright G. Riley Mills. At the time Willie had lost his job as a teacher due to budget cuts which resulted into him becoming homeless. Willie wrote his first play Broke Down Drone and was produced in Collaboration’s 2019 Peacebook Festival at Kennedy-King College in Englewood. Then had a sold-out run Off-Broadway at the Chain Theater in New York City in 2021 where he made his first Off-Broadway acting debut. Willie also wrote, created, and produced a short documentary for Collaboraction’s Peacebook festival titled, “This is North Lawndale”. A mini documentary highlighting the resilience of North Lawndale during the Corvid 19 pandemic. Mentorship and teaching are his personal passions. Willie has mentored inner-city youth as part of the College Mentoring Experience as well as part of his own youth movement called M.U.D. LIFE (Motivating the Urban to be Determined). Willie has done extensive outreach Chicago and is currently a 6-year mental health professional and behavioral aid at Chicago Therapeutic Services. The impact of art, partnered with mentorship, has transformed Willie’s life. After meeting playwright J. Nicole Brooks, Willie made his theatre acting debut in 2020 at Lookingglass Theatre Company in their acclaimed play Her Honor Jane Byrne. Willie would go on to win the Black Theatre Alliance “Most Promising Actor” Award for his performance as Kid and Tral in Her Honor Jane Byrne. In January 2022, Willie starred in his first short film, an adaptation of his play Broke Down Drone, directed by Emmy Award-winning Director Marquis Simmons. Willie also performed in the remount of Congo Square Theatre’s Jeff Award-winning play, What To Send Up When It Goes Down. In December 2022, Willie Round won an Emmy Award for co-creating and co-producing The Lost Story of Emmett Till: Trial in the Delta for Collaboraction and NBC.
Marvin Tate - Actor (3): Tate is a Chicago native, born and raised on the city’s west side. His works have appeared and heard on stages internationally and locally, including National Public Radio’s, “This American Life”, Def -Jam Poetry and on the BBC Radio program “The Poetry Detective”. He has recorded and played with stage with the late, International Anthem Recording Artist, Jamie Branch’s: Jazz Drummer , Pitch-Fork Music Founder, and Band leader, Mike Reed, multi-instrumentalists, Ben LaMar Gay, Angel Bat Dawid, Bill Mckay, Leroy Bach and Visual Artists and performer, Theaster Gates Jr., Feminist-Artist , and legendary Porn Actress, Annie Sprinkle, Alabaster Deplume, Bitchin Bajas, Parliament/-Funkidellic, Circuit Des Yeux, Tim Kinsella and Angel Olsen. Lastly Tate is the founder of the legendary, experimental soul band, D-settlement. Their 3 vinyl box set (American Dream Records) was voted ‘The Best Of’ in Pitchfork, Band Camp and NY Times in 2022.
Kris Tori - Actor (Marcia): was born in Pogradec, Albania and came to Chicago when she was 10. She started her acting training as part of the Nuestra Cultura Theater Program, conducted by Aguijón Theater in partnership with After School Matters. She has her BA from Columbia College Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) with an MA in Latin American and Latino Studies. Her thesis, Recreating Community through Theater (Memory and Place): What happens to memory when a place is gone?, was based on the play La Havana Madrid for which she served as the Research Assistant. She is currently an ensemble member with Aguijon Theatre and Theatre Y. Her theater credits with Water People Theater include: North and Sur, Lorca: Living the Experience; with Theatre Y: We Are Proud To Present…, Little Carl, The Emerald Camino Project, The Camino Project, Self Accusation, Stories of the Body, Yerma, Macbeth; with Aguijón Theater: Mano a Mano: Cervantes & Shakespeare, The House of Bernarda Alba, Blowout, Yerma, Las Soldaderas, Nocturnal Creatures, Tren Al Sur, Not For Sale, Adverses; with Columbia College Chicago: Delirium, Hecuba, Marisol. She is super excited to bring theater and the arts in general to the different communities so the youth can be exposed to many different stories.
THE END OF REALITY is presented by arrangement with Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players.
For press inquiries, interviews, or more information, please contact:
Managing Director Deena Eichhorn: 316-640-4435 / deenaeichhorn@theatre-y.com
Artistic Director Melissa Lorraine: 773-908-2248 / melissalorraine@theatre-y.com
info@theatre-y.com / www.theatre-y.com
