Sideshow Theatre Company is pleased to launch its 2021 season with a one-night-only benefit screening of its 2018 hit You For Me For You, written by Mia Chung and directed by Ensemble Member Elly Green*. The archival recording of this imaginative production will stream Sunday, February 28, 2021 at 7 pm CST via sideshowtheatre.org, as well as the company’s YouTube and Twitch channels. Tickets (pay-what-you-can) are currently available at sideshowtheatre.org.
Sideshow is also partnering with Paramount Catering to offer meal add-ons the night of the benefit. Prices start at $40, including delivery for one person, and meals can be donated to those in need starting at $30. Vegetarian and meat options are available. Sideshow will be providing its own donation of free meals to those in need through Farm, Food, Famlias during the month of March, and the meals patrons donate will be added to this number.
You For Me For You features Sideshow company members Patrick Agada* (Man from the South), Katy Carolina Collins* (Liz) and Helen Joo Lee* (Minhee) with Gordon Chow (Doctor, Well, Rice Musician), John Lu (Smuggler, Frog, Yongsup) and Jin Park (Junhee).
Two North Korean sisters plan an elaborate escape from the “Best Nation in the World,” only to be separated at the border. Now in two strange and separate worlds filled with outrageous characters, they must navigate barriers of language and bureaucracy, reckon with the ways that culture and country can shape us, and discover that survival requires sacrifice.
The production team for You For Me For You includes: William Boles* (scenic design), Izumi Inaba (costume design), Cat Wilson (lighting design), Christopher M. LaPorte (sound design), Jessica Mondres (properties design), Ben Chang (dramaturg), Chad Hain (technical director), Ellen Willett* (production manager) and Jean E. Compton (stage manager).
Comments Sideshow Artistic Director Regina Victor, “You For Me For You by Mia Chung is one of the first Sideshow plays I saw when I came to this city. It was my first introduction to Elly Green’s visually stunning, innovative and heart rending directing. Several current and former artistic associates were a part of this show, so it seemed like the perfect way to celebrate the complex wholeness of our company. When we were thinking about how to stream You For Me For You, we kept discussing the play’s heart, which is about displacement, relocation, hospitality and home. A home is a hearth, a place of safety, food, and warmth. Everyone deserves a hearth, and a seat at a table.”
Victor adds, “We had partnered with Paramount catering for an event that was put on pause due to the pandemic. Rather than let the partnership and resources go to waste, we got creative and decided to use the funds to provide meals for those in need. And we are inviting our audiences to join us, donate a meal, and make an even bigger impact. Even if nobody donates a single meal, or donates a single dollar to Sideshow, Sideshow and Paramount will still be feeding hundreds of people. It’s our way of expressing gratitude for all that has been given to us, for what is given freely always returns. We have to hold each other up, or the whole thing falls down.”
*Denotes Sideshow Company Member.
About the Artists:
Mia Chung’s (Playwright) Catch as Catch Can will premiere in Steppenwolf’s 2021-2022 season; Page 73 produced the world premiere (NYC, Fall 2018). You For Me For You premiered at The Royal Court (London), the National Theatre Company of Korea (Seoul) and Woolly Mammoth Theatre (D.C.); and is published by Bloomsbury Methuen. Awards, commissions, fellowships and residencies include: Clubbed Thumb, EST/Sloan, Frederick Loewe Award in Music-Theatre, Huntington Theatre, Ma-Yi Writers Lab, MTC/Sloan, NEA, NYTW, Playwrights’ Center, Playwrights Realm, South Coast Rep, SPACE at Ryder Farm, Stavis Award, TCG and New Dramatists. She received a 2019 Helen Merrill Playwriting Award.
Elly Green (Director) is a Chicago-based director, originally from the UK. She is an ensemble member with Sideshow where she directed You for Me for You by Mia Chung and No More Sad Things by Hansol Jung. Her other credits include: Yen (Raven), Run the Beast Down, The Effect, Pillars of the Community, The Night Season, After Miss Julie (Strawdog Theatre), The Gradient (Ignition, Victory Gardens), In the Canyon (Jackalope), The Woyzeck Experiment (Goodman, Playwright’s Unit), In the Canyon (Jackalope Theatre), The Woman in Black (Wildclaw), The Distance (Haven), The Woman Before (Trap Door) and Rabbit (Stage Left). Elly is also an ensemble member at Strawdog Theatre Company and a script reader for Steppenwolf Theatre. She trained in the UK, and worked there as a director, teacher and script reader at theatres including the National Theatre, Royal Court, Almeida, Royal & Derngate, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Theatre 503, Gate Theatre, Papatango Theatre and Paines Plough. More information at www.ellygreendirector.com.
Bias Alert: Editor-in-Chief Regina Victor is the Artistic Director of Sideshow Theatre Company.