The program—titled “Kill the Rich! Kill the Poor!”—consists of three short plays featuring fresh local actors. Included in the diverse ensemble are Alex Grindeland, Laura Sedlak, Marty McNamee, Lindsey Gagliano and Kelly Doherty. Grindeland is a comedian and actor who has demonstrated considerable talent. Sedlak directed a couple of shows last year, including Youngblood Theatre’s production of David’s Redhaired Death. It’ll be interesting to see her onstage this time. And McNamee has appeared in numerous Skylight Opera Theatre productions over the past few years.
The cast is headed by director Joe Foti IV. Working with a cast of actors with wide-ranging stage experience sounds like an interesting challenge for Foti.
“We have some clashing ideologies that are making it a challenge to find a common language for the play,” he says.
The competing perspectives in the cast, which Foti and company will bring into a cohesive stage presentation, should make for an interesting performance. This is a cast unafraid of making bold decisions with the text, and that kind of vitality should make BITE’s first trip to the stage a memorable one.
The three stories explore three distinct kinds of human connection. Kraigslist is about a big city politician and his wife who steal a child when they can’t produce one of their own. It sounds like a made-for-TV movie, but given the fact that the short has been accepted into the Chicago Fringe Festival, there must be some depth to the story. The ambitiously titled Titanic 2 is the story of a woman who gives birth to an “unconventional baby” in a downtown warehouse. The other short in the program is Waiting for Paul, a story exploring the struggles of newlyweds.
BITE Theatre’s “Kill the Rich! Kill the Poor!” runs March 18-27 at the Off-Broadway Theatre, 342 N. Water St.
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