Jacob Juntunen’s full length play HATH TAKEN AWAY will receive a staged reading at Chicago Dramatists on Saturday, May 30th at 2pm as part of their Saturday Series! This is the same play that he will have a reading of at the Last Frontier Theater Conference this June! If you are in the Chicago area, go check it out! Congrats Jacob!
Here is a summary of the play:
Dorothea, an Evangelical Midwestern woman, learns that she is pregnant, that she has a brain tumor, and that, to best treat her cancer, she needs an abortion. In a mix of confessional direct address and remembered interactions, Dorothea, her husband, and her best friend wrestle with this decision, their pasts, and their blessings and curses.
For more info on the event, click here
Event Location:
Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Avenue
Chicago, IL 60642
More about Jacob
Jacob Juntunen is a playwright and theatre scholar whose work focuses on people who struggle against society’s boundaries.
His playwriting stems from a mix of scholarship and social responsibility. Therefore, his playwriting and academic writing are a constant symbiosis. Both focus on understanding the political function of theatre, and this focus is demonstrated in his plays, which, overall, are meant for those “who want to leave the theatre changed and moved,” as one Chicago critic described. He recently wrote See Him? to participate in the Belarusian Dream Theater, a consortium of 18 theaters in 13 countries simultaneously producing plays to raise awareness about human rights violations in Belarus. His latest play, In the Shadow of his Language lays bare the hidden dowry of academic success and was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Center National Playwrights’ Conference; a semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship; and a finalist for the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award. It was also awarded an “In the Works” residency by the city of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. In the Shadow of his Language has enjoyed two staged readings in Chicago, another at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, and a workshop off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. His play Saddam’s Lions—published in Plays for Two (Vintage)—examines the disquieting memories of an African-American female Iraq War veteran and her struggles to come to terms with war-time trauma. Jacob based this play on interviews with a veteran. This process combined his desire for politically relevant work, his dedication to diverse casting opportunities, and his scholarship about the politics of performance. He hopes to inspire in students a similar yearning for intellectual curiosity, social activism, collaboration, and playwriting.
