“Fun Home" at the Black Box Theatre -- May 30 through June 14.
Friday, May 30, through Saturday, June 14
Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL
A finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama that also received five 2015 Tony Awards including Best Musical, the critically lauded Broadway hit Fun Home makes its Quad Cities debut at Moline's Black Box Theatre May 30 through June 14, this triumph for composer Jeanine Tesori and book writer and lyricist Lisa Kron hailed by the New York Daily News as an "achingly beautiful" musical that "speaks to one family and all families torn by secrets and lies."
Fun Home traces the coming-of-age of lesbian author Alison Bechdel, from her youth, to her years at Oberlin College, and finally to the present, where Alison, now grown, is struggling to write her own graphic autobiography. As Alison reflects on her past, she struggles to make sense of it, particularly her relationship with her father Bruce, a closeted gay man and the owner of the family business -- the Bechdel Funeral Home (“fun” home, as it’s known to young Alison and her brothers, John and Christian). As she watches her father’s self-loathing consume him, Alison recognizes her own experience of discovering, and ultimately embracing, her identity. As Fun Home progresses, Alison is drawn deeper and deeper into her memories, finally entering into them, desperate but unable to reverse her father’s self-destruction. An unforgettable and groundbreaking musical that won five Tonys from 12 nominations, Fun Home explores the haunting pull of memory and the power it has to alternately destroy or shape, our identities.
Directing and costuming Fun Home's Quad Cities debut is Bradley Robert Jensen, the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's resident costume designer whose additional area credits include writing and directing Anywhere but Here for the Mockingbird on Main and helming the Black Box Theatre's U.S. premiere of Florian Zeller's The Truth. Area-theatre veterans Cindy Ramos and Jonathan Turner serve as the musical's respective music director and pianist, while Black Box owner and artistic director Lora Adams designed the set. The set construction is by Michael Kopriva, Emma Wahlmann is the show's stage manager, and a grant from The Illinois Arts Council Youth Employment has made it possible to hire two interns, Briley Larson and Eden Myers, to expand their theatre skills via Fun Home.
Among the show's cast, Sydney Richardson (Circa '21's Disenchanted! and Church Basement Ladies) portrays Adult Alison, with Tatum Kilberg as Medium Alison and Lucy Emerle as Small Alison. Black Box veteran Tristan Tapscott (Hello, Dolly!) plays Alison's anguished father Bruce, and the Fun Home ensemble is completed by Kat Jecklin, Topher Elliot, Jack Carslake, Brighton Greim, and Jacqueline Isaacson.
Fun Home runs in Moline from May 30 through June 14, with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m., and an added Thursday-night performance on June 12 at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $18, and more information and tickets are available by calling (563)284-2350 and visiting TheBlackBoxTheatre.com.
