Displaying items by tag: Jason Palmer

“Southern Rapture” quickly elicits loud guffaws from the audience, a heartening circumstancve, as it means playwright Eric Coble’s script is doing its job. Billed as a satire, it recounts the tumultuous week in real life leading up to the 1996 opening night of Tony Kushner's celebrated AIDS play, “Angels in America” in Charlotte, NC. But what might have been a tragic recount of small-minded efforts at artistic repression gets turned on its head, a potential tragedy mined for comedy, with an ending that is at once affirming and exhilarating.  

This show at Theater Wit, produced by three-year-old Tin Drum Theatre Company, is loaded with broad humor, and is something of a backstage comedy as well. For purposes of the script, Charlotte becomes a generic southern city, and Kushner becomes Anton Finewitz, and his vaunted work is transformed into “Rapture in America.” 

The show parodies not just the reactionary forces that sought unsuccessfully to keep “Angels in America” from running. It also takes aim at the theater company, its governing board, local government, and the national media that spun the controversy into the unnuanced, dualistic divisiveness that seems to have solidified as a way of American life today. 

As “Rapture in America” barrels toward dress rehearsal, a big supratitle flashes the daily countdown to its local premiere. In an opening monolog to the audience, Marjorie Hooper proudly tells us, “The play’s won the Pulitzer, Tony, Drama Desk Award, an Evening Standard Award, the Rainbow Excellence Award and an ASPCA citation—We’re one of only six theaters in the nation to get the rights to do the show outside of New York!” Indeed! 

When word gets around there will be full frontal male nudity in the show, the gears of progress run unevenly, and almost grind to a halt. Company director Marjorie Winthrop (Shannon Leigh Webber) attempts to insulate her performers from the backlash, which comes in the form of Reverend Dupree (Andrew Bosworth) and a town gadfly Lavern Jackson (Jenny Hoops). Jackson has read the script and counted the number of mentions of “cocksucker” and other notable perversions to the Charlotte Town Council. (In a content warning to the audience, Jackson’s list includes “one penis,” which indeed appears in the second act at Theatre Wit.)

Charlotte Mayor Winston Paxton (Teddy Boone), ever even-tempered, tries to stay above the fray. His aspirations for transforming this growing city into a world-class metropolis have netted a symphony orchestra, a national sports franchise, and now, an important regional theater company, about to move into the big leagues. But the mayor is beginning to feel unsettled, praising the season’s opener, "The Odd Couple," and encouraging Marjorie to do something other than “Rapture.”

“There’s still gonna be plenty of art!,” the Mayor argues. “It’s just art we can all appreciate. Because that ‘Odd Couple’ was one of the goddam funniest things I ever saw in my life.” But Marjorie will have none of that, declaring the play "epic." 

It even dares to cut through the slavish devotion accorded "Angels in America" and Kushner himself, asking a if this two-part six-hour "epic" work might be too much in a town that likes to get home in time to catch Jay Leno.  

"'“Epic' meaning?" asks the mayor. "Three hours, two intermissions," Marjorie tells him. "And that’s just Part I. Part II is three hours too."
"Good lord, is this a play or a telethon?" asks the mayor, and the playwright punctures the unquestioned aura that seems to envelop Kushner and his fans. 

 Amid the brewing ontroversey, Marjorie conjures up a “bubble” for the players, a send up of that too precious psychobabble affectation that performers may have seen once or twice:

Marjorie: We’re in the bubble, say it with me.

Players: We’re in the bubble.

Marjorie: And what do we do in the bubble?

Players: We make art in the bubble.

Even theater reviewers get skewered in the no-holds-barred script: 

“When I have something to say,” says beleaguered Mayor Paxton, “I’ll talk to a real reporter.”

“I am a journalist,” Simon Larisher (Jordon Gleaves) retorts, to which the mayor replies, no, “You’re a theater critic!” Ouch! 

The playwright specifies just seven actors should play the 16 roles, and director Jason Palmer and the high-caliber cast carry this off wonderfully. Particularly notable are Andrew Bosworth as the protesting preacher Reverend Dupree, and two of his nemeses: the playwright who has flown from New York into the fray, and company member Mickey Steadman, who will deliver the full monty. Bosworth plays the roles distinctively and we have no confusion.

Even more so for Mary Ann Bowman as the theater company board chair, the district attorney, and the over-the-top Nyla-Jean Geisy, a winged creature essential to the play within this play. Likewise for Gleaves, who carries off very well with the support of a good script four roles, including the TV host of “Night Line” and a Franklin McManus, a highly effective lawyer given to flowery South Carlina colloquialisms.

Beyond its funny rendition of what it must have been like in Charlotte in 1996, “Southern Rapture” does something more. For me, it’s a reminder that we can recover from our seemingly intractable current state of social affairs. After all, we’ve done it numerous times in the last three decades, and even following the darkest of times in the 1950s with McCarthyism and the blacklisting of creatives. 

Back in the real Charlotte, “Angels in America” opened to record ticket sales, and the protests withered in the face of ticket-buyer preferences. Though the theater company that produced it saw its funding cut in retribution, a successor there commissioned this very funny “Rapture in America,” which feels cathartic all in all.

Now “Angels in America” is the stuff of celebrated revivals, and no one blinks an eye. So we do make it through these times of darkness, the forces of Steven Miller, Trad Wives and Andrew Tate notwithstanding. And we will recover from our current predicament too. 

Even with some clunkers among its running gags and jokes, “Southern Rapture” is highly recommended. It runs at Theater Wit through June 28, 2026.

Tin Drum Theatre Company is proud to announce the cast and creative team for the Chicago premiere of Southern Rapture at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., June 11 - 28, written by Eric Coble and directed by Jason Palmer. The preview for Southern Rapture is Thursday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m. and the opening night performance is Friday, June 12 at 7:30 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $30 with $15 student tickets and may be purchased at TinDrumTheatre.com. 

In the heart of the Bible Belt, a local theatre company announces it will stage a play called Rapture in America—complete with seven seconds of male nudity—sending the city into a frenzy. Based on actual events, Eric Coble's Southern Rapture turns this civic eruption into a wickedly funny satire about artistic freedom, arts funding, the weaponization of civic institutions and what happens when conviction outruns common sense.

Originally commissioned by Actor's Theatre of Charlotte, Southern Rapture draws directly from one of the city’s most explosive cultural battles. In 1996, Charlotte Repertory Theatre announced a production of Angels in America.. The district attorney attempted to bring criminal charges, however, emergency court injunctions required the show to open. “Good Morning America” broadcast a train-wreck debate, turning a local arts dispute into a national spectacle.

Eighteen months later, county commissioners retaliated by slashing $2.5 million in arts funding, destabilizing organizations across the city. Although much of that funding was later restored, the interruption sent lasting ripples through Charlotte’s artistic landscape. Charlotte Rep won the Angels battle, but the controversy produced long-term consequences that cost it the war. Amid donor fatigue, mounting financial strain and leadership turnover, the company closed permanently in 2005.

The Southern Rapture ensemble cast includes Teddy Boone (he/him, Mayor Winston Paxton), Shannon Leigh Webber (she/her, Marjorie Winthrop), Michael Stejskal (he/him, Donald Sherman), Mary Anne Bowman (she/her, Allissa Marquand, Nyla-Jean Geisy, Julia Overmyer), Jenny Hoppes (she/her, Laverne Jackson, Pam, Clarice Paxton, Tina), Jordan Gleaves (he/him, Simon Larisher, Emmett Whipple, Nightline Host, Franklin McManus) and Andrew Bosworth (he/him, Mickey Stedman, Reverend Dupree, Anton Finewitz). 

The creative team includes Steve Needham (he/him, producer), Jason Palmer (he/him, director), Teddy Boone (he/him, casting director), Emily Nicholas (she/her, stage manager), Sil Rivera (they/them, asst. stage manager/scenic asst.), Kaitlyn Hettinger (she/her, technical director/scenic designer), Kasey Wolfgang (she/her, costume designer), Ellie Fey (she/her, lighting designer/master electrician), Zach Stinnett (he/him, sound designer) and Erin Alys (she/her, intimacy/movement director).

Content notice: Southern Rapture includes a brief nude scene.

ABOUT ERIC COBLE, playwright

Eric Coble is an award-winning American playwright whose work spans sharply drawn dramas, audacious comedies, and incisive social satire. Born in Edinburgh and raised on the Navajo and Ute reservations of the American Southwest, Coble brings a distinctive blend of wit, empathy and theatrical boldness to the stage.

His plays have been produced across the United States and internationally, including on Broadway, Off-Broadway and at major regional theatres. His Broadway debut—The Velocity of Autumn, starring Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella—earned Parsons a Tony Award nomination. Other widely produced works include The Giver (stage adaptation), Bright Ideas, My Barking Dog, Fairfield, The Dead Guy, Natural Selection and Southern Rapture, among many others.

Coble’s scripts have received a Jeff Award, the ATCA Steinberg New Play Award citation, the Governor’s Award for the Arts (Ohio) and multiple Edgerton New Play Awards. His work has been developed or produced by The Kennedy Center, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Class Company, Denver Center Theatre Company, Cleveland Play House, Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage and Actors Theatre of Louisville, among others.

Known for his sharp comic voice and his ability to illuminate the tensions and absurdities of contemporary American life, Coble continues to be a vital and provocative presence in the new-play landscape. He is a member of the Playwrights’ Center and a graduate of Ohio University’s MFA program.

ABOUT JASON PALMER, director

Jason Palmer is the co-founder and co–artistic director of Tin Drum Theatre Company, where he helps shape bold, conversation-driven work in Chicago’s storefront scene. He recently directed the 2024 world premiere of Winter Garden by Steve Needham and the 2025 Chicago premiere of Nick Payne’s Incognito.

A multi-disciplinary theatre-maker with over 30 years of experience, Palmer’s work spans directing, producing, performance, dramaturgy and design across New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Ireland. Early in his career he served as literary manager and assistant director at Gilgamesh Theater Group and assistant directed Keith Reddin’s Off-Broadway premiere of Black Snow. In Chicago, his long association with the erstwhile Bailiwick Repertory Theatre included performing, stage management and coordinating several seasons of the Bailiwick Directors’ Festival. His performance in Nicholas Patricca’s Oh Holy Allen Ginsberg at the 2006 International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival earned a Best Actor nomination and an Honorable Mention.

Palmer has also worked with the Western Region of Actors’ Equity Association and the Directors Guild of America, giving him a strong grounding in theatrical and labor structures. His technical experience includes lighting design, set construction and stage management, and he is a multiple-time Irene Ryan nominee.

As co–artistic director of Tin Drum Theatre Company, Palmer is committed to developing new work and supporting Chicago’s next generation of storefront artists.

ABOUT TIN DRUM THEATRE COMPANY

Tin Drum Theatre Company exists to disrupt complacency and reassert theatre’s civic purpose. Creating theatre that asks something of its audience, moving beyond comfort to provoke conversation and critical engagement. Tin Drum believes community begins where audiences and ideas collide, and where dramatic disturbances are created.