EXTENDED thru March 21: Sub-Prime Youth Explores Foreclosures, Family at Free Street Theater 

By David Shuey, February 28, 2009 

Stop honoring thy father.
I will catch him when he falls.

On Valentine's Day I walked up three flights of ramshackle stairs at Pulaski Park  – follow the hand-made signs – to witness community theater at its most daring. Sub-Prime Youth, a play written in collaboration with the youth actors at Free Street Theater, is both hard-hitting and deft in its treatment of teenage characters dealing with their intimate loss of "home" in the last days before the sheriff kicks them out. It's a free-verse explosion of ideas, mashed up with the harsh economic realities confronting Chicago and communities everywhere today. Two siblings await their unseen father's literal and metaphorical fall from grace in light of his failure to take care of the family – and the mortgage payments. Amid moving boxes, their extended family of friends (and their inner thoughts represented as the tactile non-dreamgirls, the five-closures) surround them with rapid-fire takes on a situation far too many Chicago households are facing. An pre-play slideshow provides cold stats and charts on the housing debacle. Sub-Prime Youth is the hot, raw nerve aftermath.

Look for a future interview with the artistic director, Ron Bieganski. For now: Just Go!

Tickets:  $15 General, $5 Students, Free if home is in foreclosure!
Where: Free Street Theater, 1419 W. Blackhawk, Chicago (map), 3rd floor Pulaski Park
Buy Tickets: online or call 773.772.7248

Extended Dates & Times:
Friday, February 27, 7 p.m.
Saturday, February 28, 2 p.m.
Saturday, March 7, 2 p.m.
Saturday, March 14, 2 p.m.
Saturday, March 21, 2 p.m.

More photos and cast list after the fold. Click once to enlarge.

Written and Performed by teens in the Free Street Theater ensemble
Directed and Facilitated by Ron Bieganski. Assistant Director: Anita Evans               
Ensemble: Dina Ahmetspahic, Cheryl Doyle, Ashley Echevarria, Giovanni Gonzalez, Karina Gonzalez, Ashley Johnson, Abraham Mendoza, Chiagoziem Nwakanma, Celina Rivera, Petra Samardzija