A Note from Court Trustee Barbara Franke
I am thrilled that audiences will share a magnificent, provocative, and characteristically unflinching production of The Wild Duck by Court Theatre.
If you’ve been to Court’s home in Hyde Park, you likely agree that, in the right hands, classic works of drama are as potent as the most contemporary works of art. But while the stories and images still speak to our imaginations, the words, composed in other languages a hundred and more years ago, sometimes need refreshing to sing to our modern ears.
That’s why I was eager to help Court Theatre establish a program to commission new translations and adaptations of classic texts, and not just plays. We plan to adapt works of literature, poetry, and history-written stories that have never before been seen on stage. I hope that audiences are moved by The Wild Duck, our program’s inaugural commission by playwright Richard Nelson. In this play you will hear Ibsen’s glorious voice, performed by Chicago’s finest actors in a contemporary idiom that sacrifices none of the master’s imagery or insight. And I sincerely hope that audiences will return to see more of Court’s vital, revitalizing approach to the worldwide canons of literature and drama.
–Barbara Franke, Vice Chair, Court Theatre Board of Trustees
