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Attendees at the 2010/2011 Season Salon speak with moderator Steve Edwards at the event reception.

Season Salon

Now in it's 8th year, this annual kick-off event serves as a preview of the upcoming plays and introduces our season theme. The Seaon Salon is also a chance to meet and greet the artists behind Remy Bumppo. Our program includes a lively, sometimes irreverent panel discussion and Q & A on the season theme of The American Evolution. The conversation contiunes over coffee and desserts in the lobby.

When and Where

The 2011/2012 Season Salon was held Monday, August 29, 2011 at the Greenhouse Theater Center for a sold-out crowd! This year, WBEZ's Dueling Critics Jonathan Abarbanel and Kelly Kleiman moderated our panel.

Our Program

The full program is available for audio streaming or download from our partner, WBEZ's Chicago Amplified.

Splash Magazine shares a glowing review and highlights from the Salon:

"[Timothy] Douglas established an intimate feel right away -- he sang softly "there is a light, there is a light" -- and immediately, the radio critics, Jonathan Abarbanel and Kelly Kleiman, undercut it with a mock glare at each other and a grudging handshake. Already, the audience started laughing. The rest was analysis without pretension -- and a lot of humor.

These shows will be fresh and relevant. Be there. Tell your friends, especially your young friends. Give them a subscription for their birthdays."

Read more from Splash and share the Salon experience with friends...

Salon Panelists

	Jonathan Abarbanel - Salon Moderator Mr. Abarbanel is a theater critic for Chicago Public Radio and the weekly Windy City Times newspaper. He is senior writer for Chicago Footlights magazine and Chicago correspondent for Back Stage, the national trade paper. Jonathan is a long-time member of the American Theatre Critics Association and is one of the few theatre critics to serve as a site reporter and panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. Jonathan has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Friends of Literature, the Illinois Theatre Association and the Prix Italia (for radio production).
	Kelly Kleiman - Salon Moderator Ms. Kleiman is a freelance writer on the arts, feminism, travel and social justice. Her reportage and essays have appeared in the New York Times (Chicago edition), Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor, among other dailies; in magazines including In These Times and Dance; in the alternative press; on the BBC; and on Chicago Public Radio, where she’s one of the “Dueling Critics” and a contributor to the Onstage Backstage theater blog. She is also a consultant to charities and editor and publisher of The Nonprofiteer, a blog about charity, philanthropy and nonprofit management: www.Nonprofiteer.net.
	Rebecca Rugg - Panelist for Mourning Becomes Electra Ms. Rugg, Artistic Producer, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, also teaches at the Department of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at the Yale School of Drama. Formerly, she served on the artistic staff at the Joseph Papp Public Theater / New York Shakespeare Festival under George C. Wolfe, as Dramaturg and Director of New Projects, focusing on musical theater development. She also produced the University network of the 365 Festival, a festival based on 365 Days/365 Plays, a year-long play cycle written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. She is also an Artistic Associate at About Face Theater.
	Daniel Desormeaux - Panelist for Changes of Heart Mr. Desormeaux is an associate professor of French and Francophone studies, and the Center for Race, Culture, and Society at the University of Chicago. A native of Haiti, his scholarly work focuses on the historico-anthropological link between French literature and culture and French Caribbean literatures and cultures since the Haitian Revolution. He published numerous essays and two books entitled La Figure du bibliomane (2001) and Mémoires du général Toussaint Louverture (2011), a critical edition. He is currently completing a monograph on Alexandre Dumas, and a collection of essays on French Caribbean novels.
	Peter Taub - Panelist for Chesapeake Mr. Taub directs the performing arts programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA), where he presents and develops cross-disciplinary performances in dance, theater and music; and engages audiences with artists around the creative process. He has developed and produced artist-centered projects for over twenty-five years as a curator and arts manager. He has served on numerous local and national arts policy and funding committees for government and private sector arts programs, and has taught in the arts studio and arts history programs at University of Illinois, Chicago and School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
	Timothy Douglas - Artistic Director Timothy served as Remy Bumppo Theatre Company’s Artistic Director from July 2011 – January 2012. He has built a 30-year career as a stage director, actor and educator, proving his versatility as both an acclaimed interpreter of the classics and contemporary drama. Timothy directed the 2011/2012 productions Mourning Becomes Electra and Changes of Heart.