BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan School of Theatre Arts graduate Marti Lyons will direct a challenging play this summer, but she won’t be alone. Plenty of IWU alumni and faculty have filled the ranks of the production’s cast and crew.
Tooth and Nail Ensemble will present Maria Irene Fornes’ The Conduct of Life, its debut production, beginning July 11 at Chicago’s Viaduct Theater in cooperation with Two Lights Theatre Company.
“It is incredible to work with everyone again,” Lyons said. “We are so far ahead in the process because we have a shared vocabulary from which to work.”
She and fellow Class of ’08 alumnus Tim Martin were inspired to form Tooth and Nail Ensemble after returning to Illinois Wesleyan last fall to view a production by Associate Theatre Arts Professor Sandra Lindberg. “We started talking about how we were not satisfied with the work we were doing [in Chicago],” Lyons said. “We talked about how we had a real ensemble feel in our Wesleyan training and how much we would want to work with Sandra and a lot of other Wesleyan graduates again.”
The former classmates had studied The Conduct of Life in Lindberg’s Introduction to Dramatic Literature class. “Tim and I were both very moved by the play when we read it in school, so when I mentioned it he got very excited, and then when Sandra agreed to be in it, we knew we had a show,” Lyons said.
The pair recruited Martin Langrall ’08 as their production manager and formed their own ensemble.