Profiles Theatre continues its 2010-2011 Season with the Chicago Premiere of reasons to be pretty by Neil LaBute, directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Rick Snyder.  The production is now playing at Profiles Theatre, 4147 N. Broadway in Chicago and has been extended through April 10, 2011.

In reasons to be pretty, Greg’s tight-knit social circle is thrown into turmoil when his offhand remarks about a female coworker’s pretty face and his own girlfriend Steph’s lack thereof get back to Steph. But that’s just the beginning. Greg’s best buddy, Kent, and Kent’s wife, Carly, also enter into the picture, and the emotional equation becomes exponentially more complicated. As their relationships crumble, the four friends are forced to confront a sea of deceit, infidelity, and betrayed trust in their journey to answer that oh-so-American question: How much is pretty worth?

reasons to be pretty, produced by MCC Theater and directed by Terry Kinney, premiered off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theater in June 2008.  It received three Drama Desk Award nominations including Outstanding Play.  reasons to be pretty became Neil LaBute's first play ever to be staged on Broadway when it opened in March 2009 at the Lyceum Theatre.  The comedy-drama was nominated for three 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Play and received the 2009 Broadway.com Audience Award for Favorite New Off-Broadway Play.

Profiles Theatre began its relationship with Neil LaBute in 2006 with the Midwest premiere of autobahn, followed by their long-running hit, Fat Pig.  In 2007, Profiles devoted an entire season to the works of LaBute that included the Midwest premieres of In a Dark Dark House, Some Girl(s), This is How it Goes, and a collection of short works entitled Things We Said Today followed by the Midwest premiere of The Mercy Seat in 2009. 

“Having watched reasons to be pretty grow from a show running off-Broadway into a production that had to deal with all the excitement and difficulties of playing on Broadway, I'm thrilled to see it in the kind of space that I really love--the intimacy of the Profiles house,” says playwright Neil LaBute. “I'm never happier than when my work is in the safe hands of the artists who make up the Profiles company."

Directed by Steppenwolf ensemble member Rick Snyder (Killer Joe), the cast of reasons to be pretty features Profiles’ ensemble members Somer Benson (Killer Joe, Graceland) and Darrell W. Cox (Kid Sister, Killer Joe) along with guest artists Darci Nalepa (Company at Griffin Theatre) and Christian Stolte (Orange Flower Water at Steppenwolf).

 

 

NEIL LABUTE (Playwright) is a writer, director, filmmaker and playwright.  He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in dramatic writing from New York University and was the recipient of a literary fellowship to study at the Royal Court Theatre, London and also attended the Sundance Institute’s Playwrights Lab. His films include: “In the Company of Men” (New York Critics’ Circle Award for Best First Feature and the Filmmakers’ Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival), “Your Friends and Neighbors,” “Nurse Betty,” “Possession,” “The Shape of Things” (a film adaptation of his play by the same title), “The Wicker Man,” “Lakeview Terrace,” and “Death at a Funeral.” LaBute’s plays include: Bash: Latter-Day Plays, The Shape of Things, The Mercy Seat, The Distance From Here, Autobahn (a collection of five of his one- act plays), Fat Pig, Wrecks, Some Girl(s), This is How it Goes, In a Dark Dark House and reasons to be pretty, which was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play. His newest play The Break of Noon, premiered at MCC in October 2010.  LaBute is also the author of several fictional pieces that have been published in “The New York Times,” “The New York Times Magazine,” “Harper’s Bazaar,” and “Playboy” among others. “Seconds of Pleasure,” a collection of his short stories, was published by Grove Atlantic.

Steppenwolf ensemble member Rick Snyder is the director of reasons to be pretty.  He returns to Profiles after directing their hit production of Killer Joe which won Jeff Awards for Outstanding Production, Director and Actor.  Most recently, he directed Oleanna and Speed the Plow at American Theatre Company.  Other recent productions include directing Art at Steppenwolf, Mauritius at Northlight Theatre, The Lion in Winter at Writers’ Theatre, The Actor at the Goodman Theatre and ARISTOCRATA at Strawdog Theatre. He has also directed Betrayal at Steppenwolf, Jolly and The Disappearance of the Jews at the Goodman, St. Scarlet at ATC, Bus Stop at Writers’ Theatre and Last of the Boys at Steppenwolf. Other directing credits at Steppenwolf include Tavern Story, Things Being What They Are, Orange Flower Water (which traveled to the Galway Arts Festival), and The Fall to Earth. As an actor, Rick recently appeared in August: Osage County and The Unmentionables at Steppenwolf Theatre as well as Man From Nebraska and I Never Sang For My Father. Other Steppenwolf Theatre productions include Wedding Band, Time of Your Life, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in London and on Broadway, and Sideman in Galway, Ireland, David Copperfield, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Slaughterhouse Five, Molly Sweeney, Picasso at the Lapine Agile, the Tony Award-winning Grapes of Wrath, The Road to Nirvana, and A Walk in the Woods. He has appeared at the Goodman Theatre in As You Like It, Down the Shore and as Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. At Northlight Theatre he appeared in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Rear Column. Television credits include Crime Story, First Steps, Lady Blue, Legacy of Lies, The Woman Who Loved Elvis, Overexposed, and guest starring roles on Early Edition, Profiler, Chicago Hope, Angel Street, The Untouchables, Missing Persons and Mind of the Married Man. Rick has appeared in the films Meet the Applegates, The Tuskegee Airmen, Alien Nation Millenium, The Net starring Sandra Bullock, Whiteboys and Soul Suvivors. He appeared as agent Frank Burrows in U.S. Marshals and was also seen in The Human Stain. Rick has taught acting classes at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, as well as advanced acting class at Northwestern University and DePaul. He currently teaches Directing 1 at Columbia College in Chicago. Rick has been a member of the Steppenwolf ensemble since 1983, and an instructor for The School at Steppenwolf and Associate Artist at Steppenwolf for the last ten years.

The designers are Stephen Carmody (set), Jess Harpeneau (lights), Myron Elliott (costumes), Jeffrey Levin (sound and original music) and the stage manager is Corey Weinberg.

The cast of reasons to be pretty features Profiles ensemble members Somer Benson and Darrell W. Cox along with guest artists Darci Nalepa and Christian Stolte.

Somer Benson (Carly) was most recently seen as Sharla in Profiles' Jeff Award-winning production of Killer Joe by Tracy Letts, and as Anna in Profiles' World Premiere of Graceland by Ellen Fairey. Prior to that, she was seen as Lisa in the U.S. premiere of The Wonderful World of Dissocia by Anthony Neilson, and as Diane in Profiles' Midwest Premiere of The Thugs by Adam Bock. She was also seen as Steph in a reading of Reasons to Be Pretty, part of Profiles’ An Evening With Neil LaBute: Live and in Person. Prior to that, she was seen in “Coax” as part of Profiles' Midwest premiere of Things We Said Today by Neil LaBute. She was also the Assistant Director for Profiles' acclaimed productions of In a Dark Dark House by Neil LaBute, and Great Falls by Lee Blessing. Somer is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (CA), studied at Waubonsee Community College with Dr. Maria Bakalis and has also studied at Profiles Theatre.

Darrell W. Cox (Greg) was most recently seen as Cassius in Profiles' World Premiere of Kid Sister by Will Kern. Other recent roles include Bobby Gould in Speed-the-Plow and John in Oleanna as part of the Mamet Rep at ATC. Prior to that, he was seen as Joe Cooper in Profiles' production of Killer Joe by Tracy Letts, for which he received his fourth Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Principal Role. Other recent Profiles credits include the Midwest Premiere of The Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute, World Premiere of Graceland by Ellen Fairey, Midwest Premiere of Great Falls by Lee Blessing, as well as Taggart in Profiles' first full Chicago production of Men of Tortuga. He was recently seen in the Chicago Premiere of The People's Temple at American Theatre Company as Jim Jones and Stephan Jones. He has appeared at Steppenwolf in the World Premiere of Men of Tortuga (where he originated the role of Taggart), the Midwest Premiere of Orange Flower Water (which traveled to the Galway Arts Festival), and the World Premiere of Wendall Greene. Darrell has also been seen at the Goodman in The Shawl and Home as part of the David Mamet Festival and the World Premiere of Martin Furey's Shot at TimeLine, among others. He has won four Joseph Jefferson Awards for Principal Actor for his work in Profiles' productions of Killer Joe, Blackbird, Some Voices, and Eye of God. In addition, he has received two After Dark Awards for Outstanding Performance for Profiles' productions of Popcorn, and Carnal Knowledge.

DARCI NALEPA (Steph) is thrilled to make her Profiles debut. Most recently she was seen as Amy in Griffin Theatre’s production of Company. Previous Chicago credits include The Ring Cycle at The Building Stage, A Perfect Wedding, Enchanted April, Stone Cold Dead Serious and The Distance From Here at Circle Theatre, Six Years at New Leaf Theatre, The Private Lives of Eskimos and Venus with The Mill and The Mystery of Edwin Drood with Noble Fool Theatre.  Darci is a student at Black Box Acting Studio and a graduate of The School at Steppenwolf. 

CHRISTIAN STOLTE (Kent) ends a five-year hiatus from the stage with this production. He was last seen in Romance and No One Will Be Immune, part of the Goodman Theatre's David Mamet Festival. Other stage credits include Orange Flower Water, Side Man, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, David Copperfield and The Man Who Came to Dinner at Steppenwolf Theatre, Art and Plaza Suite at Indiana Repertory Theatre, Therese Raquin with Greasy Joan & Co., Speed-the-Plow at Piven Theatre, and at A Red Orchid Theatre, Canus Lunis Balloonis, for which he won a Jeff Citation as playwright for Best New Work, and Born Guilty. His recent film and TV credits include The Chicago Code, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Public Enemies, The Actor Connie Banks, Something Better Somewhere Else, Leatherheads, Were the World Mine, and Osso Bucco. He also played the greasy tattooed scumbag murderer Clarence Darby in Law Abiding Citizen. 

“Neil LaBute's succulent REASONS TO BE PRETTY is his most reflective play to date and an uncommonly wise and direct drama about gender relations among the great swaths of ordinary citizens who inhabit exurban America.  Rick Snyder directs the confrontation scenes with zest. This cautionary tale not only offers more schandefreude than any other 90 minutes in town, but also has the authentic whiff of a writer who loves probing the reasons to be pretty and the dangers of bringing it up in conversation!”

-Chris Jones, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

 

“Neil LaBute’s Broadway hit is now receiving a deftly lacerating Chicago premiere at Profiles Theatre under the direction of Steppenwolf’s Rick Snyder.  LaBute’s writing for the play’s two female characters is exceptionally strong here.  Darci Nalepa nails each of her “arias” to perfection and Somer Benson is first-rate!”

-Hedy Weiss, CHICAGO SUN TIMES

 

"Profiles Theatre’s ensemble digs deeply into the play’s paranoid, vulnerable quartet. Few actors in the city can play wounded masculinity better than Darrell W. Cox; whether raging at Carly for her backstabbing or tussling with Kent on the softball diamond, his Greg stays sympathetic!"

-John Beer, TIMEOUT CHICAGO

 

"Highly Recommended!  Neil LaBute's smart and interesting REASONS TO BE PRETTY, his first play to reach Broadway, is a crafty, funny critique of the male sense of entitlement, performed here with passionate precision by Rick Snyder's engaging cast!"

-Justin Hayford, CHICAGO READER

 

"Highly Recommended! Darrell W. Cox scores as a hapless guy who struggles for redemption; you want to slap him and hug him afterward. Darci Nalepa's fury is both painful and darkly funny; Christian Stolte and Somer Benson lay believable ground as a couple poised for a bad fall. Rick Snyder's solid direction keeps the ensemble on a well-paced track. It's a bittersweet look at mundane cruelty!"

-Lisa Buscani, NEW CITY

 

“Highly Recommended!  Neil  LaBute’s REASONS TO BE PRETTY is a great couples play that will provide stimulating conversational fodder.  On the Profiles stage Darrell W. Cox is a preeminent interpreter of LaBute’s male characters, Greg being perhaps his most sympathetic portrayal.  Rick Snyder directs a high-velocity staging and the production skillfully balances comedy and intensity!”

-Dan Zeff, COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

 

"Highly Recommended! Neil LaBute's ear for modern relationship parlance is unerring and he delivers it with the accuracy of a syringe. REASONS TO BE PRETTY is being performed with energy, passion, and bravery from the four talented actors. I encourage you all to go!"

-John Dalton, CENTERSTAGE

 

"LaBute's concise play cares greatly for its characters and has a keen eye for the working-class milieu it depicts. Darrell W. Cox is a mastery of understatement, and his ability to dryly toss off lines makes the play as funny as it is thoughtful!"

-John Olson, TALKIN' BROADWAY

 

“Highly Recommended!  Playwright Neil LaBute’s machete-sharp dialogue and banter engages so authentically that one feels as if they are in-the-room.  Director Rick Snyder keeps the wrath at a frenzy, interspersed with breaths of humor.  Darrell W. Cox is excellent as he struggles with guilt in a bumbling and endearing manner. Darci Nalepa balances the vulnerability and confidence with glimpses of tears behind a veil of rage!”

-Katy Walsh, CHICAGO THEATER BLOG

 

“Highly Recommended!  This cautionary tale about how the meaning of words can destroy a relationship is powerfully presented. The pace is swift, the acting first-class and LaBute’s script is raw, realistic and relevant.  REASONS TO BE PRETTY is authentic Chicago style theatre!”

-Tom Williams, CHICAGOCRITIC.COM

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