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by PAULA VOGEL

directed by JOSH SOBEL
 

Strawdog Theatre Company

Winter 2015

 THE LONG CHRISTMAS 

 RIDE HOME 

Past, present and future collide on a snowy Christmas Eve when a family's car spins out of control following a disastrous holiday dinner. Josh Sobel directs a hauntingly beautiful play by Pulitzer-winner Paula Vogel that deftly charts the personal trajectories that are forever altered by a single, fateful night.

* * *

NOMINATED: Best Sound Design & Best Artistic Specialization: Puppet Design, Joseph Jefferson Awards 2016

"RECOMMENDED... This indeed is a very distinctive 90 minutes of theater... "The Long Christmas Ride Home" will have the effect, I think, of drawing you closer to those you love... a very touching and quite wise little show that has lived in the front of my head for the past few days."

     -Chicago Tribune

"HIGHLY RECOMMENDED... gives director Josh Sobel the opportunity to stage some surprisingly poignant moments of theater... There is an unexpected tenderness in this production that appears over and over, seemingly from nowhere."

     -Time Out Chicago

"HIGHLY RECOMMENDED... Chamber-theater-style storytelling and bunraku-inspired puppets contribute to the comic, tragic, honest beauty of this unorthodox yuletide tale, sensitively rendered in Josh Sobel's staging for Strawdog Theatre. Don't see it with the kids unless you're prepared for a serious discussion on the ride home."

     -Chicago Reader

"HIGHLY RECOMMENDED... Josh Sobel directs his cast with extreme grace in a production with such audacious goals and multiple styles... Dzialo and Rezos are completely compelling as the parents, drifting into stylized narration and naturalistic interactions effortlessly... and Johnson have a lot of work to do creating flawed, empathetic characters in one scene each and they generate a remarkable amount of depth in a short amount of time. It’s ultimately Hubbard who inhabits Ride’s heart."

     -Chicago Theater Beat

Stage Manager: Alexa Berkowitz
Assistant Directors: Madisen Dempsey & Sarah Goeden
Set Design: Mike Mroch
Light Design: John Kelly
Projection Design: Michelle Underwood
Costume Design: Raquel Adorno
Puppet Design: Stephanie Diaz
Props Design: Jamie Karas
Sound Design: Jeffrey Levin
CAST: 
Sam Hubbard
Loretta Rezos
Ed Dzialo
Sarah Gitenstein
Kristen Johnson
​John Taflan

Photos by Kyle Hamman
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