SPOTLIGHT - Two Lights Theatre Company

It's always exciting when a new theatre company comes onto the Chicago theatre scene. Though they've been creating works since 2008, Two Lights Theatre Company debuts its first full season this year, launching with Nicky Silver's The Altruists. The play follows five well-meaning radicals who find themselves in over their heads with sex, drugs, and guns as they try to do the right thing in an Occupied America.

"It is a play about heartless people doing cruel things," says Nicky Silver of his play. "It is not about the left or the right. It's about hypocrisy." As the play enters its closing weekend this week, I caught up with Two Lights Artistic Director Daniel Dvorkin and my pal in the cast Aaron Kirby (with whom I did a staged reading at the Goodman this past summer) and picked their brains about the show.

Danny Bernardo (DB): So tell me how Two Lights got started?

Daniel Dvorkin (DD): Two Lights got started pretty simply, actually. When I got to the city my freshman year of college, I wrote a play with a friend, we found some actors, and rented out the Neofuturarium for a weekend. Over the next five years, we had slowly built up a team of all different backgrounds. We had quite a few actors, some designers and visual artists, writers, and directors. I saw it as my job to let us collaborate.

DB: What was the inspiration for Two Light's creation and your mission?

DD: I grew up in a Russian household that basically resembled a gallery. There was a piece of art on every wall. My twin sister, who's actually our artistic curator, is an oil painter and Assistant Director of a gallery in the West Loop. Me being in theatre, I wanted to find a way to meld the two crafts, while being able to incorporate the strengths of our team. As far as theatre goes, many of us come from similar training. When thinking about the kind of theater we want to produce, there wasn't much to say, as much as there was to do. We sorta spoke the same vocabulary, and had the same values. We love the process of it. The Two Lights team likes to keep it simple and bold, imaginative and sexy, and most important, relative. It's gotta have substance.

DB: Two Lights has been around since 2008, but really making your mark with your current production of The Altruists. What attracted you to the play?

DD: We spent a while looking for the right script. I think when you're starting out like this, you really have to choose work that you all love equally and passionately. Finally one of our artistic associates threw The Altruists in our lap and told us to read it. Personally I've always been a fan of funny and dark. These characters! These characters are just DEMENTED. But beautifully so. And oh, so funny! After reading it for the 3rd time as a group and still laughing just as hard, we all knew we had a project on our hands. We've gone through many concepts with it too. Even though these characters are trying to get to a rally, it took us a while to realize the play had nothing to do with politics, actually. It's simply about these hypocritical people doing cruel things, while being absolutely hilarious, of course. The youth in the play was a plus too. Just like The Altruists don't really know what they represent, we related to that black hole in our twenties. So we decided to embrace that and celebrate it in an artistic, fashionable, and theatrical light.

DB: What's up next for Two Lights?

DD: You know, I feel like we've learned a lot from this process, and the first things we have to do is sit down and figure out what that is exactly. As a company we need to take care of our team not only as an artistic home, but as a business. We will be looking to further our staffing, build a board of directors, and strengthen our infrastructure. That's important.?We have quite a number of scripts that we're currently reading, and many more that are being sent our way. There will definitely be some interesting gallery and theatrical events to look forward to in the spring/summer, and we'd like a full season planned to open next fall because we're ambitious like that. We're only just getting into the groove of working together, and there's a lot we want to do. With The Altruists we've really felt at home at The Chopin, and the space has welcomed us and been very kind and full of great wisdom. The space is absolutely gorgeous and pretty damn cool. To be honest, I never dreamed of performing there until it happened. We got lucky on that one, and we definitely plan on coming back soon.

DB: Tell me about your character "Lance" and how you approached portraying him.

Aaron Kirby (AK): Playwright Nicky Silver did a remarkable job crafting the five beautifully warped characters in this play, and without giving too much away, he really gave Lance a profound journey through the story. Playing a homeless prostitute, whose only refuge from the world is heavy substance abuse, could be dealt with flippantly since this is "just a comedy", but really, the power of the piece (and its hilariously dark comedy) is in the overpowering need/desire of each individual, especially Lance. Our directors Matt Olsen and Ellen Chambers highlighted that raw humanity in an aggressive way, and I really believe it serves the production well.

DB: You've been actively working in Chicago for the past couple of years now. How has working with Two Lights been different than working with any other company in Chicago?

AK: Being a part of the ever-changing landscape of Chicago storefront theatre is such an honor because it's a market already saturated with world-class theatre, so audiences are inundated with choices. So, being a part of an aggressive new company that's managing to build a legitimate foundation in that shifting landscape is profoundly exciting. Artistic Director Dan Dvorkin and the entire Two Lights management team know where they're going, and they know how to get you to enjoy the party.

DB: So, sidebar, you've got an episode of Chicago Fire coming up. What was that like and when does your episode air?

AK: You can see me as Garrett on NBC's "Chicago Fire", Wednesday, November 7th at 9 pm (CST). Let's just say Garrett is having a terrible day at the office. It was an unbelievable experience, and everyone was remarkably kind. Hopefully exciting projects like this will keep choosing Chicago and making use of the incredible talent pool here.

DB: What was your favorite moment working on The Altruists, on-or-off stage?

AK: It's such a treat getting to be in a small cast with actors and a stage manager you enjoy. We're a silly bunch, and somehow we've developed the habit of singing "Welcome Christmas" from "the Grinch Who Stole Christmas" before every show. We hold hands, dahoo dores, and sway- the whole works. Why? I have no idea. But if a tradition makes you happy, it makes you happy, right?

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The Altruists enters its closing weekend at the Chopin Theatre in Wicker Park. It runs Thursday through Friday at 7:30 PM and closes Sunday at 3 PM. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here.
Staying true to its mission of duality, Two Lights Theatre Company will present The Altruists along side the art installation, I Want (______), by Von Bilka and Harriet Bisholem. Conceptual and interactive, this work of art will be installed in the lobby of the theatre and will serve as a compliment to the show. The artists' inspiration has been drawn from various contemporary artists such as Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer