Biographies
Masha Obolensky (Playwright) is a director, playwright and performer. She has written and directed several original performance pieces, which have been presented in New York City by La Mama E.T.C., New Georges, Here Arts Center, 78th Street Theatre Lab, Access Theatre and The Director's Collective. A reading of her play Not Enough Air was presented at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education/Women in Theatre Conference in Chicago as the recipient of the 2006 Jane Chambers Award. It also was awarded First Prize by Boston Theatre Works and was presented in their 2005 Unbound Festival of New Plays. As an actor, Obolensky has worked with many theater companies in New York and regionally, including New York Theatre Workshop, La Mama E.T.C., Target Margin, Mabou Mines, The Culture Project, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Minnesota Shakespeare Company and Austin Arts Center. Her most recent directing credits include a reading of Dano Madden's Beautiful American Soldier for Boston Theatre Works, Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening for Emerson Stage, Coming Together for the 2005 Cambodian Expressions Festival, The Bug Opera for a tour across New England, and A Thousand Cranes at 59E59 Theatres and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it was nominated for a Total Theatre Award. Obolensky is on the theater faculty at The Boston Conservatory and at Middlesex Community College and is currently pursuing her MFA in playwriting at Boston University.
Nick Bowling (Director) was the founding artistic director of TimeLine and is now a Company member. He is the recipient of four Non-Equity Jeff Awards for Outstanding Direction (This Happy Breed, The Crucible and Fiorello! at TimeLine, Another Part of the Forest at Eclipse Theatre). He also was nominated for TimeLine's Hauptmann and The Lion in Winter, and for an Equity Jeff Award for Closer Than Ever at Porchlight Music Theatre. At TimeLine, he also directed The Children's Hour, Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, Summit Conference, Gaslight, the world premiere of Streeterville and concert readings of The Cradle Will Rock and Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story. Other credits include Writers' Theatre's Bach at Leipzig, Shattered Globe Theatre's Time of the Cuckoo and Frozen Assets, Shakespeare's Motley Crew's Present Slaughter, Rivendell Theatre's Factory Girls and Buffalo Theatre Ensemble's Angels in America., 2008
About TimeLine Theatre Company
TimeLine was founded in April 1997 by six graduates of The Theatre School at DePaul University. The company's mission is to present stories inspired by history that connect with today's social and political issues.
TimeLine's first 11 seasons featured 35 productions, including five world premieres and eight Chicago premieres. Praised as "a must-see company" (Chicago Sun-Times) and a "fast-rising Chicago company" (The New York Times) and recipient of the 2006 Alford-Axelson Award for Nonprofit Managerial Excellence, TimeLine has received 37 Non-Equity Jeff Awards, including an award for Outstanding Production in six of the past eight seasons: Not About Nightingales (2001); The Crucible (2002), Awake and Sing! (2003), Hannah and Martin (2004), This Happy Breed (2005) and Fiorello! (2007). TimeLine's 2008-09 season is presented under contract with Actors Equity Association.
The rest of TimeLine's 2008-09 season will include:
* The Chicago premiere of THE HISTORY BOYS, by Alan Bennett, directed by Nick Bowling, April 25 - June 21, 2009 (previews 4/22 - 4/24)
Company members are Nick Bowling, Janet Ulrich Brooks, Lara Goetsch, Juliet Hart, David Parkes, Maureen Powers, PJ Powers and Benjamin Thiem. TimeLine is a member of the League of Chicago Theatres, Theatre Communications Group and the Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce.
