Andrea Dymond is Resident Director at Victory Gardens Theater, where she most recently directed the Chicago premiere of Blue Door, by Tanyan Barfield and the world premiere of Year Zero, by Michael Golamco, which was part of the Ignition project and the inaugural production in Victory Gardens’ new studio theater. Andrea has worked in new play development for most of her twenty-plus years in Chicago and was a Theater Communications Group New Generations Grant recipient, as well as speaker at the 2009 TCG NationalConference. She was Co-Artistic Director of American Blues Theater (now ATC) and Artistic Associate at City Lit Theatre Company, where her directing work included the long-running production Coffee Will Make You Black. Andrea is in her third year of teaching in the theatre department of Columbia College Chicago.

This post-show discussion immediately followed the performance of The Island, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company’s current mainstage show. Athol Fugard’s daring drama is set in an unnamed prison based on the one where Nelson Mandela was held. John and Winston are cellmates who spend their days doing back-breaking labor, and their nights rehearsing Sophocles’ Antigone to present to their fellow inmates. When John learns his sentence is being reduced, the men’s friendship is tested. Fugard plays the parallels between Antigone’s fight against political and patriarchal boundaries off of the imprisoned men’s fight for their dignity. The Island is a testament to the resiliency of the human heart.

Recorded Saturday, February 13, 2010 at The Greenhouse Theater.