Chicago Premiere
by Lee Hall — inspired by a book by William Feaver
directed by BJ Jones

We have several events scheduled during the run of The Pitmen Painters.

Union Members Art Exhibit
To connect the play's true story of the Ashington Group to today, TimeLine added a unique element to The Pitman Painters lobby design – an exhibit of contemporary artwork created by current members of a variety of Chicago-area unions. Following a call for artists sent via the Chicago Federation of Labor and individual unions, contemporary works by six Chicago-area artists/union members were selected for the exhibit.
Learn more ...

Sunday Scholars Series

October 23, 2011
Following the performance, beginning at approximately 4:20 p.m.

• A free one-hour, post-show panel discussion with experts on the themes and issues of the play

You do not need to attend the performance that day to participate in this discussion. Just arrive and enter the theater after the performance ends.

The Pitmen Painters Sunday Scholars Series will be moderated by Artistic Director PJ Powers and will feature panelists:

Laura Fox
Laura Fox is an entrepreneurial arts advocate, writer, and marketing professional. While working for Morningstar, Inc.'s in-house brand and marketing agency for the past three years, she's also served on the executive board at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, acted as a business and communications consultant to arts organizations, and taught art-based creative writing workshops at 826Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Roger Brown Study Collection. Her writing appears in newspapers including Newcity, The Chicago Reader and Flavorpill Chicago, and magazines publications such as Proximity and The Outsider. Next week, Laura leaves Chicago for a role with the Qatar Museums Authority in Doha, Qatar; she couldn't be more excited for this new adventure.

David Lawrie
David Lawrie grew up in North Northumberland about 40 miles north of Ashington. He would regularly visit Ashington to visit his grandfather — who worked at the colliery (as did most of his family) — in one of the Pit Row houses. His family later moved to Ashington in the early 1980s, and his parents still live there. David attended Sheffield University in another Northern industrial town, met his wife while working in London and in 1998 moved to Chicago, where he works as a landscape architect.

Maren Robinson
Maren Robinson is an Associate Artist at TimeLine Theatre; The Pitmen Painters marks her 15th production with the company. Favorite TimeLine projects include A Walk in the Woods, (playing at Theater Wit through Nov. 20), To Master the Art, Frost/Nixon, The History Boys, Not Enough Air, Copenhagen and Pravda. She was an artistic intern at Steppenwolf Theatre and has worked with Lifeline, Eclipse, Strawdog, Caffeine, Greasy Joan & Co. and Camenae theaters. Maren holds an MA degree degree in Humanities from the University of Chicago and has taught or lectured at the Newberry Library, the Chicago Public Library and several Chicago universities. She is a member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.