BY Jenn Q. Goddu

Jen Hines admits she was nervous when she brought The Kentucky Cycle to the Infamous Commonwealth Theatre ensemble for consideration in a play selection meeting.

“I brought it to the table and they all looked shocked and horrified,” ICT’s co-founder said.

Genevieve Thompson, another of the company’s co-founders remembers it being a “sort of tongue in cheek” suggestion. She figured Hines “never thought it would be selected, but she really liked the play.”

But then so did everyone else in the ensemble after reading the Robert Schenkkan script with its nine one-acts spanning 200 years of American history, performed over six hours by a cast of inter-related characters.

“When it came to Kentucky Cycle everyone kind of nervously laughed and looked around the table and agreed that they loved the play, that it was their favorite that they read, but obviously they were terrified by it,” recalled Thompson, ICT’s artistic director.

When one former ensemble member said, “If we don’t do this play we’re always going to wonder what would have happened if we did,” the tide turned in favor of the play Hines was championing. As Thompson put it: “Why not do it if it’s the one we love the best?”

The production was ultimately helmed by two directors at National Pastime and brought together over 40 people, none of them working for much pay.

“I think it’s like when someone looks at you and says, ‘Oh no, there’s no way you’re going to do it.’ It’s really a challenge and a charge of, ‘Well, just watch me. I’m going to.’” Thompson said. “All of us went, ‘This is possible, and we can do it, and it’s just going to be more work than we ever dreamed of.’”

Diane Fairchild treated her work as lighting designer on the production as a labor of love. She hadn’t worked with ICT before the 2005 show but was impressed with the ensemble’s desire and determination.

“So few people dare to approach [The Kentucky Cycle] because it’s a behemoth. It’s a huge undertaking and I think what really did it was just their heart and soul,” she said. “There were a lot of tears and a lot of tired people to get it done. It was just amazing to me that a company of that size could make it happen.”

Even Thompson admits part of the reason ICT had such a great response to the production was because few thought they could pull it off. ICT was “the underdog” and “I think people expected it to be a complete disaster, honestly.”

Yet the risk paid off as the late spring 2005 show ended up winning the relatively new company four Jeff citations (Outstanding Production, Director, Ensemble and Supporting Actor). Much has changed for ICT since then.

After the Jeff citations, other companies began approaching ICT about collaborating and cross-marketing opportunities. Thompson has had playwrights and directors contact her about working with the company. Overall, she said, “I’ve felt more included in the theatrical community in Chicago.”

For another thing, the company is now more confident about producing, Hines said. “As a company we know now it’s important not to feel limited. Now we look at plays in a different way. I think we’ve sort of stepped from infant to adolescence pretty quickly.”

To mark its coming of age, ICT is this fall launching its fifth anniversary season, and its first with three plays offered to subscribers. The September show, opening Sept. 2 at Live Bait, is Christopher Durang’s Betty’s Summer Vacation, directed by Joanie Schultz. In Winter 2007 the company will stage Mark Medoff’s The Homage that Follows, directed by Jason Kae, with Edward Albee’s The Lady from Dubuque, directed by Thompson, following in May/June 2007.

But what brings these three divergent scripts together other than a season brochure listing all on the same page? Each show fits under the company’s overall theme this year: death.

ICT wanted to start the season out with a comedy and so turned to Durang, “When you think of death, the first thing you think about is grief and loss and sadness and tears. So we really wanted something that was riotously funny,” Thompson said.

The Medoff play is in a very different style and has a different tone. “It’s really exactly what you think of when you think about death, all of that grief and loss and dealing with that. It’s dealing with the murder of a young woman,” Thompson said.

Which leads to Albee’s acerbic play, Lady from Dubuque. “You’ll go from laughing to being upset. I think it’s more about the mystery of death and what follows.” Thompson said.

But it’s the overall theme uniting the works that makes ICT distinct, its ensemble members suggest. “For us the real way to experience an Infamous season is to see all the shows, to see the idea from each different perspective,” said Fairchild, who joined the ensemble last year after Kentucky Cycle. ”[We] want to enlighten people to different perspectives other than their own.”

The company’s staff sits down and brainstorms possible over-arching topics. The mission has led to seasons programmed so far around the idea of inspiration, distorted perspectives, desire and home. The goal is always to find an idea that is open to interpretation in a variety of different ways.

“What it does for us is it allows us to not stick with one genre, so we’re not all classics, we’re not all contemporary, we’re not all new plays,” Fairchild said. “It opens a much broader spectrum.”

ICT also runs additional side projects and events tying into the theme. This year that tradition continues with the second annual 24 Hour Project – in which four short plays are conceived, written, rehearsed and performed in a 24-hour timeframe.

Throughout the entire season Thompson, as artistic director, acts as a facilitator. “Everyone on staff does that administrative work so that they can be involved artistically. It’s really important to me to understand what their artistic needs are and what sorts of things do they want to be doing, what sorts of roles do they think are suited to them,” she said.

At the same time, she enjoys “putting people in roles they may not be cast in at any other theatre. My job is to really understand what the combination of these people can create.”

It helps that the combination of people involved represents a broader spectrum than in the beginning when four women in their 20s came together in Oct 2001 to form ICT and tell, as Hines puts it, “really intelligent stories that are character driven. They’re usually stories that have a little bit of a bite to them, a bit of an edge.”

Since Kentucky Cycle, ICT has doubled in size and has added more designers and male actors to its ensemble. Now there are 17 people who have a voice in the company’s artistic direction and a stake in its success.

It also helps that ICT has learned over the years how best to run itself. When the company got its start, its founders had experience backstage but none producing their own work. Now the production process is more streamlined.

“What we ended up figuring out works for us is that we take turns,” Hines said. “One or two people would be really invested in one project, one or two would fall in with another project and the rest would play a supporting role and nurture that.”

As managing director, Fairchild said she aims to nurture the company’s financial growth. She’d also like to see ICT commission more original work and expand design-wise by approaching a greater spectrum of designers.

Yet any designers who sign on would have to be prepared to work within ICT’s no-frills parameters. It’s a fine fit for Fairchild. “I don’t do more than I have to because the work should stand on its own. You’re there to support it, not to become another actor on stage,” she said of her lighting designs. “Granted there are certainly some productions where lighting wants to be another component, another presence on stage, but most of the scripts that Infamous picks definitely go with the simplicity of the design.”

The company’s grand design for its own future, unsurprisingly, is to get their own space and be able to pay the staff, Fairchild said. But in the meantime, the 5-year-old company is enjoying its increased credibility in the local theatre community.

Since winning the Jeff citations, the company has gained more subscribers and enjoyed being taken more seriously. “There are so many start-up companies and you just never know what you’re going to get when you walk into the theatre,” Fairchild said. “Winning the Jeff awards for The Kentucky Cycle will really make people look at us and know that they’re going to get a quality product when they walk through that door.”

Tickets for all ICT shows are $15. 2006-2007 season subscriptions, which include entry to all three productions and the 24 Hour Project, are available for $30. Call 312/458-9780 or visit www.infamouscommonwealth.org.