CHICAGO — Signal Ensemble Theatre is pleased to open its second season with Joseph Heller’s satirical calling card, CATCH-22, based on his novel satirizing America’s military bureaucracy. The production will be staged at the Chopin Studio Theatre, 1543 W. Division Ave., Chicago, 60622. General admission tickets are $15, with discounts for military ($5), and seniors and students ($10), and can be purchased online at www.signalensembletheatre.com or reserved by telephone at (773) 347-1350.

Joseph Heller’s dramatization of his most famous novel is set on an air base off the coast of Italy in the latter months of World War II. CATCH-22 tells the story of an American bombardier named Yossarian who is convinced everyone is out to kill him. Terrified that he will have to fly more missions, he hatches a bulletproof plan to be discharged: he tells the doctor he is unfit to fly by reason of insanity. There is only one catch: Catch-22. If proven insane, he won’t have to fly the missions, all he has to do is ask. But as soon as he requests not to fly, he will no longer be insane because a sane man would refuse to repeatedly put his life in danger.

Brandon Bruce directs the production. CATCH-22 is Bruce’s second project with Signal Ensemble after appearing last summer as Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing. As well as being a new member of Signal Ensemble, Bruce is the new artistic director of BackStage Theatre Company. His previous directing credits include the award-winning and critically acclaimed productions of Picasso at the Lapin Agile at New Leaf Theatre and Plaza Suite at Rabbit Run Theatre in Ohio. Other credits include Hidden in this Picture and Off the Hook (New Leaf Theatre), Marrieds (The Side Project), A Bump in the Road (Bailiwick Director's Fest), The Zoo Story and This is a Test (Kent State University). Bruce has also performed with such theatres as Stage Left, WNEP, Breadline, Cleveland Play House, and Yale Summer Cabaret.

The American novelist and playwright Joseph Heller (1923–1999) was born in Brooklyn and grew up on Coney Island. During World War II he flew 60 missions as a bombardier aboard B-25s in North Africa and Italy. Following college and graduate work at USC, NYU, Columbia, and Oxford, Heller worked in New York writing advertising and promotions. His first novel Catch-22 (1961) was an enormous critical and popular success, and gave birth to a literary career boasting eight major books, stage plays, screenplays, short stories, articles, and reviews. His subsequent novels include Something Happened, Good as Gold, God Knows, No Laughing Matter (on his bout with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, written with Speed Vogal), Picture This, and Closing Time—the sequel to Catch-22. Heller’s other plays include We Bombed in New Haven and Clevinger’s Trial.

CATCH-22 features nine actors playing forty-one roles. Signal Ensemble Members featured are Meredith Bell, Christopher Prentice, Aaron Snook, and Joseph Stearns. The cast also includes Daniel E. Brennan, Ian Crossland, Marcus Kamie, Jason Powers, and Aris Tompulis.

The Design/Production team for CATCH-22 includes Melania Lancy (setting), Laura M. Dana (costumes), Timothy “Dante” Goodhart (lighting), Brandon Bruce (sound), Lara Maerz (props), Erin Myers (dramaturg), and Anthony Ingram (assistant director/stage manager). Ronan Marra, Joseph Stearns, and Christopher Prentice are the producers. CATCH-22 is produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

By focusing on a diverse slate of plays, Signal Ensemble Theatre strives to produce clear and concise stagings of great stories. Signal Ensemble Theatre’s first season saw the world premiere of Ronan Marra’s Learning to Fly at Wing & Groove and a critically and publicly acclaimed production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at the Athenaeum.

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