The Patriarch
The deep Irish roots of a Chicago family are revealed to be rotten when their much-beloved patriarch does what he feels he must to keep his family’s legacy intact. The newest member-to-be finds herself parsing through Chicago heritage and Celtic myth, in an attempt to reconcile the nature of love and power, as she holds the future of the family line in her hands.
Shayne Kennedy is a Chicago area playwright. Her play, Agreed Upon Fictions, premiered at 16th Street Theater in the fall of 2014 and enjoyed an extended, Jeff- recommended run. Her short play, Blood Harmony, premiered at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska in 2015 and was nominated for a TAG Award for Best New Work. Handled also premiered at Creighton, in the fall of 2018 and went on to be produced at The Wildwood Theatre in Minneapolis in April of 2019. Her play Mrs. Whitman’s Words for Women won the Inkslinger Contest and was produced at Southeastern Louisiana University in April of 2022. It had its second production in February of 2024 at Creighton University. In November of 2022, her most recent play, The Patriarch, was part of AboutFACE Theatre Company’s NEWvember festival in Dublin, Ireland. Shayne works in accessibility services for blind and low-vision people and is the mother of three, the wife of one, a knitter and quilter. She also maintains a popular TikTok account, @shaynegoestohighschool, wherein she reads her high school diary entries, thirty-five years to the day they were written.
Tally McCormack is an actor/producer/director and Road Theatre member since 2017. Recent theatre credits include High Maintenance (Alternate Cast), Rabbit Hole, After The Deluge, by John Patrick Shanley, and Beloved (Alternate Cast). Other creative credits at The Road include Producer (At The Table), Assistant Director (Stupid Kid, Beloved), and Director (SPF14/SPF15).
“The Patriarch”
Tirna – Tiffany Wolff*
Mikayla – Jacquelyn Ferguson
Grania – Susan Diol*
Fionnbharr – Mark Irvingsen*
Billy – Frank Collison*
Gusty – Jason Culp
Molly – Andrea Flowers*
Oonagh – Lizzy Kimball*
Stage Directions – Susie Lever*
*Road Company Member