Image: Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Pictured Above: Aaron Todd Douglas (Reverend Canon Chasuble), Anita Chandwaney (Miss Prism), Rebecca Hurd (Cecily Cardew), Alex Goodrich (Jack Worthing), Steve Haggard (Algernon Moncrieff), Shannon Cochran (Lady Bracknell) and Jennifer Latimore (Gwendolen Fairfax) in Oscar WildeвЂ™s The Importance of Being Earnest directed by Michael Halberstam at Writers Theatre.

Currently, he is a lecturer in the English department at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

He received his PhD in English from Indiana University and taught at DePaul University for several years. His work has appeared in several academic journals including Nineteenth Century Contexts, English Literature in Transition, and Victorian Studies. He is also coauthoring a textbook, tentatively titled A PeopleвЂ™s Grammar, which marries traditional grammar instruction with democratic principles of style. Portraits of the fin-de-siecle examines portraiture across media as part of emerging modern conceptions of subjectivity in the nineteenth century. He is currently working on two book projects. Kessler works at the intersection of fiction, criticism, and art in the nineteenth century. He also received the 2010 Zelda Fichandler Award, the 2013 Artistic Achievement Award from the League of Chicago Theatres, was named the Chicago TribuneвЂ™s 2013 вЂњChicagoan of the YearвЂќ for Theater, and received the 2016 Award of Honor for Outstanding Contributions to the Field from the Illinois Theatre Association, a special award for 2016 from the Joseph Jefferson Award Committee for outstanding theatrical accomplishments and contributions to Chicagoland theatre for the past 25 years and a distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Illinois. He spent two and a half years teaching Shakespeare at The Theatre School at DePaul University and has received awards for excellence in theater management and/or artistic achievement from The Chicago Drama League, The Arts & Business Council of Chicago, Chicago Lawyers for the Creative Arts, and The Chicago Associates of the Stratford Festival. His forays into opera have included Chicago Opera Theater and the Ravinia Festival. Elsewhere he directed for Northlight Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Jean Cocteau Repertory in New York, Drury Lane Theatre, OIff-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in New York City, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Lincoln Center Theater in New York and San Jose Repertory Theatre. HalberstamвЂ™s other Chicago acting credentials include productions with Wisdom Bridge Theater, Court Theatre and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Previously, he spent two years at The Stratford Festival in Ontario. He has directed over thirty-five productions for the company and has appeared in numerous Writers Theatre productions. Michael Halberstam is the co-founder of Writers Theatre. Jeffrey Kessler of University of Illinois Chicago, as they lead an evening of dramatic readings and discussion of WildeвЂ™s controversial life as see through his writings and key biographical moments.

Join Michael Halberstam, founder and Artistic Director of Writers Theatre (described by Terry Teachout as the countryвЂ™s finest theatre company), together with Dr. Oscar Wilde was a brilliant and witty dramatist, a passionate socialist, a father, a husband and fantastically queer-arguably one of the greatest writers of the English language. Oscar Wilde famously said, вЂњBe yourself everyone else is already taken.вЂќ No-one could accuse Wilde of being anything but his unique self. BUY TICKETS Members: $25 Adult: $35 Students: $15

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