Event

White Desert

First Flight presents the Chicago premiere of the play White Desert by Maxwell Anderson at two Chicago area locations. Directed by Frank Farrell White Desert features Chicago actors Kevin Blair as Michael Kane, Eve Rosenthal as Mary Kane, Timothe Stites as Sverre Peterson, Debbie Ruzicka as Annie Peterson and Johnny Garcia as Dugan. White Desert takes place in eastern North Dakota during the Great Blizzard of 1888, one of the most severe recorded blizzards in the history of the United States. A few weeks previous to this blizzard, city dwellers Michael and Mary Kane move into a one room claims shack made available to them via the Homestead Act of 1862 which provided settlers, for a small filing fee, 160 acres of public land for which they were required to complete five years of continuous residence before receiving ownership of the land. They are occasionally visited by nearby neighbors Sverre and Annie Peterson, but due to the historic blizzard they find themselves in they begin to feel trapped and alone, deserted and claustrophobic, and their newlywed relationship starts to unravel.