Theater Direction

Set on a ghostly landscape in Ireland, a woman abandoned as a child lays claim to everything that's hers on a day her world is being torn in half. Filled with unforgettable characters, it's one day in the life of a woman pushed beyond the limits of human endurance as she is forced to make a final horrible, self sacrificing decision.
Jeff Recommended

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED..."What holds us spellbound in this intimate Artistic Home production, under the direction of John Mossman, is the sheer commitment of an acting ensemble exhibiting the full-throated passion demanded of tragedy without ever compromising the connection with its audience." - Windy City Times
RECOMMENDED..."Directed with a sure and sensitive hand by John Mossman..." - Chicago Tribune
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED... "Sprinkled with colorful characters and pure Irish humor, the acting is magnificent" - Chicago Critic
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED... "It will haunt you for weeks to come."- Picture This Post
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED... "Go see this wonderful work. It will unsettle you in the best possible way." - Irish American News
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED..."A wonderfully honed team of talents make this production the great experience it is for the audience. "- Our Urban Times
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED..."there’s dark humor and old-timey wisdom" - Chicago Reader
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED..."erupting with fury sucked deep from the dark wet mist of a land both murderous and seductive." - New City
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED... "Directed with an eye to powerful crescendos and climaxes as well as gripping silences, John Mossman displays a mastery of all things theatrical...Once more The Artistic Home proves that they are among Chicago’s finest theatre troupes." - Paul Kuritz, Theater and Film Reviews

THE GODDESS, Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay adapted for the stage by John Mossman.

Equity Jeff Award, New Adaptation

"It’s a coup just to get the theatrical rights to this juicy work, the late, great Paddy Chayevsky’s Oscar-nominated 1956 screenplay. But it’s sensational to pull it off to perfection. Cinematic as its source, John Mossman’s adaptation and staging of The Goddess is a gem. Everything about the production feels perfect." - Larry Bommer, Stage and Cinema

"A grand scale production...John Mossman has turned the script into a true work of theater. Lee Stark, beautifully directed...gives a go for broke, powerhouse performance." - Hedy Weiss

"A major theatrical achievement...Tour de force...A beautiful play" - Chicago Critic

"A talented, huge ensemble and colorful storytelling...powerful and devastating. A visual feast...I thoroughly enjoyed it."
Katy Walsh, Chicago Theater Beat

LES PARENTS TERRIBLES, by Jean Cocteau
"From the very start it's clear there are simply no limits under the ferocious, torquelike direction of John Mossman. A high pitched warp speed tornado of a revival."- Highly recommended, Hedy Weiss

"One of the best ensemble comedies I have seen in years... it is farce raised to the highest of art forms – laughter which brings tears." - Highly recommended, Chicago Stage Standard

"The execution is ferocious in Mossman’s hurricane of a production... Hilarious... has to have set some kind of record for sustained hysteria." - Highly Recommended, Chicago Reader

"The finest comic ensemble work seen on a Chicago stage in years!...Delivers so many laughs that I left the theatre worn out from laughing." - Highly recommended, Chicago Critic

"Delightfully deranged..." - Time Out Chicago

"Brilliant...flounces between comedy and tragedy with whiplash speed... Run to see this show."- New City

"A mad, mad, mad sexy family farce that will warm you up in this long winter" - Gapers Block

"One of the top rated shows in Chicago" - Theater In Chicago
Jeff Recommended

The Artistic Home

Click to view a great little video about the place. Courtesy of our friends at Outsider, Inc.

Recently appearing in the Artistic Home production of Night Of The Iguana

Tennessee Williams' sexually charged story about a defrocked minister coming to grips with his failures as he negotiates relationships with three very different women on a south-of-the-border bus tour gone bad.

“The Night of the Iguana is now receiving a rip-roaring production by The Artistic Home...The most flamboyant of the visitors to this Mexican hideaway is the smart, fiercely energetic, intensely watchable John Mossman," - Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times

"Artistic Director Kathy Scambiaterra directs John Mossman as the once-Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon, and he and the production are without flaw. Absolutely brilliant work." - Kelly Kleinman, WBEZ

"Equipped with unsurpassable instincts, John Mossman’s performance as Rev. Shannon is nothing short of electric. From the moment he comes on stage, doused in sweat and almost tripping over his excitable energies, Mossman manages to imbue in every moment a charged spontaneity, and in his capable hands, Williams’s 'dramatic poem' has never seemed so fiercely alive." - Anthony Mangini, Chicago Critic.

"Mossman is able to convey the frenzy of a man on the brink of collapse but without extinguishing the light of the man still living." - John J. Accrocco, New City

"In the lead, John Mossman attacks this role with limitless fervor. A compelling Mossman is this blustery emotional whirlwind. His choices are perfectly erratic keeping the audience transfixed on his every movement. " - Katy Walsh, The Fourth Walsh

"Steamy, sexy...With Mossman setting its center boil, Night of the Iguana has heat to spare." - Catey Sullivan, Chicago Stage Review

"Mossman brings dangerous charm and sweaty despair to his portrayal of Shannon. ..The intimacy of the new Artistic Home brings a lovely human scale to this poetic and dreamlike piece." - Chicago Tribune

More on the production here.

The Shadow of a Gunman

"Seanachai’s production of this Sean O’Casey play speeds along through a hilarious first act and a more serious, manic second act. The play’s politics are anything but subtle, and indeed the harrowing scenes of violence and oppression resonate powerfully some ninety years later. Director John Mossman manages both the tonal shifts and the pace of the play with ease, and elicits strong performances from the large cast led by a terrific Shane Kenyon as Donal." Highly Recommended - New City

"Mossman and a strong cast vividly evoke the queasy terror of life on the receiving end of counter-insurgency---while skillfully navigating act two's hairpin turns." Highly Recommended-- Chicago Reader

"...Director John Mossman's first act is replete with the slamming doors and offstage uproar associated with broadly drawn personalities, but each actor in this Seanachaí production has scrutinized O'Casey's text in surgical detail to convey the often-unpleasant complexities behind the initial jollity. Nor do they gloss over the injustice of foreign troops bullying innocents forced to become martyrs. The results leave us shaken and outraged, contemplating the contradictions of civil disorder in a fickle universe."   Highly Recommended -- Windy City Times

"Sean O'Casey is in good hands under the spirited direction of John Mossman and the terrific ensemble acting (each in rich authentic Irish brogues) from the dedicated cast. The quirkiness and the submerged fear storms to the surface in this often-times funny – yet sad tale of life and oppression in Dublin during ‘The Troubles” of 1920-23... This is a terrific production."  Highly Recommended -- Chicago Critic

"John Mossman's directorial choices make Sean O'Casey's 1923 Irish play feel like a genuine reenactment of a moment in history". -- Highly Recommended, Chicago Theater Blog

"Period perfect... this is a lovely production by director John Mossman and a wonderful cast of 11 actors. The culturally specific Seanachaí Theatre Company lends believability to this show in a way other companies are not able to do." Dueling critics, WBEZ (listen to their rave review here.)

Mossman named to "Best Director of 2011" list by WBEZ

   JEFF RECOMMENDED! Read full reviews here

Marisol

"As roughly, beautifully realized in John Mossman's production for the Artistic Home, Marisol offers a vision of the apocalypse as an absurd, poignant, funny, oddly hopeful event." Recommended, Chicago Reader

"Under John Mossman’s smart direction, The Artistic Home has mounted a most engrossing bleak urban drama. .. I can’t remember when I was so moved by a show as I was by the hauntingly visceral production of Marisol." Highly Recommended, Chicago Critic

"Rivera's gallows humor and phantasmagoric imagery find fertile ground in John Mossman's nightmarishly driven staging." Recommended, Stage Style Chicago, Lawrence Bommer

"Marisol is apocalyptic with a sense of humor. Director John Mossman creates a weird tension that adds to the comedy and the drama. " The Fouth Walsh

The Tallest Man

Jeff Nomination , Best New Work.
Nominated for Best Ensemble, Fourth Walsh Honor Awards.
Named one of the top 25 shows of the year by Chicago Theatre Blog : "There is blood, sweat, spit, and lust in every scene both implied or seen. John Mossman directs this production seamlessly; every scene and character flows as well as fits in what could easily be a complicated puzzle."
"John Mossman's staging subverts the Gaelic cliches with raucous zeal...Recommended"
- Chicago Reader
"A tightly written and polished work by Jim Lynch that reflects the sharp eye of director John Mossman and the efforts of the creative folks at The Artistic Home. Highly recommended" Chicago Critic

Juno and the Paycock

Winner of 4 After Dark Awards and a Jeff Award for Supporting Actor. Back by popular demand at Theater On The Lake.

"Strong acting alone cannot explain this utterly absorbing, nearly flawless evening. Director John Mossman deserves credit for its multi-layered textures and graceful turns, and for the tightness of his ensemble. " - Reader
"A memorably intense and committed production" - Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
"Mossman executes a deceptively intricate script with complete success and remarkable connection... He took an obscure classic and brought it to heartbreaking life with profound warmth and humor." - Gay Chicago

Natural Affection

The acclaimed Artistic Home revival of the lost William Inge play. "The 60's never looked so sexy and unappealling at the same time." - Time Out Chicago

Jeff Nomination, Performance by an Actress in a Principal Role

Named "One of Year's Best" in 6 year-end critics polls

Look Homeward, Angel

"Directed by John Mossman with a high exuberance that moves easily from the tragic to the comic...Highly Recommended" - Hedy Weiss, Sun Times
"Few could keep this meandering saga alive, but Mossman manages magnificently" - Time Out
"...An impressive revival."-Chicago Free Press

Clash By Night

"A scorching tribute to average-joe troubles, John Mossman’s emotionally naked Clash was 2006’s anecdote to plays about the plight of the privileged. No one probably left this Artistic Home revival of Clifford Odets’s little-seen shattered-marriage play feeling good about his or her own relationship, but most were at least agog at director John Mossman’s searing production and uncanny ensemble. The violent climax in a flickering movie-projection booth still flickers. " - Time Out

Top Ten of the Year - Chicago Tribune

Landscape of the Body

"John Mossman¹s engrossing and fluid production is a triumph" - New City

"Mossman has few peers in coaching wrenching work from actors..." - Time Out

"Filled with intense performances and executed at a pace that unifies Guare's intentionally jagged storytelling, this staging reveals the pockets of brilliance in his 1977 play. Highly recommended."-Reader

Jeff Nomination, Performance by an Actress in a Principal Role