Arianna Soloway (BFA ’13), a graduate of the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department‘s BFA Program in Theatre Directing, is staging the opening show of Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company‘s 30th anniversary season–the powerful war drama Guardians, by Peter Morris. The drama, a hit in its premiere at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and later Off-Broadway, is inspired by the 2003 Abu Ghraib prison torture and prisoner abuse scandal during the Iraq War.

Soloway, who previously designed props for Mary-Arrchie‘s acclaimed productions The Glass Menagerie and The Brig, has assembled a design team that includes several fellow Columbia College graduates: set designer Grant Sabin (BFA ’05), costume designer Moriah Lee Turner (BFA ’14), and lighting designer Claire Chrzan (BA ’11), all alumni of Columbia’s Theatre Design program. In addition, dramaturg Jerico Bleu (BA ’13) is a graduate of Columbia College’s Acting Program, poster designer Jacob Fruend (BA ’13) is a graduate of Columbia’s Directing Program, dialect consultant Susan Gosdick is a Theatre faculty member, and stage manager Anna Micale is a senior in the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Theatre Technology.

Guardians runs September 8-October 18 at Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan, Chicago. Previews September 8-9 are $15; thereafter, tickets are $20-$30. For tickets, click here or call 773-871-0442.