Love Detectives
July 24 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
$15.00Drat! LOVE has been ripping up the streets leaving people wounded, broken, confused, and perhaps with a bad haircut and useless evidence of its nefarious behavior. You are invited to join the investigation to find love and catch it once and for all. Band Practice combines a real live dating show with a real live clown detective show to find out the true nature of this mysterious mastermind. Highly interactive and slightly chaotic, leave the apps at home and expect to meet new eligibles as we collect clues, hear eyewitness accounts, go undercover, and hopefully set some traps to catch the damn thing. With a villain this cunning at large, no one should search for it alone! This show is welcome to anyone looking for love, OR anyone interested in questioning its true nature. This is a two hour show with an intermission included.
Meet Band Practice
A theatre making duo made of Ash Willison and Lisa Ullrich. We create shows, characters, and theatrical happenings exploring and stretching the live experience of performance.
Strange, cheeky, and wonderfully modern, we use elements of clown, physical theatre, improv, and music to interact with the audience through all the ways you love: tech conferences, bardic serenades, exorcisms, musical theatre showcases – to name a few.
quest to the Midwest tour
leftovers 17.07.26 the understudy // Chicago
love detectives 24.07.2026 the understudy // Chicago
DON’T BE SCARED 26+29 the Newport theatre // Chicago
Other Events
Leftovers Night with Band Practice
July 17 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
An open stage for clowns, goofs, and funny people who'd like to test out first drafts. Hosted by the iconic clown duo, Band Practice Leftovers Night is a strange and delicious feast of alternative comedy acts that are in the making, need experimenting, or somehow didn’t quite make it to the main event just yet. Berlin based idiot duo Band Practice is teaming up with Chicago’s Pocket Theatre to host this celebration of comedy anarchy. This evening originated back in…
Leftovers Night with Band Practice
July 17 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
RED BELL by Katherine Swan
July 20 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
When ex-dancer Rina shows up at Hank’s gym wanting to learn how to box, she embarks on a journey that will forever transform her. When ex-dancer Rina shows up at Hank’s gym wanting to learn how to box, she embarks on a journey that will forever transform who she is and who she will become. But when a past trauma surfaces, Rina must confront a painful history that she’s struggled to leave behind. As she hurtles towards her first fight,…
RED BELL by Katherine Swan
July 20 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
FEM/THEM Comedy Open Mic at The Understudy
July 22 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
If you identify as funny and not-a-dude-onstage, this is your night diva! Hosted by Preeti Thaker and Jordan Levene Preeti & Jordan present: A Comedy Open Mic for Women + Non-Binary Comics! If you identify as funny and not-a-dude-onstage, this is your night diva! WHAT’S THE PLAN? • 7:30 PM — arrive responsibly early, wonder what the vibe is gonna be like. Support the space by buying a drink! • 8:00 PM — the mic starts, the chaos begins…
FEM/THEM Comedy Open Mic at The Understudy
July 22 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
IN THE NEXT ROOM by Sarah Ruhl
July 27 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
A play reading of In the Next Room (or, The Vibrator Play) by Sarah Ruhl produced by Exit, Pursued by a Play Reading. In the Next Room or the vibrator play is a comedy about marriage, intimacy and electricity. Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used vibrators to treat “hysterical” women (and some men), the play centers on a doctor and his wife and how…
IN THE NEXT ROOM by Sarah Ruhl
July 27 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Instrumental Theatre Presents: Chicago Theatre Composers Club
August 11 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
A cabaret featuring short pieces from composers, lyricists and other Chicago musical artists. Hosted by Instrumental Theatre. Instrumental Theatre, in collaboration with The Understudy, is proud to introduce the Chicago Theatre Composers Club or CTCC! This cabaret show will feature short pieces from composers, lyricists, and other musical artists, to shine a spotlight and rock out to their tremendous work. Tickets are $10 or PWYC. You can purchase a PWYC Ticket through the donation page~ Interested in showing new work?…