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
Abuela’s Party
July 3 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Come join us for an evening full of dancing, hot ppl, and coquito as we fundraise for Abuela’s Follies — new work written by Kidany Camilo✨ Abuela cordially invites you to her party. Let’s just say… she didn’t spend all these years being alive just to not know how to throw down . Come down to The Understudy and come shake some a$$ with Chicago’s very own DJ miamor as we raise money for Kidany Camilo’s play, Abuela’s Follies, which…
Abuela’s Party
July 3 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
TGNC Theatre Makers Meet-Up
July 9 @ 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Calling all TGNC theatre artists in the Chicagoland area! Come hang out with us~ Calling all TGNC theatre makers/performer qts in the chicagoland area – you looking to make some new friends? The Understudy will be open after hours – we’ll be hanging out from 7PM – 9:30PM. Catherine Miller will be hosting, Jett Parr will be making drinks behind bar. Come through, say hi and make new connections before pride’s over! idk you may find some future collabs/buds/loves/alltheabove idk…
TGNC Theatre Makers Meet-Up
July 9 @ 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Kokandy Book Club presents: A Streetcar Named Desire
July 13 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
A musical cabaret inspired by A Streetcar Named Desire produced by your friends at Kokandy Productions! Join The Understudy and Kokandy Productions for the latest installment of our BOOK CLUB series! Summer is here—the air thick with music, perfume and sweltering heat. It’s Tennessee Williams weather! Book Club is back, storming into town like a long lost sister you thought you’d never see. We’re tickled to tackle A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, Williams’ masterful, Pulitzer Prize-winning tale of Blanche, Stella, Stanley…
Kokandy Book Club presents: A Streetcar Named Desire
July 13 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
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,…