A Conversation with Sarah Ruhl: BECKY NURSE OF SALEM
2024-07-01 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Author Sarah Ruhl joins Polly Noonan for a a discussion of her newly published play BECKY NURSE OF SALEM.

Playwright, author, essayist, and professor Sarah Ruhl joins Polly Noonan to discuss their newly published play Becky Nurse of Salem.

Don’t miss this intimate discussion ahead of the Chicago premiere of Becky Nurse of Salem. Learn about this layered and thoughful work by one of our favorite playwrights.

About the Play
A wry, innovative reckoning with the legacy of the Salem witch trials from one of America’s foremost playwrights.
Becky Nurse is an outspoken, sharp-witted tour guide at the Salem Museum of Witchcraft who’s just trying to get by in post-Obama America. She’s also the descendant of Rebecca Nurse, who was infamously executed for witchcraft in 1692—but things have changed for women since then…haven’t they? After losing her job for calling out The Crucible in front of schoolkids, Becky visits a local witch for help. One spell leads to another, and then everything really goes off the rails. A darkly comic play about a woman coming to terms with her family’s legacy and finding her voice in the “lock her up” era.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Ruhl is an award-winning American playwright, author, essayist, and professor. Her plays include The Oldest Boy, Dear Elizabeth, Stage Kiss, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2010); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2005; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play (Pen American Award, Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play); Melancholy Play; Demeter in the City (nine NAACP Image Award nominations); Scenes From Court Life; How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday; Eurydice; Orlando; and Late: a cowboy song. Her plays have been produced on Broadway and across the country as well as internationally, and translated into fourteen languages. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She is the recipient of a Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a PEN Center Award for mid-career playwrights, a Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, and a Lilly award. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. She teaches at Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family. (Official Headshot by Greg Constanzo)

Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair
2024-07-09 17:30 - 19:30 | American Writers Museum, 180 North Michigan Ave, Chicago, 60601, United States
Join us at The American Writers Museum and check out a curated selection of Understudy favorites!
Indulge your literary impulses at Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair! Mix and mingle with fellow bookworms, share your favorite titles, and discover new ones. From cozy mysteries to epic adventures, there’s something for every reader to discover and enjoy!
GET TICKETS

Shop at pop-up book stands from some of our partner organizations. Organizations to be announced!
Challenge your friends to a game of ring toss, test your aim at cornhole, or try your hand at other fun carnival games.
Compete with friends old and new in our Summer Reading Trivia and test your knowledge of school-age books.
Make your own bookmark at our craft table.
Explore our special exhibit, Level Up: Writers & Gamers (opening May 24), which explores how Americans use role-playing and video games to define and respond to our culture.
Enjoy beer, wine, and the night’s specialty cocktail, The Paperback, a refreshing limoncello cocktail. Non-alcoholic options available as well.

Cap off your literary adventure at Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair with a toast to the power of storytelling and the joy of reading!

OCEAN AND HER MADNESS by Lydia Moss
2024-07-15 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Written after Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro, this work is an exploration of the mind of a “mad black woman.” It is a madness that is both the synchronization and dissonance of space, time, and music.
Cast and Creative Team TBA
Freshly Brewed Team:
Emma Durbin – Co-Artistic Producer
Joel Willison – Co-Artistic Producer
Magdalena Dalzell – Literary Committee Coordinator
Danny Fender – The Understudy Co-Owner
Adam Crawford – The Understudy Co-Owner
About Freshly Brewed
Freshly Brewed seeks to invest in Chicago’s emerging playwrights and theatre artists in keeping with The Understudy’s commitment to Community, Collaboration, and Discovery. The series features monthly readings of new plays in various stages of development. Each artist contributing– playwrights, directors, and actors– will receive a stipend underwritten by the series’ anonymous donor.
Freshly Brewed also marks the inaugural collaboration between The Understudy and its neighbor, Edgewater’s Raven Theatre, who is thrilled to support The Understudy as their fiscal sponsor for this series. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Freshly Brewed.

G. L. O. W. : A Queer Sober Open Mic Night
2024-07-19 19:30 - 22:00, 2024-08-16 19:30 - 22:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
ABOUT THE EVENT
Join The Understudy for G.L.O.W., a queer sober open mic night hosted by K.J Whitehead and Sharon Pasia. Expect comedy, drama, and stunts galore.
Stay tuned for performer signups!
Doors open at 7. Performances begin at 7:30. The Understudy Cafe will be open for refreshments!

THE BIG FINISH: BIG BOYS FINISH LAST
2024-07-20 20:30 - 21:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join hosts Derek (aka Stephanie) and Taki Venti (aka Tiki Vonté) for a drag night for the theatre girlies comprised exclusively of 11 o’clock numbers. THE BIG FINISH is a show for full of stunts, drama, and theatrics.
THE BIG FINISH: BIG BOYS FINISH LAST
This edition of The Big Finish celebrates musical theatre’s leading men and their show-stopping numbers. Pizzazz! Wa-chow!
STAY TUNED for full cast announcement.
Doors open at 7:30 PM for an 8 PM show. The Understudy cafe will be open for refreshments.

ROLE CALL: July 2024 @ The Understudy
2024-07-23 18:30 - 21:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Forget *seeing* a show. With this series you actually get to PLAY a role! Join us for a community exploration of some of our favorite work!

Part book club, part performance, part debate and part community healing, this year Refracted Theatre Company partners with locations across Chicago to offer Role Call, a community play exploration event coming a neighborhood near you!

At ROLE CALL, we bravely dive into a play by reading it cold, and then we engage in and practice the complicated conversations that often follow challenging art. This series is not a performed reading. That’s the best part – no preparation is necessary! All participants take part reading through the script together for the first time before we jump into a variety of activations and discussions based on our reading. It’s a space for everyone: actors, non-actors, theater lovers, ex-theater lovers, and especially the theater-curious.
And this year, we’re shaking it up a bit!
Last year we met in the same space for each event but this year, we’re bringing the theatre to you! We’re excited to be partnering with various venues and hosts throughout the Chicago area to bring this accessible engagement into different neighborhoods to meet people where they are at.
We’ll also be featuring some special guests, experts, and educators based on our location and the play/subject matter we explore. Part of the fun of Role Call is that it depends on the people who show up!

All participants are given the chance to read throughout the course of the evening, helping to bring the play to life as everyone reads the play aloud together. It’s low-stakes and no pressure, and nobody is forced to read.
This is followed by a series of questions, exercises, and discussions led by the Refracted team, in which the play’s most divisive, nuanced questions are explored from a place of curiosity and empathy.

6:45 – doors open + drinks and snacks provided by Pizza Lobo
7:00 – casting begins

This event is BYOB! Please bring your own bevvy, and perhaps some to share! We’ll provide some food and dishwares! This event it sponsored by Pizza Lobo!

A $10 suggested donation is encouraged, but not required! All are encouraged to attend (we will accept cash or Venmo at the event, or you can donate now at www.refractedco.com/donate)

About The Play:
Marian is visited by a Marian Apparition (just call her Mary, thanks) who tells them to write a play about the Blessed Virgin considering an abortion. Miryam is visited by the angel Gavri’el, who tells her she’s to bear the son of God. And pomegranates keep fruiting up all around, asking them to choose.

About The Playwright:
Katherine Gwynn (they/them) is a non-binary lesbian, CODA, and Chicago playwright who writes about the mythic and violent spaces between queerness, disability, and the divine. Gwynn is the winner of the 2022 UCROSS + The Blank Theatre – Future of Playwriting Prize and a 2023 Venturous Fellowship Nominee. Gwynn also won the 2015 Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award and Second Place for the EMOS Ecodrama Playwrights festival 2022. Their work has been developed and produced by Flint Rep, Jackalope Theatre, The New Coordinates, The Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Terra Femina Collective, Commission Theatre, The Fishtank, and Rockhurst University. Gwynn has been a 2024 American Blues Blue Ink Award Semi-Finalist, a 2021 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist and 2x Semi Finalist, 2021 Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series Finalist, a 2x Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist and 4x Semi-Finalist, a 2020 Parity Productions Commission Finalist, a 2020 Story Theatre Resident Playwright Semi-Finalist, a 2019 Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship Semi-Finalist, a 2x Ashland Play Festival Semi-Finalist, a 2x New Works Festival at Kitchen Dog Theater Finalist, a 2019 LezPlay Finalist, and a 2x invited Submission for the Humana Festival of New American Plays.

About Refracted:
Refracted’s mission is to disrupt socially accepted narratives by telling the “other side of the story.” By upending audience expectations through innovation and adaptation, Refracted inspires meaningful discourse centered on empathy and humanity.
Refracted is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that was founded in 2019 in New York City by Graham Miller and Tova Wolff. As a four-year old company, Refracted is proud to have been one of the only theaters in the country that produced two full seasons of live theatre during the pandemic, harnessing its powers of creativity and innovation. Now in its fourth season in its new home of Chicago, Refracted invites you to get involved as it redefines what theatre can be in order to build a world fueled by curiosity and compassion. Please visit www.refractedco.com for more information and follow Refracted on social media @refractedco.

Kokandy Book Club Presents: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
2024-07-24 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Kokandy Book Club Presents
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF
Join The Understudy and our friends from Kokandy Productions for the latest installment of our series Book Club.
Our July Book Club is raising a glass (several, in fact) to Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? This scorching American classic inspires a fierce and fiery night as we sing, scream and clink-clink-clink along with George, Martha, Honey and Nick. Curated by Kokandy Producing Artistic Director Derek Van Barham, with musical accompaniment by Nick Sula, our book club performers will be announced soon!

Kokandy Book Club is an intimate salon series celebrating theatre, music and community. Each meeting will focus on a well known play—investigating the plot, themes and relevant tangents through a mix of musical theatre and pop/rock performance. Have a sit, have a sip and honor the ritual of talking about good plays and having a good ole fashion jam session.
Doors open at 7 PM for a 7:30 PM performance.
The Understudy Cafe will be open for refreshments.

Play Reading Club: Cardboard Piano
2024-07-29 19:00 - 20:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join our monthly play reading club! Each month, we gather to discuss a new, exciting or confounding play that has caught our attention. This month, we’re reading CARDBOARD PIANO by Hansol Jung
ABOUT THE PLAY
Northern Uganda on the eve of the millennium: The daughter of American missionaries and a local teenage girl steal into a darkened church to seal their love in a secret makeshift wedding ceremony. But when the surrounding war zone encroaches on their fragile union they cannot escape its reach. Confronting the religious and cultural roots of intolerance Cardboard Piano explores violence and its aftermath as well as the human capacity for hatred forgiveness and love.

CLICK HERE to buy a copy

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Hansol Jung is a playwright and director from South Korea. Productions include Cardboard Piano (Humana Festival at Actors Theater of Louisville), Among the Dead (Ma-Yi Theatre Company), No More Sad Things (co-world premiere at Sideshow Theatre, and Boise Contemporary Theatre), Wolf Play (Artists Repertory Theatre) and Wild Goose Dreams (La Jolla Theater and The Public Theater). Commissions from Playwrights Horizons, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Artists Repertory Theater, the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant with Ma-Yi Theatre and a translation of Romeo and Juliet for Play On! at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Her work has been developed at the Royal Court, New York Theatre Workshop, Berkeley Repertory’s Ground Floor, Sundance Theatre Lab, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Lark Play Development Center, Salt Lake Acting Company, Boston Court Theatre, Bushwick Starr, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Asia Society New York, and Seven Devils Playwright Conference. She is the recipient of the Page 73 Playwright Fellowship, Rita Goldberg Playwrights’ Workshop Fellowship at the Lark, 2050 Fellowship at New York Theater Workshop, MacDowell Colony Artist Residency, and International Playwrights Residency at Royal Court. She has translated over thirty English musicals into Korean, including Evita, Dracula, Spamalot, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, while working on several award winning musical theatre productions as director, lyricist and translator in Seoul, South Korea. Jung holds a Playwriting MFA from Yale School of Drama, and is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Theatre Writers Lab.

DIE, MOMMIE, DIE! by Charles Busch
2024-08-05 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join Hell In A Handbag and The Understudy for a reading celebrating the work of Charles Busch, featuring a fabulous lineup of Chicago talent

Join Hell In A Handbag and The Understudy for a reading celebrating the work of Charles Busch, featuring a fabulous lineup of Chicago talent.
Ex-pop singer Angela Arden is trapped in a hateful marriage with film producer Sol Sussman. Desperate to find happiness with her younger lover, an out-of-work TV actor named Tony Parker, Angela murders her husband with the aid of a poisoned suppository.
Campy, hilarious, and sensational drag drama ensues.
Featuring David Cerda, Caitlin Jackson, Ed Jones, Brandon Nelson, Tyler Anthony Smith, and Natalie West.
Doors open at 7pm for a 7:30pm performance.
The Understudy cafe will be open for refreshments.

A Taste of RED with A Red Orchid Theatre
2024-08-06 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60640, Chicago, IL, 60613, United States
Hang out with our friends from A Red Orchid Theatre on Aug 6th for the latest installment of their series A Taste of Red.
A Red Orchid Theatre invites you to take a peek behind the curtain and see how their team goes about exploring a play. What gets their ensemble excited about a script? How do actors, directors, playwrights, and designers all approach the same text differently? What defines a quintessential A Red Orchid production?
Stay tuned for more information about the play selection!

Doors open at 7pm and the reading begins at 7:30pm.

Midsommer Flight presents The Favourite
2024-08-12 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
The Favourite
by Marie-Catherine Desjardins de Villedieu
New translation by James Hyett
In partnership with Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre’s Expand the Canon series
Directed by LaKecia Harris
Featuring Chad Bay, Amy Malcom, Stephanie Mattos, Jack Morsovillo, Koshie Mills, Ebby Offord, and Joshua Pennington

Written in 1664, The Favourite (Le Favori) is a French verse play about the transactional nature of relationships. It was the first play by a woman performed for King Louis XIV. Brimming with social commentary and humor, The Favourite invites obvious comparisons to the work of Molière and promises to be a delightful romp.
Midsommer Flight is thrilled to partner with Brooklyn-based Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre to present a one-night-only staged reading of one of their selections on the 4th Annual Expand the Canon list, which was released in December 2023.
Expand the Canon is a celebration of and a call to action to embrace excellent plays by a diverse set of historic women in the classics. Akin to The Kilroy’s List, this project engages professionals to review and select a more diverse range of classic plays. These carefully curated titles are timely, relevant, and producible. The list includes producing information, to make it easy for classical and regional companies to undertake these plays and give women the legacies they deserve. Nine plays are released each year.
More information at www.midsommerflight.com

Play Reading Club: Ironbound
2024-08-26 19:00 - 20:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join our monthly play reading club! Each month, we gather to discuss a new, exciting or confounding play that has caught our attention. This month, we’re reading IRONBOUND by Martyna Majok
ABOUT THE PLAY
At a bus stop in a run-down New Jersey town, Darja, a Polish immigrant cleaning lady, is done talking about feelings; it’s time to talk money. Over the course of 20 years, and three relationships, Darja negotiates for her future with men who can offer her love or security, but never both. Award-winning playwright Martyna Majok’s IRONBOUND is a darkly funny, heartbreaking portrait of a woman for whom love is a luxury—and a liability—as she fights to survive in America.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Poland, and aged in Jersey and Chicago. Her plays have been performed and developed at Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Women’s Project Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the Kennedy Center, among others. Awards include the Helen Merrill Award for emerging playwrights, Helen Hayes Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play, an ANPF Women’s Invitational Prize, David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, the New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellowship, the Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, and the NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting. Majok has received commissions from the Bush Theatre in London, La Jolla Playhouse, The Foundry Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club, The New Yorker website, and Geffen Playhouse. Majok has a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama. She is currently a part of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at the Juilliard School and the Core Writer Program at the Playwrights’ Center. Publications: Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, TCG, Playscripts, and Smith & Kraus. Majok is an alumna of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood and Women’s Project Theater’s Lab, and a member of The Dramatists Guild, the Writers Guild of America East, and New York Theatre Workshop’s Usual Suspects. Majok was a 2012-2013 NNPN Playwright-in-Residence and the 2015-2016 Playwrights of New York (PoNY) Fellow at The Lark.

Monologue Writing Workshop
2024-09-16 19:00 - 21:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Come with a pen and be ready to create!
This month for Freshly Brewed we are hosting a Monologue Workshop, Open to all — Playwrights, actors, and multidisciplinary artists. Join us 7:00 pm on Monday, September 16. At this event everyone will be given writing prompts, tools for inspiration, and opportunities to perform a freshly crafted monologue the same evening it was written.

No matter your artistic identity — this is an opportunity for all to lean into multidisciplinary creation and try a hand at writing AND performing. Sharing at the end is always optional. Alternative artistic instruments will also be available for drawing and crafting.

RSVP Here

FOR THE LOVERS
2024-09-20 20:00 - 21:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join host Georgia Rising for another installment of their night of love!
FOR THE LOVERS: International Affair
This edition of For the Lovers features classing loves songs from across the world. Join us for an evening celebrating love and longing.
Featuring: D’Cameron May, Wes Andy Sins, and Cosmo Dragon
Doors open at 7:30 PM for an 8 PM show. The Understudy cafe will be open for refreshments.

G. L. O. W. : A Queer Sober Open Mic Night
2024-09-27 19:30 - 22:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
The Understudy presents G.L.O.W.: a Queer Sober Open Mic Night

ABOUT THE EVENT
Join The Understudy for G.L.O.W., a queer sober open mic night hosted by K.J Whitehead and Sharon Pasia. Expect comedy, drama, and stunts galore.
Stay tuned for performer signups!
Doors open at 7. Performances begin at 7:30. The Understudy Cafe will be open for refreshments!

Play Reading Club: Primary Trust
2024-09-29 19:00 - 20:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join our monthly play reading club! Each month, we gather to discuss a new, exciting or confounding play that has caught our attention. This month, we’re reading PRIMARY TRUST by Eboni Booth
ABOUT THE PLAY
Meet Kenneth, a 38-year-old bookstore worker who spends his evenings sipping mai tais at the local tiki bar. When he’s suddenly laid off, Kenneth finally begins to face a world he’s long avoided – with transformative and even comical results. Primary Trust is a touching and inventive play about new beginnings, old friends and seeing the world for the first time.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Eboni Booth is a writer and actor from New York City. Her play Paris had its premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company. Eboni is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and a recipient of a Steinberg Playwright Award, a Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, and a John Gassner award. She is a graduate of Juilliard’s playwriting program and the University of Vermont.

EVERYTHING, DEVOURED by Katherine Gwynn
2024-10-21 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Ronald Reagan is a demon. Ronald Reagan is a drag queen. Ronald Reagan is here, queer, and ready to swallow you alive.
Or: when 3 Chicago queers, a ghost who died in 1989, and a satanic summoning collide in Kore’s studio apartment, their demons come out with a knife held to their throats–daring them to survive.

Cast and Creative Team TBA
Freshly Brewed Team:
Nadya Naumaan – Co-Artistic Producer
Emma Durbin – Co-Artistic Producer
Joel Willison – Co-Artistic Producer
Magdalena Dalzell – Literary Committee Coordinator
Danny Fender – The Understudy Co-Owner
Adam Crawford – The Understudy Co-Owner
About Freshly Brewed
Freshly Brewed seeks to invest in Chicago’s emerging playwrights and theatre artists in keeping with The Understudy’s commitment to Community, Collaboration, and Discovery. The series features monthly readings of new plays in various stages of development. Each artist conrtibuting– playwrights, directors, and actors– will receive a stipend underwritten by the series’ anonymous donor.
Freshly Brewed also marks the inaugural collaboration between The Understudy and its neighbor, Edgewater’s Raven Theatre, who is thrilled to support The Understudy as their fiscal sponsor for this series. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Freshly Brewed.

GOD HATES FANGS: A Halloween Cabaret
2024-10-24 19:30 - 22:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
GOD HATES FANGS is an irreverent celebration of hags, howls, and hauntings. Performed with equal parts chaos and glamour, this cabaret evening is sure to put you in a spooky mood.
Doors open at 7pm for a 7:30pm performance.
The Understudy Cafe will be open for refreshments.

KAPWA: A Filipino Cabaret
2024-10-25 19:00 - 21:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Fundraising for families in Palestine

Join us for a night of music, poetry, and performances from your favorite local Filipino artists! To celebrate Filipino month we have a beautiful line up of performances, drinks, and more. Kapwa in Tagalog represents existing in community, togetherness, and belonging. It means looking out for each other. It means supporting our community members; one hundred percent of the ticket sales for our show are going to support Palestinian families who have been subjected to genocide.

The ticket sales will go to our loved community members’ family’s gofund me. Click the link for info. https://www.gofundme.com/f/my-family-evacuate-the-crisis-in-gaza

Tickets are LIMITED. Masks will be encouraged, seats are limited, there is also a standing area.
Get ready for a night of cabaret- it’s gonna be cUTE, it’s gonna be QuEER, EMO, and of course, dripping in filipinality. 💅🏽

Please, feel free to reach out to ktmusic.booking@gmail.com <3

Play Reading Club: Becky Nurse of Salem
2024-10-28 19:00 - 20:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Each month, we gather to discuss a new, exciting or confounding play that has caught our attention. This month: Becky Nurse of Salem

Join our monthly play reading club! Each month, we gather to discuss a new, exciting or confounding play that has caught our attention. This month, we’re reading BECKY NURSE OF SALEM by Sarah Ruhl
Whether you’re a bona fide theatre nerd, or exploring anew genre for the first time, this club is an excellent opportunity to dive deep into a great piece of writing. Everyone is welcome! Just arrive having already read the play, and our conversation will unfold from there.
Order Your Copy Here
ABOUT THE PLAY
Becky Nurse is an outspoken, sharp-witted tour guide at the Salem Museum of Witchcraft who’s just trying to get by in post-Obama America. She’s also the descendant of Rebecca Nurse, who was infamously executed for witchcraft in 1692—but things have changed for women since then…haven’t they? After losing her job for calling out The Crucible in front of schoolkids, Becky visits a local witch for help. One spell leads to another, and then everything really goes off the rails. A darkly comic play about a woman coming to terms with her family’s legacy and finding her voice in the “lock her up” era.
Order Your Copy Here
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Sarah Ruhl is a playwright, poet, and essayist. Her plays include In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play (Pulitzer Prize finalist); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize); Passion Play (PEN/Laura Pels Award); Letters from Max (based on the book of the same title, with Max Ritvo); and Eurydice, named one of the best productions of the last twenty-five years by the New York Times, and made into an opera for The Metropolitan Opera. Her books include Smile: A Memoir, 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write, and Love Poems in Quarantine. She is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Grant. She currently teaches at the Geffen School of Drama at Yale University. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Kokandy Book Club Presents: CARRIE
2024-10-29 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
We’ll unpack the horror and the hilarity of Stephen King’s best-selling book, the Oscar-nominated film, AND the notorious Broadway flop.

Kokandy Book Club Presents
CARRIE
Join The Understudy and our friends from Kokandy Productions for the latest installment of our series BOOK CLUB.
Our October Book Club is pouring out a little pig’s blood for everyone’s favorite prom queen, CARRIE. Stephen King’s best-selling book became both an Oscar-nominated film AND a notorious Broadway musical flop? Attention must be paid! We’ll unpack the horror and the hilarity as we get into the Halloween spirit. Curated by Kokandy Producing Artistic Director Derek Van Barham, with musical accompaniment by Nick Sula, our book club performers will be announced soon!
Kokandy Book Club is an intimate salon series celebrating theatre, music and community. Each meeting will focus on a well known play or musical—investigating the plot, themes and relevant tangents through a mix of musical theatre and pop/rock performance. Have a sit, have a sip and honor the ritual of talking about good plays and having a good ole fashion jam session.
Note: This is not a reading, concert or performance of the book, screenplay or musical. Tis rather a musical celebration of the telekinetic tale in ALL of its forms.
Doors open at 7 PM for a 7:30 PM performance.
The Understudy Cafe will be open for refreshments.

A Conversation with Kimberly Senior: WHAT WOULD A PERSON DO?
2024-11-04 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Award-winning theater director Kimberly Senior discusses her new book WHAT WOULD A PERSON DO? with Tribune critic Chris Jones.

Don’t miss this wide ranging discussion on Kimberly Senior’s career, craft, and writing, following the launch of their new book What Would A Person Do? Thoughts on Directing and Living.

About the Book
What Would a Person Do? by award-winning theater director Kimberly Senior is a sharp, spirited collection of reflections brimming with heart & wisdom that bridge the gap between life and art. Senior offers a practical guide to effective theater-making, leadership, teaching, and personhood. From Chekhov to tennis, she shares profound and playful insights that inspire you to think deeply, act boldly, and create with purpose—onstage and off.
Warm and witty, this book is a fresh roadmap for anyone looking to live and lead with intention.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kimberly Senior is a freelance director whose award winning work has been seen in 15 states in over 200 productions. She directed the Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize, Tony ominated Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar. Kimberly directed the HBO special Chris Gethard: Career Suicide and her work in audio has ranged from Marvel’s The Wastelanders to C13’s Ghostwriter.
She is a member of the Goodman Theatre’s Artistic Collective and has taught at a number of universities. She is a proud union member of SDC and even prouder mother of Noah and Delaney. This is her first book.

Chris Jones is editorial page editor, as well as chief theater critic for the Chicago Tribune. He also serves as Broadway critic for the New York Daily News. His latest book is Rise Up! Broadway and American Society from ‘Angels in America’ to ‘Hamilton.'” He has a Ph.D. from Ohio State and lives in Chicago with his wife and sons.

MUFFED by Zack Peercy
2024-12-07 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
The Meaningful Action Theatre Company comes to The Understudy for Chester Greenwood Day! Never heard of Chester Greenwood Day? Oh, you will.

Join us on Chester Greenwood Day (December 7th at 7:30PM for those not in the know) for a one-night-only presentation of The Meaningful Action Theatre Company Presents A Workshop Reading Of:

Muffed: A Recounting of Farmington, Maine’s 43rd Annual Chester Greenwood Day” Devised By The Members Of The Meaningful Action Theatre Company

written by Zack Peercy and directed by Kayla Menz
Need we say more?
The cast includes:
Reggie Hemphill, Karly Solon, Mersedez Hoover, Josh Philoon, Evin McQuistion, Jaycey Carlson, Izis Mollinedo, Liz Falstreau, with Jordan Rawlings reading Stage Directions
Doors open at 7pm for a 7:30pm Performance
The Understudy cafe will be open for refreshments before the performance.

Anyone Who Had A Heart - A Trans Voices Cabaret
2025-02-14 19:45 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
CALLING ALL LOVERS! Trans Voices Cabaret is elated to be back in action with Anyone Who Had A Heart, a Valentine’s Day Show! Hosted by producer John-Payne, and featuring some of Chicago’s most unique and powerhouse theatre performers, this TVC is sure to be fun, intentional and a celebration of queer/trans love, as it falls on Feb 14! ♥️

We know tix cost money honey! So tickets are pay-what-you-can and QR codes will be provided in the space to tip/support both TVC and our stunning performers :)💋
Click Here for Tickets

THE PILON by Zach Barr
2025-02-17 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
In a Seattle sports card shop, a schism is brewing between those who collect for sentimental reasons and those who look only for high-dollar cards to resell. When a potential goldmine card is found by a trans teenager, the resulting scramble to sell it forces the store’s co-owners, and their regular customers, to re-evaluate how they define themselves as collectors – and, furthermore, as male.

Playwright: Zach Barr
Director: Kidany Camilo
Dramaturg: Cori Lang
Rhonda: Lisa Antonia Cruz
Corbin: Rio Ragazzone
Lex: Harsh Gagoomal
Marc: Kevin Aoussou
Griffey: AC Rakotoniaina
Stage Directions: David Goodloe
Freshly Brewed Team:
Nadya Naumaan – Co-Artistic Producer
Emma Durbin – Co-Artistic Producer
Joel Willison – Co-Artistic Producer
Magdalena Dalzell – Literary Committee Coordinator
Danny Fender – The Understudy Co-Owner
Adam Crawford – The Understudy Co-Owner
About Freshly Brewed
Freshly Brewed seeks to invest in Chicago’s emerging playwrights and theatre artists in keeping with The Understudy’s commitment to Community, Collaboration, and Discovery. The series features monthly readings of new plays in various stages of development. Each artist conrtibuting– playwrights, directors, and actors– will receive a stipend underwritten by the series’ anonymous donor.
Freshly Brewed also marks the inaugural collaboration between The Understudy and its neighbor, Edgewater’s Raven Theatre, who is thrilled to support The Understudy as their fiscal sponsor for this series. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Freshly Brewed.

That Black Ass Show Hosted by Rachel Slurrz
2025-02-28 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Ready to close out Black History Month with a SICKENING SHOW?!? ‼️‼️‼️Join Rachel Slurrz as she hosts “That Black Ass Show” featuring some Chicago drag faves: Luv Ami Stoole, Trisha Can, and TiKi Vonté. You DONT want to miss this. Admission is Free but bring some coin to tip these baddies🔥 Hope to see you there! – Muah💋
Doors open at 7:00PM
Show begins at 7:30PM
Attendance is free!

A Conversation with the Authors:THE DANCE AND OPERA STAGE MANAGER'S TOOLKIT
2025-03-10 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Don’t miss this in-depth discussion on the experiences of seasoned stage managers Sue Fenty and Michele Kay following the launch of their new book The Dance and Opera Stage Manager’s Toolkit: Protocols, Practical Considerations, and Templates.

About the Book
The Dance and Opera Stage Manager’s Toolkit details unique perspectives and approaches to support stage managers beginning to navigate the fields of dance and opera stage management in live performance.
This book demystifies the genre-specific protocols and vocabularies for stage managers who might be unfamiliar with these fields and discusses common practices. Filled with valuable industry-tested tools, templates, and practical information, The Dance and Opera Stage Manager’s Toolkit is designed to assist stage managers interested in pursuing these performance genres. The book also includes interviews and contributions from a range of professional stage managers working in dance and opera.
From the student stage manager studying in Theatrical Design and Production university programs to the experienced stage manager wanting to broaden their skill set, this book provides resources and advice for a successful transition into these worlds.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Fenty Studham has been stage managing professionally in many genres of theatre for almost four decades. She has stage managed at major performing arts venues including on Broadway, at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Sydney Opera House. Sue began working with dance companies in New York City in 1986 and toured extensively before relocating to Australia, where she was resident stage manager with West Australian Ballet for ten years. During her four-year tenure as Head of the BFA Stage Management Program at DePaul University in Chicago, Sue created a curriculum that introduced students to the unique world of dance stage management. Sue holds a PhD from Edith Cowan University, Australia, and a BFA from Adelphi University, New York. She is a pioneer in doctoral studies in the field of stage management and a published author on topics that explore brave spaces, intimacy and violence protocols in performing arts, supporting language revitalization in performance, and stage managing intercultural theatre.
Michele Kay has been stage managing for over 30 years across all genres, musicals, plays, opera, and dance, in a variety of environments including New York, Chicago, and regionally across the US. She spent several years stage managing opera regionally, including two and a half years as the resident production stage manager at the Virginia Opera. She is an Associate Professor of Stage Management at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) where she has translated her practical opera knowledge into a curriculum for BFA and MFA stage management students, many of whom have graduated to work at prestigious opera companies across the country. Michele holds a MS in Organizational Leadership and a BA in Theatre from Miami University of Ohio. She is a member of Actors Equity Association, American Guild of Musical Artists, Stage Managers’ Association, and USITT. Most recently, Michele authored the essay “Already Calm, I’m the Stage Manager” for Off Headset: Essays on Stage Management Work, Life, and Career edited by Rafael Jean and Christopher Sadler (Routledge, 2022).

WE SENT HER TO THE SEA by Maddie Powell
2025-03-17 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
In eighteenth-century Europe – well, eighteenth-centuryish “Europe” – difficult women are sent to the seaside, where they are kept out of sight and out of mind. Five such women find themselves at The Sea, a remote treatment center spearheaded by the absurd Mr. Doctor (who may or may not have actually studied medicine?). From the melancholic to the homosexually-inclined, the Sea’s newest inpatients quickly become disillusioned with their treatment and decide they want out – but how many hysterical women does it take to screw the patriarchy? Powered by irreverence, hijinx, and a passion for musical improv, Maddie Powell’s new comedy We Sent Her to the Sea explores how we tend the garden of progress, and what we can do when we discover rot in the roots.

Maddie Powell – Playwright
Hershey Suri – Director
Karina Patel – Dramaturg
Sunnie Eraso – Charlotte
Olivia Pryor – Nellie
Hayley O’Toole – Birdie
Juliet Kang Huneke – Beverly
Sonia Goldberg – Leta
Micah Mabey – Mr. Doctor
Zihan Xiong – Stage Directions
Freshly Brewed Team:
Nadya Naumaan – Co-Artistic Producer
Emma Durbin – Co-Artistic Producer
Joel Willison – Co-Artistic Producer
Magdalena Dalzell – Literary Committee Coordinator
Danny Fender – The Understudy Co-Owner
Adam Crawford – The Understudy Co-Owner
About Freshly Brewed
Freshly Brewed seeks to invest in Chicago’s emerging playwrights and theatre artists in keeping with The Understudy’s commitment to Community, Collaboration, and Discovery. The series features monthly readings of new plays in various stages of development. Each artist conrtibuting– playwrights, directors, and actors– will receive a stipend underwritten by the series’ anonymous donor.
Freshly Brewed also marks the inaugural collaboration between The Understudy and its neighbor, Edgewater’s Raven Theatre, who is thrilled to support The Understudy as their fiscal sponsor for this series. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Freshly Brewed.

The Making of a Kween: A Conversation with Vichet Chum
2025-05-20 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Celebrate Kween, the acclaimed debut YA novel by playwright and author Vichet Chum,
with a special evening at The Understudy. Hosted by The Midwives Artistic Collective,
the event features a lively conversation facilitated by The Midwives founder and artistic
director Emily Ritger, with Vichet Chum, his creative “midwife” Thomas Murray, and
Khemarey “Khem” Khoeun, advocate, organizer, and the first Cambodian American
woman elected to public office in the United States. Together, they’ll explore the book’s
origins, cultural connections, and the collaborative magic behind its creation.

About the Book
Soma Kear’s verses have gone viral. Trouble is, she didn’t exactly think her slam poetry video through. All she knew was that her rhymes were urgent. On fire. An expression of where she was, and that place…was a hot mess.
Following her Ba’s deportation back to Cambodia, everything’s changed. Her Ma is away trying to help Ba adjust to his new life, and her older sister has taken charge with a new authoritarian tone. Meanwhile, Soma’s trending video pushes her to ask if it’s time to level up. With her school’s spoken word contest looming, Soma must decide: Is she brave enough to put herself out there? To publicly reveal her fears of Ba not returning? To admit that things may never be the same?
With every line she spits, Soma searches for a way to make sense of the world around her. The answers are at the mic.
From debut author Vichet Chum comes a celebration of Khmer identity, queerness, and embracing the complicated histories that shape who we are and want to be.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vichet Chum (He/Him) is a New York based writer from Dallas, Texas. His plays have been workshopped/produced at Steppenwolf Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, the Alley Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Ars Nova, Page 73 Productions, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Cleveland Play House, the Magic Theater, the UCROSS Foundation, Fault Line Theatre, Crowded Outlet, Second Generation Productions, Weston Playhouse, Cleveland Public Theatre, South Carolina New Play Festival and the New Harmony Project. He received the 2023 Lucille Bulger Service Award, 2018 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting with New Dramatists, the 2021 Laurents/Hatcher Award, a 2021 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award for the world premiere of his play Bald Sisters which premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre in 2022, and a special state citation from the Massachusetts House of Representatives for his play KNYUM at Merrimack Repertory Theatre in 2018. He is currently a Roundabout Theatre Company Underground Resident, New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, Sun Valley Writers’ Conference Fellow, New Harmony Project board member, and Obie Award and Tony Award-winning AAPAC (The Asian American Performers Action Coalition) steering committee member. Past notable writers’ groups include: the Resident Working Farm Group at Space on Ryder Farm, the Interstate 73 Writer’s Group at Page 73 and the Ars Nova Play Group. He is currently working on commissions for Audible, Steppenwolf Theatre, People’s Light, and Seattle Children’s Theatre. Vichet’s debut YA novel Kween was released in 2023l with Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. He is a proud graduate of the University of Evansville (BFA) and Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company (MFA) and is represented by WME and CURATE Management. vichetchum.com

Emily Ritger (She/Her) is a director, playwright, teacher, and arts administrator based in Chicago. As a teacher and director developing new work, she has worked for American Theatre Company, Redmoon, Cleveland Public Theatre, Northlight Theatre, ChiArts, The National High School Institute, Carthage College, and Loyola University. Ritger’s training includes ensemble based work, Viola Spolin Theatre Games, Viewpoints, Puppetry, Contact Improv, experimental writing, and various forms of music. She is the founder of The Midwives, an artistic development company serving makers of different disciplines across the country. Her current projects include: Crud, part docudrama, part fantastical music and shadow puppetry, examining a day her family never talks about. Dear Aliza, a memoir of recorded stories following her seven year journey to having a child. Emily received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, a BS in Theatre and Philosophy from the University of Evansville, and has trained at La MaMa Umbria in Italy and Paul Sills’ Wisconsin Theatre Game Center. emilyritger.com

Thomas Murray (He/Him) is an applied theatre artist, extending the craft he practiced as an actor and a director to audiences beyond the entertainment industry. He currently serves as Chief Community Officer for Equitech Futures, a global fellowship program, where he teaches communication and creativity to emerging STEM innovators. Previously, Thomas was program director for Storycatchers Theatre, where he guided youth in the Illinois juvenile justice system to share their life stories as works of musical theatre. He co-founded Waltzing Mechanics and Strangeloop Theatre, both dearly departed ensembles of the Chicago storefront theatre scene. Thomas is proud to have spent three terms with The Midwives Artistic Collective as an artist and a creative midwife. He holds a B.A. in theatre directing from Ball State University and an M.F.A. in applied theatre and public dialogue from Virginia Tech.

Khemarey “Khem” Khoeun is the first Cambodian American woman elected to public office in the United States. As the daughter of Cambodian refugees and a lifelong advocate for equity, she has spent her career helping others find and elevate their authentic voices—especially those too often silenced. Khem has served as a Skokie Village Trustee, Skokie Park District Commissioner, and as President of the National Cambodian Heritage Museum and Killing Fields Memorial. With a background in social work and immigrant rights organizing, her work is rooted in community, intergenerational healing, and the belief that storytelling is a powerful tool for justice and transformation.

The Midwives Artistic Collective began in 2017 out of artists’ need for support, accountability, and motivation. The first year began as an experiment: seven artists from across the country, making in different disciplines, who were for the most part strangers. The experiment was led by artist Emily Ritger. Ritger, with a background in new play development, was curious if there was another way to support the creation of new work. What if it was nurtured by peers, in community? What if it was supported by artists specifically outside their field? For example, how would a play be affected and changed if it was supported (or midwived) by a musician or visual artist? What if artists signed up rather than applied? And lastly, what if we believed everyone is an artist, everyone is creative! How would that change not only the work being made, but also our cultural valuing of art The mission of The Midwives is to nurture the public creative spirit. We hope to bring forth new work and new voices by seeing the artist in everyone.
themidwives.org
