Hermitage Award Winner Naomi Iizuka's CASA DE MAÑANA to Receive Goodman Theatre Workshop

The Hermitage Artist Retreat, in partnership with the Goodman Theatre, will present a Chicago workshop of the newly commissioned play Casa de Mañana, written by Naomi Iizuka, the 2024-2025 recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA). This will be the first Chicago HMTA workshop presented by the Hermitage, and the invitation-only presentation on October 23rd will be directed by Lisa Portes.

Naomi Iizuka is an award-winning playwright, educator, and theater maker based in California. Her body of work includes Anon(ymous), 36 Views, Polaroid Stories, At the Vanishing Point, Language of Angels, Skin, Tattoo Girl, and more. Her plays have been produced at theaters across the country, including BAM's Next Wave Festival, Berkeley Rep, the Goodman, Actors' Theatre of Louisville, the Guthrie, Cornerstone, Children's Theater Company, The Public Theater, and Campo Santo. lizuka is an alumna of New Dramatists and the recipient of a PEN/Laura Pels Award, an Alpert Award, a Whiting Award, a Stavis Award from The National Theatre Conference, a Joyce Foundation Award, and a Hodder Fellowship. She was a Berlind Playwright-in-Residence at Princeton University. Iizuka has written for The Terror: Infamy (AMC), Tokyo Vice (HBO Max), Bosch: Legacy (Amazon), and The Sympathizer (HBO Max). Iizuka heads the MFA Playwriting program at UC San Diego.

As the fifth recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA), Naomi Iizuka's newly commissioned play is Casa de Mañana, a dark comedy that explores what it means to make art when your life and the world around you are imploding. Set in an assisted living facility, the play tells the story of an underemployed theater artist who's trying to make a play based on stories that the residents tell her about their lives – except the residents don't want to talk to her. And who can blame them? They have their own problems to deal with and their own agendas. Why should they tell stories to a stranger? Casa de Mañana asks what it means to tell the story of your life. How do you make sense of the craziness and mystery of the people around you? How do you tell the truth? And what choices do you make in the time you have left? 

The Hermitage Major Theater Award was established in 2021 to recognize a playwright or theater artist with a substantial commission to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. This national, jury-selected award, established by the Hermitage with generous support from Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation, offers one of the largest unrestricted nonprofit theater commissions in the country. Iizuka receives a cash prize of $35,000, as well as a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat (Sarasota County, Florida), plus a developmental workshop in a notable arts capital. The prize is intended to bridge the connection between the Hermitage, where the commission is born, and other leading arts and cultural centers around the world, including New York, Chicago, and London, where great theater is frequently developed and presented.

HMTA winners are nominated and selected by a jury of recognized arts leaders in the field of theater. The 2024-2025 Award Committee that selected Naomi Iizuka included Susan V. Booth, Artistic Director of Chicago's Goodman Theatre; Glenn Davis, an accomplished actor, producer, and Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre Company; and Chay Yew, an Obie Award-winning director and playwright who served as longtime Artistic Director of Victory Gardens Theater. “It is an honor to be working with Naomi Iizuka and The Goodman Theatre to present the first workshop of Naomi's newly commissioned play Casa de Mañana,” said Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “It has been thrilling to see the work that's come to life from past HMTA recipients Madeleine George, Shariffa Ali, Imani Uzuri, and Chris Bush. It is incredibly exciting to see Naomi's original play now coming to fruition. Naomi is an extraordinary talent, and it's a privilege to play a role in supporting her artistic journey. We must also thank Flora Major for making this opportunity possible, and our brilliant jury – Susan V. Booth, Glenn Davis, and Chay Yew – for introducing Naomi to the Hermitage.”

Casting for the first workshop of Casa de Mañana, directed by Lisa Portes, includes stage and screen actors Vaneh Assadourian (Hermitage Fellow Sanaz Toossi's Wish You Were Here, Forget Me Not); Ayanna Bria Bakari (The Chi, Empire); Kate Buddeke (Superior Donuts, Death of a Salesman); Mi Kang (The Chinese Lady, Villette); Polly Noonan (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Dead Man's Cell Phone); Adam Poss (Patriots, Chicago Med); and Jeff Award winner Barbara Robertson (Wicked, Angels in America).