Haven Presents DIRECTOR'S HAVEN 6 at The Den Theatre

Haven will start off 2023 programming with its annual Director's Haven, now in its sixth year. Featuring three emerging directors, Director's Haven 6 gives directors in the earliest stages of their professional careers a rare opportunity to take risks, hone their crafts and talents and share their vision through a fully staged production of a short play. Director's Haven 6 will play March 29 - April 12, 2023 at Haven's resident home, The Den Theatre (Theatre 2A), 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets (pay-what-you-can) are on sale now at havenchi.org.

The directors announced for 2023 include: Arti Ishak directing Same Sects!, Megan Philippi directing Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen and Joel Willison directing Laments of a Brown Bird Summer.

Same Sects!

By Paul Michael Thomson

Directed by Arti Ishak

Featuring Ian Maryfield and Jonathan Olivares

Hooking up is supposed to be fun, but in the months after Donald Trump's election to the U.S. presidency, even the extremely personal becomes overtly political. Same Sects! is a play about assumption, identity, intimacy and what happens when they share a bed.

Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen

By Caryl Churchill

Directed by Megan Philippi

Featuring Zach Bloomfield, Lizzy Mosher and Crystal Park

Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen tells the story of a young pop star's homecoming in an eco-dystopian near future - one where the air is too polluted to breathe and people shelter in claustrophobic tower blocks under strict reproductive regulations... unless they are rich enough to buy their way out. In a single half hour, the dreams, fears and values of a father, his partner and his child collide, exposing the unstable lines between hope and apathy, action and despair.

Laments of a Brown Bird Summer

By Cris Eli Blak

Directed by Joel Willison

Featuring Rashaad Bond, Gino Gonzales, Colin Jones and Jaeda Larkins

A family works through their shared grief and connecting relationships after the death of a loved one.

Artistic Director Ian Damont Martin comments, "We are so glad to return to our sixth annual Director's Haven, after a nearly three-year pandemic-necessitated hiatus. This program, which remains one of few programs explicitly geared towards emerging, early-career directors, is vital for both the Chicago and national theatre landscape. Having come to Haven Chicago through Director's Haven 3 myself, this effort is all the more meaningful. I am particularly excited by this year's cohort of directors, and the works they have respectively selected. Arti Ishak, Megan Phillippe and Joel Willison represent both the present and the future of our field. What will be the stories of tomorrow, as told by the emerging artists of today? I invite you to come by Director's Haven 6 to check out our latest submissions to a new cannon."

The creative team includes Megan Hoppe (Costume Designer), Vianey Salazar (Lighting Designer), Jake Sorgen (Sound Designer), Mariah Bennett (Props Designer), Anna Peterson (Scenic Artist), Victoria Nassif (Intimacy Coordinator, Same Sects!), Catherine Miller (Casting Director), Skylar Grieco (Associate Production Manager), Jayce Lewis (Stage Manager, Same Sects!), Mack Finklea (Stage Manager, Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen), Taylor Stageberg (Stage Manager, Laments of a Brown Bird Summer), Ali-Reza Mirsajadi (Directing Mentor, Arti Ishak), Barbara Gaines (Directing Mentor, Megan Philippi) and Sophiyaa Nayar (Directing Mentor, Joel Willison), Ian Damont Martin (Artistic Director) Angela Salinas (Executive Director) and Julia Farrell Diefenbach (Director of Marketing and Social Media).

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