The Gift Theatre Reveals 2024-25 Season

The Gift Theatre has announced its 2024-25 season featuring Suzan-Lori Parks’ masterpiece Topdog/Underdog directed by Shanésia Davisand the world premiere of Cygnus by Susan Soon He Stanton, directed by Co-Artistic Director Brittany Burch. These mainstage productions will be followed by the annual 10-minute performance festival, TEN. In addition, there will be three In The Works staged readings of plays in development and three live lit performances with GiftLit. All productions will be presented at Filament Theatre (4041 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 6064).

The Gift’s 2024-25 Season includes:

TOPDOG/UNDERDOG

by Suzan-Lori Parks

Directed by Shanésia Davis

Featuring Ensemble Members Martel Manning and Gregory Fenner

September 12- October 20, 2024

This darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity tells the story of two brothers, Lincoln (Manning) and Booth (Fenner), names given to them as a joke by their father. Haunted by the past and their obsession with the street con game, three-card monte, the brothers come to learn the true nature of their history.

Co-Artistic Director Jennifer Glasse commets, “While envisioning our upcoming season we wanted to choose a blend of stories that would be both personal and challenging to the artists involved. Topdog/Underdog has been a dream project with roles Ensemble Members Martel Manning and Gregory Fenner have wanted to play for years. We are thrilled to reunite them with the vision and direction of the incomparable Shanésia Davis. They are all deeply connected to this story and I am over the moon for Chicago to see their dreams come to fruition.”

The world premiere of

Cygnus

by Susan Soon He Stanton

Directed by Co-Artistic Director Brittany Burch

February 6 - March 16, 2025

Cydney believes an angel rescued her from an ineffable trauma, and the truth may prove stranger than she imagines. In this mythic, hilarious, and poetic new play, a burnt feather may illuminate the possibility of a divine intervention.

Co-Artistic Director Brittany Burch states, “Cygnus is a modern-day fairytale that weaves fantasy into a very honest story of trauma and recovery. I immediately resonated with its themes of escapism as a defense mechanism and codependent, mother-daughter relationships but I fell in love with Stanton’s use of dark humor, absurdism, and Greek mythology to guide her richly layered characters through their search for meaning in life’s adversities.” 

TEN

A 10-minute performance festival of new work written, directed, and performed by various local artists. 

May 8 - 19, 2025

IN THE WORKS

The Fires by Jennifer Rumberger

Monday, June 10, 2024

Jennifer Rumberger (The Locusts) is returning to The Gift for a one-time reading of her latest play, The Fires.

Two men sit outside a 7/11 in downtown Los Angeles, watching a wildfire come closer and closer, the latest in a series of natural catastrophes that have caused massive casualties all over the United States. Other than a traveling newsman bringing stories of the fates of other Americans, they are the last people alive. As the fire gets closer, they are forced to contend with the end of not only their relationship, but their lives as well.