Bilal Dardai

What did our critic think of 46 PLAYS FOR AMERICA'S FIRST LADIES AT NEXTSTOP THEATRE COMPANY at NextStop Theatre Company?

Lifeline Theatre welcomes Paige Keedy as Production Manager, Nathan Crawford as Operations Manager/Accessibility Coordinator, and Merissa Stewart as Education Director, beginning in Summer 2022.  Reporting to Artistic Director Ilesa Duncan and working in partnership with the Operations Manager, Keedy will be responsible for managing the overall production of all of Lifeline's programming. 

Theatre Pro Rata is producing 46 Plays for America's First Ladies Written by Genevra Gallo-Bayiates, Sharon Greene, Chloe Johnston, Bilal Dardai, and Andy Bayiatesl at The Crane Theater this October under the direction of Shanan Custer.

Lifeline Theatre announced their 2022-23 season of Big Stories, Up Close. It’s a monumental year of unforgettable stories brought to life, from beloved classics to modern titles. The 2022-23 MainStage season features the Midwest premiere sequel Miss Holmes Returns, followed by a retelling of Dr. Endesha Ida Mae Holland’s From the Mississippi Delta.

​​​​​​​Lifeline Theatre welcomes Amelia Ablan to her new staff position as Production Manager, beginning June 2021. Reporting directly to Artistic Director Ilesa Duncan and Managing Director Allison Cain, Ablan will be responsible for overseeing the production processes for the company, collaborating closely with directors and the Artistic Director to fulfill the production needs for Lifeline's future live and digital programming.  Ablan succeeds Jennifer McClendon, who served as Production Manager since 2016, now heading to Providence, Rhode Island to Trinity Repertory Company as their new Producing Director.

Written by one of Tibet's most prolific activists and authors, Jamyang Norbu (he/him), this Holmesian pastiche marks artistic director Gus Menary's (he/him) Audio Book-It directorial debut.

As part of a rolling world premiere, Forward Theater Company will present its final production in the 2020-21 season, 46 Plays for America’s First Ladies, by Chloe Johnston, Sharon Greene, Genevra Gallo-Bayiates, Bilal Dardai, and Andy Bayiates. The filmed version of the experience will be streaming online May 8th - 23rd.

Forward Theater Company has announced its 2020-2021 season, UNITED STORIES OF AMERICA.

Innovative Chicago theater company The Neo-Futurists have announced their 32nd Season of programming for 2020-2021, continuing to create and produce new work on a weekly basis despite the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has effectively shut down indoor theatrical performances for the rest of the year.

Book-It Repertory Theatre (Book-It) is pleased to announce its 2020-2021 season of online audio dramas, scheduled to begin October 28. For 31 years, Book-It has been transforming great literature into great theatre, and inspiring audiences to read. In this strange and challenging time across the world, Book-It looks forward to a season of much-needed connectivity and creativity. 

With the conclusion of the 2019-2020 Chicago non-Equity theater season, the Jeff Awards announced the nominees for the 47th annual awards for theater excellence that include 120 theater artists across 21 categories.

Today the Neo-Futurist Theater announced that Artistic Director Kurt Chiang will step down from his role as the leader of Chicago's premiere experimental theater company to make way for new leadership in early 2020. Neo-Futurist Ensemble Member Kirsten Riiber will succeed Chiang as Artistic Director. Chiang will continue his role as a Neo-Futurist Ensemble Member.

Rivendell Theatre Ensemble announces its 2020 Season including the World Premieres of The Tasters by Meghan Brown, directed by RTE member Devon de Mayo and Spay by Madison Fiedler and directed by RTE member Hallie Gordon, as well as 45 Plays for America's First Ladies by Chloe Johnston, Sharon Greene, Genevra Gallo-Bayiates, Bilal Dardai, and Andy Bayiates, in a co-production with Chicago's The Neo-Futurists. All productions will be performed at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, 5779 N. Ridge Avenue in Chicago.

Closing out its 30th anniversary season, The Neo-Futurist Theater announces the return of its annual fundraising campaign, TIW24: A Fundraiser for The Neo-Futurist. The six-week campaign, which launches November 3rd, has a $30,000 goal to raise funds for the theater to continue its three-decade dedication of bringing innovative, personal narrative-driven theater to its stages. Its flagship show, The Infinite Wrench has generated more than 10,800 plays since its 2016 inception and is The Neo-Futurists ongoing and ever-changing attempt to shift the conventions of live performance and speak to those unreached or unmoved by traditional theater. During the campaign, the theater will produce different iterations of The Infinite Wrench, including a special one-night-only performance written, curated, rehearsed and performed by ensemble members in a 24-hour period.

Neo-Futurist Ida Cuttler teams up with veteran Chicago director and Neo-Futurist Artistic Associate Halena Kays to present the company's next world premiere: An evening's amusement for yourself and friends, consisting of one thousand and one locutions by a young virtuous maiden whose penchant for potboilers and mastery of chicaneries shall teach us all a lesson in the never-ending wiles of women and the astonishing virtue of the gregarious!!!!!! OR: COMFORTABLE SHOES. Cuttler's premiere Prime Time show was part of the Neo-Lab developmental program during the 18/19 season and will see the full production open at The Neo-Futurist Theater on October 7th, 2019. 

Broken Nose Theatre is pleased to continue its seventh season with the Midwest premiere of Yussef El Guindi's dark comedy LANGUAGE ROOMS, directed by Kaiser Zaki Ahmed, playing April 19 - May 18, 2019 at BNT's resident home,The Den Theatre (2A), 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood.

Broken Nose Theatre will continue its seventh season with the Midwest premiere of Yussef El Guindi's dark comedy LANGUAGE ROOMS, directed by Kaiser Zaki Ahmed, playing April 19 - May 18, 2019 at BNT's resident home, The Den Theatre (2A), 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood.

Lifeline Theatre ensemble member Christopher Walsh (Gogol/Tuesday); with guest artists Allison Cain (Sunday), Eduardo Xavier Curley-Carrillo (Gabriel Syme), Jen Ellison (Dr. Bull/Saturday), Linsey Falls (Professor de Worms/Friday), Sonia Goldberg (Familiar #2), Cory Hardin (Lucian Gregory), Marsha Harman (The Secretary/Monday), Oly Oxinfry (Familiar #1), Corbette Pasko (The Marquis de St. Eustache/Wednesday). With understudies David Gordezky and Sarah Scanlon.

Broken Nose Theatre announces casting for its Midwest premiere of Yussef El-Guindi's dark comedy LANGUAGE ROOMS, directed by Kaiser Zaki Ahmed.

Lifeline Theatre presents The Man Who Was Thursday, adapted by Lifeline Theatre ensemble member Bilal Dardai and directed by Jess Hutchinson. Dardai and Hutchinson return to this 1908 satire after having first mounted it at New Leaf Theatre, where Hutchinson was the Artistic Director, in 2009 (Non-Equity Jeff nomination: New Adaptation) to re-explore this absurdist tale of identity and intrigue for a new decade.