JoAnn Montemurro

The Board of Directors of Raven Theatre has announced the appointment of Cody Estle as the company's Artistic Director effective immediately.

Raven Theatre is pleased to launch its 35th anniversary season with the Chicago premiere of CHOIR BOY, by recent Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney who, together with writer-director Barry Jenkins, won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the Academy's Best Picture winner, Moonlight. Directed by Artistic Director Michael Menendian, CHOIR BOY will play September 27 November 12, 2017 in Raven's 120-seat East Stage, 6157 N. Clark St. (at Granville) in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at www.raventheatre.com or by calling (773) 338-2177.

Raven Theatre is pleased to launch its 35th anniversary season with the Chicago premiere of CHOIR BOY, by recent Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney who, together with writer-director Barry Jenkins, won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the Academy's Best Picture winner, Moonlight.  Directed by Artistic Director Michael Menendian, CHOIR BOY will play September 27 - November 12, 2017 in Raven's 120-seat East Stage, 6157 N. Clark St. (at Granville) in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at www.raventheatre.com or by calling (773) 338-2177. The press opening is Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 7:30 pm.

Raven Theatre Company's 35th anniversary season will begin in September with the Chicago premiere of Choir Boy by recent Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney who, together with writer-director Barry Jenkins, won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the Academy's Best Picture winner, Moonlight.  

Raven Theatre Company today announced the theater's founders and co-artistic directors Michael Menendian and JoAnn Montemurro will retire at the end of the 2017-2018 season, after leading the company for 35 years.

The Jeff Awards announced, via a special video presentation, a total of 127 nominations in 26 categories for the 44th Annual Non-Equity Jeff Awards for productions that opened between April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017.  Hosting the video presentation were Alexis Roston and Lillian Castillo, who will be this year's Mistresses of Ceremonies at the Awards event on June 5 at The Athenaeum.

Raven Theatre Company, which will turn 35 years old in March of 2018, announced today that its upcoming 2017-18 season will give Chicago audiences their first looks at plays by three of America's most acclaimed young playwrights.

The cast of Raven Theatre Company's premiere of Tennessee Williams' Not About Nightingales has been announced, with Raven Founding Artistic Director Michael Menendian directing. The play's action revolves around the tyrannical prison warden Boss Whalen's inhumane treatment of the inmates in his island prison.  Deciding they have had enough, and inspired by their de facto leader Butch, the inmates of Hall C fight back by waging a hunger strike. When it garners media attention, Boss Whalen responds with torture.  All the while, Whalen's inmate assistant Jim and new secretary Eva struggle with the moral dilemma of either exposing the strike and losing their jobs or assisting Whalen in keeping it under wraps. 

The Agency Theater Collective has announced its spring production of the world premiere of Skin For Skin, written by Paul Pasulka and directed by Michael Menendian, February 28  - April 2, at the Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N. Ridge Ave.

Raven Theatre Associate Artistic Director Cody Estle has announced a "blended family" of new and familiar Raven faces for the company's Midwest premiere of The Assembled Parties, which in 2013 earned a 2013 Tony® Award nomination for Best Play. The play by Richard Greenberg, author of Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain and many other plays, will open on Raven Theatre's East Stage under Estle's direction on Tuesday, January 31, following previews from January 25 - 30, 2017.

The Agency Theater Collective has announced its spring production of the world premiere of Skin For Skin, written by Paul Pasulka and directed by Michael Menendian, February 28  - April 2, at the Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N. Ridge Ave.

Raven Theatre Associate Artistic Director Cody Estle has announced a "blended family" of new and familiar Raven faces for the company's Midwest premiere of The Assembled Parties, which in 2013 earned a 2013 Tony® Award nomination for Best Play. The play by Richard Greenberg, author of Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain and many other plays, will open on Raven Theatre's East Stage under Estle's direction on Tuesday, January 31, following previews from January 25 - 30, 2017.

JoAnn Montemurro, co-Artistic Director of Raven Theatre, presents THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES by John Guare. The play begins on the company's East Stage from today, April 20 through June 18, 2016 under Montemurro's direction.

JoAnn Montemurro, co-Artistic Director of Raven Theatre, has announced casting for the company's upcoming production of THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES by John Guare. The play will run on the company's East Stage from April 20 through June 18, 2016 under Montemurro's direction.

Michael Menendian, Producing Artistic Director of Raven Theatre, has announced casting for The Old Friends by Horton Foote. Raven's production will be the play's second since its World Premiere staging in fall 2013 by New York's Signature Theatre Company. That production was subsequently remounted in 2014 at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. The Raven production will run on the company's East Stage from January 27 to March 26, 2016 under Menendian's direction.

THE PLAY ABOUT MY DAD, by Boo Killebrew, which opened at New York's 59E59 Theatres in June 2011, tells of the author's father, a doctor in Gulfport, Mississippi who stayed behind to take care of patients as Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005. The play will be performed in Raven's intimate West Stage space. The production officially opens tonight, October 27, and runs through November 28, 2015. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

The Play About My Dad by Boo Killebrew, which opened at New York's 595 E 59 Theatres in June 2011, tells of the author's father, a doctor in Gulfport, Mississippi who stayed behind to take care of patients as the storm hit in August 2005. New Orleans, as the largest city to be hit by the storm, appropriately received most of the media attention, but Katrina's effects on the Gulf Coast were devastating. Many coastal towns were destroyed, 235 people were killed and more than one million Mississippians were affected.

Raven Theatre's cast and creative team for The Play About My Dad has been announced by Michael Menendian, the company's Co-Founding Artistic Director.

Sean Graney, who recently returned to Chicago to resume his post as Artistic Director of The Hypocrites, informed the Joseph Jefferson Awards Committee that he just learned the theater company had been operating under an Equity CAT-N contract for the duration of the 2014-2015 Non-Equity season.  Over the past year, requests for judging its productions were made to the Non-Equity Wing without the committee having knowledge of the company's Equity status. The Jeff Committee was aware that two of the productions had Equity performers (as indicated in the program); however, the committee has now confirmed that these were not guest contracts.  As such, the company's productions are not eligible for consideration in the Non-Equity Wing, and all related Non-Equity Jeff Award nominations have been rescinded.  The productions in question will be shifted to the Equity Wing for awards consideration during its current season, which commenced on August 1, 2014 and will end on July 30, 2015.