Chicago Dramatists News

Writers Theatre will conclude its 2021/22 Season with Pearl’s Rollin’ with the Blues: A Night with Felicia P. Fields.  The production runs June 23, 2022 – July 24, 2022 in the in the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre at 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe. The Press Opening is Friday, July 1, 2022 at 7:30pm.

After celebrating its 25th Anniversary in residence at Theater Wit—a season that featured the world premiere, acclaimed hit Relentless, which went on to an extended run at Goodman Theatre—the company will return to its longtime home in Chicago’s Lakeview East neighborhood, located at 615 W. Wellington Avenue, for three productions.

Call Me Elizabeth, a one-woman show about the early life of Elizabeth Taylor, will have its live world premiere in the 2022 Hollywood Fringe Festival, running June 7-12, at The Zephyr Theatre.

Light and Sound Productions has announced the world premiere of Seven Days at Sea, written by Martha Hansen and directed by Margaret Knapp, May 19 - June 5, at The Edge Theater.

Fiery Seahorse Productions will present the 2022 Reading of Chicagoan Marie Yuen's adaptation of 'Ye-Xian: The Chinese Cinderella' (working title 'C2'), on Saturday, April 30, 2022 at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago - Raymond B. & Jean T. Lee Center, 238 West 23rd Street, in Chicago's Chinatown, beginning at 1:30 p.m.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) Theatre Company has announced dramaturg, producer, and playwright Reginald Edmund is joining the DCPA Artistic Team as the Literary Manager. 

Shattered Globe Theatre and Chicago Dramatists will celebrate the life and legacy of longtime Chicago playwright Joel Drake Johnson at a public memorial on Saturday, April 30, 2022 from 4 pm – 6 pm at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Johnson died of cancer in January 2020 at the age of 70. Mandatory reservations can be made by visiting bit.ly/rememberingjoel

Invictus Theatre Founding Artistic Director Charles Askenaizer today announced full casting for the company’s season closing production of Edward Albee’s WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?. In this four-character drama that is often as wickedly funny as it is heartbreaking, two married couples battle with their spouses and each other over an alcohol-fueled night in a small, overstuffed living room. The tension the characters feel in these close quarters will be conveyed to the audience in Askenaizer’s storefront production in the 40-seat Reginald Vaughn Theatre at 1106 W. Thorndale, Chicago. 

Los Angeles-based theatre company Lower Depth Theatre is launching the first cycle of their new Playwright Commission Fellowship with a diverse cohort of playwrights. The four selected playwrights for the 2022 Fellowship include DeLane McDuffie, Marlow Wyatt, Sage Martin, & Vasanti Saxena.

Mia Park, in partnership with the Chicago Public Library, presents a one night only event, Let Me Tell You: Stories of Asian American Authenticity, Monday, May 2, 6 - 7:30 p.m. at Bezazian Library, 1226 W. Ainslie Street.

Goodman Theatre announces its next Future Labs reading: Cephianne's Reflection by Mallory Raven-Ellen Backstrom, directed by Wardell Julius Clark. The second offering (of six workshops and presentations anticipated) of Future Labs' second season, Backstrom's new play is penned in homage to an American dialect and colorful culture found on the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia—where the descendants of slaves learned how to turn pain into power.

Sideshow Theatre Company announced its 2022 season featuring the world premiere of Artistic Associate Brynne Frauenhoffer’s brash, incisive comedy Pro-Am, directed by Artistic Director Regina Victor, and a staged reading of Preston Choi's sci-fi post-apocalyptic dramedy Drive-In at the End of the World, directed by Artistic Associate Marti Lyons.

 Fault Line Theatre will continue the 2022 Season of Irons in the  Fire, the organization’s reading series of new plays in development, with God Save the Queer by Zackary Grady, directed by Portia Krieger and featuring Michael Urie (George), Mallory Portnoy (Charlotte), Keshav Moodliar (Tariq), Seth Clayton (Louis), and Mary McCann (Kate).

With two major revivals on stage helmed by Artistic Collective members—August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean directed by Resident Director Chuck Smith (through February 27) and Manilow Resident Director Mary Zimmerman's The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (February 11 – March 20)—the Goodman announces several artistic updates as its 2021/2022 “Homecoming” Season continues.

Dirt Dogs Theatre Co. enters 2022 with a restaging of the gritty cop drama, A Steady Rain, written by Keith Huff and directed by Malinda L. Beckham. Originally produced in 2016 as the opening play in Dirt Dogs' inaugural season, the show features Trevor B. Cone and Kevin Daugherty reprising their roles as two Chicago cops.

Sideshow Theatre Company has announced the addition of ten new company members, including Ensemble Members estrellita beatriz, Adelina Feldman-Schultz, Hanna Kime, Tina Muñoz Pandya and Shariba Rivers and Artistic Associates Sam Boeck, Olivia Canaday, Sydney Charles, Micah Figueroa and Mallory Raven-Ellen Backstrom.

Vivid Stage, formerly Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre, in residence at Oakes Center at 120 Morris Avenue in Summit, will present the world premiere production of Portrait of the Widow Kinski by Sara Jean Accuardi from September 30 through October 10. All audience members will be asked to show proof of vaccination at the box office.

Premiere Stages at Kean University will present Erik Gernand’s Year One September 9-26 in Kean University’s Bauer Boucher Theatre Center (Vaughn Eames Hall, 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, N.J.).

Premiere Stages at Kean University has announced its return to in-person, indoor performances, with a full production in the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center in September and a staged reading in the Liberty Hall Academic Center in October.

Acclaimed Black Filipinx playwright and Kilroys List honoree Roger Q. Mason (they/them) is currently premiering their play The Duat with the renowned Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, presented in association with the Obie Award-winning The Fire This Time Festival and Watts Village Theater Company.