Ike Holter World Premiere For Studio Theatre Explores A World On The Brink

As the world collectively plans to close the door (and maybe throw away the key?) on 2020, Studio Theatre offers a reflection on this complicated, unexpected, and consequential moment in history with the world premiere of I Hate It Here: Stories from the End of the Old World, a Studio-commissioned audio play written and directed by Ike Holter.

Audiences can listen for free on Studio's website from December 10, 2020 through March 7, 2021. With sharp humor and keen observation, Holter uses vignettes, monologues, and song to take listeners from an office to a wedding, high school, outdoor brunch, front porch, and more to capture the many ways it feels to live in a world wracked by changes both personal and systemic.

"Ike's work is smart, funny, daring, and theatrical-a great match for Studio's first commissions of audio work," said Studio Artistic Director David Muse. "What he's created feels very new and very Ike. He describes this set of scenes and monologues as an album, a sampling of what it feels like to live through this moment, and I think people will really respond to his craft and ambition."

I Hate It Here is supported by Studio R&D, Studio's incubator for new work, and was part of the largest-ever round of commissions in the Theatre's history, awarded in spring 2020. As part of that initiative, Studio allocated funds specifically to support the creation of audio plays, part of its ongoing exploration of alternate modes of theatrical storytelling in response to the present moment.

I Hate It Here features a cast of Studio veterans-Jennifer Mendenhall (Circle/Mirror/Transformation and many others) and Jaysen Wright (Wig Out!)-alongside cherished current and former members of Chicago's theatre community, including Sydney Charles, Kirsten Fitzgerald, and Tony Santiago, as well as Gabriel Ruiz, now in New York, and Behzad Dabu, who is now based in Los Angeles.

I Hate It Here is part of Studio In Your Ears, the Theatre's series of free audio dramas that also includes an adaptation of Sarah Burgess's political drama Kings.

Studio In Your Ears is generously underwritten by Board Chair Amy Weinberg and her husband Norbert Hornstein.

An anthem for our time, I Hate it Herea??looks at the ways people do (and don't)a??deal with a world on the brink of explosion. Commissioned by Studio to create an audio work, award-winning Chicago writer Ike Holter brings his sharp humor to the complexities of stepping into a new decade with the odds already stacked against your favor.

I Hate It Here: Stories from the End of the Old World
Written and Directed by Ike Holter
An audio play from Studio Theatre
Listen for free beginning December 10, 2020

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