Our Events
We’ve designed The Understudy from the ground up to support a variety of events. Join us after close for play readings, drag performances, concerts, meetups, and more! The calendar is always updating, so check back often.
The Understudy believes curiosity is a powerful, generative force for transformation. We seek to feed our collective creative lives by nourishing deep curiosity– whether toward your own vision, or through engaging generously with the work of another. We see curiosity, empathy, and justice as interdependent ideals. Our work seeks to foster deeper connections to our passions, our neighbors, and to contemporary life.
We’re always on the lookout for new ways to share our space and bring creative people together. If you have an idea for a new one-off event or series at The Understudy, please fill out the form below. Please note that we give priority to theatre related events, and, though we really want to, we can’t accommodate every request. Let’s chat!
recurring series
Midsommer Flight presents: Adelinda by Hannah Brand
September 14 @ 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
A reading of Adelinda – a comedy that offers audiences a witty and entertaining exploration of love, intrigue, and mistaken identities. Adelinda by Hannah Brand Directed by Joshua Pennington Cast […]
Midsommer Flight presents: Adelinda by Hannah Brand
September 14 @ 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
FEM/THEM Comedy Open Mic at The Understudy
September 23 @ 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
If you identify as funny and not-a-dude-onstage, this is your night diva! Hosted by Preeti Thaker Preeti & Jordan present: A Comedy Open Mic for Women + Non-Binary Comics! If […]
FEM/THEM Comedy Open Mic at The Understudy
September 23 @ 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
The Understudy Dares You to Produce This Play: Poor Clare
September 28 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
A monthly reading series highlighting plays that have not yet been produced in Chicago The Understudy Dares You to Produce This Play is a monthly reading series highlighting plays that […]
The Understudy Dares You to Produce This Play: Poor Clare
September 28 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE by by Joseph Kesselring
October 5 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
A play reading of THE OUTSIDER by Paul Slade Smith produced by Exit, Pursued by a Play Reading. Drama critic Mortimer Brewster’s engagement announcement is upended when he discovers a […]
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE by by Joseph Kesselring
October 5 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Mia Schachter: How to Do Consent (without Sounding Like a Robot)
October 8 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
a modern guide for moving sex and boundaries past rigid rules and toward real connection, personal fulfillment, and self-discovery. ABOUT THE BOOK Essential, up-to-date guidance on consent and sex for […]
Mia Schachter: How to Do Consent (without Sounding Like a Robot)
October 8 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Century Cycle Book Club Event 1
October 13 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Century Cycle Book Club Event 1
October 13 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Century Cycle Play Club 2
November 9 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
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[post_content] => A reading of Adelinda - a comedy that offers audiences a witty and entertaining exploration of love, intrigue, and mistaken identities.Adelinda by Hannah Brand
Directed by Joshua Pennington
Cast
Adelinda D'Olstain - Ahlora Victoria
Marquis D'Olstain - Barry Irving
Count D'Olstain - Alexander Garza
Marchioness D'Olstain - Hannah Mary Simpson
Strasbourg - Brandon Beach
Zella - Koshie Mills
Dorcas - Brynley Halverson
Flora - Siyi Wang
Synopsis
The willful and rebellious Adelinda is set to marry the wealthy Count D’Olstain – much to her weary parents’ relief. The only problem – Adelinda is already secretly married to a servant! Schemes and mistaken identities abound, lost children are returned, and some snooty parents get a rightful scolding in this comical and quippy caper about the lengths we go to for a happily ever after.
About the Playwright
Hannah Brand (1754-1821) was an English actress, playwright, and poet. She began her career running a prestigious girls’ school with her sister, but by her late 30s, had decided to leave teaching and pursue a life in the theater. She published a book of poetry and plays in 1798, including Adelinda, which seems not to have been performed in her lifetime. In 1794, Brand retired from the stage and returned to the world of education, working as governess. Though her work was tragically overlooked in her time, she is considered by many modern historians to be a pioneering figure in eighteenth-century drama.
Tickets are pay-what-you-can! You can buy a ticket through the donation section.
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[post_content] => If you identify as funny and not-a-dude-onstage, this is your night diva! Hosted by Preeti ThakerPreeti & Jordan present: A Comedy Open Mic for Women + Non-Binary Comics!
If you identify as funny and not-a-dude-onstage, this is your night diva!
WHAT’S THE PLAN?
• 7:30 PM — arrive responsibly early, wonder what the vibe is gonna be like. Support the space by buying a drink!
• 8:00 PM — the mic starts, the chaos begins
• Sign-ups close at 9 PM because of boundaries
SET DETAILS
• 4 minutes of pure lightning
• 5 minutes if you buy a drink — please support and tip our bartenders ♥️
CAN MEN ATTEND?
Of course!
Men can sit, watch, hydrate, clap, and support women (a skill we’d love to see more of)
We kindly ask that you practice not-mansplaining
If you feel a mansplanation rising in your throat, please swallow it
ANYTHING ELSE?
Bring the vibes baby! This is our first time doing a comedy open mic and we’d love to make it a tradition. Come through!
xx
Preeti & Jordan
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[post_content] => A monthly reading series highlighting plays that have not yet been produced in ChicagoThe Understudy Dares You to Produce This Play is a monthly reading series highlighting plays that have not received a Chicago production. Produced by The Understudy’s bookstore team, this series works to expand the variety of playwrights and titles in our vibrant community.
This month, we're reading Poor Clare by Chiara Atik
Clare: Felicia Oduh
Beatrice: John-Payne
Francis: Andrew Shipman
Alma: Jordan Levene
Peppa: Preeti Thaker
Ortolana: Mari De La Rua
The Poor/Beggar: Izzy Valdes
About the Play
It’s 1211 in Assisi, Italy, and Clare’s got beauty, wealth and a rich suitor who showers her with expensive presents. So why is she so drawn to this guy Francis who gave up all his possessions just because poor people are suffering? Everyone in town says he’s crazy. And yet… she starts seeing everything in her life differently. This hilarious, anachronistic telling of the real story of St. Clare considers the cost of doing good – and how little has changed for the haves and the have-nots in almost a millennium.
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[post_content] => A play reading of THE OUTSIDER by Paul Slade Smith produced by Exit, Pursued by a Play Reading.Drama critic Mortimer Brewster’s engagement announcement is upended when he discovers a corpse in his elderly aunts’ window seat. Mortimer rushes to tell Abby and Martha before they stumble upon the body themselves, only to learn that the two old women aren’t just aware of the dead man in their parlor, they killed him! Between his aunts’ penchant for poisoning wine, a brother who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, and another brother using plastic surgery to hide from the police – not to mention Mortimer’s own hesitancy about marriage – it’ll be a miracle if Mortimer makes it to his wedding. Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic dark comedy about the only thing more deadly than poison: family.
** CAST TO BE ANNOUNCED **
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[post_content] => a modern guide for moving sex and boundaries past rigid rules and toward real connection, personal fulfillment, and self-discovery.ABOUT THE BOOK
Essential, up-to-date guidance on consent and sex for anyone who’s having it—and everyone who wants to do it better.
Empowered practices, embodied skills, and frame-changing advice for navigating consent, pursuing pleasure, and building connection in the real world.
Part practical guide, part cultural critique, this book offers braver, more creative, and more empowered visions of what sex can (and should) be. Essential reading for anyone having sex in the 21st century, How to Do Consent moves the conversation past stale and rigid assumptions toward one rooted in connection, fulfillment, and self-discovery.
Timely, provocative, real-world, and affirming, Schachter’s work dispels misconceptions like:
- “Consent can be done perfectly”: When in practice, it’s relative, subjective, fluid, and interpersonal—there’s no one right way to do it.
- “If you can’t talk about sex, you shouldn’t be having it”: Abstinence lite is unrealistic; talking about sex requires experience, trial, and error.
- “Consent will save us”: Consent is a harm-reduction strategy, not a panacea.
- “Enthusiasm is a requirement for consensual sex”: Utterly unenthusiastic but totally consensual sex happens all the time. It’s fine!
- “Consent is something that men do for women”: It’s a shared, communal responsibility—and anyone of any gender can violate another’s’ boundaries.
- “Sexuality is always innate and unchangeable”: While honoring the reality that many are “born this way,” Schachter shares how their own desires and sexuality have been both fluid and actively sculpted.
Grounded in Schachter’s work as an intimacy coordinator and consent educator—and informed by insights from sex workers, therapists, kink practitioners, and community leaders—How to Do Consent (Without Sounding Like a Robot) offers a provocative and bitingly funny alternative to the myths and practices that keep us silent, confused, anxious, and disconnected—and that hold us back from asking for (and discovering) what we really want.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mia Schachter is a writer, multi-media artist and musician, and the creator of Consent Wizardry, an online consent school serving over a thousand students seeking more easeful relationships, clearer boundaries, and authentic self-expression. Mia also works as an intimacy coordinator for TV, film, and theater. They’ve taught and spoken for organizations including Planned Parenthood, XBiz, and the Directors Guild’s Women’s Steering Committee. Drawing on a background in philosophy, gender studies, ethics, and neuroscience—as well as their lived experience with chronic illness—Schachter explores consent as a creative, anti-carceral practice that links body, desire, and imagination.
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[post_title] => Century Cycle Book Club Event 1
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[post_title] => Century Cycle Play Club 2
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Steppenwolf Learner Chats: Topdog/Underdog
September 11 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Steppenwolf Theatres' Learner Chat series invites our community to learn from expert guests through engaging conversations. Steppenwolf Theatres’ Learner Chat series invites our community to learn from expert guests through […]
Steppenwolf Learner Chats: Topdog/Underdog
September 11 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Steppenwolf Learner Chats: Topdog/Underdog
September 11 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Steppenwolf Theatres' Learner Chat series invites our community to learn from expert guests through engaging conversations. Steppenwolf Theatres’ Learner Chat series invites our community to learn from expert guests through […]
Steppenwolf Learner Chats: Topdog/Underdog
September 11 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Re:working – Culture of Care, a Toolkit
September 10 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Hear Nicole, Sheryl, Kiaran, and Chels dream up more updated, common standards for care with Gabriela. Since Not in Our House and the Chicago Theatre Standards, our city has been […]
Re:working – Culture of Care, a Toolkit
September 10 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Workshop: a love story and poetry event with Hot Potato Hearts
September 9 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Calling all poets and writers who wanna write and possibly *find* love. Join us for an evening of reading and writing poetry with our friends Leah and Katie.
Workshop: a love story and poetry event with Hot Potato Hearts
September 9 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
THE OUTSIDER by Paul Slade Smith
August 31 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
A play reading of THE OUTSIDER by Paul Slade Smith produced by Exit, Pursued by a Play Reading. Ned Newley doesn’t even want to be governor. He’s terrified of public […]
THE OUTSIDER by Paul Slade Smith
August 31 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
BlkOut Theatre Project Presents: Blood Red Salon
August 28 @ 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
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[post_content] => Steppenwolf Theatres' Learner Chat series invites our community to learn from expert guests through engaging conversations.Steppenwolf Theatres' Learner Chat series invites our community to learn from expert guests through engaging conversations that explore the major themes of each play. Participants are guided on a journey that dives deeper into motifs, design elements, and dramaturgy, offering new perspectives, insights, and opportunities for discovery beyond the stage.
The event will start at 7:30p and will include a facilitated conversation between Steppenwolf Education + Engagement staff and other guest artists to dive deeper into the themes of Topdog/ Underdog and why Steppenwolf is excited to produce this classic today!
Guest artists will be announced soon. All registrants receive a discount code for tickets through previews.
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[post_content] => Steppenwolf Theatres' Learner Chat series invites our community to learn from expert guests through engaging conversations.Steppenwolf Theatres' Learner Chat series invites our community to learn from expert guests through engaging conversations that explore the major themes of each play. Participants are guided on a journey that dives deeper into motifs, design elements, and dramaturgy, offering new perspectives, insights, and opportunities for discovery beyond the stage.
The event will start at 7:30p and will include a facilitated conversation between Steppenwolf Education + Engagement staff and other guest artists to dive deeper into the themes of Topdog/ Underdog and why Steppenwolf is excited to produce this classic today!
We'll be joined in conversation by Reva Stover, Asst. Director for Topdog Underdog.
Reva Stover (she/they) is a director, writer, and world-builder who creates theatre for the digital age. Her productions are immersive experiences, where lights, blocking, and transitions blur the line between audience and story. Drawing on deep dramaturgical analysis and lore creation, she crafts stories that feel lived-in, urgent, and unforgettable.
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[post_content] => Hear Nicole, Sheryl, Kiaran, and Chels dream up more updated, common standards for care with Gabriela.Since Not in Our House and the Chicago Theatre Standards, our city has been considered an epicenter of caring innovation. It’s time, after We See You White American Theater and the pandemic’s gap in knowledge transmission, to reexamine our best practices and share a more common vocabulary. In this roundtable, a cultural consultant, an intimacy choreographer, an access specialist, and the founder of Anti-Racist Theatre walk into a coffee shop to collaborate on a non-exhaustive, step-by-step guide to their ideal process — built around intentionality and the speed of trust — from show selection, to harm prevention and repair, to possibilities for transcendent belonging, to the final bow.
Re:working Chicago Theatre is a new roundtable series to follow up on long-standing challenges faced by local creatives and forge ahead with renewed perspectives and solutions. This partnership between Pocket Theatre, The Understudy Coffee + Books, and American Theatre magazine aims to serve an ecosystem which finds itself at a crossroads and foster connections across specializations and companies. Each month, Gabriela Furtado Coutinho welcomes four theatre folks to The Understudy in Andersonville to confront distinct issues in a warm, community-driven setting. These guests are selected from a public nomination form, linked here.
Nicole Brewer
NICOLE BREWER is a passionate advocate for anti-racist theatre. She has spent the last sixteen years refining and practicing an inclusive method of theatre training and practices which she initially called Conscientious Theatre Training (CTT) and is now known as Anti-Racist Theatre. She has authored several articles about the need for the theatre industry to shift from racist and oppressive models to anti-racist and anti-oppressive.
Nicole has been invited all over the US to teach and speak about CTT and facilitate anti-racist theatre (ART) workshops. She’s also facilitated ART workshops in Canada and the UK providing workshops for The Globe and Cambridge University.
Nicole is a board member of Parent Artist Advocacy League (PAAL) where she works to shift how the industry can become more proactive to the needs of caregivers. She is a proud single mother of three, inclusive of her bonus (step) child.
Nicole was one of the four producers of the COVID19 freelance artist resource website, freelanceartistresource.com. The producing collective also partnered with HowlRound to produce six weekly webinars that centered the needs of freelance artists impacted by the pandemic.
Ms. Brewer is on faculty in the acting department at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. She has worked at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, a premier performing arts high school in Washington D.C. as visiting faculty (acting). Nicole was visiting faculty at the National Theater Institute (NTI) for several years. She was faculty in the theatre department of Howard University for seven and a half years and has also worked at Northern Virginia Community College and Montgomery College teaching acting and introduction to communications courses.
Nicole is frequently invited to share her work on CTT and ART at conferences such as ATHE, SETC, TCG, The Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and in the UK at Goldsmith’s University.
Nicole Brewer earned her M.F.A. in Acting from Northern Illinois University and her B.F.A. from Howard University. She's worked professionally as director, facilitator, speaker, educator, and writer.
Sheryl Williams
Since 2017, Sheryl Williams has been providing Intimacy Choreography and Coordination support to the Chicagoland area, with her work being seen on the stages such as: The Regional Tony Awarding Court Theatre, The Goodman, Steppenwolf and The Lyric Opera of Chicago, as well as several festival submissions from Indie films she has worked on.
She has been Court Theatre’s Resident Intimacy and Fight Choreographer from 2023 to 2026, and as well as their Culture and Consent Coordinator. She was consulted on quality-of-life improvements to the institution and implementing workshop practices to support their “Culture of Care” process. She is also on IPEC’s Certification Board and an Assistant Faculty member with T.I.E. She also finds joy in supporting young artists, holding resident choreography and consulting connections with Roosevelt University CCPA, Depaul’s Theatre School, and North Central College.
Her B.A in Musical Theatre and Minor in Stage combat provided her a foundation for choreography and an enhanced awareness of audience visuals and spatial awareness. Through her workshops and consent-based practices, she actively tries to create space for the performer's impulses to still be honored, while being boundary-informed and collaborative with the use of de-loaded language. She is thorough in her search for clarity when speaking to productions about what they wish to achieve and what may be needed to achieve it. She has participated in building casting calls, policy considerations, community agreements, and has been invited to institutions as a guest artist and speaker for Theater and Film.
She has been published as a contributor for staging violence and intimacy in Intimacy Directing for Theatre; interviewed for her work at Court Theatre and The Lyric Opera of Chicago in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Kiaran Hartnett
Kiaran has been a teaching artist with A.B.L.E (Artists Breaking Limits and Expectations) in Chicago since 2020.
She enjoys teaching Shakespeare, movement, and devising with the A.B.L.E. ensembles. Kiaran has an undergraduate degree in Psychology and Theater from the University of Minnesota and a Graduate degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from DePaul University.
In addition to working with A.B.L.E., she is a Licensed Professional Counselor and working as a pre-registered Dance Movement Therapist.
Chels Morgan
Chels Morgan (they/them) is a Queer, Black and Dominican Intimacy, Movement and Fight Director as well as a Cultural Sensitivity Specialist for stage and screen. Their work lives at the nexus of physical storytelling, mental health and cultural competency, as they recognize that authentic storytelling is only possible when the artists telling the story are cared for. They are also an AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator and the Director of Accessibility and Inclusion at the Intimacy Professionals Education Collective (IPEC).
Notable credits include Paranormal Activity (Broadway / North American Tour), How to Defend Yourself (New York Theater Workshop), ICEBOY! (Goodman Theatre), safronia (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Kowalski (Lookingglass) and THE CHI (Showtime). Their intimacy, violence and cultural competency work has also been seen at the Old Globe Theatre, The Lucile Lortel Theater, Milwaukee Rep, the American Conservatory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theater, Syracuse Stage, and Chicago Shakespeare Theater, among others.
Facilitated by:
Gabriela Furtado Coutinho
Gabriela Furtado Coutinho is a writer, actor, cultural strategist, and proud graduate of Northwestern University (Theatre/English Creative Writing BA). For the past three years, she has guest lectured at Northwestern in the theatre and English departments and served as an editor of TCG’s American Theatre magazine. Grateful for previous work with the Emmy's/Television Academy, The Kennedy Center, and various Chicago collectives, she holds experience in developing both new work and tangible care practices.
Projects include Goodman Theatre's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (understudy actor); Blood Wedding (lead actor); The Bloody Bricks and Blows of American Dream High (playwright); Much Ado About Nothing: A Miami Party to Joy, featured in the Latinx Shakespeares archive (director); and Lookingglass's Circus Quixote (dramaturg). Gabriela is a past fellow of the Fornés Playwriting Workshop and O'Neill National Critics Institute. She was also a 2026 semifinalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference.
AT bylines include creative nonfiction piece "How to Survive a Dictatorship, the Theatre Artist's Way," personal cover story "Tomorrow's Tamoras and Titanias," and poem "in your hands, american theatres" (the editor's letter for AT's Immigrant Imaginations issue). She feels deeply honored that many of her stories have been featured in syllabi around the country, from high schools in Florida, to undergraduate programs in the Midwest and West Coast, to Yale's David Geffen School of Drama.
Her latest endeavors include contributing to a new Routledge companion on Latine and Caribbean musical theatre and leading the new monthly series Re:working Chicago Theatre at The Understudy Coffee + Books.
She loves to reimagine classics, embody power roles, take lyrical creative risks, empower youth, and dream up kinder futurisms with friends whose language is laughter. She brings warm Brazilian sensibilities to her work, creating across three native languages.
Please feel free to contact her at gabriela.furtado.coutinho.us@gmail.com. As an actor, Gabriela Furtado Coutinho is represented by Talent X Alexander (lsmith@talentxalexander.com).
[post_title] => Re:working - Culture of Care, a Toolkit
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[post_content] => Calling all poets and writers who wanna write and possibly *find* love. Join us for an evening of reading and writing poetry with our friends Leah and Katie.
[post_title] => Workshop: a love story and poetry event with Hot Potato Hearts
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[post_content] => A play reading of THE OUTSIDER by Paul Slade Smith produced by Exit, Pursued by a Play Reading.Ned Newley doesn’t even want to be governor. He’s terrified of public speaking; his poll numbers are impressively bad. To his ever-supportive Chief of Staff, Ned seems destined to fail. But political consultant Arthur Vance sees things differently: Ned might be the worst candidate to ever run for office. Unless the public is looking for the worst candidate to ever run for office.... A timely and hilarious comedy that skewers politics and celebrates democracy.
** CAST TO BE ANNOUNCED **
[post_title] => THE OUTSIDER by Paul Slade Smith
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[post_title] => BlkOut Theatre Project Presents: Blood Red Salon
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