Play Reading Club: Cardboard Piano
July 29 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
FreeJoin our monthly play reading club! Each month, we gather to discuss a new, exciting or confounding play that has caught our attention. This month, we’re reading CARDBOARD PIANO by Hansol Jung
ABOUT THE PLAY
Northern Uganda on the eve of the millennium: The daughter of American missionaries and a local teenage girl steal into a darkened church to seal their love in a secret makeshift wedding ceremony. But when the surrounding war zone encroaches on their fragile union they cannot escape its reach. Confronting the religious and cultural roots of intolerance Cardboard Piano explores violence and its aftermath as well as the human capacity for hatred forgiveness and love.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Hansol Jung is a playwright and director from South Korea. Productions include Cardboard Piano (Humana Festival at Actors Theater of Louisville), Among the Dead (Ma-Yi Theatre Company), No More Sad Things (co-world premiere at Sideshow Theatre, and Boise Contemporary Theatre), Wolf Play (Artists Repertory Theatre) and Wild Goose Dreams (La Jolla Theater and The Public Theater). Commissions from Playwrights Horizons, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Artists Repertory Theater, the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant with Ma-Yi Theatre and a translation of Romeo and Juliet for Play On! at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Her work has been developed at the Royal Court, New York Theatre Workshop, Berkeley Repertory’s Ground Floor, Sundance Theatre Lab, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Lark Play Development Center, Salt Lake Acting Company, Boston Court Theatre, Bushwick Starr, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Asia Society New York, and Seven Devils Playwright Conference. She is the recipient of the Page 73 Playwright Fellowship, Rita Goldberg Playwrights’ Workshop Fellowship at the Lark, 2050 Fellowship at New York Theater Workshop, MacDowell Colony Artist Residency, and International Playwrights Residency at Royal Court. She has translated over thirty English musicals into Korean, including Evita, Dracula, Spamalot, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, while working on several award winning musical theatre productions as director, lyricist and translator in Seoul, South Korea. Jung holds a Playwriting MFA from Yale School of Drama, and is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Theatre Writers Lab.
Other Events
A Conversation with Sarah Ruhl: BECKY NURSE OF SALEM
July 1 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Author Sarah Ruhl joins Polly Noonan for a a discussion of her newly published play BECKY NURSE OF SALEM. Playwright, author, essayist, and professor Sarah Ruhl joins Polly Noonan to discuss their newly published play Becky Nurse of Salem. Don’t miss this intimate discussion ahead of the Chicago premiere of Becky Nurse of Salem. Learn about this layered and thoughful work by one of our favorite playwrights. About the Play A wry, innovative reckoning with the legacy of the Salem…
A Conversation with Sarah Ruhl: BECKY NURSE OF SALEM
July 1 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair
July 9 @ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Join us at The American Writers Museum and check out a curated selection of Understudy favorites! Indulge your literary impulses at Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair! Mix and mingle with fellow bookworms, share your favorite titles, and discover new ones. From cozy mysteries to epic adventures, there’s something for every reader to discover and enjoy! GET TICKETS Shop at pop-up book stands from some of our partner organizations. Organizations to be announced! Challenge your friends to a game of ring toss, test your…
Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair
July 9 @ 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
OCEAN AND HER MADNESS by Lydia Moss
July 15 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Written after Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro, this work is an exploration of the mind of a “mad black woman.” It is a madness that is both the synchronization and dissonance of space, time, and music. Cast and Creative Team TBA Freshly Brewed Team: Emma Durbin – Co-Artistic Producer Joel Willison – Co-Artistic Producer Magdalena Dalzell – Literary Committee Coordinator Danny Fender – The Understudy Co-Owner Adam Crawford – The Understudy Co-Owner About Freshly Brewed Freshly Brewed seeks to…
OCEAN AND HER MADNESS by Lydia Moss
July 15 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
G. L. O. W. : A Queer Sober Open Mic Night
July 19 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
ABOUT THE EVENT Join The Understudy for G.L.O.W., a queer sober open mic night hosted by K.J Whitehead and Sharon Pasia. Expect comedy, drama, and stunts galore. Stay tuned for performer signups! Doors open at 7. Performances begin at 7:30. The Understudy Cafe will be open for refreshments!
G. L. O. W. : A Queer Sober Open Mic Night
July 19 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
THE BIG FINISH hosted by Stephanie and Tiki Vonté
July 20 @ 8:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Join hosts Stephanie and Tiki Vonté for a drag night for the theatre girlies comprised exclusively of 11 o’clock numbers. THE BIG FINISH is a show for full of stunts, drama, and theatrics. THE BIG FINISH: BIG BOYS FINISH LAST This edition of The Big Finish celebrates musical theatre’s leading men and their show-stopping numbers. Pizzazz! Wa-chow! STAY TUNED for full cast announcement. Doors open at 7:30 PM for an 8 PM show. The Understudy cafe will be open for…
THE BIG FINISH hosted by Stephanie and Tiki Vonté
July 20 @ 8:30 pm - 9:30 pm
ROLE CALL: July 2024 @ The Understudy
July 23 @ 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Forget *seeing* a show. With this series you actually get to PLAY a role! Join us for a community exploration of some of our favorite work! Part book club, part performance, part debate and part community healing, this year Refracted Theatre Company partners with locations across Chicago to offer Role Call, a community play exploration event coming a neighborhood near you! At ROLE CALL, we bravely dive into a play by reading it cold, and then we engage in and…