RED BELL by Katherine Swan
July 20 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
$15.00When ex-dancer Rina shows up at Hank’s gym wanting to learn how to box, she embarks on a journey that will forever transform who she is and who she will become.
But when a past trauma surfaces, Rina must confront a painful history that she’s struggled to leave behind. As she hurtles towards her first fight, Rina will be forced to reckon with what she fears the most.
Playwright: Katherine Swan
Director: Faith Hart
Dramaturg: Madie Doppelt
Stage Directions: Karina Patel
Rina: Noelle Oh
Hank: Scott Westerman
Alex: Harsh Gagoomal
Annie/Jessie/Wanda: Laila Rodriques
Jason/Rina’s Father: Huy Nguyễn
Larissa: Marissa Stephens
Freshly Brewed Team:
Nadya Naumaan – Co-Artistic Producer
Joel Willison – Co-Artistic Producer
Danny Fender – The Understudy Co-Owner
Adam Crawford – The Understudy Co-Owner
About Freshly Brewed
Freshly Brewed seeks to invest in Chicago’s emerging playwrights and theatre artists in keeping with The Understudy’s commitment to Community, Collaboration, and Discovery. The series features monthly readings of new plays in various stages of development. Each artist conrtibuting– playwrights, directors, and actors– will receive a stipend underwritten by the series’ anonymous donor.
Freshly Brewed is a collaboration between The Understudy Coffee and Books and Pocket Theatrics
Other Events
There Was A Time
July 10 @ 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
A staged reading of the new work before it's Edinburgh Fringe Festival run later this summer! There Was A Time Dot is depressed. What happens, though, when the weight of memory is too heavy a burden for one mind? An examination of mental health, love, loss, and the fight to keep going. Mentions of depression, mental health, and suicide.
There Was A Time
July 10 @ 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Kokandy Book Club presents: A Streetcar Named Desire
July 13 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
A musical cabaret inspired by A Streetcar Named Desire produced by your friends at Kokandy Productions! Join The Understudy and Kokandy Productions for the latest installment of our BOOK CLUB series! Summer is here—the air thick with music, perfume and sweltering heat. It’s Tennessee Williams weather! Book Club is back, storming into town like a long lost sister you thought you’d never see. We’re tickled to tackle A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, Williams’ masterful, Pulitzer Prize-winning tale of Blanche, Stella, Stanley…
Kokandy Book Club presents: A Streetcar Named Desire
July 13 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Leftovers Night with Band Practice
July 17 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
An open stage for clowns, goofs, and funny people who'd like to test out first drafts. Hosted by the iconic clown duo, Band Practice Leftovers Night is a strange and delicious feast of alternative comedy acts that are in the making, need experimenting, or somehow didn’t quite make it to the main event just yet. Berlin based idiot duo Band Practice is teaming up with Chicago’s Pocket Theatre to host this celebration of comedy anarchy. This evening originated back in…
Leftovers Night with Band Practice
July 17 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
FEM/THEM Comedy Open Mic at The Understudy
July 22 @ 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 and Jordan Levene Preeti & 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…
FEM/THEM Comedy Open Mic at The Understudy
July 22 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Love Detectives
July 24 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Band Practice combines a real live dating show with a real live clown detective show to find out the true nature of this so-called "love". Drat! LOVE has been ripping up the streets leaving people wounded, broken, confused, and perhaps with a bad haircut and useless evidence of its nefarious behavior. You are invited to join the investigation to find love and catch it once and for all. Band Practice combines a real live dating show with a real live…
Love Detectives
July 24 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
IN THE NEXT ROOM by Sarah Ruhl
July 27 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
A play reading of In the Next Room (or, The Vibrator Play) by Sarah Ruhl produced by Exit, Pursued by a Play Reading. In the Next Room or the vibrator play is a comedy about marriage, intimacy and electricity. Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used vibrators to treat “hysterical” women (and some men), the play centers on a doctor and his wife and how…