The Understudy

Play Reading Club: Primary Trust
2024-09-29 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join 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 PRIMARY TRUST by Eboni Booth
ABOUT THE PLAY
Meet Kenneth, a 38-year-old bookstore worker who spends his evenings sipping mai tais at the local tiki bar. When he’s suddenly laid off, Kenneth finally begins to face a world he’s long avoided – with transformative and even comical results. Primary Trust is a touching and inventive play about new beginnings, old friends and seeing the world for the first time.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Eboni Booth is a writer and actor from New York City. Her play Paris had its premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company. Eboni is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and a recipient of a Steinberg Playwright Award, a Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, and a John Gassner award. She is a graduate of Juilliard’s playwriting program and the University of Vermont.

G. L. O. W. : A Queer Sober Open Mic Night
2024-09-27 19:30 - 22:00, 2024-06-14 19:30 - 22:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
The Understudy presents G.L.O.W.: a Queer Sober Open Mic Night

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!

FOR THE LOVERS
2024-09-20 20:00 - 21:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join host Georgia Rising for another installment of their night of love!
FOR THE LOVERS: International Affair
This edition of For the Lovers features classing loves songs from across the world. Join us for an evening celebrating love and longing.
Featuring: D’Cameron May, Wes Andy Sins, and Cosmo Dragon
Doors open at 7:30 PM for an 8 PM show. The Understudy cafe will be open for refreshments.

Monologue Writing Workshop
2024-09-16 19:00 - 21:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Come with a pen and be ready to create!
This month for Freshly Brewed we are hosting a Monologue Workshop, Open to all — Playwrights, actors, and multidisciplinary artists. Join us 7:00 pm on Monday, September 16. At this event everyone will be given writing prompts, tools for inspiration, and opportunities to perform a freshly crafted monologue the same evening it was written.

No matter your artistic identity — this is an opportunity for all to lean into multidisciplinary creation and try a hand at writing AND performing. Sharing at the end is always optional. Alternative artistic instruments will also be available for drawing and crafting.

RSVP Here

Play Reading Club: Ironbound
2024-08-26 19:00 - 20:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join 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 IRONBOUND by Martyna Majok
ABOUT THE PLAY
At a bus stop in a run-down New Jersey town, Darja, a Polish immigrant cleaning lady, is done talking about feelings; it’s time to talk money. Over the course of 20 years, and three relationships, Darja negotiates for her future with men who can offer her love or security, but never both. Award-winning playwright Martyna Majok’s IRONBOUND is a darkly funny, heartbreaking portrait of a woman for whom love is a luxury—and a liability—as she fights to survive in America.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Poland, and aged in Jersey and Chicago. Her plays have been performed and developed at Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Women’s Project Theater, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the Kennedy Center, among others. Awards include the Helen Merrill Award for emerging playwrights, Helen Hayes Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play, an ANPF Women’s Invitational Prize, David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, the New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellowship, the Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, and the NNPN Smith Prize for Political Playwriting. Majok has received commissions from the Bush Theatre in London, La Jolla Playhouse, The Foundry Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club, The New Yorker website, and Geffen Playhouse. Majok has a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama. She is currently a part of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at the Juilliard School and the Core Writer Program at the Playwrights’ Center. Publications: Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, TCG, Playscripts, and Smith & Kraus. Majok is an alumna of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood and Women’s Project Theater’s Lab, and a member of The Dramatists Guild, the Writers Guild of America East, and New York Theatre Workshop’s Usual Suspects. Majok was a 2012-2013 NNPN Playwright-in-Residence and the 2015-2016 Playwrights of New York (PoNY) Fellow at The Lark.

G. L. O. W. : A Queer Sober Open Mic Night
2024-08-16 19:30 - 22:00, 2024-07-19 19:30 - 22:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
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!

Midsommer Flight presents The Favourite
2024-08-12 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
The Favourite
by Marie-Catherine Desjardins de Villedieu
New translation by James Hyett
In partnership with Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre’s Expand the Canon series
Directed by LaKecia Harris
Featuring Chad Bay, Amy Malcom, Stephanie Mattos, Jack Morsovillo, Koshie Mills, Ebby Offord, and Joshua Pennington

Written in 1664, The Favourite (Le Favori) is a French verse play about the transactional nature of relationships. It was the first play by a woman performed for King Louis XIV. Brimming with social commentary and humor, The Favourite invites obvious comparisons to the work of Molière and promises to be a delightful romp.
Midsommer Flight is thrilled to partner with Brooklyn-based Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre to present a one-night-only staged reading of one of their selections on the 4th Annual Expand the Canon list, which was released in December 2023.
Expand the Canon is a celebration of and a call to action to embrace excellent plays by a diverse set of historic women in the classics. Akin to The Kilroy’s List, this project engages professionals to review and select a more diverse range of classic plays. These carefully curated titles are timely, relevant, and producible. The list includes producing information, to make it easy for classical and regional companies to undertake these plays and give women the legacies they deserve. Nine plays are released each year.
More information at www.midsommerflight.com

A Taste of RED with A Red Orchid Theatre
2024-08-06 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60640, Chicago, IL, 60613, United States
Hang out with our friends from A Red Orchid Theatre on Aug 6th for the latest installment of their series A Taste of Red.
A Red Orchid Theatre invites you to take a peek behind the curtain and see how their team goes about exploring a play. What gets their ensemble excited about a script? How do actors, directors, playwrights, and designers all approach the same text differently? What defines a quintessential A Red Orchid production?
Stay tuned for more information about the play selection!

Doors open at 7pm and the reading begins at 7:30pm.

DIE, MOMMIE, DIE! by Charles Busch
2024-08-05 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join Hell In A Handbag and The Understudy for a reading celebrating the work of Charles Busch, featuring a fabulous lineup of Chicago talent

Join Hell In A Handbag and The Understudy for a reading celebrating the work of Charles Busch, featuring a fabulous lineup of Chicago talent.
Ex-pop singer Angela Arden is trapped in a hateful marriage with film producer Sol Sussman. Desperate to find happiness with her younger lover, an out-of-work TV actor named Tony Parker, Angela murders her husband with the aid of a poisoned suppository.
Campy, hilarious, and sensational drag drama ensues.
Featuring David Cerda, Caitlin Jackson, Ed Jones, Brandon Nelson, Tyler Anthony Smith, and Natalie West.
Doors open at 7pm for a 7:30pm performance.
The Understudy cafe will be open for refreshments.

Play Reading Club: Cardboard Piano
2024-07-29 19:00 - 20:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join 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.

CLICK HERE to buy a copy

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.

Kokandy Book Club Presents: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
2024-07-24 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Kokandy Book Club Presents
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF
Join The Understudy and our friends from Kokandy Productions for the latest installment of our series Book Club.
Our July Book Club is raising a glass (several, in fact) to Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? This scorching American classic inspires a fierce and fiery night as we sing, scream and clink-clink-clink along with George, Martha, Honey and Nick. Curated by Kokandy Producing Artistic Director Derek Van Barham, with musical accompaniment by Nick Sula, our book club performers will be announced soon!

Kokandy Book Club is an intimate salon series celebrating theatre, music and community. Each meeting will focus on a well known play—investigating the plot, themes and relevant tangents through a mix of musical theatre and pop/rock performance. Have a sit, have a sip and honor the ritual of talking about good plays and having a good ole fashion jam session.
Doors open at 7 PM for a 7:30 PM performance.
The Understudy Cafe will be open for refreshments.

ROLE CALL: July 2024 @ The Understudy
2024-07-23 18:30 - 21:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
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 practice the complicated conversations that often follow challenging art. This series is not a performed reading. That’s the best part – no preparation is necessary! All participants take part reading through the script together for the first time before we jump into a variety of activations and discussions based on our reading. It’s a space for everyone: actors, non-actors, theater lovers, ex-theater lovers, and especially the theater-curious.
And this year, we’re shaking it up a bit!
Last year we met in the same space for each event but this year, we’re bringing the theatre to you! We’re excited to be partnering with various venues and hosts throughout the Chicago area to bring this accessible engagement into different neighborhoods to meet people where they are at.
We’ll also be featuring some special guests, experts, and educators based on our location and the play/subject matter we explore. Part of the fun of Role Call is that it depends on the people who show up!

All participants are given the chance to read throughout the course of the evening, helping to bring the play to life as everyone reads the play aloud together. It’s low-stakes and no pressure, and nobody is forced to read.
This is followed by a series of questions, exercises, and discussions led by the Refracted team, in which the play’s most divisive, nuanced questions are explored from a place of curiosity and empathy.

6:45 – doors open + drinks and snacks provided by Pizza Lobo
7:00 – casting begins

This event is BYOB! Please bring your own bevvy, and perhaps some to share! We’ll provide some food and dishwares! This event it sponsored by Pizza Lobo!

A $10 suggested donation is encouraged, but not required! All are encouraged to attend (we will accept cash or Venmo at the event, or you can donate now at www.refractedco.com/donate)

About The Play:
Marian is visited by a Marian Apparition (just call her Mary, thanks) who tells them to write a play about the Blessed Virgin considering an abortion. Miryam is visited by the angel Gavri’el, who tells her she’s to bear the son of God. And pomegranates keep fruiting up all around, asking them to choose.

About The Playwright:
Katherine Gwynn (they/them) is a non-binary lesbian, CODA, and Chicago playwright who writes about the mythic and violent spaces between queerness, disability, and the divine. Gwynn is the winner of the 2022 UCROSS + The Blank Theatre – Future of Playwriting Prize and a 2023 Venturous Fellowship Nominee. Gwynn also won the 2015 Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award and Second Place for the EMOS Ecodrama Playwrights festival 2022. Their work has been developed and produced by Flint Rep, Jackalope Theatre, The New Coordinates, The Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Terra Femina Collective, Commission Theatre, The Fishtank, and Rockhurst University. Gwynn has been a 2024 American Blues Blue Ink Award Semi-Finalist, a 2021 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist and 2x Semi Finalist, 2021 Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series Finalist, a 2x Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist and 4x Semi-Finalist, a 2020 Parity Productions Commission Finalist, a 2020 Story Theatre Resident Playwright Semi-Finalist, a 2019 Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship Semi-Finalist, a 2x Ashland Play Festival Semi-Finalist, a 2x New Works Festival at Kitchen Dog Theater Finalist, a 2019 LezPlay Finalist, and a 2x invited Submission for the Humana Festival of New American Plays.

About Refracted:
Refracted’s mission is to disrupt socially accepted narratives by telling the “other side of the story.” By upending audience expectations through innovation and adaptation, Refracted inspires meaningful discourse centered on empathy and humanity.
Refracted is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that was founded in 2019 in New York City by Graham Miller and Tova Wolff. As a four-year old company, Refracted is proud to have been one of the only theaters in the country that produced two full seasons of live theatre during the pandemic, harnessing its powers of creativity and innovation. Now in its fourth season in its new home of Chicago, Refracted invites you to get involved as it redefines what theatre can be in order to build a world fueled by curiosity and compassion. Please visit www.refractedco.com for more information and follow Refracted on social media @refractedco.

THE BIG FINISH: BIG BOYS FINISH LAST
2024-07-20 20:30 - 21:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join hosts Derek (aka Stephanie) and Taki Venti (aka 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 refreshments.

OCEAN AND HER MADNESS by Lydia Moss
2024-07-15 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
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 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 contributing– playwrights, directors, and actors– will receive a stipend underwritten by the series’ anonymous donor.
Freshly Brewed also marks the inaugural collaboration between The Understudy and its neighbor, Edgewater’s Raven Theatre, who is thrilled to support The Understudy as their fiscal sponsor for this series. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Freshly Brewed.

Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair
2024-07-09 17:30 - 19:30 | American Writers Museum, 180 North Michigan Ave, Chicago, 60601, United States
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 aim at cornhole, or try your hand at other fun carnival games.
Compete with friends old and new in our Summer Reading Trivia and test your knowledge of school-age books.
Make your own bookmark at our craft table.
Explore our special exhibit, Level Up: Writers & Gamers (opening May 24), which explores how Americans use role-playing and video games to define and respond to our culture.
Enjoy beer, wine, and the night’s specialty cocktail, The Paperback, a refreshing limoncello cocktail. Non-alcoholic options available as well.

Cap off your literary adventure at Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair with a toast to the power of storytelling and the joy of reading!

A Conversation with Sarah Ruhl: BECKY NURSE OF SALEM
2024-07-01 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
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 witch trials from one of America’s foremost playwrights.
Becky Nurse is an outspoken, sharp-witted tour guide at the Salem Museum of Witchcraft who’s just trying to get by in post-Obama America. She’s also the descendant of Rebecca Nurse, who was infamously executed for witchcraft in 1692—but things have changed for women since then…haven’t they? After losing her job for calling out The Crucible in front of schoolkids, Becky visits a local witch for help. One spell leads to another, and then everything really goes off the rails. A darkly comic play about a woman coming to terms with her family’s legacy and finding her voice in the “lock her up” era.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Ruhl is an award-winning American playwright, author, essayist, and professor. Her plays include The Oldest Boy, Dear Elizabeth, Stage Kiss, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2010); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2005; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play (Pen American Award, Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play); Melancholy Play; Demeter in the City (nine NAACP Image Award nominations); Scenes From Court Life; How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday; Eurydice; Orlando; and Late: a cowboy song. Her plays have been produced on Broadway and across the country as well as internationally, and translated into fourteen languages. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She is the recipient of a Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a PEN Center Award for mid-career playwrights, a Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, and a Lilly award. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. She teaches at Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family. (Official Headshot by Greg Constanzo)

CHEERS QUEERS: A Pride Month Cabaret
2024-06-28 19:30 - 22:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
CHEERS, QUEERS! is a toast, not to the end of pride month, because pride lives on honey, but a toast in celebration and recognition of who keeps Chicago running, the Queers. Join us for an intimate and extravagant night of music and spoken text!
Performed by a stellar cast of queer actors of color, and hosted by our own co Event-Coordinator John-Payne, Cheers Queers promises to give a gay old time, and a renewed pride to carry home.

Doors open at 7pm for a 7:30pm performance.
The Understudy Cafe will be open for refreshments.

SERVICE by Makeda Declet
2024-06-24 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
When a close circle of buds have to go to their recently-deceased friend’s apartment to retrieve a suit for his burial, they discover a woman tied up in his closet. Dark and farcical, this play explores the question, “How far would you go to preserve the memory of a friend?”

Cast and Creative Team
Playwright: Makeda Declet
Director: Regina Victor
Dramaturg: Madie Doppelt
Shelby: Shelby Marie Edwards
Veronica: Kandace Mack
Woman: Casey Whisler
Dale: Sam Boeck
Eric: Jeffrey David Thomas

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 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 also marks the inaugural collaboration between The Understudy and its neighbor, Edgewater’s Raven Theatre, who is thrilled to support The Understudy as their fiscal sponsor for this series. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to Freshly Brewed.

PHARAOH TAROT
2024-06-24 13:00 - 17:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Pharaoh Tarot is back for a surprise solstice popup on Monday, June 24th!

The summer solstice is upon us and abundance and wealth are dancing in the sky as the sun is in cancer and the full moon heightens in Capricorn on June 21st. This is one of the most powerful spiritual holidays for manifesting in 2024! Create strategies for success with the revelations that come after summer solstice and the full moon in capricorn with Pharaoh & Tarot, offering intuitive spreads tailored to the individual. All readings are pay what you can, offerings of some type are encouraged for energetic exchange!
Feel free to reach out to Regina via instagram or email with any questions: @officialreginav, officialreginavictor@gmail.com

Advocacy Night for Theatre Writers
2024-06-18 19:00 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join us on Tuesday, June 18, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm CDT, for a special advocacy event featuring playwright Samuel D. Hunter and Dramatists Guild Co-Executive Director Emmanuel Wilson.
Register Here
The Dramatists Guild is thrilled to continue their national advocacy tour, bringing empowering Advocacy Nights to theatre writers across the country. After successful events in Detroit, Pittsburgh, New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, we’re excited to visit the vibrant creative hub of Chicago.
As a playwright, composer, lyricist, or librettist, it’s crucial to understand your rights and the resources available to you. This evening promises to be enlightening, offering the chance to connect with fellow writers, build valuable community ties, and learn the tools needed to advocate for yourself effectively.
We recognize the dedication and effort you pour into your craft, whether it’s plays, musicals, songs, or operas. Let us help you negotiate equitable compensation and support for your invaluable work.
Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your advocacy skills and ensure your voice is heard in the theatre industry. For any inquiries, please contact questions@dramatistsguild.com.

Ari Gato Attempts to Share the Spotlight
2024-06-15 19:30 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
A (not so) Solo Show
Join Ari Gato for her intimate, one-woman-only cabaret… or is it? For once in her life, scene-stealer Ari might have the tables turn on her.
Featuring accompaniment by Alex Newell
and guest appearances by:
Annie Andrews
Jordan Tannous
Kynzie Jones
Neala Barron
and Rachel Slurrz-Stoole
Doors open at 7pm, Performance begins at 7:30pm

Play Reading Club: FLEX
2024-06-11 19:00 - 20:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join 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 FLEX by Candrice Jones

ABOUT THE PLAY
The pressure is on for the 1998 Lady Train high school basketball team—on top of a battle to bring home the championship trophy, it is also college scouting season. But the team’s performance on the court is tested as it ruptures under the weight of its own infighting, and the once-tight players begin to focus on their individual futures. What does it mean to be a Black girl on the brink of freedom and womanhood in a small town in the South? Does honoring your own wants mean sacrificing your friends, family, and team? This funny and frank play about getting a full-court press from life will have audiences cheering.

CLICK HERE to buy a copy

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Steinberg playwright and educator. Plays include Crackbaby (Wasserstein Prize Nomination) and Flex (developed at the 2020 Humana Festival of New American Plays; co-world premiered by TheatreSquared and Theatrical Outfit). From 2014-2018, she produced Re-Imagining the Self, a ten-minute play showcase hosted by Little Rock Central High National Historic Site and the Weekend Theater. Fellow at Callaloo for poetry at Brown University and in London; VONA Playwriting Fellow; CalArts MFA Critical Studies recipient; resident fellow at Ground Floor (housed by the Berkeley Rep), the Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival, MacDowell’s Colony of the Arts; 2019-20 Many Voices Fellow; 2020-21 Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis; and she scheduled to be a resident playwright at Djerassi’s Colony of the Arts in the fall of 2024. Awards: 2023 Kesselring Prize for Playwrighting for Flex, 2022 Celebrate! Maya award.

Next Draft Series: Infinity Burns
2024-06-10 20:00 - 21:00, 2024-06-08 20:00 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Infinity Burns

By Felix Abidor
Giordano Bruno, a 16th-century monk, is sentenced to death for his radical beliefs in an infinite universe.

Cast:
Peter Ferneding
Stephanie Fongheiser
Madison Kiernan
Playwright:
Eleanor McCaughey
Director:
Maddy Brown
Dramaturg:
Zoe Sjogerman
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS
This reading is presented as part of Avalanche Theatre‘s Next Draft Series
The Next Draft Series is Avalanche Theatre’s ongoing new play incubator.

​Over the course of 3-4 months, Avalanche develops new work by emerging Chicago playwrights through readings, feedback sessions, and mentorship, culminating in a workshop production of the plays at the end of the process. Chicago theatre leaders such as artistic directors, literary managers, and creative producers are invited to the workshop productions in order to provide playwrights access to companies who may be interested in producing the plays. The purpose of the Next Draft Series is to fully develop the most exciting and challenging new plays being written in Chicago today, to foster a community that is supportive of writers, and to provide opportunities for these plays to go on to receive full productions.

Next Draft Series: How to Kill a Rodent
2024-06-03 20:00 - 21:00, 2024-06-01 20:00 - 21:00 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
How to Kill a Rodent

By Eleanor McCaughey

Canadians Guy and Carrie take a road trip to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania only days before Groundhog Day, in an effort to assassinate Punxsutawney Phil on live television.

Cast:
Peter Ferneding
Stephanie Fongheiser
Madison Kiernan
Playwright:
Eleanor McCaughey
Director:
Maddy Brown
Dramaturg:
Zoe Sjogerman
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS
This reading is presented as part of Avalanche Theatre‘s Next Draft Series
The Next Draft Series is Avalanche Theatre’s ongoing new play incubator.

​Over the course of 3-4 months, Avalanche develops new work by emerging Chicago playwrights through readings, feedback sessions, and mentorship, culminating in a workshop production of the plays at the end of the process. Chicago theatre leaders such as artistic directors, literary managers, and creative producers are invited to the workshop productions in order to provide playwrights access to companies who may be interested in producing the plays. The purpose of the Next Draft Series is to fully develop the most exciting and challenging new plays being written in Chicago today, to foster a community that is supportive of writers, and to provide opportunities for these plays to go on to receive full productions.

TGNC Theatre Maker's Meetup
2024-06-02 19:00 - 22:00 | The Understudy, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60640, Chicago, IL, 60613, United States
🏳️‍⚧️MEETUP🏳️‍⚧️
Trans and gender non-conforming theatre makers, Join us June 2nd for an evening of community and connection.
We’re hanging out 7pm to 10pm and keeping the cafe open for refreshments.
BYOB also welcomed.
Don’t miss this!

THE DRAG by Mae West presented by Gerber Hart Library
2024-05-25 19:30 - 21:30 | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
Join us for a community reading of “The Drag” presented by the Gerber/Hart Library and Archives. Written by the iconic Mae West, this 1927 drama about a closeted socialite and the morality of homosexuality was banned from theatres and torn to shreds in the press. No acting experience required! This is a reading with the goal of getting this text out into the world. By doing this as well as providing historical context and archival materials, we are recentering text over performance. There will be a raffle system to cast each role, ensuring everyone has a chance to participate. Come explore the intertwined narratives of theatre, LGBTQ history, and American history, and their significance for our community today. Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of this special community building event. See you there!
About Gerber/Hart:
Gerber/Hart is a LGBTQ+ library and archives located in the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago. Founded in 1981, Gerber/Hart is one of the largest repositories of LGBTQ+ content in the world. Gerber/Hart focuses on collecting, preserving, and making accessible the LGBTQ history and culture of Chicago and the Midwest. Learn more at gerberhart.org or by following @gerberhart on Instagram and Facebook. And for a deep dive into some of the amazing collections at Gerber/Hart, listen in to their 2022 podcast Unboxing Queer History!
