The Understudy

The Artist's Way 12 Week Book Club & Creative Work Space
2025-09-17 19:00 - 22:00, 2025-09-24 19:00 - 22:00, 2025-10-01 19:00 - 22:00 (America/Chicago) | The Understudy Coffee and Books, 5531 N Clark St, Chicago, IL, 60640, United States
A 12-Week Book Club for the Artist’s Way and an evening workspace for creatives. Every Wednesday @ The Understudy from 7PM-10PM.

The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays Vol. II Book Launch Party!
2025-09-22 19:30 - 22:00
A night of celebrating the release of The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays Vol. II with Chicago playwrights Shualee Cook and Will Wilhelm

Come join us for a night of celebrating the release of The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays Volume II – an anthology that offers eight new plays by trans playwrights. This book is full of plays that center trans characters, trans life, and gender diversity all the while featuring two of Chicago’s very own playwrights Shualee Cook and Will Wilhelm.
There will be readings of excerpts from Cook’s Cercle Hermaphroditos and Wilhelm’s and Murray’s Gender Play, or what you Will followed by a talk back.
Doors open at 7PM. Reading starts at 7:30PM. This event is free.

Meet the Playwrights
Shualee Cook (she/her) writes plays and musicals as a way of asking questions and figuring out possible answers within a community. She is the recipient of a 2024 LA New Play Project grant, a 2023 Nancy Dean Lesbian Playwriting Award, the 2021 Chesly/Bumbalo Award, The 2020 RAC Artist Fellowship, and the 2019 Parity Commission. She has been a resident playwright in the Confluence Regional Writers Project, Stage Left Theatre, and Tesseract Theatre. She has also been a finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Her work has been developed by About Face Theatre, Breaking the Binary Festival, The New Coordinates, The Road Theatre, The Idle Muse Athena Festival, Campfire Theatre Festival, National Queer Theatre, After Hours Theater Company, and the St.Louis Shakespeare Festival, among others. Plays receiving public readings or productions include Tempest in a Teapot, And Certain Women, Cercle Hermaphroditos, Choleramusik, Earworm, and An Invitation Out.

Will Wilhelm (they/them) is a trans/non-binary actor, writer, and educator based in Chicago. Will is the co-creator and performer of Gender Play, or what you Will, which premiered with About Face Theatre and garnered the artist two Jeff Award nominations: Best Solo Performance and Best New Work. Gender Play has also been presented by Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Shakespeare Theatre Company/Theater Alliance in DC, Indianapolis Shakespeare Company, and Island Shakespeare Festival in Washington. Gender Play marks their playwriting debut.
A Michigan native, Will became the first openly non-binary company member at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2018, where they reimagined genderqueer characters in As You Like It, Macbeth, and Bill Rauch’s queer Oklahoma! Other regional credits include RENT (Portland Center Stage) and Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (STC). Select Chicago credits include work with Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Theater Wit, Oak Park Festival Theatre, and Chicago Children’s Theatre. Will is an Artistic Associate with About Face Theatre.
As an educator, Will has been invited to teach and share work at universities across Chicago, the US, and Europe.
A proud Northwestern graduate, Will is represented by Gray Talent Group.
IG: @mx.willwillhelm www.WillWilhelm.com

Erin Murray (she/her) is passionate about multi-generational stories with a delicious femme center. She is currently Interim Artistic Director at Island Shakespeare Festival. With 20 years of experience as a freelance director, her work has been seen across the Northern Hemisphere.​
Credits of note include: co-creating Gender Play, or what you Will (2023 Joseph Jefferson Best New Work nominee) and directing the world premiere at Chicago’s About Face Theater; adapting and directing Cyrano de Bergerac (Island Shakespeare Festival 2022, Kilroys List 2020), directing Anne Washburn’s The Internationalist (Steppenwolf Garage), and Tour Director for Ireland’s Opera Theater Company. Erin worked with Seattle artivist Ana Maria Campoy to adapt and direct Seattle Shakespeare Company’s first bilingual statewide tours Taming Of The Shrew/La Fierecilla Domada and Twelfth Night/Duodécima Noche.

Good Mourning by Jared Sprowls
2025-10-06 19:30 - 21:30
A staged reading for Jared Sprowls’ one person show: Good Mourning.

Join us at The Understudy for a staged reading of Jared Sprowls’ one person show: Good Mourning. Through dramatized Jewish ritual, he wonders how we best hold onto memories as they only get farther away. Audiences are invited to slow down in this intimate solo show where we take time to remember when it often feels easier to forget. Stick around post-show for drinks and kugel.

Doors open at 7PM. Reading starts at 7:30PM. Tickets are donation based and all proceeds will be going towards those affected in Gaza.

Meet the Playwright
Jared Sprowls (he/him) is a Chicago based playwright and recent graduate of Arizona State University’s MFA in Dramatic Writing Program. Much of his work revolves around Jewish identity on stage, specifically interrogating and reimagining representation of Jewish sexuality, femininity, and queerness. His solo show, Good Mourning, was developed with Upper Jay Arts Center this past December, and he’s thrilled to be bringing it to Chicago with the generous support of The Understudy.

The Art of Letter Writing with Tori Rego
2025-10-07 19:30 - 21:00
A workshop on crafting the perfect letter and possibly sending snail mail to your loved ones and friends~

Your favorite pen scratching—dreams of a loved one far away—a doodle in the corner of the page—the sound of the envelope unsticking—salutations—in our hyper-speed digital world of instant communication, a practice of letter writing invites us to slow down and think carefully about words as a gift to a distant someone.
Writers across genres and times have utilized the epistolary form (letter-writing) to communicate ideas only touched at in their final, published work with loved ones, editors, and readers. In this hands-on workshop we’ll read letters by artists and writers of time’s past. We will apply their literary techniques with a dash of whimsy to create original, handwritten letters. You may even leave this workshop with a new pen-pal or two! Stamps & stationery provided.

Doors open at 7PM, the workshop will begin at 7:30PM. See you then✨

🐌 Meet your Host 💌
Tori Rego is a genre-deviant writer and educator from Charleston, South Carolina. Her work flirts with fairytale and searches for the erotic in the cerebral. She received her MFA from Northern Michigan University. Her writing can be found in Fugue, Miniskirt Review, Waxwing, L’espirit, and elsewhere. She is the co-host of the Chicago local reading series Written on a Napkin and the workshop series Spitball. Her first poetry collection, “Briefly, Gently: Record of an Unreadied Boat” was shortlisted for the Chicago Reader’s Award for Best New Poetry Book By a Chicagoan in 2024. A full list of her published work can be found on her website www.torirego.com.

A Conversation with Sarah Ruhl: Lessons from My Teachers
2025-10-08 19:30 - 22:00
A facilitated discussion and Q&A with tony-nominated Chicago playwright Sarah Ruhl on her book, Lessons from My Teachers.

Come join us for a reading and a facilitated discussion on LESSONS FROM MY TEACHERS with Sarah Ruhl!
This is a free event. Doors open at 7P, discussion starts at 7:30. There will be copies of the book available for sale.

ABOUT THE BOOK
In LESSONS FROM MY TEACHERS: From Preschool to the Present (Marysue Rucci Books, on-sale May 6, 2025), acclaimed author Sarah Ruhl—MacArthur genius, two-time Pulitzer finalist, and Tony-nominated playwright—reflects on the transformative wisdom of teachers, both in and beyond the classroom.
According to Sarah Ruhl, great teachers are often those whose teaching cannot be done to scale, whose lessons depend on specificity of place, time, and relationship. Ruhl explores how great teaching is rooted in connection, presence, and relationships, often transcending traditional classrooms to include books, dreams, nature, and everyday interactions. In our digital age, where phones provide facts but not connection, she highlights the enduring power of embodied lessons:

“Teaching that is truly absorbed is composed not of words only, but also the example of the
person doing the teaching… more relation than idiom.”

Based on her popular class at Yale, this masterful, intimate essay collection is a testament to the singular impact of teachers across every stage of our lives. Anchored in stories both personal and universal, drawing on Sarah’s experiences with her parents and children, with schoolteachers, creative influences, and beyond, LESSONS FROM MY TEACHERS offers an uplifting perspective on our basic human need to teach and learn from each other as we navigate the surprising paths that shape our lives.

“Taken together or savored individually, these stories will invite your grad to reflect on the teachers—both formal and informal— who got them where they are and the power of human instruction to get them where they want to go.” – Oprah Daily

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Ruhl is a playwright, essayist, and poet. Her fifteen plays include In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play), The Clean House, and Eurydice. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Tony Award nominee, and the recipient of the MacArthur “genius” Fellowship, her plays have been produced on-and off-Broadway, around the country, internationally, and have been translated into many languages.
Her book 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write was a New York Times Notable Book. She teaches at the Yale School of Drama, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Tony Charuvastra, who is a child psychiatrist, and their three children. You can read more about her work at SarahRuhlPlaywright.com.

tranScript productions presents: Is This All This Is by Dave Osmundsen
2025-10-11 19:30 - 22:00
A staged reading of a new work aimed at uplifting trans stories.

Meet tranScript
tranScript productions is a new, Chicago-based production company aimed at uplifting trans artists and voices. By highlighting trans and nonbiary playwrights, actors, and stories – or any combination of the three – tranScript hopes to provide an affirming space for trans artists and challenge the harmful narratives being spun in the world around us.

Play Synopsis
Four characters– Autistic non-binary lesbian Jamie, their transient aunt Theresa, their conservative mother Barb, and Theresa’s Autistic boyfriend Tyson–contemplate where they are in life, where they’ve been, and where they’re going. And, of course, if this is all life is ever going to be for them.

Cast & Crew
Maddy Shilts – Artistic Director
Philip Merrick – Producer
Kaeli Meno – Director
Marley Doakes – Theresa
Marshall Kious – Tyson
Emma Fulmer – Jamie
Carolyn Hu Bradbury – Barb
Nate Davis – Stage Directions

I Can’t… I Have Trivia: an Evening of Theatre Trivia at The Understudy
2025-10-13 19:30 - 22:00
Come join us for a night full of theatre trivia and fabulous prizes! Hosted by Patrick Zakem and Ben Kaye

Aaaaand we are back with another round of trivia at 7:30 on October 13th with new categories, spoopy drinks and fabulous prizes! Hosted by our friend Patrick Zakem, each round will test your knowledge of. A different facet of theatre history, current events, or culture. Think you’ve got what it takes? Come through✨

We recommend playing with a team of four and if you’re thinking of coming alone — no worries! We’ll find a group for you to join :^)

ATTACK ON MARZ: A LATTE THROWDOWN
2025-10-16 19:30 - 22:30
Oh, so you think ur the slickest barista in town? Well, get ur best pair of cow/moon boots on, come on down to The Understudy and PROVE IT.

Just a good ‘ol latte throwdown at The Understudy in Andersonville with a special halftime performance by the iconic Ari Gato. Hosted by Jett, John-Payne and Lezbian Minnelli. Dress up if you wanna: the theme is cowboys n’ aliens. 🤠👽✨

The throwdown will be judged by Ari Gato and special guests from Metric and Minor Figures. Beer will be provided by MARZ Brewing.

Admission is free, but it’s $10 to compete. Doors open at 6:45pm, first pour is at 7:30pm. Contestants can only use steaming pitchers provided by The Understudy.

Each participant will receive a goody bag from Metric. Top 3 winners will win a cash prize of $150, $100 or $50 as well as other prizes from Espresso Parts, La Marzocco, Fellow and Minor Figures.
Be there or be ▪️

RSVP if you’re going. SIGN UP AND PAY UP IF YOU’RE FEELIN’ BRAVE 🐎🛸

❤️Maaaany thanks to our sponsors👽
MARZ Brewing
Metric Coffee
Minor Figures
Fellow
La Marzocco
Espresso Parts
Milli by Metric

💗aaaand shout out to our Understudy Team for making this happen🦉
Ander Shunneson
Adam Crawford
Casey Whisler
John-Payne
Magdalena Dalzell

Public Tea Tasting with Spirit Tea
2025-10-17 11:00 - 13:00
Join us to sample new selections from Spirit Tea and The Understudy

We’re welcoming our friends from Spirit Tea to share some new selections, alongside expert knowledge and insight from the Spirit Tea team.

Tickets are Pay What You Can, and proceeds will support Street Vendors Association of Chicago.

FAREWELL TO P3N15 PARTY: A FUNDRAISER SHOW FOR KJ’S GENDER AFFIRMING CARE
2025-10-23 19:30 - 22:00
A benefit party and open mic hosted by K.J. Whitehead with special guest comedian, Rey Tang.

GUESS WHO’S GETTING BOTTOM SURGERYYYYY~
Our friend and your lovely host, K.J. Whitehead.
Come join us in celebration as we say goodbye to K.J.’s bits in this month’s open mic here at The Understudy! Tickets are PWYC and all proceeds will go to K.J. as she recovers post-op.
So if you’re a comedian, poet, musician, or just a person with social anxiety who’s feeling brave – sign up here.

Can’t come through but would still like to donate?
K.J.’s Venmo is: iamkjwhitehead

BLITHE SPIRIT by Noel Coward
2025-10-26 19:00 - 21:00
Catch Noel Coward’s “improbable farce in three acts” at The Understudy

Exit, Pursued by a Play Reading is a new reading series where Chicago’s best and most beloved actors find themselves chased by rabid, unrehearsed, theatrical comedies – desperately trying to stay ahead, as they strive to tickle your fancy, brighten your heart, and warm the chilliest of Chicago evenings.
This time, we’re reading Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward

Edith: Ali Foley
Ruth : Jaeda LaVonne
Charles : Gregory Linington
Dr. Bradman : Demetrios Troy
Mrs. Bradman : Blair Robertson
Madame Arcati : Issy van Randwyck
Elvira : Katy Sullivan
Stage Directions : Noah Tibbetts

KAPWA II: Shake, Rattle and Roll (18+)
2025-10-29 19:30 - 22:00
A ~sp0okY~ Filipinx variety show produced by The Understudy and The Rizal Center.

Who says the sequel isn’t as good? October is Filipino-American History Month, and the KAPWA Variety Show is back with more killer performances from local Fil-Am artists. Join us as we celebrate community in times of fear with scary good food, songs, storytelling, MAGIC, burlesque, and more! Stay tuned for the Line-up~

Half of all ticket sales will benefit the Rizal Center’s Balikbayan Book Club, which educates and empowers readers through the stories of Filipino writers. The group is a space to connect, discuss, and learn more about the Philippines’ history of resistance. By critically engaging with the past, they encourage each other to build a better future.
