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.
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
FOR THE LOVERS
September 20 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
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 […]
FOR THE LOVERS
September 20 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
G. L. O. W. : A Queer Sober Open Mic Night
September 27 @ 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
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 […]
G. L. O. W. : A Queer Sober Open Mic Night
September 27 @ 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Play Reading Club: Primary Trust
September 29 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
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 […]
Play Reading Club: Primary Trust
September 29 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
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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.
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[post_content] => 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!
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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.
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Monologue Writing Workshop
September 16 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm
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 […]
Monologue Writing Workshop
September 16 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Play Reading Club: Ironbound
August 26 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
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 […]
Play Reading Club: Ironbound
August 26 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
G. L. O. W. : A Queer Sober Open Mic Night
August 16 @ 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 […]
G. L. O. W. : A Queer Sober Open Mic Night
August 16 @ 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Midsommer Flight presents The Favourite
August 12 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
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 […]
Midsommer Flight presents The Favourite
August 12 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
A Taste of RED with A Red Orchid Theatre
August 6 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
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 […]
A Taste of RED with A Red Orchid Theatre
August 6 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
DIE, MOMMIE, DIE! by Charles Busch
August 5 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
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 […]
DIE, MOMMIE, DIE! by Charles Busch
August 5 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
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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
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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.
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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!
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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
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[post_content] => 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.
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[post_content] => Join Hell In A Handbag and The Understudy for a reading celebrating the work of Charles Busch, featuring a fabulous lineup of Chicago talentJoin 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.
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