A small midwestern college decides to stage Shakespeare’s classic tale of young star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet with an all female cast. Add in a mysterious guest director with dubious credentials and a bizarre show concept, and anything might happen. Can the students rescue the bard from being hijacked? A smart, hilarious, thoroughly contemporary look at what the Bard might mean to us today.
Genre: Comedy
macbitches
When freshman acting major Hailey unexpectedly scores the coveted role of Lady Macbeth, her upperclassmen rivals immediately invite her over to “celebrate.” As the Fireball and Svedka flow, the young women interrogate their own ambitions as well as the power structures that have shaped their education—and when the night spirals into violent and shocking acts of betrayal, they come to learn that what’s done cannot be undone.
Sensitive Guys
The Men’s Peer Education group at Watson College is dedicated to unpacking and exposing male privilege. These “sensitive guys” believe that through increased self-awareness they can end sexual violence on campus; but when a shocking rumor surfaces, the group is shaken to the core. Sensitive Guys features a cast of women and gender nonconforming actors, double-cast as male and female characters, who try to understand men who are trying to understand masculinity.
Glassheart
Beauty never showed up. After centuries under the curse, the Beast and his remaining magical servant (a hopelessly optimistic lamp) move into a shabby Chicago apartment, hoping for a lower cost of living and better luck with girls. In the threatening, impossible, completely ordinary world of paying rent and taking public transportation, is a happy ending even possible? A romantic tragicomedy about facing the witch in your head, and finding the wish in your heart.
Hook’s Tale
Captain James Hook (née Cook), badly maligned by a certain play and despised by generations of Peter Pan fans, finally gets to clear his name. The good Captain, with the aid of his friend Smee, tells his life-story in this family-friendly play, recounting his friendship with and ultimate betrayal by Peter Pan, his romance with Tiger Lily, his familial relationship with the Darling family, and his adoption of a lovable crocodile named Daisy. In narrating his tale, he uncovers the hidden treasure of Neverland, discovers the identity of his long-lost father, and learns the importance of growing up and growing old.
The Forest
Juliet is losing her marriage. Her mother Pam is losing her memory. And there’s a mysterious forest growing in and around their living room. Is it any wonder Juliet starts sleeping with one of her high school students? A play about weird love and what to do when there aren’t any right answers.
Grace’s Land 2.0
Grace is a teenage Spoken Word champion, but can’t seem to complete a simple poetry homework assignment. Accompanied by her piano playing, hip hop dancing and visual artist girlfriends, she designs a virtual land of her own, Grace’s Land 2.0, where they’re free of fixed identities, of the pandemic, of micromanaging parents, and the need to fit into the boxes assigned by others.
Franklinland
The story of growing up as the only son of Benjmain Franklin: the greatest scientific mind in the world, inventor of the lightning rod and the urinary catheter and the glass harmonica and bifocal glasses and, oh yeah, in his spare time the United States of America.
Fairycakes
What happens when those woodland fairies aren’t busy with the business of A Midsummer Night’s Dream? Why, it seems they all have jobs in some of our favorite fairy tales and have very sad love lives—that is, until Puck finds the famous flower touched by Cupid’s arrow. It’s all about love and kindness and accepting change. And it’s funny. Oh, and it rhymes.
Ibsen in Chicago
The world premiere of Ibsen’s controversial play Ghosts took place in Chicago, performed by a group of Scandinavian immigrants: a little known fact. Grimm’s play spins a yarn based on this ‘great reckoning in a little room’ and explores the immigrant experience and opportunities for self re-invention against the backdrop of changing artistic and social mores.