Incubator Series

About the Incubator

Experiments with New Artists & New Ideas

The Incubator at A Red Orchid Theatre was created to get to know emerging talent, encourage dreaming, and foster exploration in Chicago’s theatre community. Leading with curiosity, it provides artists with the space, stage, and time to incubate new work, new artistic relationships, and new artistic forms. A Red Orchid’s ensemble maintains the conviction that live theatre is the greatest sustenance for the human spirit, and that passionately committed artists will draw passionately committed audiences. The Incubator is an active manifestation of that conviction and of A Red Orchid’s mission to cultivate new audiences for the modern stage.

The 2025-26 Incubator Program is made possible by the generous support of

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.

Apply for the 2026-2027 Incubator

A Red Orchid Theatre’s Incubator was created so that our organization and its artists could get to know emerging talent and foster exploration in Chicago’s theater community. Additionally, we were driven to create a playground for our artistic ensemble to explore projects outside of our planned programming.

The idea behind The Incubator is to provide artists the physical space, time, and production mentorship to explore something new; new writing, a new collaborative relationship, new artistic forms, all of it; essentially to incubate people, plays, and/or process.

Parameters – Emerging artists, companies, or collaborators with a Chicago history of less than five years that are without a space; BIPOC, Queer, and/or Gender Diverse projects/companies strongly encouraged to apply.

People: This may be a new collaboration or solo experiment, an emerging artist or company in need of space to produce or workshop a new play or new idea for a performance piece.

Plays: This may be workshops and/or productions of new plays or playwrights as well as experimentation with established plays, classical scripts or canonical works.

Process: This may be an exploratory rehearsal process, experimentation with design elements, non-scripted forms, exploring different acting, directing, producing methodologies, inventing new artistic forms or how differing forms interact to make something new.

Incubators can, but do not have to, include a public facing component. Examples include but are not limited to; an invited read, discussions, a demonstration of process, a fully produced run, or none of the above. If there is to be a public facing component, admission can be free or ticketed for money.

A Red Orchid’s Incubator program only provides:

Free Theatre Space*
Informal artistic guidance through check-ins and feedback from AROT ensemble and staff.
Limited administrative support.
Marketing cross-promotion.
Box Office and Front of House support*

** Important to note: A Red Orchid Theatre does not fund or produce applicant programming. Selected Incubator artists or companies are responsible for all production and ticketing costs. **

Timeframes:

November 16-December 2, 2026 – 2 week window
February 22-March 8, 2027 – 2 week window
June 1-June 15, 2027 – 2 week window
July 19 – August 29, 2027 – 6 week window. Full production slot.

Note: Two week Incubator projects will take place concurrently with AROT’s production schedule. This means participants will be working within the constraints of the existing set and physical space of the current show. Incubators chosen for the full production slot in summer 2026 will have access to an empty theatre for set installation and build.

Applications are due by 10:00 PM on Friday, July 31, 2026.

Application Form

Season 2025-26 Incubator Projects

ABUELA'S FOLLIES by Kidany Camilo
A workshop production presented by The Vivero
Directed by Raquel Torre
August 10 - 23, 2026

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Abuela, a Puerto Rican matriarch, is summoned into purgatory, which looks like her own kitchen. Inhabiting a hot young body reminiscent of a classic cabaret star, she is guided by a mysterious entity to undergo a trial if she wants an escape. The only caveat is, the audience gets to vote at the end of the trial and decide where she is destined to go. Will she find a way out to heaven or…

Kidany Camilo [pronounced /’kidani’kamilɔ/] is a genderfluid multi-hyphenate theatre artist originally from Bayamón, Puerto Rico. You might recognize them from Las Borinqueñas (Visión Latino), Fefu and Her Friends (Snails on a Bike), Measure for Measure (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), or probably in your dreams singing a bolero to you. This chameleon-like artist draws inspiration from avant-garde art, their own brujería, and the intersection of latinidad and queerness. Basically, if Federico Garcia Lorca and Suzan-Lori Parks made a wish in the Caribbean, but they forgot Mercury was in retrograde, that would explain how Kidany magically appeared. They are a proud Co-Founder of The Vivero, a collective helping latinx playwrights cultivate latiné excellence by providing free writing sessions, events and opportunities. They are also the Lead Producer for Trans Voices Cabaret at Genderfucked Productions, hosting events for Chicago’s top trans vocalists. If you’re interested in seeing/reading their work, find it at kidanycamilo.com

Previous Incubator Projects

SPEECHaLICIOUS: a new musical

SPEECHaLICIOUS: a new musical

by Gloria Imseih Petrelli
Music by Dan Poppen, Eduardo Curley Carrillo, and the ensemble
Directed by Maiya Corral

Featuring Gloria Imseih Petrelli, Omer Abbas Salem, Eduardo Curley Carrillo, Carisa Gonzalez, Colin Morgan, Nick Druzbanski, and Sahar Dika and stage managed by Amal Salem

It’s the morning of Sectionals, but how is the Sweetwood High Speech Team supposed to focus on getting to state between crushes, college applications and the looming specter of the Bush administration’s repression? What does it mean to be on the Speech team when speech is under attack?

Steam your blazer and put on a smile, because that’s show biz (speech team) baby. We’ll see you on the bus.

We Tell Each Other Stories

WE TELL EACH OTHER STORIES

by Katherine Gwynn
Directed by Dinah Berkeley
Featuring Julia Alvarez, Jojo Brown, Sonia Goldberg, Laney Rodriguez, and Wisterman
Stage Managed by Milla Guerra

Maire spins the thread, Mara measures the thread, and Moira cuts the thread: these are the sisters’ roles and have been since before they knew what memory, or an oat milk latte, was. But when they lose the thread on the way to delivering it to a not-yet-born Hero, the sisters must retrace their steps through space, time and possibility in a desperate effort to get back on track. If they fail, they might have to choose their own fates, a reality they’re not entirely ready to traverse.

Women Off-Colour

WOMEN OFF-COLOUR

Featuring Anelga Hajjar, Alondra Rios, and Mantra

Ethnicities we’ve dated, ethnicities who’ve wronged us, dads (alive and not), older sister trauma, ethnic moms, cycles we want to break, and growing up with curves. These are some of the topics Mantra, Alondra, and Anelga muse on in Women Off-Colour. Featuring musical numbers, sketches, and monologues, this show invites women to be offensive, wrong, and unapologetic.

Infinity Burns

INFINITY BURNS

by Felix Abidor
Directed by Patrick Starner

Cast: Faiz Siddique (Bruno), Guy Wicke (Bellarmine), Grant Brown (Paul), Julian “joolz” Stroop (Hermes), Cam Frontain, Evelyn Wohlbier, Gardy Gilbert, and Noelle Oh (Infinite)

Production Team: Martina Logan (Stage Manager), Macy Mateer (Assistant Director/Dramaturg), Riley Woods (Lighting Designer), Ethan Korvne (Composer & Sound Designer), Brandii Champagne (Scenic Designer), Kotryna Hilko (Costume Designer), Aja Singletary (Movement Designer), James Cullinane (Fight Choreographer), Grace Archer (Assistant Dramaturg), Hope Campbell (Graphic Design)

August 3 – 17, 2025

A defiant philosopher faces execution for claiming the universe is infinite. As the Inquisition closes in, Giordano Bruno battles torturers, gods, and his own fear; meanwhile, the Inquisitors try to figure out what the proper snack is to serve at a stake-burning… Popcorn hasn’t been invented yet. S’mores? A little on the nose… With a chorus of infinite voices and the god Hermes whispering in his ear, Bruno must decide what he’s willing to die for—and what might be worth lying to save. Infinity Burns is a kaleidoscopic collision of history, heresy, and the terrifying beauty of belief.

Pretty Shahid

PRETTY SHAHID

by Omer Abbas Salem
Directed by Laura Alcalá Baker

Featuring Omer Abbas Salem, Gloria Imseih Petrelli, Sahar Dika, H. Adoni Esho, Debo Balogun, Sarah Price, Em Modaff, and Yourtana Sulaiman.

June 29 and 30, 2025

A young Iraqi immigrant is hit in the head with a thrown bottle the day after 9/11 and he wakes up sounding just like his favorite American – Julia Roberts. As he and his family navigate the racist days that followed the tragic day, he uses his new voice and lost memory to become more American. This is a play about assimilation and what we choose to forget about ourselves to fit in. It’s a romantic comedy, though. And gay. And has singing and dancing, just like any Julia Roberts movie, but way more political resistance. Please join us for some culture, comedy, and an uprising!

The H Twins

THE H TWINS

by Hope Campbell

Featuring Hope Campbell Gundlah, Tess Cameron Gundlah, Timothy Weinert, Jennifer Jelsema, and Meghan Maureen McDonough

March 3-5, 2025

Identical twins Hilda & Helga are the blonde-haired, blue-eyed ideal- at least according to Uncle M, the researcher-turned-father-figure who supervises their highly controlled children’s home in 1940s Germany. After accidentally being exposed to American movies and music, the H Twins become convinced they’re destined to be vaudeville stars. But as they develop their song-and-dance acts and fret about impending adulthood, they grow less and less identical- and more and more questioning of their “ideological education” and the experiment in which they’ve been raised. The twins tell their story via a darkly funny, musical, reality-bending variety show.

$The Meat Machine presents A Red Orchid Incubator production of THE WORM MY SISTER Conceived of and directed by Ramona Rotten Devised and performed by The Meat Machine Featuring Lynda Cortez, Sam Hurwitz, Kelsey Rich, John Francis Klingle, Quinn Leary, Melissa Jane Carlson, Paul Brennan, Lou Smith & Emily Cobb December 5 - 15, 2024 Enter the fractured world of The Worm My Sister, a haunting experiment from Ramona Rotten and the Meat Machine, running December 5th-15th. Born from a fevered process of communal creation, this piece unveils a fog-bound island where reality dissolves, and two figures—Miranda and her clone, Not-Miranda—drift between presence and performance under the looming eye of Father Daddy. Inspired by The Tempest, the lives of the Dionne quintuplets, and Guy Debord’s critique of spectacle, The Worm My Sister is a ritual of voyeurism, exploitation, and transformation. Texts unravel nightly, bleeding new meanings with each performance.$

The Worm My Sister

The Meat Machine presents A Red Orchid Incubator production of

THE WORM MY SISTER

Conceived of and directed by Ramona Rotten
Devised and performed by The Meat Machine

Featuring Lynda Cortez, Sam Hurwitz, Kelsey Rich, John Francis Klingle, Quinn Leary, Melissa Jane Carlson, Paul Brennan, Lou Smith & Emily Cobb

December 5 – 15, 2024

Enter the fractured world of The Worm My Sister, a haunting experiment from Ramona Rotten and the Meat Machine, running December 5th-15th. Born from a fevered process of communal creation, this piece unveils a fog-bound island where reality dissolves, and two figures—Miranda and her clone, Not-Miranda—drift between presence and performance under the looming eye of Father Daddy. Inspired by The Tempest, the lives of the Dionne quintuplets, and Guy Debord’s critique of spectacle, The Worm My Sister is a ritual of voyeurism, exploitation, and transformation. Texts unravel nightly, bleeding new meanings with each performance.

Zac Efron

Token Theatre presents the World Premiere of

ZAC EFRON

By David Rhee & Wai Yim

Directed by Alan Muraoka

Featuring Hansel Tan, Wai Yim & Gordon Chow with special appearances by Cheryl Hamada & Wai Ching Ho

June 20 – July 21, 2024

Zac Efron glimpses into a world that is rarely seen on the American stage: two Asian Americans looking for love and the complexities that come with their adventures. It is a poignant opportunity for radical self-acceptance through YouTube, tarot readings, and of course, one of America’s favorite sweethearts, Zac Efron. Hold onto your harness and clutch your pearls, it’s gonna be a wild ride!

The Receptionist

Kalliope & Co. presents

THE RECEPTIONIST

By Adam Bock

Directed by Kyle Stoffers

Featuring AROT Ensemble Member dado with Jessica Ervin, Jacob Alexander & Dano Duran

May 15 – June 2, 2024

At the start of a typical day in the Northeast Office, Beverly deals effortlessly with ringing phones and her colleague’s romantic troubles. But the appearance of a charming rep from the Central Office disrupts the friendly routine. And as the true nature of the company’s business becomes apparent, The Receptionist raises disquieting, provocative questions about the consequences of complicity with evil.

Act Five & Reawakening Desire

ACT FIVE

Conceived & installed by Ensemble Member dado

Script by Katherine Swan | Musical curation by Sam Clapp

What if the orchard was not destroyed, and we return years later to find our musicians still playing out there? In this exploration of an imagined Act Five of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, we finally get to meet and experience the offstage musicians in person. Act Five will be shared with our patrons via five open rehearsals.

REAWAKENING DESIRE

Directed by Ensemble Member Shade Murray

Leaning into the sexy, the giddy, and the heartbreaking of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, this project aims to investigate a world where desire is ignited in the most wonderfully unexpected ways. This workshop will culminate in a free, salon-style reading.