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.

Season 2024-25 Incubator Projects
The 2024-25 Incubator Program is made possible by the generous support of
The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.
Pretty Shahid
by Omer Abbas Salem
Directed by Laura Alcalá Baker
Featuring: Omer Abbas Salem, Gloria Imseih Petrelli, Sahar Dika, Adoni Esho, Debo Balogun, Sarah Price, Em Modaff, and Yourtana Sulaiman
Staged Readings
Sunday, June 29 and Monday, June 30 at 7:30pm
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 a Julia Roberts movie.

About the Artist:
Omer Abbas Salem (he/they) is an actor and playwright. As an actor, they’ve worked at Roundabout Theatre, Atlantic Theatre, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Goodman, A Red Orchid, Steep Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, Silk Road Rising, First Floor Theatre, The New Coordinates, About Face Theatre, Griffin Theatre, and The Second City. As a playwright, their work has been produced at The Goodman, Steppenwolf Theatre, About Face Theatre, Steep Theatre, First Floor Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, The New Coordinates, The Story Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, National Queer Theatre, Definition Theatre, and The Theatre School of DePaul. They are a member of the 2021/22 Goodman Playwrights Unit and was developed in The Goodman’s New Stages Festival in 2022. Abbas Salem is also the winner of the 2022 Blueprint Commission from First Floor Theater and the Cunningham Commission from DePaul University. They are an Emerging Playwright Commission from Audible Theater and are also the most recent recipient of the Edgerton Commission from Steppenwolf Theater. They won the 2022 3Arts Award in Theater. They are an ensemble member of Steep Theatre, First Floor Theater, and The New Coordinates. They graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and the University of Chicago. They are represented by Gray Talent. Find out more at www.omerabbassalem.com

Apply for the 2025-2026 Incubator
Applications open June 9-23
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.
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: his 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 availability.
** Important to note: A Red Orchid Theatre does not fund or produce applicant programming. Selected Incubator artists or companies are responsible for all production costs. **
Timeframes:
- October 28 – November 11, 2025 – 2 week window
- February 10 – February 24, 2026 – 2 week window
- May 19 – June 2, 2026 – 2 week window
- July 13 – August 23, 2026 – 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.
This application is due by 10:00 PM on Monday, June 23rd, 2025.
We look forward to your responses!