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.
Have an idea for an Incubator Project? Click the button above to complete the 2024-25 Incubator Program application. Applications are due Sept. 6!
Questions? Click here to email our team.
This program is made possible by the generous support of
The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.
Season 2023-24 Incubator Projects
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 American’s favorite sweethearts, Zac Efron. Hold onto your harness and clutch your pearls, it’s gonna be a wild ride!
Zac Efron is the debut full production of Token Theatre, a new Chicago theatre company that centers the Asian American experience. Learn more about them below:
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.
About the Director: Kyle Stoffers (he/him) is a director of theatre based in Chicago. His A Red Orchid Theatre credits include Traitor and The Mutilated (Assistant Director), Pilgrim’s Progress and Red Handed Otter (Assistant Stage Manager), and for with A Red Orchid’s Incubator Series with The Receptionist, Tom & Eliza *postponed indefinitely due to COVID, and Puget Sound (Director), The Silence That Follows and Where’s the Rest of Me (Assistant Director), Celebration (Assistant Director & Stage Manager), and All Us Good Guys (Stage Manager). He has also worked on casting for nearly every production at A Red Orchid since 2016. Other Chicago Credits include: With or Without Wings (Director, Steppenwolf Look Out); Alias Grace (Assistant Director, Rivendell Theatre); The Sweeter Option (Assistant Stage Manager, Strawdog Theatre); and A Scent of Flowers (Assistant Stage Manager, BackStage Theatre). Kyle received his BA in Theatre Directing from Ball State University and currently serves as the Casting & Administrative Associate at A Red Orchid Theatre. For more, visit kylestoffers.com.
Previous Incubator Projects
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.
Celebration
Purpose: CELEBRATION was developed to experiment with combining theatrical and musical forms and further exploring relationships between the artists.
Set on the eve of an anniversary party held in an elite London restaurant, Harold Pinter’s Celebration explores the bizarrely acute and darkly hilarious condition of human disconnection. This theatrical event imposes Pinter’s restaurant onto an experimental performance of Mauricio Kagel’s music, exacerbating the tensions in human relationships and the ensuing existential disposition.
Sick by Seven
Purpose: SICK BY SEVEN was developed to explore the combination of video multimedia with theatrical forms in new work while exploring relationships with new artists and raising funds for a charitable organization.
Anxiety, phobias, mental illness, mysterious diseases, and medication are among the issues explored by artists in SICK BY SEVEN. The seven interconnected works, part of A Red Orchid Theatre’s Incubator series, combine live theater and video to investigate physical, mental and societal health in the modern world.
Puget Sound
Purpose: PUGET SOUND was a play development workshop that explored new work and new artistic relationships, culminating in a staged reading that invited audience feedback.
Two beach combers’ lives are disrupted when a severed foot washes ashore. “Puget Sound” explores what happens when the mysteries of the ocean collide with the mysteries of life and death.
Put Your House In Order
Purpose: PUT YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER explored new working relationships, creating a new company with a new play, and implemented experimental marketing and ticketing strategies
Just outside of Chicago. Fall. In only 24 hours, a first date turns into a life-shaking adventure against the clock as two people are thrust into circumstances outside of their control.