Season 31, 2023-2024

Season 31

2Kirsten Fitzgerald

“In the 2023-24 Season, we bring you a series of physical, emotional, and spiritual collisions. With two world premieres and a Chicago premiere, we will dig into family, friendship, and faith; challenging and celebrating our humanity in wildly unexpected fashion.”

-Kirsten Fitzgerald, Artistic Director, A Red Orchid Theatre

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Season 31 Shows

Written by Ensemble Member Brett Neveu Directed by Associate Artistic Director Travis A. Knight Featuring Ensemble Member Natalie West Performance Dates: September 7-October 29, 2023 Press Performances: September 16, 2023World Premiere!Who celebrates their 26th birthday in the alley? Puff, that’s who. With the help of her best friend Jame and the unlikely company of Georgia, Puff rings in her new year with laughter, connection, a dose of danger, and Miller High Life.  Revolution interrogates and celebrates the very nature of creating community and building friendships in our ever evolving, ever disconnecting world. 

Revolution

Written by Ensemble Member Brett Neveu
Directed by Associate Artistic Director Travis A. Knight
Featuring Ensemble Member Natalie West

Performance Dates: September 7-October 29, 2023
Press Performances: September 16, 2023

World Premiere!

Who celebrates their 26th birthday in the alley? Puff, that’s who. With the help of her best friend Jame and the unlikely company of Georgia, Puff rings in her new year with laughter, connection, a dose of danger, and Miller High Life.  Revolution interrogates and celebrates the very nature of creating community and building friendships in our ever evolving, ever disconnecting world. 

Written by Anna Ouyang Moench Directed by Ensemble Member dado Featuring Ensemble Member Sadieh Rifai Performance Dates: January 11-March 3, 2024 Press Performances: January 20, 2024Chicago Premiere!A former consultant follows her born-again husband to a Southern Baptist seminary. There, she enrolls as a student at the Homemaking House, the nation's premier training ground for future homemakers and a place where marital bliss means never having to say thank you for cleaning the toilet.  In Quietness asks us all to consider how fidelity to self, family, community, and faith coexist as we work to manifest our futures. 

In Quietness

Written by Anna Ouyang Moench
Directed by Ensemble Member dado
Featuring Ensemble Member Sadieh Rifai

Performance Dates: January 11-March 3, 2024
Press Performances: January 20, 2024

Chicago Premiere!

A former consultant follows her born-again husband to a Southern Baptist seminary. There, she enrolls as a student at the Homemaking House, the nation’s premier training ground for future homemakers and a place where marital bliss means never having to say thank you for cleaning the toilet.  In Quietness asks us all to consider how fidelity to self, family, community, and faith coexist as we work to manifest our futures. 

Written by Ensemble Member Levi Holloway Featuring Ensemble Members Michael Shannon & Travis A. Knight Performance Dates: April 25-June 15, 2024 Press Performances: May 4, 2024World Premiere!Two men survive in a facility deep underground somewhere in the wild woods of the Pacific Northwest, hiding away from something terrible looming just outside. Ensnared in a relentless loop of endless tomorrows, they discover the wolf isn’t at the door, he’s already inside, waiting in the creeping darkness all around them. Turret is an excavation of masculinity, love, loss and isolation. A claustrophobic carnival of carnage, carrier pigeons, cribbage, whiskey, music, mischief and mayhem.

Turret

Written by Ensemble Member Levi Holloway
Featuring Ensemble Members Michael Shannon & Travis A. Knight

Performance Dates: April 25-June 15, 2024
Press Performances: May 4, 2024

World Premiere!

Two men survive in a facility deep underground somewhere in the wild woods of the Pacific Northwest, hiding away from something terrible looming just outside. Ensnared in a relentless loop of endless tomorrows, they discover the wolf isn’t at the door, he’s already inside, waiting in the creeping darkness all around them. Turret is an excavation of masculinity, love, loss and isolation. A claustrophobic carnival of carnage, carrier pigeons, cribbage, whiskey, music, mischief and mayhem.

Season 30: Disrupting the Cycle

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In the spirit of breaking cycles, we are very excited to make time for experimentation and incubation; time dedicated to joyful coming-together, risk taking, and the cultivation of new collaborations. There is great desire to examine artistic process, and I am thrilled to invite our patrons into the process earlier with opportunities to attend readings, open rehearsals, experimental performances, and conversations this winter.”

– Kirsten Fitzgerald, Artistic Director, A Red Orchid Theatre

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Season 30 Shows

Written by Ensemble Member Brett Neveu Directed by Ensemble Member Dado Performance Dates: October 6 - November 27, 2022 Press Performances: Saturday, October 15, 2022World Premiere!Playwright Brett Neveu returns to the A Red Orchid stage with this very unofficial sequel to Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons. A century ago, the Ampersands were a wealthy, thriving family. Now, their remaining descendants must struggle with the legacy of their persistent curse. A darkly funny and unsettling look at ancestry, sacrifice, and survival.

The Malignant Ampersands

Written by Ensemble Member Brett Neveu
Directed by Ensemble Member Dado
Performance Dates: October 6 – November 27, 2022
Press Performances: Saturday, October 15, 2022
World Premiere!
Playwright Brett Neveu returns to the A Red Orchid stage with this very unofficial sequel to Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons. A century ago, the Ampersands were a wealthy, thriving family. Now, their remaining descendants must struggle with the legacy of their persistent curse. A darkly funny and unsettling look at ancestry, sacrifice, and survival.
Written by Aleshea Harris Directed by Marti Gobel Featuring Ensemble Member Karen Aldridge Performance Dates: April 6 – June 4, 2023 Press Performances: Saturday April 15 Industry Night: May 8 at 7pm Open Captioned Performances: May 13 at 3pm & 7:30pm Black-Out Performance: May 12 at 7:30pm Audio Described Performance & Touch Tour: May 20 at 3pm ASL Interpreted Performance: May 21 at 3pmChicago Premiere!When twins Racine and Anaia receive a letter from the mother they thought was dead, they swear to avenge her — and themselves — with blood. Their “mission from God” spans from the Dirty South to the California desert, from hip-hop to Afropunk, from ancient tragedy to the Spaghetti Western. Winner of the 2016 Relentless Award and the 2018 Obie Award for Playwriting, Is God Is asks us to consider the roots and futility of cyclical violence, and to question ourselves for wallowing so happily in stories that traffic in it.Run time: Approx. 1 hour & 40 minutes (no intermission)

Is God Is

Written by Aleshea Harris
Directed by Marti Gobel
Featuring Ensemble Member Karen Aldridge

Performance Dates: April 6 – June 4, 2023
Press Performances: Saturday April 15
Industry Night: May 8 at 7pm
Open Captioned Performances: May 13 at 3pm & 7:30pm
Black-Out Performance: May 12 at 7:30pm
Audio Described Performance & Touch Tour: May 20 at 3pm
ASL Interpreted Performance: May 21 at 3pm

Chicago Premiere!

When twins Racine and Anaia receive a letter from the mother they thought was dead, they swear to avenge her — and themselves — with blood. Their “mission from God” spans from the Dirty South to the California desert, from hip-hop to Afropunk, from ancient tragedy to the Spaghetti Western. Winner of the 2016 Relentless Award and the 2018 Obie Award for Playwriting, Is God Is asks us to consider the roots and futility of cyclical violence, and to question ourselves for wallowing so happily in stories that traffic in it.

Run time: Approx. 1 hour & 40 minutes (no intermission)