TITUS ANDRONICUS

by William Shakespeare

directed by Ian Damont Martin

In a society that seems increasingly plagued by senseless violence, Shakespeare’s bloodiest play Titus Andronicus feels increasingly germane. Martin centers Shakespeare’s revenge-tragedy on the voices of marginalized people too often excluded from classical theater performance, TITUS explores the impact of vengeance across the intersections of family, power and race.

When Titus returns home from a 10-year war against the Goths with their Queen as his prisoner, a bloody cycle of violence ensues across familial and political lines. Is revenge ever justifiable? What if there is no justice? These questions remain surprisingly relevant some 400 years later.

KISS
a Chicago Premiere
by Guillermo Calderoón
directed by Monty Cole
July 18 - August 18, 2019

Two couples meet for their weekly soap opera viewing party, but that standing double date quickly starts to feel like a soap opera itself when the friends unpack scandals, secrets and their heart-rending passions. Guillermo Calderón has written a bold and political theatrical experience that explodes the romantic drama and asks what it means to empathize with a culture and conflict that is not your own.

JEFF RECOMMENDED

THE TOTAL BENT
a Midwest Premiere and in association with About Face Theatre
text by Stew, music & lyrics by Stew & Heidi Rodewald
directed by Lili-Anne Brown with music direction by Jermaine Hill
February 7 - March 10, 2019

When a British record producer arrives in Montgomery, Alabama to hook Marty Roy, a young black musical prodigy, he launches us back into Marty’s tumultuous upbringing. The son of a gospel star and self-proclaimed healer, Marty spent his childhood writing the songs that have made his charismatic father famous. But in a nation on the verge of social upheaval, with the rising heat from the street guiding his pen, Marty finds himself at odds with his spiritually forceful father as he strives to create a masterpiece that will change America – no matter the cost.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Chicago Tribune, Storefront Rebellion (Kris Vire), Chicago Reader, Rescripted, BroadwayWorld, Buzznews
JEFF WINNER: Breon Arzell, Best Choreography
JEFF NOMINATED: Best Production, Musical; Lili-Anne Brown, Best Director, Musical; Gilbert Domally, Best Principal Performer, Musical; Robert Cornelius, Best Principal Performer, Musical; Jermaine Hill, Best Music Direction

THE DISPLACED
a World Premiere
by Isaac Gomez
directed by Jo Cattell
May 31 - July 1, 2018

Marísa and Lev have just moved into their new Pilsen apartment in hopes of rekindling a spark that's long been extinguished. While looking for the circuit breaker in the attic, a mysterious coconut appears, leftover from the previous tenants with a dark history inside it. The Displaced explores the wake of pain and yearning left behind when gentrification forces people out of their homes and the kind of vengeance that can come from it.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Time Out Chicago, Chicago Reader
RECOMMENDED - Picture This Post, Third Coast Reviews
JEFF WINNER: Erik S. Barry, Best Lighting Design
JEFF NOMINEE: Isaac Gomez, Best New Play; Sarah D. Espinoza, Best Sound Design; Rachel Flesher, Best Artistic Specialization

FEAR & MISERY IN THE THIRD REICH
by Bertolt Brecht
translated by Eric Bentley
directed by Artistic Director Josh Sobel
February 13 - March 11, 2018

As Germany careens toward war, an entire society begins to crack, and the seeds of chaos and tragedy take root in the minds of its citizens. Artistic Director Josh Sobel (We're Gonna Die) helms an ensemble-driven production of Brecht's 1938 classic with a contemporary eye – a warning of how insidiously a culture can make space for atrocity, and a call to never allow it to happen again.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - NewCity Stage, Chicago Theatre Beat
RECOMMENDED - Picture This Post, Chicagoland Theatre Reviews

WE’RE GONNA DIE
a Chicago Premiere
by Young Jean Lee
directed by Artistic Director Josh Sobel
May 4 - June 4, 2017

REMOUNTED
Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s LookOut Series
Limited Engagement, March 26 - April 16, 2018

A singer takes the stage, backed by her rock-band compatriots, to share Young Jean Lee’s life-affirming show about the one thing we all have in common: “we're gonna die.” Drawing from true stories of people's experiences with tragedy, despair and loneliness, this personal and rejuvenating play with live music reminds us that in our darkest, most isolated moments, we are not alone.

TOP 10 OFF-LOOP THEATER OF 2017 - Chicago Tribune
TOP 10 OF CHICAGO THEATER 2017 - Time Out Chicago

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Chicago Tribune, Time Out Chicago, Chicago Reader, Windy City Times, The Fourth Walsh
RECOMMENDED - PerformInk, Ada Grey
JEFF RECOMMENDED
TIME OUT THEATER AWARD NOMINEE: Best Lead Performance in a Play; Best Overall Design of a Production

HOW WE GOT ON
a Chicago Premiere
by Idris Goodwin
directed by Jess McLeod
September 29 - November 12, 2016

In this remixed coming-of-age an all-knowing DJ loops us through the tracks of three Midwestern teen rappers stranded in suburbia. Determined to find their artistic voices, Hank, Julian, and Luann are forced to combat the discord of crude technology, family disfunction, and ruthless rivalries as this B-Side of 1980’s hip-hop history is spun. Plug in your open mind and join Haven Theatre’s Chicago premiere of a throwback mixtape that goes to prove, we’re all just a work-in-progress.

RECOMMENDED - Chicago Tribune, Time Out Chicago, The Fourth Walsh
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - NewCity Stage, PerformInk, Chicago Theatre Review
JEFF AWARD WINNER: Best Sound Design
JEFF AWARD NOMINEE: Best Production, Play; Best Ensemble
TIME OUT THEATER AWARD NOMINEE: Best Production of an Existing Play; Best Ensemble; Best Director

THE DISTANCE
a United States Premiere
by Deborah Bruce
directed by Elly Green
May 20 – June 26, 2016

Good friends should be there for one another - no matter what. However, when Bea returns home to England after five years abroad, having made a bold choice about her life, old friends struggle to support her or even to understand. One night in Brighton, things threaten to slide into chaos...The Distance is a painfully funny play about motherhood and fatherhood, about keeping control and letting go.

RECOMMENDED - Chicago Tribune
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Chicago Reader, Chicago Theatre Beat, The Fourth Walsh
JEFF RECOMMENDED

LAST TRAIN TO NIBROC
a Chicago Premiere
by Arlene Hutton
directed by Jason Gerace
July 24 - September 6, 2015

In December 1940, an east-bound cross-country train carries the bodies of the great American writers Nathanael West and F. Scott Fitzgerald as well as shy and religious May, who shares her seat with a charming young discharged flyer, Raleigh. As May (Amanda Drinkall) and Raleigh (Mike Tepeli) continue to cross paths over the years, an unlikely bond forms, one that continues to blossom in ways neither of them could ever expect. A funny, touching portrait of two people searching for happiness called "...a gently charming little play, reminiscent of Thornton Wilder in its look at rustic Americans who are to be treasured for their simplicity and directness..."

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Chicago Tribune (4 Stars)
RECOMMENDED - Time Out Chicago, Windy City Times
JEFF AWARD WINNER: Best Actress, Play - Amanda Drinkall
JEFF AWARD NOMINEE: Best Actor, Play - Mike Tepeli; Best Sound Design

DON’T GO GENTLE
a Chicago Premiere
by Stephen Belber
directed by Artistic Associate Cody Estle
June 2 – July 12, 2015

Judge Lawrence Driver is a conservative powerhouse on the bench, but a failure at home. Now retired and widowed, and seeking redemption, Judge Driver volunteers to do pro bono legal work with Tanya, a vulnerable ex-con with a troubled teenage son, while working to repair the increasingly complicated relationships with his own adult children. When his newfound generosity is perceived as condescension, Judge Driver runs the risk of losing everything.

RECOMMENDED - Chicago Reader
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - The Fourth Walsh, Around The Town Chicago

HOT GEORGIA SUNDAY
a Chicago Premiere
by Catherine Treischmann
directed by Marti Lyons
November 21 - December 21, 2014

Hot Georgia Sunday reunites Haven with the director of their successful spring 2014 production of Seminar. It's hard to tell the difference between right and wrong in this tragicomic tale of dysfunction taking place in a small Northeast Georgia town where private desires and public morality collide. The well-meaning, but inept members of the Vickery family cause trouble wherever they go and lust, betrayal and alcohol lead the way for this fractured family.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Time Out Chicago
RECOMMENDED - Chicago Tribune, Windy City Times

SEMINAR
a Chicago Premiere
by Theresa Rebeck
directed by Marti Lyons
February 27 - April 13, 2014

In Seminar, four aspiring young novelists sign up for private writing classes with Leonard, an international literary figure. Under his recklessly brilliant and unorthodox instruction, some thrive and others flounder, alliances are made and broken, sex is used as a weapon, and hearts are unmoored. The wordplay is not the only thing that turns vicious as innocence collides with experience in this biting comedy.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Chicago Tribune, Time Out Chicago

THE WEDDING SINGER
music by Matthew Sklar
lyrics by Chad Beguelin
book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy
directed by Jess McLeod
music direction by Kory Danielson
October 13 – November 17, 2013

It's 1985 and New Jersey's favorite wedding singer, Robbie Hart (Tony Allen), is still living in his grandma's basement. After being left at the altar by his fiance, a heartbroken Robbie manages to make every wedding gig as disastrous as his own. When he meets Julia (Aja Wiltshire), an admiring waitress, Robbie falls madly in love, only to learn that she is to be married to a Wall Street shark. Unless Robbie can pull off the performance of his lifetime, his perfect girl will be lost forever to a man who doesn't deserve her.

RECOMMENDED - Time Out Chicago, Windy City Times, Chicago Stage Standard

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH
by John Cameron Mitchell
lyrics and music by Stephen Trask
directed by Kyle Trent
music direction by Kory Danielson
July 5 - August 11, 2013

The groundbreaking Obie-winning Off-Broadway smash Hedwig and the Angry Inch also won multiple awards for its hit film adaptation of the story of "internationally ignored song stylist" Hedwig Schmidt (Ryan Lanning). Hedwig, a fourth-wall smashing East German rock 'n' roll goddess, happens to be the victim of a botched sex-change operation, which has left her with just "an angry inch." This outrageous and unexpectedly hilarious story is dazzlingly performed by Hedwig (formerly known as Hansel) in the form of a rock gig/stand-up comedy routine backed by the hard-rocking band "The Angry Inch."

RECOMMENDED - Chicago Tribune, Time Out Chicago, Huffington Post