October 1–November 10, 2019

The World Premiere
Co-Produced with International Voices Project
Written by Fouad Teymour
Directed by Patrizia Acerra

In this 100-minute comedy, three Muslim women confront adultery and polygamy when one of their husbands marries a second wife. Friendship, fidelity, and faith are called into question as each woman reevaluates bonds once believed unbreakable, and discovers humor amongst the heartbreak.

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March 11–April 7, 2019

The World Premiere
Co-Produced with Stage Left Theatre
Written and Performed by Karim Nagi
Directed by Anna C. Bahow

This one-man musical, co-produced with Stage Left Theatre, takes us on an alternative tour of the Arab World & Arab America. Using lyrics, percussion & an urban soundscape, master storyteller and musician Karim Nagi guides us through a social and political labyrinth, extolling the virtues of revolution, immigration, and hummus along the way.

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November 30–December 11, 2018

A Workshop Production
Adapted and Directed by Corey Pond
Music Direction by Emma Hospelhorn
Choir Direction by Erik Nussbaum

Christmas Mubarak is a first-of-its-kind musical/theatre interplay of the Quranic and New Testament stories that celebrates the miraculous birth, life, and ascension of Jesus. This festive holiday performance features actors from our Silk Road communities and choir members from the First United Methodist Church at The Chicago Temple.

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May 17- 27, 2018

A Workshop Production
Written and Performed by Anu Bhatt
Directed by Barbara Zahora

Anu Bhatt combines the personal with the poetic in her one-woman show about depression, body image, and confronting sexual abuse. Seeking to balance and embrace two identities, Bhatt explores her South Asian American background with courage and insightful humor. A mix of raw memories, lyricism and tough truths, Hollow/Wave is a daring dance for empowerment through a sea of imperfection.

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March 7–April 15, 2018

The World Premiere
Written by Novid Parsi
Directed by Carin Silkaitis

Having fled Iran where he was imprisoned for being a gay man, a damaged Razi arrives at his sister's doorstep in Chicago only to disrupt the life she and her American husband built together. As the Chicago Cubs vie to make history, rivalries of a different kind simmer in the Uptown two-flat that Razi tries to call home. With echoes of A Streetcar Named Desire, Novid Parsi's world premiere drama probes the boundaries between family, loss, prejudice, and desire.

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November 9–December 17, 2017

The U.S. Premiere
Written by Candace Chong
Translated from Chinese by Joanna C. Lee and Ken Smith
Adapted by David Henry Hwang
Directed by Helen Young

A gripping investigation of journalistic integrity, city planning, and social conscience, Wild Boar is a new play from one of Hong Kong’s most acclaimed playwrights. When a controversial professor goes missing, an editor and his student band together to publicize the truth. Old flames spark and friendships are tested in the U.S. premiere of this turbulent thriller about media manipulation, fake news, and who gets to speak for the poor.

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May 11–July 2, 2017

The U.S. Premiere
Co-Produced with Remy Bumppo Theatre Company
Written by Charles Dickens
Adapted by Tanika Gupta
Co-Directed by Lavina Jadhwani and Nick Sandys

Dickens’ beloved tale of aspiration, intrigue, and romance is thrillingly transplanted to a colonized India by award-winning British Bengali playwright Tanika Gupta. When Indian orphan Pip receives a mysterious inheritance, he must choose between his humble rural life and the city life of an English “gentleman.” In a vibrant clash of cultures, classes, and conscience, Gupta's brilliant adaptation expands Dickens' enduring question: Is it worth losing who you are for who you might become?

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December 1–December 23, 2016

The World Premiere
Written and Performed by Christine Bunuan
Directed by J.R. Sullivan
Musical Direction by Ryan Brewster

This new holiday musical revue puts a Silk Road spin on the Christmas season. Chicago favorite Christine Bunuan invites you into her world with Christmas at Christine's. Journey from California to Chicago to the Philippines to a Catholic-Jewish household as Christine sings her way through the holiday songbook and a lifetime of yuletide memories.

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September 06–September 25, 2016

The World Premiere
Written and Performed by Azhar Usman
Directed by Aaron Todd Douglas

Famed comedian, Azhar Usman, takes to the stage with this brutally honest, unflinching one-man show exploring the tensions and paradoxes surrounding the double consciousness of American Muslims living in an ever-polarizing modern world.

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March 24–May 15, 2016

The World Premiere
Written by Jamil Khoury
Directed by Edward Torres

Inspired by the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy in New York City, Mosque Alert tells the story of three fictional families living in Naperville, Illinois, whose lives are interrupted by a proposed Islamic Center on the site of a beloved local landmark. Mosque Alert explores the intersections of zoning and Islamophobia with humor, family drama, and refreshingly blunt honesty.

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February 18–February 28, 2016

The World Premiere
Written and Performed by Ronnie Malley
Directed by Anna C. Bahow

Take an enchanting musical journey to 9th century Islamic Spain with Muslim American musical impresario Ronnie Malley. Arabic music, poetry, and songs breathe life into the story of Ziryab, a former slave whose musical abilities brought him fame throughout Al-Andalus: a land where Christians, Jews and Muslims co-existed for more than seven centuries and created a unique and diverse society.

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November 19–22, 2015

A Workshop Production
Written and Performed by Jameeleh Shelo
Directed by Jessica Mitolo

Through a diverse group of characters, this sketch comedy show offers a lovable view into the life of a Middle Eastern American woman from the South Side of Chicago as she navigates her way through cultural pressures and societal assumptions. What happens when the Mid-East meets the Mid-West? The answers will fill you with laughter and joy! 

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October 1–4, 2015

A Workshop Production
Written and Performed by Marissa Lichwick
Directed by Lavina Jadhwani

Born out of her experiences growing up as a Korean-adoptee in a family of ten in upstate New York, this coming-of-age, one-woman show follows two orphans through the streets of South Korea, into the suburban American heartland, and their fortuitous journey back. Back to Korea, back to their past.

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August 13–16, 2015

A Workshop Production
Written and Performed by Puja Mohindra
Directed by Andrew Volkoff

Geeta Gidwani doesn’t want the arranged marriage her parents have. She’s an American girl and wants to fall madly in love, like she’s seen in Shakespeare, Bollywood movies and her favorite show, Friends. But after a family trip to a holy Indian temple inspires her to wish for a soulmate, she meets Manish, standing at the corner of tradition and fairytale.

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June 11–14, 2015

Written and Performed by Rohina Malik
Co-Directed by Wayne Maugans and Nick Westemeyer

Racism. Hate crimes. Love. Islam. Culture. Language. Life. Five Muslim women in a post-9/11 world serve tea and uncover what lies beneath the veil in this compelling one-woman show.

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April 23–26, 2015

A Workshop Production
Written and Performed by Minita Gandhi
Directed by Heidi Stillman

The life of a young Indian-American woman is forever changed when, on a retreat to her homeland, she unearths family secrets, encounters a prophet, and ultimately discovers her own voice. The Familiar and the Foreign swap roles in this dark comedy about culture, identity, spirituality, and sexuality.

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February 19–22, 2015

The Chicago Premiere
Written and Performed by Kim Schultz
Original Direction by Sarah Cameron Sunde

Falling in love with an Iraqi refugee was never part of Kim Schultz’s plan, but a man named Omar changed all that. No Place Called Home is that unexpected story—a story about an American woman and an Iraqi man, a story about one refugee in 2 million, a story that isn’t supposed to be a love story. 

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October 16–November 23, 2014

The Midwest Premiere
Written by Christopher Chen
Directed by Joanie Schultz

Digital media becomes the perfect "ally" for a group of actors collectively creating a play about Mao Tse Tung's Cultural Revolution. As their work-in-progress starts morphing into a propaganda play about the play itself, disturbing questions arise as to who, or what, is controlling the narrative.

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March 27–May 4, 2014

The Chicago Premiere
Co-Production with About Face Theatre
Written by Aditi Brennan Kapil
Directed by Andrew Volkoff

In this provocative play masquerading as a stand-up comedy routine, an Indian intersex person explores history, mythology, gender roles. . . and high school. Funny, cynical, inventive and intensely charismatic, Brahman/i takes on more than a dozen unforgettable characters in a fascinating life story that most of us can barely even begin to imagine.

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November 7–December 15, 2013

The World Premiere
Written by Motti Lerner
Translated from Hebrew by Hillel Halkin
Directed by Jimmy McDermott

A compassionate but wary 62-year-old Jesus and an egomaniacal Emperor Nero torment the ailing psyche of the Apostle Paul as he struggles to universalize monotheism against fierce opposition from a Jewish religious establishment threatened with spiritual extinction.

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July 30–September 15, 2013

The Midwest Premiere
Written by Jonas Hassen Khemiri
Translated from Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles
Directed by Anna C. Bahow

Invasion! is a tornado of words, images and ideas, all centered around a magical name: Abulkasem. The play assaults our deepest prejudices about culture, race and language. At once hilarious, disturbing and poignant, this mischievously subversive play deconstructs a “threatening” identity—the Arab male—and forces us to confront our own complicated identities.

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April 23–May 26, 2013

The World Premiere
Written by Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Timothy Douglas

In a depressed Cleveland neighborhood amidst a fierce winter storm, an Indian American brother and sister, long estranged, are reunited by the sudden death of their father. Enter their late father’s African American confidante and gambling bookie, and a slew of family secrets get unearthed. The Lake Effect sets in motion a complicated web of relationships and conflicts that challenge our perceptions of race, gender, and success.

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October 9–November 11, 2012

The World Premiere
Written by Adriana Sevahn Nichols
Directed by Lisa Portes

Spanning from the Ottoman Empire to New York City, and across three generations of an Armenian and Dominican family, Adriana Sevahn Nichols' Night Over Erzinga explores how a man can lose everything but his heart, and how a grandmother can reach through time, unearth an untold story, and bring her children “home.” From collective tragedy to personal triumph, ancestors reunite with the living in a breathtakingly beautiful journey toward making peace with the past and reclaiming one’s heritage.

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April 4–May 6, 2012

The World Premiere
Curated by Jamil Khoury
Directed by Steve Scott
Musical Direction by Ryan Brewster
Choreography by Brenda Didier

Re-Spiced: A Silk Road Cabaret is a playful, sexy, occasionally subversive, always entertaining musical pastiche of Asian and Middle Eastern images in American and British song and verse. From Broadway show tunes to pop, from country to rap, folk to rock, poetry to prose, Re-Spiced turns the tables on “us” and “them” with panache and glee and leaves us wondering just who’s who?

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June 14–July 31, 2011

The Chicago Premiere
Presented in Association with Goodman Theatre
Written by David Henry Hwang
Directed by Steve Scott

A revealing backstage comedy from the Tony Award-winning writer of M. Butterfly, this ferociously funny, utterly unreliable memoir chronicles David Henry Hwang's struggle to define racial identity in the mixed-up melting pot of contemporary America. Part fact, part fiction, Yellow Face explores the pitfalls and promise of our "PC" world.

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October 6–November 21, 2010

The Chicago Premiere
Written by Wajdi Mouawad
Translated from French by Linda Gaboriau
Directed by Dale Heinen

Inspired by classical Greek tragedy and the devastating effects of the Lebanese civil war, the internationally-renowned play Scorched was originally written in French by the acclaimed Lebanese French Canadian playwright Wajdi Mouawad. Carried aloft by poetic language and evocative imagery, Scorched unfolds in a dreamlike atmosphere connecting the origins of one family in startling and unforgettable ways. A brother and sister raised in Quebec must return to their mother's war-torn country to carry out her last wishes—finding the father and brother they never knew they had.

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March 2–April 4, 2010

The World Premiere
Presented in Association with Goodman Theatre
Conceived by Jamil Khoury
Featuring Plays by Philip Kan Gotanda, Velina Hasu Houston, David Henry Hwang, Jamil Khoury, Shishir Kurup, Lina Patel, and Elizabeth Wong
Directed by Steve Scott

Theatre meets science when a diverse group of playwrights each agree to take a genealogical DNA test and revisit their assumptions about identity, politics, and the perennial "who am I" question. Self, family, community, and ethnicity are all up for grabs.

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October 21–November 1, 2009

The World Premiere
Conceived and Curated by Jamil Khoury
Directed by Elizabeth Margolius
Musical Direction by Gary Powell

Silk Road Cabaret: Broadway Sings the Silk Road features songs from popular Broadway musicals set along the Silk Road—from Pacific Overtures to Two Gentlemen of Verona to Jesus Christ Superstar to The King and I to Zorba to Miss Saigon, and many more in between. This bold and harmonious East-West interplay blends music with personal stories and showcases performers of diverse backgrounds as they claim, reclaim, subvert, and poke fun at a host of old favorites from the Broadway repertoire.

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March 19–May 10, 2009

The Midwest Premiere
Written by Motti Lerner
Translated from Hebrew by Anthony Berris
Directed by Jennifer Green

Set in 2012 amidst the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians, Motti Lerner’s Pangs of the Messiah is an apocalyptic yet fiercely humane drama about eight West Bank Jewish settlers pitted against an Israel they feel has betrayed them. The play focuses on a religious family that finds itself torn between fighting to stay in their settlement and obeying their government’s decision to dismantle it. Left hanging in the balance is the legacy of their beliefs.

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September 18–November 2, 2008

The Midwest Premiere
Presented in Association with Goodman Theatre
Written by Philip Kan Gotanda
Directed by Steve Scott

A divorced Japanese woman and an African American GI meet in post-World War II Japan and fall in love. After decades of struggle, they have found an accepting Los Angeles suburb to call home—but their peaceful world is changing. 

More than a study of clashing cultures, Yohen is the poetic, resonant story of two partners who discover that intimate relationships change with environments—and love, however time-tested, is never constant.

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