Displaying items by tag: Glenn Obrero

A Red Orchid Theatre is pleased to conclude its 33^rd Season with the world premiere of Hanna Kime's The Targeted, a tragicomedy about community directed by Grace Dolezal-Ng, playing May 7 – June 14, 2026 at The Chopin Theatre Mainstage, 1543 W. Division St. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. Single tickets go on sale Tuesday, March 24, 2026 at aredorchidtheatre.org or by calling (312) 943-8722. Season subscriptions are currently available. The press opening is Sunday, May 17 at 6 pm.

The Targeted will feature Ensemble Members Kirsten Fitzgerald*, Lawrence Grimm*, Sadieh Rifai* and Natalie West* with Glenn Obrero and Stephanie Shum.

About the Production:

Welcome to the Solidarity and Truth Summit. A gathering of the most persecuted, tortured, and misunderstood people in the entire world. They call themselves Targeted Individuals, and they are victims of a vast and covert program of systematic torture, surveillance, and harassment by global intergovernmental powers. Over the course of this weekend in the woods they will discuss strategies to take down the deep state, bring awareness to their plight, and despite their suffering, stay human.

The production team includes Lauren Nichols (Scenic Designer), Stephanie Cluggish (Costume Designer), Josiah Croegaert (Lighting Designer), Angela Joy Baldasare (Sound Designer), Spencer Diaz Tootle (Props Designer), Eme Ospina-López (Projections Designer), Jennifer Aparicio (Production Manager), Tom Daniel (Technical Director), Dan Washelesky (Dramaturg) and Anna Vu (Stage Manager)

*Denotes A Red Orchid Theatre Ensemble Member

PRODUCTION DETAILS:

Title: The Targeted

Playwright: Hanna Kime
Director: Grace Dolezal-Ng
Cast (in alphabetical order): Kirsten Fitzgerald* (Rhonda), Lawrence Grimm* (Jeff), Glenn Obrero (Eric), Sadieh Rifai* (Sherry) Stephanie Shum (Mia) and Natalie West* (Didi).

Location: The Chopin Theatre Mainstage, 1543 W. Division St., Chicago

Dates: Previews: Thursday, May 7 at 7 pm, Friday, May 8 at 7 pm, Saturday, May 9 at 7 pm, Sunday, May 10 at 3 pm, Thursday, May 14 at 7 pm, Friday, May 15 at 7 pm and Saturday, May 16 at 3 pm & 7 pm

Regular run: Thursday,  May 21 – Sunday, June 14, 2026
Curtain Times: Thursdays and Fridays at 7 pm; Saturdays 3 pm & 7 pm; and Sundays at 3 pm. Please note: there will be an added Industry Night performance on Monday, June 1 at 7 pm.

Tickets: Previews: $33 – $44*. Regular run: $55*. Access, student, senior, and group discounts available. Single tickets go on sale Tuesday, March 24, 2026 at aredorchidtheatre.org or by calling (312) 943-8722. *Ticket prices include a processing fee.

About the Artists:

Hanna Kime (Playwright, she/her) is a Jeff-Nominated Chicago-based playwright and screenwriter originally from St. Louis, Missouri. Her full-length work has been presented or developed with companies such as Benson Drive Productions (George Strus), the Goodman, Berkeley Rep, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, A Red Orchid, Steep, [producingbody], The Understudy: Coffee and Books, Bramble, Sideshow, where she was an ensemble member, First Floor, where she previously served as Literary Manager, among others. Most recently, her play Dogs had its world premiere at Red Theater. This spring, her play The Best Damn Thing will receive its Seattle Premiere at Dacha Theatre. Kime is a two-time O'Neill Finalist, was the winner of OKC Rep's New Voices Contest and has been named a semifinalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Ashland New Play Festival and Premiere Stages Play Festival. She holds degrees from the University of Chicago in English and Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is represented by UTA and managed by Curate.

Grace Dolezal-Ng (Director, she/her) is a Chicago-based director passionate about building empathy and generating empowerment through visceral storytelling. Director: Baked! (Theo), The Best Damn Thing (The Understudy), Radial Gradient (Shattered Globe), Despierta! (Lime Arts), Death for Sydney Black (Independent). Assistant Director: It Came From Outer Space (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Athena (Writers Theatre), Roe (Goodman Theatre), The Great Leap (Asolo Repertory Theatre). By day, Grace is Casting Coordinator at Goodman Theatre.

Kirsten Fitzgerald (Rhonda, she/her) is a proud member of the Ensemble at A Red Orchid Theatre and has served as the Artistic Director since 2008. She was most recently onstage here last season in The Cave. Select AROT credits include In Quietness, Grey House, Traitor, Evening at the Talk House, The Room, Pilgrim's Progress, Mud Blue Sky, Butcher of Baraboo, The New Electric Ballroom, Abigail's Party, Pumpgirl, Weapon of Mass Impact and The Sea Horse (for which she was honored to receive a Jeff Award). She is currently directing Birds of North America and previously directed The Moors at AROT, which earned her a Jeff Award for Best Director of a Play (Midsize). Other onstage credits include Swing State (Off-Broadway Minetta Lane Theatre, Goodman), I Hate It Here, ROE, Sweat (Goodman); Mary Page Marlowe, The Qualms, Clybourne Park (Steppenwolf); Appropriate, Lettie (Victory Gardens), Motherhouse (Rivendell); and work with Chicago Shakes, Utah Shakes, Shattered Globe, Remy Bumppo, Plasticene, Prop, Defiant and more. TV: Shining Girls, Somebody Somewhere, The Exorcist, Sirens, Chicago Med/Fire/Justice, Underemployed, ER. Film: Rain Reign, Widows, Working Man. Representation: Grossman & Jack Talent.

Lawrence Grimm (Jeff, he/him) is a founding ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre where some of his credits include: Turret, Traitor, Do You Feel Anger?, Small Mouth Sounds, 3C, Trevor, In a Garden, Pumpgirl and Abigail's Party, among many others. Area credits: Gaslight and Prayer for the French Republic (Northlight), Hannah and Martin (Jeff Nomination – Actor) and The Heavens Are Hung in Black (Shattered Globe), King Charles III, The Tempest (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), 2666 (Goodman Theatre), The Upstairs Concierge (Goodman – New Stages), My Name is Asher Lev (Timeline Theatre), In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play (Victory Gardens), Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter (Next Theatre), Orlando (Court Theatre), Two by Pinter (Piven Theater Workshop), The Glass Menagerie (Raven Theatre, Jeff Award – Actor), The Brothers Karamazov, 1984 (Lookingglass), I Never Sang for My Father, Wolf Lullaby (Steppenwolf). Film credits: Eric LaRue, Night's End, Slice, Captive State, Welcome to Me, A Perfect Manhattan, Cicero in Winter. Television: Somebody, Somewhere (HBO), The Red Line (CBS), Chicago PD, Chicago Med, Chicago Fire (NBC), Late Night with Conan O'Brien (NBC). More at www.grimmactor.com.

Glenn Obrero (Eric, he/him) is excited to make his A Red Orchid Theatre debut! He was last seen in Pivot (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble). Select Chicago theatre credits: Tale of Two Cities (Shattered Globe Theatre), The Great Leap (Steppenwolf Theatre), 20K Leagues under the Seas (Lookingglass Theatre), Ironbound (Raven Theatre), Wipeout (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble) and The Chinese Lady (TimeLine Theatre). Regional Theatre credits: Barefoot in the Park and Misery (Peninsula Players Theatre), Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Kitchen Theatre), The Great Leap (Asolo Repertory Theatre). Film credits: When Cats Fly. TV credits: Chicago Fire (NBC) and nExt (FOX). Glenn is a member of Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and represented by Gray Talent Group.

Sadieh Rifai (Sherry, she/her) is an ensemble member at A Red Orchid Theatre. As a playwright, she recently had the world premiere of her play The Cave as part of the 32rd season. She's also performed in Do You Feel Anger, An Evening at The Talk House and the world premiere of Grey House. Sadieh was also recently on stage at Steppenwolf in the production of You Will Get Sick directed by Audrey Francis. Film credits include The Wise Kids, Nate and Margaret, Olympia and All Happy Families. Television credits include Chicago Med, Netflix's Easy, CBS The Red Line, Amazon's Patriot, Apple TV's Shining Girls ,TJ and Dave's pilot Bettendorf Talks and season three of HBO's Somebody Somewhere. Sadieh is a graduate of the School at Steppenwolf and received the Princess Grace Award.

Stephanie Shum (Mia, she/her) previously appeared in Revolution and The Moors and serves as the Marketing & Development Director at A Red Orchid Theatre. Other credits include The Crucible, You Will Get Sick, Bald Sisters, The Great Leap (Steppenwolf); Hummingbird (Goodman); Gorgeous (Raven/Rivendell); One Party Consent (First Floor); Dogs (Red, Jeff Nomination – Performer in a Supporting Role); Mothers (Gift); Men on Boats (American Theater Company); A Story Told in 7 Fights (Neo-Futurists); Love in the Time of Jonestown, Small World, Kate and Sam Are Not Breaking Up (The New Coordinates, selected); Christmas Carol, Tiger Style! (TheatreSquared); among others. Stephanie is a graduate of the School at Steppenwolf and is represented by Gray Talent Group. stephanieshum.com

Natalie West (Didi, she/her) has been an ensemble member of A Red Orchid since 2010. She has appeared in many productions including The Cave, Revolution, Fulfillment Center, Traitor and Evening at the Talkhouse. She has performed in shows at the Goodman, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare and Northlight. She is a former member of Remains Theatre. Natalie portrayed the character Crystal on the television show Roseanne and The Conners. She received Jeff awards for her work in Abigail's Party and Butcher of Baraboo at A Red Orchid and Life and Limb at Wisdom Bridge.

Sponsors: Barbara & Randy Thomas (Production Sponsors) and Andrea Mitchel (Developmental Sponsor).

About A Red Orchid Theatre:

A Red Orchid Theatre has served as an artistic focal point in the heart of the Old Town community of Chicago since 1993 and was honored with a 2016 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. Over the past 32 years, its Resident Ensemble has welcomed into its fold an impressive array of award-winning actors, playwrights and theatre artists with the firm belief that live theatre is the greatest sustenance for the human spirit. A Red Orchid is well known and highly acclaimed for its fearless approach to performance and design in the service of unflinchingly intimate stories.  

A Red Orchid Theatre is: Karen Aldridge, Lance Baker, Kamal Angelo Bolden, Esteban Andres Cruz, Dado, Mike Durst, Sherman Edwards, Myron Elliott, Jennifer Engstrom, Kirsten Fitzgerald, Joseph Fosco, Steve Haggard, Levi Holloway, Mierka Girten, Larry Grimm, John Judd, Karen Kawa, Karen Kessler, Travis A. Knight, Danny McCarthy, Shade Murray, Brett Neveu, Sadieh Rifai, Grant Sabin, Michael Shannon, Guy Van Swearingen, Doug Vickers and Natalie West.  

Sponsor Information: 

A Red Orchid Theatre remains grateful for the support of our board, donors and loyal audience who continue to champion our ambitious and powerful storytelling. These sponsors help to create a platform for our talented Ensemble to reach new audiences, and ensure that we remain a source for honest, compassionate, and aesthetically rigorous theatre-making. 

A Red Orchid Theatre's 33^rd Season is sponsored by Heidi Graham. The Targeted is sponsored by Barbara & Randy Thomas (Production Sponsors) and Andrea Mitchel (Developmental Sponsor).

Interested in sponsoring a production? By partnering with us as a sponsor, you will help to take our work to the next level of artistic excellence, while also receiving deeper access to our artists and the creative process. To learn more, please contact Development Director Stephanie Shum at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (312) 943-8722. 

TimeLine Theatre’s ‘The Chinese Lady’ is a powerful show - poignant, learned, sophisticated - and illuminating. Ninety minutes of engaging drama (no intermission) that left me somewhere between laughing, crying, and standing on my feet to cheer.

Directed by Helen Young from the script by Lloyd Suh (an award-winning playwright now in residence at New York’s New Dramatists) is based on the true story of Afong Moy (Mi Kang gives a stellar performance), brought to New York in 1834 as a living museum exhibit when she was just 14. For 25 cents a ticket, Afung Moy portrayed aspects of life in exotic China: eating a meal with chopsticks, walking in petite slippers covering her tiny bound feet, making tea, and speaking to the audience about life in her homeland. 

As the first Chinese woman to come to the U.S. and American public, we gather from Moy’s presentation that her contractors—New York merchants of Asian imports who are unseen in the play—hoped to inspire an appreciation of China’s culture and people. Her pparents contracted with the merchants for a two-year servitude at the museum. This stretched on for 55 years.

The exhibit space that forms the scenery (Arnell Scanciaco is scenic designer) is built in a Chinese style, and adorned with fine pottery and carvings (Rowen Doe handles properties) the type that merchants would likely have brought from her homeland. 

Afong Moy is assisted in her presentation by Atung (Glenn Obrero is equally excellent in this two-person show). Atung draws the curtain, serves the meal, and fluent in English and Chinese, translates and speaks for her. Over time she gains sufficient fluency to make Atung “superfluous” for speaking to the audience. Their stage personae and their personal relationship forms the structure for the play, and the playwright exploits this expertly.

Because Afong Moy is speaking directly to the ticket holders—that role played by the audience— the fourth wall of the stage is non-existent. We watch the arc of Afong Moy’s acclimation to her new home. When offstage, she lives with an American family and at first expresses disdain for their potatoes and corn, and eating with forks. "Chop sticks are elegant," she says.

We meet her again at age 16, and find Afong Moy is now enjoying American food, and longs to go to San Francisco. Scenes revisit her at various intervals, as she ages, and loses her Cantonese, she forgets what her parents looked like, and question who she is. Over time ticket prices escalate to $15. In adulthood she is invited to the White House by Andrew Jackson. We also see the sweep of history through her eyes: the Opium Wars that led to European domination by decimating Chin with drugs; the construction of the transcontinental railway during the Civil War by Chinese immigrants; and later the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment, and the passage of the Exclusionary Act which in 1882 banned Chinese immigration. 

Secondary themes—the relationship between Atung and Afong Moy in dual planes of unrequited love; Atung and Afong Moy’s growing awareness that they are largely without a life, wearing clothes not their own, speaking words that have been scripted—form existential reveries. They express too the horror of this decadent cultural colonialism. And yet, the indomitability of Afong Moy’s human spirit, her aspirations, are not extinguished. 

‘The Chinese Lady’ runs through June 18 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont in Chicago. It comes highly recommended. 

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” repeats James Seol in Lauren Yee’s new play “The Great Leap” now playing at Steppenwolf Theatre. Jesca Prudcencio directs this modern twist on the Dickens classic “A Tale of Two Cities”, which divides its action between 1980s San Francisco and Beijing. 

“The Great Leap” refers to a period of social revolution in China beginning in the 1950s that spilled over into chaos by the late 1980s. Yee’s play is based on a series of real life basketball games in which her father played on behalf of America in Beijing during the 80s. Her father, much like the main character Manford, was a basketball star of San Francisco’s Chinatown. From this bit of personal history, Yee creates a fictional friendship match between USF and Beijing which culminates in the height of the Tiananmen Square protests.

Manford, played by the indefatigable Glenn Obrero is a fast-talking basketball wunderkind from the streets of Chinatown. He convinces down-on-his-luck coach Saul Slezac (Keith Kupferer) to bring him to Beijing for a high-profile rematch between the two countries. Slezac is the standard cocky American who credits himself for bringing basketball to China eighteen years prior when he trained the Republic of China coach, Wen Chang (James Seol). Though the game is coined a friendship match, the stakes are high for both coaches as well as Manford who has limited post-high school options. 

For many theater-goers, plays about sports can be a snooze, but Yee’s play is rarely just about basketball. “The Great Leap” is a history lesson about a revolution in China that failed. Many of today’s teenagers are entirely unaware of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the famous image of the man with bags in front of a tank. The playwright uses basketball as an allegory for the communist party’s tension with the west. 

Performances and production run strong here. Those with only a lukewarm interest in sports will be dazzled by the theatrical vision Jesca Prudencio has for this show. The basketball choreography creates a sense of excitement in the brightly lit set by Justin Humphres. It’s not often that a major house has an entirely Asian American cast (with the exception of Keith Kupferer). It is on the stellar and inspiring performances by James Seol, Glenn Obrero and Deanna Myers that this play hinges. Though Kupferer gets most of the laughs as the crass American coach through which Yee pokes fun at her own Asian American heritage. James Seol establishes himself as the main character with a performance that is as humorous as it is heartfelt. 

“The Great Leap” comes at a relevant time in history. As we observe the 30th anniversary of the June 4 protests, Yee asks us if diplomatic relations have improved or degraded. An ongoing trade war between the two nations as well as uprisings in Hong Kong are food for thought. As complex as the social revolution was, Yee’s play uses hindsight to suggest it was a simpler time, or at the very least a time of great hope. 

Through October 20 at Steppenwolf Theatre. 1650 N Halsted. 312-335-1650

Lifeline Theatre is currently bringing to life the 1963 Madeline L’Engle award-winning, sci-fi novel for young adults, A Wrinkle in Time. It is the first in a series of five books that follow the escapades of Meg Murray, a thirteen-year-old student whom her teachers see as stubborn and difficult. The story follows Meg’s adventure as she and her younger brother, Charles Wallace (a prodigy child genius), search through space and time for their missing scientist father who has vanished after working on a mysterious project called a tesseract. It is during this pursuit that Meg and Charles Wallace, along with along with school friend, Calvin O’Keefe, run into a myriad of characters that get stranger and stranger along the way. 

Before long they find out their true enemy is a bodiless brain called IT, who controls the planet Camazotz and communicates through The Man with Red Eyes. IT’s mission is to robotize everyone by removing their free will. At the same time, another evil force lurks throughout the universe that is only known as The Black Thing. A tall order for the trio of children to conquer on their own, help comes to them in the form of the three Mrs. W’s – Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which – each of whom offers a special power, or insight, in their fight to save their father. It is an exploit where the impossible becomes possible and courage and love proves to be the strongest force of all.

Lifeline brought this classic story to the stage first in 1990 based on the adaptation of James Sie. It returned in 1998 and is back today, nineteen years later. Probably not the easiest story to adapt for the stage, Lifeline does a remarkable job in creating a futuristic world full of color and space age lighting as they do in creatively staging special effects such as flying through time. The set is skillfully designed to give us the appearance of being lost in the dark vastness when needed, or to find ourselves light years away on a strange planet in a strange universe. Finely-crafted original costumes and hi-tech sound effects sprinkle the final touches in fashioning this ultramodern world we are thrust into for two hours. 

Meg Murray needs an exterior that is defiant and bold, though underneath she is smart, confident and caring. Jamie Cahill is able to capture these qualities to give us a believable Meg, for without the play does not work. Cahill is bratty when called for, rebelliously shouting to get her way, she is appropriately emotional as she longs for her father and she is convincing as a teen who would be curious and astonished as a journey such as hers unfolds. 

Trent Davis took on the role of Charles Wallace for the play’s opener, taking turns during its run with Davu Smith also cast for the role. Davis exhibits some mature acting chops for such a young man, impressing the audience with his fitting facial expressions, natural line delivery and comic timing. Rounding out the well-cast triad of adventurous kids is Glenn Obrero as Calvin O’Keefe, who is fun to watch as the eldest of the three, kind of taking on a big brother role. 

Though his role wasn’t as expanded as many others in this production, Michael McKeogh still leaves an impression as Meg and Charles Wallace’s father, persuasively revealing the father-like qualities any kid would want to have in their own parents. Each of the three Mrs. W’s adds their own spark whether by oddities in their own character or in humorous musings with each other or the children - Mrs. Whatsit (Madeline Pell), Mrs. Who (Javier Ferreira) and Mrs. Which (Carmen Molina). Slightly changing from the novel, The Man with Red Eyes becomes known simply as Red Eyes, and is fiercely played by Naima Hebrail who towers over the stage and crowd with her commanding voice and tremendous presence. 

If unfamiliar with Madeline L’Engle’s novel, the stage version is easy enough to follow and enjoy as a new adventure. However, this production might be a bit more special for those who have read the book as we get to see an imaginative recreation of a story many of us have held so close to our hearts as young readers opened up to a new world.

Family-friendly and keenly directed by Elise Kauzlaric, A Wrinkle in Time is a true time traveling quest for some of us to fondly reminisce and for some of us to experience its magic for the first time. A Wrinkle in Time is being performed at Lifeline Theatre through April 9th. For more show information, click here.    

*Extended through April 23rd