Displaying items by tag: Jennifer Glasse

The Gift Theatre, led by Artistic Directors Brittany Burch and Jennifer Glasse, announces its 25^th Anniversary "Homecoming" Season. The landmark 2026 season features the return of the company's signature short play festival, a major Chicago premiere, and a new work by ensemble member Netta Walker, staged at iconic venues across the city including A Red Orchid Theatre, Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater, and a return to Jefferson Park at the Copernicus Center.

The 25^th Season includes the annual short play festival TEN 25^th, March 25-April 4, 2026, to take place at A Red Orchid Theatre. The Chicago Premiere of Marble by Marina Carr, August 2-30, 2026, will mark a return to the company's home neighborhood. Hayward, a world premiere by new ensemble member Netta Walker, October 14-November 22, will be presented at Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater. The season will close with a one-night event in December, the 25th Anniversary Benefête Performance at Jefferson Park's Copernicus Center.

Artistic Directors Brittany Burch and Jennifer Glasse comment, "As we look ahead, we're recommitting to our origins in Jefferson Park and actively exploring pathways to bring The Gift home again. Our 25th Anniversary 'Homecoming' season reflects that spirit—beginning with a winter gala and continuing this spring with TEN 25th at A Red Orchid Theatre and continuing with Marina Carr's captivating drama Marble, and Hayward, a new play by one of The Gift's newest ensemble members Netta Walker. We celebrate 25 years of intimate, ensemble-driven work by coming home—to our artists, audiences, and the neighborhoods that shaped the company."

Subscription packages are now on sale at thegifttheatre.org or by calling 773-283-7071. The Homecoming Subscription Package, $105, includes TEN 25^th, Marble and Hayward. The Homecoming Subscription Package+ Subscription Package, $170, includes TEN 25^th, Marble, Hayward and the 25th Anniversary Benefête Performance.  Subscribers save up to 15% off regular ticket prices, priority seating, free ticket exchanges and guaranteed seating to limited-run productions.

The 25^th Anniversary Homecoming Season is:

TEN 25^th

The Gift's Ten-Minute Play Festival of New Work

at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N Wells St. in Chicago

March 25 – April 4, 2026

Tickets, $25, thegifttheatre.org and (773) 283-7071

TEN 25th features the work of Gift ensemble members Cyd Blakewell, Erica Weiss, Gregory Fenner, Jennifer Glasse, Jennifer Rumberger, John Gawlik, Kenny Mihlfried, Pat Weber, Paul D'Addario and Shanésia Davis.

TEN 25th features 10-minute world premiere plays from Chicago playwrights John Gawlik, Jennifer Rumberger, Gregory Fenner, Kimberly Dixon-Mays, Dolores Diaz, Stephanie Alison Walker, Emilio Williams, Jermaine Jenkins, and Brett Neveu.

MARBLE
Chicago Premiere by Marina Carr

at Copernicus Center – Kings Hall, 5216 W Lawrence Ave in Chicago

August 2 – August 30, 2026

Tickets, $45-$50, thegifttheatre.org and (773) 283-7071

individual tickets will be on sale this spring

Marble follows two married couples, Ben and Catherine, and their friends Art and Anne, whose comfortable lives begin to splinter after a shared dream triggers suspicion and desire.

A surreal and haunting exploration of two couples whose lives collide through shared dreams, this production anchors the company's homecoming to the neighborhood where it was founded.

HAYWARD

World Premiere by ensemble member Netta Walker

Directed by AmBer Montgomery

featuring ensemble members Shanesia Davis and Gregory Fenner

at Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater, 1700 N. Halsted St in Chicago

October 14 – November 22

Tickets, $45-$50, will be available this summer through the Steppenwolf box office.

A reimagining of the classics Hamlet and Electra. The play follows the main character Luna, who on the day of her father's funeral, confesses to her siblings that she has seen her father's ghost. Staged in Steppenwolf's intimate 1700 Theater, this production continues The Gift's commitment to ensemble talent and bold new narratives.

25th ANNIVERSARY BENEFÊTE PERFORMANCE

at Copernicus Center — Gateway Theatre 5216 W. Lawrence, Chicago, IL

December 7th 2026

Tickets $75, thegifttheatre.org and (773) 283-7071 tickets will be available this spring

The season will close out with a spectacular, one-night-only celebration honoring a quarter century of The Gift Theatre. This 25th Anniversary Benefête Performance, will be a night featuring our favorite scenes from over the years performed by ensemble members —the artists who have shaped this theatre across generations.

About The Gift Theatre
The Gift Theatre is a storefront nonprofit founded in Chicago's Jefferson Park neighborhood, committed to creating accessible, inclusive, and impactful theatrical experiences. Our identity is defined by intimacy, collaboration, and a belief that live storytelling can inspire and transform both artist and audience. Our programming isn't bound by genre but guided by character-driven, emotionally rich storytelling rooted in truth. Whether surreal or starkly naturalistic, each play we share reflects our commitment to creating spaces of deep connection—among artists, between artist and audience, and within our community.

The Gift Theatre ensemble includes its newest members Jennifer Aparicio, Shanésia Davis, Angela Morris, Jennifer Rumberger, Netta Walker and Patrick Weber. They join fellow ensemble members Daniel Ahlfeld, Cyd Blakewell, Brittany Burch, Hillary Clemens Harbor, Jenny Connell Davis, John Kelly Connolly (in memoriam), Paul D'Addario, Brendan Donaldson, Will Eno,

James D. Farruggio, Gregory Fenner, Ed Flynn, Gabriel Franken, John Gawlik, Maggie Andersen Gawlik, Emjoy Gavino, Jennifer Glasse, Andrew Hinderaker, Chika Ike, Evan Michael Lee, Sarah Luse, Marti Lyons, Alexandra Main, Martel Manning, Laura Marks,Kenny Mihlfried, Benjamin Montague, William Nedved, Darci Nalepa, Keith Neagle, Lynda Newton, Sheldon Patinkin (in memoriam), Maureen Payne-Hahner, David Preis, David  Rabe, Mary Ann Thebus (in memoriam), Michael Patrick Thornton, Hannah Toriumi, Erica Weiss, Jay Worthington, and Kyle Zornes.

As the audience takes its seats we are greeted by an atmosphere of foreboding, a trestle bridge girder to the left, and in the evening air, foggy wisps drift about the stage. Already something is up, but we don’t know what. Just something in Charly Evon Simpson’s captivating and mysterious “Jump.”

Soon enough Fay (Jazzma Pryor is dazzling) takes to the bridge and vapes, her smoke blending into the foggy night. Her vaping becomes ritualistic. Squat, in a high tops and jeans jacket, her braided rows tipped in blonde, Fay takes a drag, then tosses her vape into the gorge like a discarded cigarette butt, then reaches skyward and another vape appears, and she repeats this sleight of hand multiple times. Periodically lights flicker, then the stage goes dark.

Running 90 minutes with no intermission, “Jump” relies on a slow (perhaps too slow) and steady build to a climactic reveal for its forward momentum. And in the next scene, action begins. The porch of a white clapboard house is now the focus. This is Fay’s childhood home, and we learn that her mother passed away some weeks ago. She is to meet her family here to dispose of the household possessions, Dad (Alfred Wilson) is due to arrive soon, but is reliably late.

Then Fay’s older sister Judy (Jennifer Glasse) appears. The two check-in with each other, in a verbal joust that suggests years of tension and a different outlook on life. Judy is polished and well groomed. But they are here for the same purpose, wondering aloud what surprising news Dad will have for them when he arrives.

Oddly, the lights flicker now and then. Fay remarks on it but Judy, oddly, doesn’t register the phenomenon or even respond to Fay’s question about it. Judy disappears into the house, and Fay awaits the arrival of her father, alone.

In later scenes, Judy and Fay explore their shared bedroom from girlhood—Fay is more wistful, Judy less engaged in looking back at their time together, and the loss of their mother and home. When Dad does arrive, he lays out the news alone to Fay on the porch: he is planning on selling the house.

Later, Fay is back on the bridge, alone, vaping again and perhaps meditating on these moments of loss, when we meet the most significant character, the long-haired slacker Hopkins (Jeff Kurysz). A cigarette smoker, Hopkins and Fay find a chemistry in smoking and feeling blue on the bridge. We learn that Hopkins was contemplating a jump from the bridge but Fay’s presence thwarted his plan.

Scenes of these two on the bridge are the best part of the play: a natural engagement of two people, each in their own grief, and the mutual support they glean from knowing at least we are not alone. Kurysz is quite perfect, and Pryor’s performance is exceptional.

The sets by Regina Garcia and Lindsay Mummert are beautifully done, and the lighting by Levi Wilkins and sound by Christopher Kriz are perfectly synched: the flickering lights and crackle of electrical shorts are almost another character in this play.

The acting and sets are really good, the climax gives a surprising and satisfying resolution. But with so little real action, the pace given “Jump” by director AmBer Montgomery leads up to the resolve much too slow. And while “Jump” is about grief, the playwright doesn't register the internal emotional suffering of these grieving individuals. We’re only given the outward effects.

Still, “Jump” is a good theater experience. “Jump” runs through June 1, 2024 at Theater Wit in Chicago.