Chicago Cultural Center New Play Residency Series
February 15-16, 22-23, 2025
Chicago Cultural Center, Studio Theater, 1st Floor North
FREE Admission • RSVP is requested, but not required
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This February, Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events offers public readings of new theatre projects that are current recipients of the Chicago Cultural Center New Play Residency, a funded incubator offering space, time and funding for the development of new text-based plays and musicals.
Projects include:
- Las Fantasmas y Frida Kahlo, by Spencer Diaz Tootle, produced by The Story Theatre
- The Last Senior Home in Bronzeville, by Nikki Carpenter, produced by Quenna Lené Barrett
- frikiNation, by Krystal Ortiz, produced by UrbanTheater Company
- Your Hands Are Like Mine, by Kiara Rivera, produced by Victor Hugo Jaimes
Readings of the new plays and musical in development take place February 15-16, during Chicago Theatre Week, and February 22-23, 2025. All readings are FREE and open to the public and are held in the Chicago Cultural Center’s Studio Theater (78 E. Washington St). The complete schedule is available below. Each program will include an opportunity to engage with the artists after the reading.
All readings include supertitles/captions displayed on a video screen. When a play is in Spanish, the supertitles/captions will appear in Spanish and English.
RSVP is requested, but not required, for this free event.
Space will be limited, and your RSVP does not guarantee entry – so please arrive early. The lobby is open 1 hour prior to each reading. Accommodation requests can be noted in the reservation process.
Saturday, February 15
Sunday, February 16
11 a.m. - Your Hands Are Like Mine
Saturday, February 22
10 a.m. - The Last Senior Home in Bronzeville
2 p.m. - Las Fantasmas y Frida Kahlo
Sunday, February 23
11 a.m. - frikiNation
3 p.m. - The Last Senior Home in Bronzeville
Continue reading for a description of each play and related biographies.
Las Fantasmas y Frida Kahlo
Written by Spencer Diaz Tootle
Produced by The Story Theatre
Directed by Laura Alcalá Baker
Set in Frida Kahlo’s iconic home-cum-museum, La Casa Azul, Las Fantasmas y Frida Kahlo is a dark comedy haunted by the magical realism of una casa embrujada (a haunted house). While protesting Frida’s overwhelmingly uncomplicated and positive legacy, our protagonist Carmen (a tour docent in La Casa Azul) finds herself spirited back in time, face to face with Frida herself. Through this forced proximity, Frida is invited to wrestle with Carmen’s historical indictment and Carmen is compelled to rethink her beliefs. What do we lose when applying binary thinking to the liminal nature of identity? How have our notions of Latinidad, queerness and political praxis shifted across a century? And how do we navigate the heartbreaking tension of holding our historical heroes in modern day complexity? Can Carmen survive the confrontation she’s conjured?
Note: This play is performed in English.
The Last Senior Home in Bronzeville
Written by Nikki Carpenter
Produced by Quenna Lené Barrett
Directed by Sydney Charles
The Last Senior Home in Bronzeville, a drama/comedy, takes place present day, on the south side of Chicago, at Daley’s Senior Home. The neighborhood that birthed Nat King Cole, Redd Foxx, Sam Cook, Quincy Jones and more finds itself being heavily gentrified, and its historical value diminishing fast. With Daley’s being the last senior home in the community, the residents find themselves at risk of being displaced, unless they all agree to fight back – senior citizen style.
Note: This play is performed in English.
frikiNation
Written by Krystal Ortiz
Produced by UrbanTheater Company
Directed by Kidany Camilo
Musical Direction by Jaime Cepero
frikiNation is a historical bilingual jukebox musical that follows a tight-knit group of friends trying to thrive in an oppressive regime. They fall in love and laugh and thrash while considering a liberated path to death as a viable alternative to being stifled at every turn.
In Cuba, a ‘friki’ is simply someone who is a fan of rock music and its counterculture. That was until the early 90s when a wave of young frikis took extreme measures to rig the communist system in their favor. Being diagnosed with HIV meant you were destined to live in a government-sanctioned hospital that provided you with three meals a day, regular medical attention, and a lower chance of being arrested for the very serious crime of wearing an American flag bandana. So frikis across Havana, Pinar del Rio and Santa Clara started to take matters into their own hands by self-injecting with HIV-positive blood to access a higher quality of life than what they could achieve as the misfits of society. Quickly, the term ‘friki’ started to take on the meaning of a danger to society, a freak spreading AIDS across the island. However, the frikis were simply answering the state’s omnipresent sentiment of “patria o muerte” (country or death) with their own empowered response: “I’ll take death if it means having my freedom”. In sharing this history, frikiNation uses the 2002 album “al fin, por fin” by the Cuban punk band, EsKoria.
Note: This play is performed bilingually in Spanish and English.
Your Hands Are Like Mine
Written by Kiara Rivera
Produced by Victor Hugo Jaimes, with Ashley-Marie Chávez
Directed by Victor Hugo Jaimes
In Your Hands Are Like Mine, Rosa, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, co-owns and runs a Zumba studio with her friends Teresa and Pati. However, the promises the Zumba Studio has made to the women and their daughters all fall short. A magical-realism play that shows eating disorders as a result of generational unwellness.
Note: This play is performed bilingually in Spanish and English.
Spencer Diaz Tootle (she/her) (Playwright)
Spencer Diaz Tootle is an actor, poet, community organizer and playwright based in Chicago by way of Savannah, Georgia. A featured poet for the Fifth Star Honors ceremony, her work has been published in Chariot Press, Prometheus Dreaming, UArts Chicago and Nudie Magazine. Spencer was a 2021 NBCUniversal Bob Curry Fellow with The Second City, going on to perform in multiple revues with the institution, and she has performed her own devised work in collaboration with Steppenwolf Lookout Series. She recently acted in a world premiere production of the love object, produced by The Story Theatre, while simultaneously debuting a new project, CHISME, a variety hour showcasing queer, Latine Chicago artists.
The Story Theatre (Producer)
Founded in 2018, The Story Theatre poses questions, rather than providing answers. We develop and produce new work that is whimsical, melancholic, mythic in vision, and intimate in scale. We are run by a governing artistic ensemble, who ensures our work is actively dismantling racism and inequity, while cultivating community through activism and catharsis. We are so grateful to be kicking off our fifth season with the Chicago Cultural Center New Play Residency through DCASE.
Laura Alcalá Baker (she/they) (Director)
Laura Alcalá Baker is a Chicago-based director and new work developer specializing in unearthing the missing canon and reimagining the existing one. Her work lives in the intersection of a mixed child, one and both – Mexican American. Laura has developed new works such as Matthew Paul Olmos' a home what howls (Steppenwolf), Isaac Gomez’s The Leopard Play, or sad songs for lost boys (Steep Theatre), The Way She Spoke (DCASE, GTC), Omer Abbas Salem’s The Secretaries (First Floor Theater), RUST by Nancy García Loza (Goodman/New Stages), and the audio drama BRAVA (Make Believe Association), which is available on all podcasting platforms. Other select works include I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Denver Center for the Performing Arts), Somewhere Over the Border (City Theatre/People's Light), Anna in the Tropics (Remy Bumppo), Bull (Paramount), The Pillowman (The Gift Theatre). Laura is a Steep Theatre Ensemble Member and 2021 3Arts Make a Wave Recipient.
Nikki Carpenter (she/her) (Playwright)
Born on the South side of Chicago, Nikki is a playwright and actor. She is the founder of Good Content Productions which aims to preserve sacred stories through theatre and essays. Nikki received her B.F.A. in Media Studies from North Park University with a minor in Africana Studies. She is the creator of Black Theatre Chicago, which highlights Black theatre, actors and productions in the Chi. In 2024, she was chosen as a researcher/writer for the August Wilson Society’s upcoming book “Centering & Celebrating Wilsonian Warriors”. Her work includes Emmett’s Photo and The Last Senior Home in Bronzeville.
Quenna Lené Barrett (she/her) (Producer)
Quenna Lené Barrett is a Chicago-based theater artist + practitioner, whose work gathers folks of diverse backgrounds, centers marginalized identities, learns from Black radical wisdom and then dreams collectively to act boldly through those learnings. Quenna has helped develop a number of new and devised theatrical works. She conceived of Re-Writing the Declaration, a devised, participatory play that invites the audience to interrogate this nation’s founding by centering a Black, queer feminist lens. She lead-devised and developed First and This Boat Called My Body with For Youth Inquiry. She has developed participatory, theater-based programs at the University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life and Goodman Theatre, where she was formerly the Associate Director of Education and Engagement.
Sydney Charles (she/her) (Director)
Sydney Charles is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and educator. A 2025 NewCity Magazine Players 50 Theater Hall of Fame inductee, she has performed with Steppenwolf Theatre (The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington), Goodman Theatre (Gem of the Ocean) and Northlight Theatre (Nina Simone: Four Women). She has directed and collaborated with Jackalope Theatre, Artemisia Theatre and Honey Pot Collective/OTV. Sydney’s on-screen credits include South Side (HBO Max) and The Chi (Showtime), and her voiceover work spans commercials, corporate projects and narrative media. She is a collaborator on Lake Song, a Tribeca Festival Audio Official Selection and Signal Award winner. She is also the founder of Kaya Chronicles, a platform merging cannabis, creativity and wellness to empower individuals and communities. As a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and an active union member, Sydney is committed to uplifting underrepresented voices and championing equity through the arts.
Krystal Ortiz (they/she & elle/ella) (Playwright)
Krystal Ortiz is a Cuban-American playwright and performer based in both Chicago and NYC. As a playwright, Krystal is developing frikiNation, a historical Cuban punk rock bilingual jukebox musical, in partnership with National Queer Theatre in New York City. frikiNation will receive a workshop production in June 2025 as part of National Queer Theatre’s Criminal Queerness Festival at Soho Rep’s HERE Arts Center. Krystal is also co-producing a documentary about the history of los frikis cubanos with director Carlos Lopez Estrada. Krystal is currently under commission for a new musical via the Goodman Theatre’s 2024-2025 New Stages Residency with collaborator Satya Jnani Chavez. Krystal is an alumnus of New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL and The Theatre School at DePaul University. They are represented by Stewart Talent Chicago.
UrbanTheater Company (Producer)
UrbanTheater Company (UTC) is a cultural hub rooted in Humboldt Park that amplifies the voices of the Puerto Rican diaspora and BIPOC communities while archiving Chicago history and incubating new work, providing services through storytelling, mentorship and education. Committed to creating a brave space, UTC preserves cultural identity and inspires transformation and healing through the power of art. UTC envisions a future where BIPOC, Latiné and Puerto Rican voices are recognized as vital to the narrative of U.S. history and global Latiné identity. UTC sees theater and interdisciplinary storytelling as transformative forces that connect communities, bridge cultural divides and create belonging on a global scale. By championing these voices, UrbanTheater Company aspires to reshape the arts landscape and ensure their enduring presence in cultural memory.
Kidany Camilo (any pronouns) (Director)
Kidany Camilo is a Chicago-based theatre artist from Bayamón, Puerto Rico. They draw their experience from their training in devised theatre, as a professor focused on acting technique and characterization, their fascination with exploring avant-garde movements, and the works of Federico García Lorca. Recent directing credits include: The Pilon (The Understudy), and Gay Panic: Los Expulsados del Paraíso (Urban Theatre Co.), The Lady from Havana (Outcast Theatre Collective), Caresses (USF Theatre), Too Far (Tampa Bay Theatre Festival). Education: MFA in Acting (Purdue University), BA in Theatre Arts (University of South Florida).
Jaime Cepero (they/he) (Music Director)
Jaime Cepero is an afrolatino queer non-binary artist, actor, and award winning activist, most well known for playing the conniving Ellis Boyd on NBC’s cult favorite musical drama “SMASH” from executive producer Steven Spielberg. Performance credits include TV: “Smash” (NBC), “Connecting...” (NBC), “Mess” (HereTV/Amazon), FILM: “Daddy”, “Dating My Mother”, “Jess”, “I Am Michael”. THEATER: Porgy & Bess 75th Anniversary (National Tour), Night Of The Living Dead: The Musical! (Off- Broadway & Cast Recording), Excorcistic: The Musical (Off-Broadway & Cast Recording) Hair (Claude) Dallas Theater Center, Jesus Christ Superstar: Gospel! (Simon) Alliance Theater, PERICLES (Cerimon, Others) The Shed, Choir Boy (US Pharrus/David) Geffen Playhouse. Artist residencies include work at National Queer Theater, La Mama Experimental Theater, Barishnikov Arts Center, The Chelsea Factory, and The Public Theater, where Jaime is currently a 2025 commissioned artist with Joe’s Pub. As a writer, their punk rock ritual “Francois & The Rebels” was a 2022 nominee for the Vivace Award for groundbreaking new musical theater, and they are currently a 2025 finalist for The Pipeline Arts Foundation Award. As an activist, their organizing & community engagement work on the 2020 March On Broadway won two Gold Anthem Awards from the International Academy Of Digital Arts & Sciences.
Kiara Rivera (she/her) (Playwright)
Kiara Rivera is a Q’eqchi Guatemalan and Mexican performing artist. She is a ChiArts Theatre and the Atlantic Theatre alumnus. Rivera holds a B.A. in Theatre and a Certificate in Public Policy from Connecticut College. Her stage credits include The American Dream (Subtext Studio TC), In the Back/On the Floor (StageLeft Theatre), and To Love and Be Loved (Artemesia Theatre). Beyond the stage, Rivera is deeply committed to working within Chicago's Indigenous and immigrant communities. She has collaborated with organizations like The International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago on the 40th Chicago Latino Film Festival and Centro Romero, an immigrant and refugee community center. In the summer of 2024, she was one of 6 Chicagoans who served as international accompaniers to Maya Ixil in their pursuit of accountability and judicial justice.
Victor Hugo Jaimes (any pronouns) (Producer/Director)
Victor Hugo Jaimes is a multi-disciplinary artist from Guerrero, Mexico, now residing in Chicago. His ranging roles in theatre over the past decade have led him to focus on producing, writing and directing. He has enjoyed producing with Congo Square Theatre as their company production manager on the Jeff Award-winning and nominated productions of Welcome to Matteson and How Blood Go. His experience with Congo Square gave him the trust to begin producing independently and focus on telling stories that explore the nuance of his Mexican community. He is passionate about producing work that highlights the brown and black community that surrounds & uplifts his everyday life. Through storytelling, he intends to heal and break the patterns that limit our existence.
Ashley-Marie Chávez (she/they) (Co-Producer)
Ashley-Marie Chávez is a proud Mexican/Ecuadorian artist. A graduate from Northern Illinois University's BFA Acting program, some of her favorite credits include #8 and #14 in The Wolves with Dominican University, Dulcci in Dulcci with the Inicios: Chicago Latine Playwright Festival, Julie in In the Back/On the Floor with StageLeft Theatre, Witch 1 in Macbeth with Hoosier Shakespeare Festival, Maria in Twelfth Night and Freida in Franz Kafka's The Castle.
