Staged Readings of New Plays and Musicals
By Chicago Writers’ Bloc Playwrights, Composers, and Lyricists
Tickets:
$20 General Admission, $10 Students
Parking/transportation information: click here >>
All Performances at 7:30 PM
On Benefit Nights (March 23 & 29) Activities Begin at 7:00
This season highlights staged readings of a powerful slate of new work, many of which feature women’s voices prominently, across genres from historical dramas to musicals, speculative fiction, and dark comedy. Here are the featured plays:
Perverse Mortgage by Blake Levinson. 3/15/26
After striking a deal with a dying widower, a desperate developer faces the unthinkable when the man refuses to die.
Driving the Dream by Chloe Bolan and Gerald H. Bailey. 3/16/26
In this musical, Bertha Benz of Mercedes Benz fame defies her parents, the Kaiser, and the Nazis but is known for jump-starting the auto industry’s popularity.
Authentic Intelligence by Richard Norby 3/19/26
Alex trains an AI and is surprised when it absorbs his quirky personality. A psychologist starts losing patients, and maybe even his wife, to an AI companion. An art agent is excited by a young artist’s latest painting. Does he tell her that it was actually painted by his new AI appliance?
Cor Virginis by Patrick Bolan 3/22/26
A pregnant unwed teenaged Jewish girl in early Roman Empire Galilee fights a corrupt Sanhedrin.
Better Than Bingo by John S. Green 3/23/26
The thirty year old rec director of a retirement home believes she understands the realities of aging and death better than the residents do. A comedy.
Stop Feeding the Aliens by Wencke Braathen 3/25/26
Aliens harvest negative energy from humans, until some turn friendly and warn people that the balance in the universe is at stake.
Exiled to Indiana by June Finfer 3/26/26
After moving from Chicago to Indiana in the turbulent 1960s, a young wife feels lost and tries to find herself. A dramedy.
Hearts in the Wood by Joanne Koch and Jim Lucas 3/29/26
In this lively yet tender country musical, when Becky reveals she is folk singer Jonas’s granddaughter, she changes her life and his.