Displaying items by tag: William Delforge

After receiving six Jeff Award Nominations in 2025, The Impostors Theatre Company (ITC) returns this Spring with the highly anticipated world premiere of Static-Head – a sci-fi thriller written by critically acclaimed playwright Ryan Stevens (The Last Living Gun) and directed by ITC Artistic Director Stefan Roseen. Static-Head is a cautionary tale about the internet, AI, and the people it uses. Static-Head runs from April 17 to May 2, 2026 at ITC's resident home The Den Theatre, 1331 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622. 

Sensor-E is the hit new social media app, able to simulate real-life sensations so you can touch, taste, and smell everything you see on your screen. At the prestigious Osman-Haskill University of Technology, where the app was first created, strange things are happening on Sensor-E: Aimee, mourning the loss of her twin sister, uncovers a string of disappearances targeting her classmates. Blair, a fame-hungry would-be influencer, is enlisted into a vast conspiracy concerning school leadership. Paige, relegated to her dorm room due to a health issue that keeps her isolated, is haunted by a strange digital ghost that might hold the key to understanding her condition.

As they struggle to navigate these mysteries, the three students’ paths cross. Soon enough, their use of Sensor-E threatens to permanently blur the line between reality and simulation. The school they attend is not what it once seemed, and the world they know becomes weirder and more dangerous than they could ever imagine. When we can approximate reality, how do we distinguish the real thing?

A sci-fi thriller about the internet and the people it uses, Static-Head renders a cautionary tale against the existent rise of AI and virtual realities.

The cast of Static-Head features ITC ensemble members Jaclyn Jensen as Dr. Priscilla Osman,

Courtney Marie as Dr. Eliza Babbage, and Keaton Stewart as .EXE, with Eliana Deckner-Glick as Aimee,

Kati Yau as Paige, Bryce Lederer as Blair, William Delforge as Ben, Cayla L. Jones as Dorothy,

and Lexy Hope Weixel as //BAD-GATEWAY//.

Following Static-Head, ITC’s Seventh Season will conclude in June with Footholds Vol. 7, an anthology play written by the community and directed by ITC Executive Director Rachel Borgo.

About the Artists

Ryan Stevens (Playwright) is a New York-based playwright and director. They received an MA in Theatre from USC and an MFA in Playwriting from UCLA. They served as the Playwriting Fellow at Emory University from 2023 to 2025. They are beyond thrilled to get to work with The Impostors again for Static-Head's premiere after previously getting the honor to work with them on 2023's The Last Living Gun. Ryan’s work has also been produced by Astoria New Play Festival, Silver Spring Stage, Inkwell Theatre, St. Croix Falls Festival Theatre, Queen City Theatre, New American Theatre, Whiskey Radio Hour, Theatre Viscera, Festival D’Avignon, Broken Slate Productions, The Plagiarists Chicago, Corn Productions, Seoul Players, and Theatre Above the Law, among others.

Stefan Roseen (Director & Sound Designer) is a Chicago-based director, designer, and playwright, and the artistic director of The Impostors Theatre Company (ITC). He most recently directed ITC’s critically acclaimed and Jeff Award–nominated Helena & Hermia in the Enamored Odyssey and Pilot Island & Her Keepers. Additional directing credits include Beyond the Garden Gate; The Last Living Gun; ITC’s Jeff Award–nominated Miranda: A War-Torn Fable; Windwalkers; the Jeff Award–nominated Hertha Nova; Summer & Smoke; Tippy: Stories from the River; Caged: An Allegory; The Wood; Art; and The Terrible Tragedy of Peter Pan. His direction on the short play The Altercation in the Underworld won “Best Of” at the MadKap Productions Short Play Festival. A three-time Jeff Award–nominated artist, Stefan has been recognized for his direction of Helena & Hermia (...) and Hertha Nova, as well as for Artistic Specialty (Sound Design) for Pilot Island & Her Keepers. All three productions were also nominated for Best Production (Short Run). By day, Stefan is an educator, teaching Performance Art and Fine Art. Recent design credits include sound design for Rising Water and Big Time Toppers (Theatre L’Acadie); as well as scenic design for 7 Minutes to Live, Eurydice, A Doll’s House, 25/25, Occidental Express, the Jeff Recommended They, and the Jeff Award–nominated The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Trap Door Theatre).

Fact Sheet | Static-Head

Press Photos for Static-Head will be available the morning of Friday, April 17th. Poster and cast photo attached.

Parking and Transportation:
The Den Theatre is located in Wicker Park on Milwaukee Avenue. There is limited street parking available and The Den Theatre does not currently have parking or valet.

ITC recommends the usage of the ParkChicago and SpotHero apps. Metered parking is available on Milwaukee Avenue and surrounding side streets. Pay boxes are enforced from 8:00 A.M. – 10:00 P.M. on Milwaukee Avenue and from 8:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M. on side streets. Pay boxes accept quarters and credit cards and can be fed up to two or three hours, depending on the location.

The theater is easily accessible via the Blue Line to Division or Damen stops and by bus from #56 (Milwaukee), #70 (Division), #50 (Damen), or #72 (North).

About The Impostors Theatre Company

The Impostors Theatre Company stages stories at the crossroads of retrospect and innovation, where the fantastic collides with the everyday. In order to better our discourse, our relationships, and ourselves, The Impostors aim to inspire an urgency for the arts by embracing the art of pretend.

In 2025-2026, The Impostors explore the past, the near future, and the bridge between. Season Seven reanimates an ancient mythological character, untangles the threads binding us to virtual realities, and stages our favorite anthology series in a new way. The action will play out on the various crossroads that capture our fascination year after year—growth and stasis, truth and deception, life and death.

The Impostors Theatre Company is a 501(c)3 non-profit arts service organization. For more information about The Impostors Theatre Company, and donating to our mission, we invite you to visit theimpostorstheatre.com. Follow ITC on facebook.com/theimpostorstheatre and on instagram.com/impostorstheatre.

Is there a harder emotion to define than love? Its forms are various and seemingly subjective, something you can only know when you feel it. Sarah Ruhl takes on the topic in her 2017 play How to Transcend a Happy Marriage now playing at Redtwist Theatre. Directed by Elizabeth Swanson, this quirky comedy drops audiences right into the dinner party conversation of two married couples discussing polyamory.

Jane (Monique Marshaun) has a new coworker involved in a polycule with two other men. After dinner, she regales her husband Michael (Joe Zarrow) and friends with this titillating tale. George (Tatiana Pavela) and her husband Paul (Carlos Travino) are fascinated by polyamorous Pip (Shaina Toledo). For George, this anecdote is nearly life changing. Though both couples laugh it off as some sort of fad, they hatch a plan to host the throuple–Pip and her two lovers Freddie (William Delforge) and David (Joshua Servantez) for New Year’s Eve.

Pip and her lovers are exactly the free spirits you’d assume they’d be. Ruhl sets up the classic old versus young divide on traditionalism and politics. The first act plays like a good episode of “And Just Like That”, (if that’s been your bag). Characters feel familiar because what they’re very politely discussing in person are the same things we see endlessly dissected online by think pieces. While Pip, Freddie and David are prodded with questions about their lifestyle, the sexual tension between Jane, Michael, George and Paul starts to heat up.

The evening has a profound effect on both couples. In typical Sarah Ruhl style, there’s a flirtation with the fantastic. Reality has a lot of constraints when it comes to storytelling and while a sitcom has to play by the rules, Sarah Ruhl does not. That’s what makes her plays such a sensory feast. One moment both feet are grounded in the reality of these two ordinary couples and the next, a fantastical twist that adds a bit of poetry to their unraveling.

How to Transcend a Happy Marriage feels like Sarah Ruhl’s version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, only in this version, it’s the younger set who win the “get the guests” game. Ruhl’s play is much gentler in its messaging but both plays explore enduring love from the perspectives of new love and worn in love. Ruhl adds in an extra layer of what feels like “kink” that asks its middle-aged audience “what’s the big deal if you like it and it’s not hurting anyone?”

Redtwist’s production is seductive in its presentation. The performance space is fittingly very intimate as this is a play about romantic and platonic intimacy. At times audiences feel like they could just grab an olive off the coffee table and join in the lively discussion. However, the barrier between audience and cast is clearly defined by stellar performances. Particularly Tatiana Pavela as George. Shaina Toledo also really embodies her counterculture character in a way that exudes both confidence and sexuality.

How to Transcend a Happy Marriage is a humorous but deep look at the ways in which we love and categorize love. Though mostly a play about heterosexual love, this feels like a queer play in that it asks a presumably straight audience to open their minds about sexuality and gender norms. Ruhl makes an elevated commentary on non-monogamous relationships from a place of curiosity instead of shlock, which is also how audiences should approach this work. Whatever your inclinations are, this play asks important questions about what it means to love and be loved, even if it looks different than you imagined.

Through September 21 at Redtwist Theatre. 1044 W Bryn Mawr Avenue. 773-728-7529 https://www.redtwisttheatre.org/ 

*This review is also featured on https://www.theatreinchicago.com/! 

I reviewed TITUS ANDRONICUS in mid-February, so I was eager to see the sequel!

In TITUS, Shakespeare tells the story from the viewpoint of the regnant major characters: Empress Tamora and her sons Chiron, Demetrius and Bassianus; Lucius and the unlucky Lavinia, progeny of Titus Andronicus himself. GARY occurs immediately after that sensationally gruesome tale and tells the story from behind the green baize doors: two very lowly servants are charged with cleaning up the mess of bloody bodies strewn thither and yon. Let me stress, however, that one need not have seen TITUS previously; GARY works just fine as a stand-alone.

Gary (brilliantly played by William Delforge) is a servant who aspires to the lofty status of Fool and wistfully dresses the part. His BFF (tho she may not agree!) is the maid Janice (Hannah Rhode), less imaginative but patently more astute than Gary. We encounter one old friend from TITUS: the delicious Cameron Austin Brown as Carole, the midwife who delivered Empress Tamora’s baby, which was instantly and inarguably seen to have been fathered by the Moor Aaron (James Lewis). Inexplicably, Carol survives the resulting collieshangle [great word, yeah? Means donnybrook or argy-bargy. Aren’t words fun then?] to reappear in the midst of the (very) bloody task of tidying up the corpses littering the palace.

So, the plot being fairly straightforward, I choose now to focus on the playwright, Taylor Mac, who uses the pronoun ‘judy’, a personalized pronoun for someone whose gender (professionally and personally) is constantly changing. Judy describes GARY as ‘a tragedy determined to become a comedy’ – a definition I can absolutely get next to! Mac’s (absolutely fabulous) bio provides a simple list of judy’s achievements, which include: a MacArthur “genius”, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a Tony nominee for Best Play, and the recipient of the International Ibsen Award, the Kennedy Prize, the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim, a Drama League Award, a NY Drama Critics Circle Award, two Obie’s, and two Bessies. Whew! Judy’s webmaster has a lot of work keeping judy’s website current!

And how lucky are we to live in Chicago, where Redtwist Theatre is mounting a production of this extraordinary phenomenal deviant unorthodox outlandish bizarre freakish mind-boggling peculiar implausible superlative disruptive … well, I (obviously) could go on and on – god how I love word hippo’s thesaurus! What I’m trying to say is I really really liked the show, but it’s unquestionably not for everyone. Don’t take your grandma to see GARY, and please don’t bring the kids! And BTW, don’t worry about the blood splashing – Redtwist will provide a water-repellant poncho upon request.

OK, that’s the playwright, let’s move on. The remainder of the production team is familiar to those of us who frequent Redtwist Theatre.

Director Steve Scott: Steve has been around; he’s a member of the Redtwist ensemble and served as producer at Goodman Theatre for more than thirty years. For three decades Steve taught at Chicago College of Fine Arts at Roosevelt University. He has received six Jeff nominations, an After Dark Award, a special Jeff Award for career achievement, and the League of Chicago Theaters’ Lifetime Achievement Award.  So … Steve knows what he’s about, but with a production so labyrinthine as GARY, he welcomed aid from Assistant Director Korey Joseph and Technical Director Jeff Brain.

Dusty Brown is another familiar name; they served as Dramaturg and Sound Designer for GARY. Fight Choreographer Seth Eggenschwiller was excited to continue prioritizing actor safety alongside hard-hitting theatrical violence. The lighting for GARY was complex and superbly executed by Lighting Designer Piper Kirchhofer.

Props Designer Robin Manganaro loves working with teams and stories that represent BIPOC, neurodivergent, and LGBTQ+ perspectives; definitely the case with GARY at Redtwist.  I imagine (and certainly hope) Costume Designer kClare McKellaston (yet another familiar name!) had real fun with the costumes for GARY – and they came out absolutely fabulous!

Scenic Designer Eric Luchen also did a marvelous job with the scanty space he had to work in at Redtwist; remember the splash warnings! Luchen was most recently awarded the Conda Award for Excellence in Scenic Design for his production of ‘Mary Poppins’ in Newcastle, Australia.

One is at times sitting mere inches from the action – only an excellent and very professional cast could keep from overbalancing and falling into someone’s lap! this contiguity made interaction with the audience well-nigh unavoidable; people were given beads, and during a long oration I was able to slip a mint to Hannah Rhode.   

We come last to stage management. I asked a friend who’s held every backstage position imaginable, “So, what does a Stage Manager actually do, anyway?”  They replied, “Everything.” And indeed, Everything was done by Co-Stage Managers Ashley O'Neill and Maria Reyes, and Production Stage Manager Raine DeDominici.

OK: the stage is set, props arranged, scripts perused; audience members file expectantly in to take the available seats (16? 18?).  What now?

The cast of GARY is small – only three actors, and I’ve already named all three: William Delforge as Gary; Hannah Rhode as Janice; Cameron Austin Brown as the midwife Carol. (a wad of fabric was cast as ‘baby’.)

CAMERON AUSTIN BROWN, I remember fondly as midwife Carol from TITUS. He occupied the role and made us believe: once this accoucheuse [another great word yeah? 3 cheers for word hippo!] laid eyes on the baby, they knew that this dusky little morsel was fated for elimination; one could not, after all, retain this irrefutable evidence of the Empress’ infidelity … and adulterous miscegenation to boot! What on Earth would the neighbors say?

But Carol, irrefutable witness that the dark infant proceeded from the Empress’ loins, is fond of this morsel of iniquity. Luckily (for Carol!) the babe is also cherished by Aaron, the Moor whose protracted liaison with the Empress has now borne this damning fruit.

HANNAH RHODE is Janice – by my reckoning the only one of this group who’s got the good sense God gave a little green worm. Gary finds her a bit boring, because Janice is focused on that which is practicable, functional, sensible … just reading that list of words would send Gary into a snooze. Rhodes is wonderful in this role, keeping a straight face in the most comical circumstances, even while giving Gary a perfect “WTF??” look. Yet despite being commonsensible, levelheaded and prudent (all opprobrious qualities to Gary!), Rhode gives her an essential likability. All three of the characters are actually quite appealing, despite their more vulgar and indecorous traits.

Ah, Gary … GaryGaryGary. William Delforge is well and truly brilliant in this role. I just hope he’s taking his vitamins to keep him going as he capers and cavorts, prances and gambols, downplaying Gary’s knavery with exuberant tomfoolery.  And one is forced to admire Gary’s ambitions: he will be a Fool! In fact, Delforge shows us that Gary already is a Fool, in all its positive and negative permutations. I truly loved Delforge’s characterization of Gary.

I usually unabashedly single out a member of the cast as my ‘favorite’, but GARY has me discombobulated [one of my favorite words for decades!] – I truly can’t choose between the three! Hannah Rhode’s Janice was perfection. Cameron Austin Brown’s Carol was sublime (and oh my, Brown is simply adorable!). And I just finished waxing eloquent about Delforge’s Gary.

*sigh* no way to pick

But here's the really good news: GARY: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus will be playing at Redtwist Theatre for another month! Really, truly, GARY will play through June 1 at Redtwist, 1044 W Bryn Mawr. And I VERY HIGHLY RECOMMEND you check it out!

*This review is also featured on https://www.theatreinchicago.com/!

Question: Is Shakespeare really that sexual?

Answer: Yes, as it turns out. 

Fifty Shades of Shakespeare not only proves that the plays of William Shakespeare carry some very heavy sexual undertones, which is fantastic, but also provides an insight towards gender fluidity and sexuality. This is all done by using Shakespeare to help talk about sex. 

In its fourth year, Fifty Shades of Shakespeare is brought to you by the (re)discover theatre. It is the brainchild of Jess Shoemaker and the (re)discover theatre. 

Upon arrival to Mary’s Attic, I grabbed a drink from the bar in back and found a seat near the front in the second row. I wanted to be as close to the action as possible because I had no idea what I was in for, but was very intrigued to say the least. Once I took my seat I was greeted by a cast member and regaled with an excerpt from a grocery store romance novel. That immediately set the tone for the night. Not much soon after that I was asked if I would like to contribute to the “Box of Secrets” that actually wasn’t very secret. The idea is this: you are handed a piece of paper that has a question. You write down your answer with as much or as little detail as you want. Then during intermission and different breaks someone from the cast reads responses that have been handed in. My question was, “What was the dirtiest thing you’ve ever said in bed?” I accepted the challenge and answered truthfully and honestly. Unfortunately, my response was not read to the audience. Bummer. 

The show itself consists of twelve scenes, all from the Shakespeare canon. These are the greatest hits, if you will. The cast is made up of only four (yes four) actors: Amelia Bethel, Tanner Bradshaw, William Delforge, and Madeline Moeller. That means that these four are playing 23 different roles. However, the big twist is that the roles are chosen at random, by the audience, before the show begins. The cast switches roles every evening, making each evening a new experience. 

If you’re already familiar with Shakespeare, then buckle up because shit gets real the instant they dim the lights. It is a show that provides nonstop laughs and energy for two hours. This is accomplished by the random casting of roles that explore and break down not just gender fluidity, but sexual expression. It does not matter if it is two men portraying Romeo and Juliet or having Macbeth played by a woman and Lady Macbeth played by a man. Or even turning a scene where two men dabble in some light-ish bondage. I should point out that Shakespeare’s plays were originally performed by all male casts.

This show breaks down the beauty of love into its most raw and animalistic instincts. Shakespeare just provides the rich subtext so the performers can really unleash. You may walk out of the show unsure what you just saw, but you will have been entertained to the fullest.  Fifty Shades of Shakespeare speaks to a new day and age that we, the majority of society, are entering a new kind of sexual revolution where nothing is off limits. And it’s for the better. 

Fifty Shades of Shakespeare is playing at Mary’s Attic from now through February 27th on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday evenings at 8:00 p.m. If you don’t have plans yet or are the last-minute planning type, then I would suggest checking out their special Valentine's Day show Tuesday night February 14th. Tickets can be reserved by clicking here.