The Blueprint Commission is First Floor Theater’s new play development program. Through an extensive development process which includes two dedicated workshops over the life of the commission, we provide resources for commissioned writers and a team of theater artists to bring new, daring plays into being. The ultimate goal of this initiative is indicated by its name: we want to play a part in shaping the future of the American Theater. We want that future to be more inclusive, brave, and revolutionary than what has come before.
If you are a playwright and would like to be considered for this commission, we invite you to email a cover letter and work sample to our Artistic Producer, Andrew Cutler.
Our Sponsors
Michael and Mona Heath are avid fans and supporters of Chicago theatre, especially in intimate storefront spaces. They have worked with a number of Chicago theatre companies as production sponsors and season sponsors. Other notable projects include the Heath Mainstage at The Den Theatre and the Cultural Access Collaborative’s Accessible Equipment Loan Program. The Heaths received a special Jeff Award in 2024 and the Tribute Award from the League of Chicago Theatres in 2017, and they have been listed multiple times in Newcity’s annual listing of Players: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago.
For more information, see www.heathfund.org.
Season 14 Recipient
Netta Walker (Nordica)
Past Commissions
The commission has supported the development of new work by artists including Ariel Zetina, Omer Abbas Salem, Gloria Imseih Petrelli, and Brynne Frauenhoffer.
Among the program’s early commissions, Ariel Zetina’s The House of Audacity! reimagines Mother Courage through elements of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and Medieval pageant plays. We streamed the final reading of the work in 2021, and in 2024, The House of Audacity! continued its development through a workshop with Breaking the Binary Theatre’s BTB Across America program in collaboration with Steppenwolf Theatre.
Omer Abbas Salem’s One Party Consent went on to receive its world premiere as part of our twelfth season, where it earned the Non-Equity Jeff Award for Best New Work. Set within a prestigious drama school, the play examines the degradation of trust and the politics of higher education. Since it premiere, One Party Consent has continued its life beyond Chicago, receiving productions from The New Harmony Project in Indianapolis, Indiana; The Ghost Light Theatre in Benton Harbor, Michigan; and All In Productions in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The program continues to support artists as their commissioned works move toward new stages of development and production. Gloria Imseih Petrelli’s 3obalek (you’re next), which follows a bridesmaid-for-hire under the watchful, unseen eye of her community, will be produced as part of First Floor Theater’s fourteenth season. Brynne Frauenhofer’s Exorcise, which explores the pressures of fitness and bodily discipline placed on women through a haunting peloton, will receive a stage reading during the same season.
Brynne Frauenhoffer: Exorcise
Gloria Imseih Petrelli: 3obalek (you're next)
Omer Abbas Salem: One Party Consent
Ariel Zetina: The House of Audacity!