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new VISION. New Plays. The Blueprint Commission.

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.

This project is made possible by a generous donation from Michael and Mona Heath, of the HeathFund.

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 Andrew Cutler.

 

previous RECIPIENTS

Omer Abbas Salem (he/they) is a Chicago actor and playwright. As an actor, he's worked with The Goodman, The New Coordinates, Jackalope Theatre, Steep Theatre, Silk Road Rising, Griffin Theatre, The House, Bailiwick Chicago, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Roundabout Theater, and The Atlantic Theater. His play Mosque4Mosque was developed through the National Queer Theater and then chosen for further development through Steppenwolf Theatre's SCOUT Program. The Secretaries was workshopped through The New Coordinates, a semi-finalist in Definition Theatre's Amplify Commission, and developed through the Goodman Theatre's Future Labs. Pretty Shahid was commissioned as part of Jackalope Theatre's 2020/21 New Frontier Series and Love in the Time of Jonestown was produced as a radio play by The New Coordinates. He is a member of the 2021/22 Goodman Playwrights Unit and is the recipient of the 2021 Cunningham Commission through DePaul University. He will also receive First Floor Theater’s Blueprint Commission in 2022. He was an apprentice of the Actors Theatre of Louisville (17/18) and a proud ensemble member with Steep Theatre, First Floor Theater, and The New Coordinates. He is represented by DDO Artist Agency and The Gersh Agency. More at www.omerabbassalem.com.

 

Photo by Gracie Meier

Our inaugural commission was awarded to Ariel Zetina. We began development in the fall of 2020 and in the spring and summer of 2021, we completed two rounds of workshopping on her new script, The House of Audacity! The play was a reimagining of Mother Courage, coupled with elements To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, and Medieval pageant plays. In addition to Ariel, this process involved a full artistic team, including former Artistic Director Hutch Pimentel directing, Catherine Miller as a dramaturg, an extraordinary group of actors, and a full team of designers that rendered initial drawings and concepts to help realize the world of the play. The final reading of this extraordinary new work was streamed (due to the ongoing pandemic) for our audience, and received a fantastic response from viewers.

Ariel Zetina is a Chicago based artist, focusing in electronic music, deejaying, and writing. Plays include Pink Milk [Single Carrot Theatre, Baltimore; Oracle Theatre, Chicago (4 Jeff noms); Garage Theatre, Long Beach], British Honduras Fantasy [Trans Theatre Festival, Brooklyn; reading at Berkeley Rep; honorable mention on The Kilroy List 2016 and Steppenwolf's The Mix list 2018], Mechanisms of Fidelity [commission/reading at Sideshow Theatre Company, Chicago]; Lovedrug [reading at The Magic Theatre, SF]. Most recently, her short play Gerrymanderia was virtually performed at Burning Coal Theatre Company for the 19th Amendment Project. Ariel is thrilled to be working with First Floor again after writing the short play Shrine to Caitlyn Jenner as part of Kafkapalooza. She also released two EPs this year: the dance music EP MUA's at the End of the World and the ambient EP Marsh, and is a resident DJ at the legendary Chicago house music club Smartbar. 

 

A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS:

Mona and Michael 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, season sponsors, and co-producers. Other notable projects include the Heath Main Stage at the Den Theatre and the Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium’s Accessible Equipment Loan Program. The Heaths received the annual Tribute Award from the League of Chicago Theatres in 2017 and were listed at #6 in Newcity’s Players 2019: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago. Mona and Michael have been featured in a number of interviews, including WWTW’s Stage Players series and Episode 100 of the Booth One podcast. For more information, see www.heathfund.org.