Ivan Faute

The LOST SOCK LAUNDRY is not some free-wheeling joint with no order or expectations. There are rules and expectations about how you use the Maytag, how long you can use the dryer before you get looks, and who gets to save a machine for a friend. IRENE, a second-generation Greek-American, and MICAELA, a first-generation Mexican-American, often meet to trade stories, gossip, commiserate about their children, and sometimes wash laundry. When a new immigrant DINA from Lebanon starts frequenting the space, the two women slowly, and somewhat warily, befriend her. As their personal lives become entwined, they must all confront their understanding of identity, culture, and especially nationality. LOST SOCK LAUNDRY is an episodic exploration about how we forge friendships, identity, and a national culture.

AGATHA is sad and alone. After weathering the pandemic with him, her boyfriend revealed he’s been having an online affair and has left her with an apartment full of delivery boxes, subscriptions, and possibly a meandering cat. AGATHA’S sister JAN is worried the isolation might take a toll and the cat might possibly be dead. To pry AGATHA out of her funk, JAN forces them to a community knitting class, just the once to see if she likes it. AGATHA discovers a new group of friends, perhaps not the ones she might have chosen, but maybe the ones she needs. When the group all embark on new projects, AGATHA decides to knit herself a full-size copy of her favorite boy-band singer, an expression of everything she wishes her life could have been. But keeping her hands busy doesn't create the social harmony she'd hoped, and AGATHA faces a choice about what her life should be moving into the new After-Covid world.

The once thriving Sparks Kennels are now empty, everyone scattered. When son Alex hears of a terrible crime and his mother’s institutionalization, he returns to find out the full story. With his mother Pauline in the prison hospital and his father Commodore fighting lung disease, he struggles to get his foster sister Shawna to explain how it all fell apart. Shawna and Alex clash over how much the past should be revered or abolished. Shawna’s motives are suspect as she smuggles in alcohol to bribe Pauline for information. When Pauline receives permission to visit her dying husband at home, Alex finally gets the chance to confront her about her crime. But it becomes apparent that Pauline’s damaged mind has retreated to nostalgia and any truth about the events or the motives will have to be reconstructed through what Alex can force out of Shawna. Unwilling to keep engaging in Shawna’s games, Alex decides to tear out the dog kennels and raze the land to erase the memories of the past. His decision forces Shawna to face the truth about what Pauline has done and the inability to recapture the past, which forces both of them to realize Pauline’s guilt is not hers alone and the past can’t just be absolved by confession but must confronted.

While FATHER lies in chains in the living room floor, the Darling Family wonders if anything or anyone can save them from their reduced circumstances. While they pine away for their long-lost brother Peter, the three sisters and MOTHER act out their old routines, even when they have nothing but air and water for breakfast. Their prospects brighten when second daughter KATHLEEN'S beau MICHEL returns from war. However, when FATHER is suddenly freed from his punishment everything goes topsy-turvy once again. MARIANNE will replace KATHLEEN in marriage, the family order will be restored, and there will certainly be no more pretending. Will Peter return in time to make everything right?

Telling the story of refugee as she flees her home in search of safety. Told through non-linear dramatic scenes, the play explores not only the refuge experience but the underlying humanity of all displaced people. A powerful, important story of war, displacement, and the unheard voices of the refugee.

A BOY and a GIRL struggle to find their place while their FATHER pushes them to learn the family business in the small town abattoir.

LACK OF MILK is a dark, surreal comedy about loss and family relationships. When GUS's father passes away suddenly, he must negotiate his relationship with his mother BARBARA who seems alarmingly unmoved by the death. As the years pass by and neither of them can confront the loss, their relationship refuses to move forward and they force their anger, sorrow, and confusion into attacking and blaming each other until they hole in their lives is no longer avoidable. With word play and surreal humor, the play examines the absurdity of death, moving on, and growing up.

Elephant is a single act comedy that explores how familial dysfunction contributes to our dysfunction with and our success in life. As Gloria Billough prepares to meet yet another boyfriend of her oldest daughter and middle child Susan, she wonders what problems this one will bring with him. Sending her daughter to Africa to follow up on art therapy seemed like a good option. She has enough to deal with her kleptomaniac and manic youngest daughter Effie and her incompetent maid ChiChi, Gloria curses her husband's absence at yet another business trip. When Susan arrives alone, the evening promises to end in disaster. Susan, however, is soon followed by her proclaimed fiancé Han, who just happens to be an elephant. Not a metaphorical one but a literal, actual, two-ton elephant. Unsure how to respond, the family is thrown into further chaos when the oldest son Solton shows up from South America where he has been hiding out from eco-terrorism charges. With most of the family convened, aside from father, old wounds and accusations emerge. Past and present sins emerge, and, as each member's wrongdoings, selfishness and self-interest emerge, the family ponders, what does it mean to guilty? Or the guiltiest? Secrets are revealed about everyone's crimes, legal or moral, and the equilibrium of the family dysfunction is shattered. Despite the accusations and incriminations, the family must pull together to face the greater threat, the power of The Man.

Tomato, Cucumber and Pepper are perfectly happy in their sunny spot, that is until Sunflower moves in and ruins the planter. Who does she think she, all yellow and chirpy and, worst of all, a flower! The four are stuck together it seems in misery unless perhaps they can find a new common enemy. Like that rosebush over there; she looks mighty suspicious.

BRAD, a struggling playwright, works with his boyfriend GREG to host yet another opening night for his sister VICTORIA'S very successful playwright husband DAWSON. When DAWSON notices BRAD'S less than celebratory mood, accusations emerge about who is exploiting who.

EMELINE is convinced she hears a menacing sound. So convinced that she convinces LLOYD to convince himself to try to convince her of the encroaching danger. When everyone knows that something is out there, the only thing to do is fight back.

A political fable for today.

Four actors, three acts, life, death, drama, comedy, jokes and jazz - all we need is a little song and dance! A movement play that is an ode to vaudeville and an exploration of all the absurdity of life. As funny as it is touching, beach when something is as serious as life, you need to laugh at it.

Poe's powerful story of decay and death retold with a feminist twist. When Usher's friend comes to visit, Usher and his sister vie to be the narrator of the story.

Winner of Chicago City Lit's Art of Adaptation Festival.

When a Syrian refugee arrives for processing, she explains what she most regrets leaving behind.

Three women from different waves of American immigration build a kind of friendship built on common concerns and dreams.

After the death of their father, a well-known but blocked writer, half-siblings BARBRA and EVAN sift through the papers he left behind. When they discover the novel manuscript he'd been revising for decades, BARBRA wants to publish it while EVAN thinks they should honor their father's wishes to hide it away. As they work out a compromise, they also discover the self-absorbed father they remember actually knew them better than they expected.

STEVEN's obsession with apocalyptic disasters threaten to drive his wife ALLISON a bit crazy. When their friends come over for a night of cards, FIONA reveals she too has noticed strange things happening in the neighborhood. When ALLISON and BOBBY, FIONA's husband, confront their spouses about their growing paranoia, they seem to come to a truce, until new suspicions arise.

As stepsisters Olivia and Aileen prepare for their father to be released from prison, they disagree what sort of homecoming he should receive. While the two have lived in the house he owns, Aileen, the older sister, feels her time spent living there is the least an abusive criminal owes her. Olivia takes a more forgiving approach, reasoning that her father has paid his debt behind bars. As they each must decide to stay or go from the home, each sister has to face her own anger and negotiate their own uneasy relationship.

While STEVE is trying to organize his thoughts about his new play, the actress playing his wife MARY is having second thoughts about the part.

When Sir Mandyblake takes his wife Lady Mandyblake to the foreign lands to hunt exoctic beasts, little does he realize he has put both their lives and marriage and lives in danger. Thank goodness Lord Reginald Havershriek, a most manly guide, is there to protect them from the most dangerous of creatures known as "the audience."

When your faun runs away, you go find it.

A short comedy for two actors perfect for street performance.

A new adaptation of Zane Grey's classic Western novel. When JANE WITHERSTEEN'S cattle are being rusted off the range by the Masked Rider, the mysterious LASSITER offers himself as her new ranch manager. LASSITER'S real reason for staying in the predominantly Mormon town is to find what happened to his beloved sister many years earlier. As the corrupt city elders turn the screws on JANE, forcing her to make a choice between her true faith and the social constraints, she turns to LASSITER for help. Grey's novel launched a mania for Western stories and helped shape the American Western mythos. This new adaptation captures the spirit of the original text while updating the language and pace for the contemporary stage.