Bilal Dardai

Bilal Dardai

Bilal Dardai is a playwright, essayist, and performance artist who has been based in the Chicago theatrical community since 2000. He is an emeritus ensemble member and artistic director of The Neo-Futurists and a current ensemble member at Lifeline Theatre. He is a regular fixture in Chicago's thriving "live lit" scene, performing essays at The Paper Machete, Write Club, and Salonathon; and he is...
Bilal Dardai is a playwright, essayist, and performance artist who has been based in the Chicago theatrical community since 2000. He is an emeritus ensemble member and artistic director of The Neo-Futurists and a current ensemble member at Lifeline Theatre. He is a regular fixture in Chicago's thriving "live lit" scene, performing essays at The Paper Machete, Write Club, and Salonathon; and he is a contributing scriptwriter to the audio dramas "PleasureTown" and "Unwell." Bilal has been nominated for three Joseph Jefferson Awards and is a past recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Scriptworks.

Plays

  • The Man Who Was Thursday by Bilal Dardai
    Cast: 
    10–25
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 4 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, dark comedy, mystery/thriller, period, satire
    In 1900s England, a brave poet in the employ of Scotland Yard infiltrates a sinister society of anarchists, with the aim to take down their leader, Sunday. As he works his way deeper into the fold, however, he discovers that nothing is as it seems. Adapted from the 1908 G.K. Chesterton novel.

    A NOTE ON CASTING: While the play features 25 roles using male pronouns, it has been produced with as few...
    In 1900s England, a brave poet in the employ of Scotland Yard infiltrates a sinister society of anarchists, with the aim to take down their leader, Sunday. As he works his way deeper into the fold, however, he discovers that nothing is as it seems. Adapted from the 1908 G.K. Chesterton novel.

    A NOTE ON CASTING: While the play features 25 roles using male pronouns, it has been produced with as few as ten actors and directors are encouraged to experiment with casting within a wide gender spectrum.
  • Redeemers by Bilal Dardai
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 3 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, dark comedy, holiday, satire
    Around Christmas, three co-workers share with the audience the story of how their toxic, abusive boss experienced a near-miraculous change of heart and temperament and what happened when they refused to accept it. Adapts and updates Charles Dickens' "Christmas Carol," and designed to be performed in a bar.
  • The Opening by Bilal Dardai
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, horror + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, horror, mystery/thriller, political
    In 2007, in an empty Washington DC office, a State Department worker and his friend, a Congressional librarian, enact a ritual that summons a long forgotten god of war and binds it in place. As the two argue about what they've done and why they've done it, the god makes its own plans, and the resolution of this encounter may not prove satisfying to anybody.
  • After The Rock Left by Bilal Dardai
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3–5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, young audiences
    On a blank plane of existence, Scissors and Paper discuss the recent shift in their usual paradigm after Rock, the third member of their cohort, spontaneously vanished. As they begin to succumb to circumstances and urges beyond their control, they struggle to understand the larger forces and agendas in play.