Kristin Idaszak

Kristin Idaszak

Kristin Idaszak (she/they) is a Chicago-based playwright, dramaturg, and producer, and educator whose recent work focuses on the climate crisis, gender, and queerness. She has received two Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellowships. Kristin was the Shank Playwright in Residence at the Goodman Theatre and was a member of the 2017-2018 Goodman Playwrights Unit. Idaszak has received commissions from EST/the Sloan...
Kristin Idaszak (she/they) is a Chicago-based playwright, dramaturg, and producer, and educator whose recent work focuses on the climate crisis, gender, and queerness. She has received two Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellowships. Kristin was the Shank Playwright in Residence at the Goodman Theatre and was a member of the 2017-2018 Goodman Playwrights Unit. Idaszak has received commissions from EST/the Sloan Foundation, Cleveland Play House, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, and TimeLine Theatre. Her play SECOND SKIN received the Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and the Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award. Her play ANOTHER JUNGLE was a Relentless Award Honorable Mention, and THE SUREST POISON was a Princess Grace finalist. Idaszak was the Kennedy Center Fellow at the Sundance Theatre Lab. Her work has been seen at or developed through the Goodman Theatre, The Playwrights’ Center, La Jolla Playhouse’s WoW Festival, SPACE at Ryder Farm, Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Directing Studio, The Drama League, Pasadena Playhouse, Circle X, Renaissance Theaterworks, and Perishable Theatre. She has also received support from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Idaszak is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and adjunct faculty at The Theatre School at DePaul University and Northwestern University. Previously, Kristin served as Associate Artistic Director/Literary Manager of Caffeine Theatre and Associate Artistic Director of Collaboraction. She is the Artistic Director of Cloudgate Theatre. MFA: University of California, San Diego. kristinidaszak.com

https://www.americantheatre.org/2019/01/15/the-subtext-kristin-idaszak/

Plays

  • Three Antarcticas
    Robert Falcon Scott's explorers perform a play to stave off polar madness during the four months of Antarctic night. A female glaciologist fights for her place in cutting-edge climate change research in 1978. A present-day couple travels to the ends of the earth to get married. THREE ANTARCTICAS explores the entire history of humans in Antarctica through the lens of gender, queerness, and climate change....
    Robert Falcon Scott's explorers perform a play to stave off polar madness during the four months of Antarctic night. A female glaciologist fights for her place in cutting-edge climate change research in 1978. A present-day couple travels to the ends of the earth to get married. THREE ANTARCTICAS explores the entire history of humans in Antarctica through the lens of gender, queerness, and climate change. Is it possible to go to the edge of the world and return unchanged?

    Please email for script.
  • Last Ascent
    When Iris, a professional alpinist, is diagnosed with a heart condition that may prevent her from ever climbing again, she reluctantly turns to a therapist/guru who specializes in working with elite rock climbers. But Iris begins unpacking a whole lot more than she bargained for as her therapist pushes her to unfurl a tragic accident that changed her life forever. Simultaneously moving forward and backward in...
    When Iris, a professional alpinist, is diagnosed with a heart condition that may prevent her from ever climbing again, she reluctantly turns to a therapist/guru who specializes in working with elite rock climbers. But Iris begins unpacking a whole lot more than she bargained for as her therapist pushes her to unfurl a tragic accident that changed her life forever. Simultaneously moving forward and backward in time, Last Ascent investigates grief, chronic illness, neo-imperialism, and the ecological devastation wreaking havoc on our planet and on our bodies.
  • Second Skin
    When Quinn discovers her estranged mother is dying, she returns to a home she fled long ago. As she cares for her mother, Quinn wrestles with disturbing childhood memories. What is her mother’s secret? What do the bedtime stories of Selkies her mother once told her really mean? Told in three interconnected monologues, SECOND SKIN investigates the fraught relationship between mothers and daughters, and how one...
    When Quinn discovers her estranged mother is dying, she returns to a home she fled long ago. As she cares for her mother, Quinn wrestles with disturbing childhood memories. What is her mother’s secret? What do the bedtime stories of Selkies her mother once told her really mean? Told in three interconnected monologues, SECOND SKIN investigates the fraught relationship between mothers and daughters, and how one mistake can reverberate across generations.
  • Tidy
    A struggling detective novelist recently read a self-help book about how to be happy. Actually, it’s about how to tidy. As she cleans her house, the novelist excavates her own personal history, and the history of the planet. But as she discovers troubling gaps in her memory, a series of clues lead her closer to an answer she may not want to find. Tidy examines the holes in our lives that we try to fill through...
    A struggling detective novelist recently read a self-help book about how to be happy. Actually, it’s about how to tidy. As she cleans her house, the novelist excavates her own personal history, and the history of the planet. But as she discovers troubling gaps in her memory, a series of clues lead her closer to an answer she may not want to find. Tidy examines the holes in our lives that we try to fill through consumption, and how we decide what to keep and what to leave behind. Who and what will survive the sixth mass extinction? And will it spark joy?
  • Revenge of the Holy Virgin Martyrs as Told by Hrotsvit of Gandersheim and Her Time Traveling Amanuensis
    Escaping from a toxic work environment and a predatory boss, Jordan takes an impromptu vacation—and accidentally travels back in time to the 10th century. ​Taken in by the canny women who live in a medieval abbey, she joins their efforts to protect themselves from a lecherous local lord and becomes the assistant to Hrotsvit, the first female playwright in the Western canon. ​Revenge is a feminist farce about...
    Escaping from a toxic work environment and a predatory boss, Jordan takes an impromptu vacation—and accidentally travels back in time to the 10th century. ​Taken in by the canny women who live in a medieval abbey, she joins their efforts to protect themselves from a lecherous local lord and becomes the assistant to Hrotsvit, the first female playwright in the Western canon. ​Revenge is a feminist farce about healing, community, and a world ​beyond the male gaze.
  • Wildfire and the Bird Scouts
    The fledglings of Bird Scout Troop #7 are on their first ever annual migration when they get separated from their flock. They find themselves lost in a forest that's been ravaged by an out-of-control fire. On their quest to rejoin their flock, the scouts must overcome encounters with a desperate predator, an ancient oak tree, and Wildfire herself. Wildfire and the Bird Scouts is a story about the way we...
    The fledglings of Bird Scout Troop #7 are on their first ever annual migration when they get separated from their flock. They find themselves lost in a forest that's been ravaged by an out-of-control fire. On their quest to rejoin their flock, the scouts must overcome encounters with a desperate predator, an ancient oak tree, and Wildfire herself. Wildfire and the Bird Scouts is a story about the way we ask the next generation to solve the problems that we have created. It’s about ingenuity and resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. And it’s about the way our environment is changing irrevocably.
  • The Surest Poison
    Prohibition is in full swing, but New York City is still celebrating New Year’s Eve in style—with a batch of poisoned hooch and an immigrant woman's murder by cyanide. Cue Alexander Gettler, an obsessive chemist whose research helped create the modern field of forensic toxicology. With help from Lipstick, an intrepid flapper and indefatigable reporter who mistakes his laboratory for a speakeasy, Gettler...
    Prohibition is in full swing, but New York City is still celebrating New Year’s Eve in style—with a batch of poisoned hooch and an immigrant woman's murder by cyanide. Cue Alexander Gettler, an obsessive chemist whose research helped create the modern field of forensic toxicology. With help from Lipstick, an intrepid flapper and indefatigable reporter who mistakes his laboratory for a speakeasy, Gettler must try to catch a murderer and convince the federal government to stop poisoning alcohol. Inspired by the real life work of Gettler and pioneering journalist Lois Long, THE SUREST POISON chronicles the dark side of the noble experiment.
  • Tar and Feather
    When Erin takes a #gaschamberselfie, it goes viral--and so does she. Her job offer gets rescinded, she's not allowed to go to class, and her family and friends abandon her. Everyone that is, except for Claudia, her best friend. Together they hatch a plan to confront Erin's anonymous online trolls. TAR AND FEATHER examines public shaming in the digital age. How close are any of us to a fall from grace...
    When Erin takes a #gaschamberselfie, it goes viral--and so does she. Her job offer gets rescinded, she's not allowed to go to class, and her family and friends abandon her. Everyone that is, except for Claudia, her best friend. Together they hatch a plan to confront Erin's anonymous online trolls. TAR AND FEATHER examines public shaming in the digital age. How close are any of us to a fall from grace? And how does a well-intended person transform into a troll?

    Please email for script.
  • Strange Heart Beating
    Teeny and Lena grew up together in a rural midwestern town, dreaming of leaving for the big city. But now Teeny is the town sheriff and Lena is a newly-single mother. When the body of Lena’s daughter is found near the lake outside of town, their friendship is stretched to the breaking point. Teeny's investigation provides more questions than answers: Have girls been going missing for years? Why are the...
    Teeny and Lena grew up together in a rural midwestern town, dreaming of leaving for the big city. But now Teeny is the town sheriff and Lena is a newly-single mother. When the body of Lena’s daughter is found near the lake outside of town, their friendship is stretched to the breaking point. Teeny's investigation provides more questions than answers: Have girls been going missing for years? Why are the loons acting so strange? What has the town's lake witnessed? STRANGE HEART BEATING is a darkly fantastical look at the rural Midwest, the murky nature of justice, and the prejudices that lie just beneath the surface.
  • Another Jungle
    The audience has arrived at the theatre to see a show about the Chicago slaughterhouses - only to find that the play has been canceled. Instead, the writer is there to give a slideshow presentation about the history of the stockyards. In trying to explore her family's Polish identity and the exploitation of stockyard workers, the writer unintentionally exposes a trauma from her own past. Inspired by Upton...
    The audience has arrived at the theatre to see a show about the Chicago slaughterhouses - only to find that the play has been canceled. Instead, the writer is there to give a slideshow presentation about the history of the stockyards. In trying to explore her family's Polish identity and the exploitation of stockyard workers, the writer unintentionally exposes a trauma from her own past. Inspired by Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, ANOTHER JUNGLE explores the misuse of power, the way narratives get co-opted, and the way identity accretes over the course of generations.
  • The Liar Paradox
    On New Year’s Eve, a catastrophic car accident leaves Mark’s twin sister in a coma and his girlfriend dead. When nude photographs of his sister surface on the internet, Mark goes in search of answers to what happened that night. In the process, more secrets from the twins’ past come to light. What is the truth? What are the consequences of an impetuous lie? An existential mystery, THE LIAR PARADOX explores the...
    On New Year’s Eve, a catastrophic car accident leaves Mark’s twin sister in a coma and his girlfriend dead. When nude photographs of his sister surface on the internet, Mark goes in search of answers to what happened that night. In the process, more secrets from the twins’ past come to light. What is the truth? What are the consequences of an impetuous lie? An existential mystery, THE LIAR PARADOX explores the nature of death in the age of Facebook and the timelessness of love, deception, and identity.
  • Fugue for Particle Accelerator
    Hope is career-focused physicist looking for parallel universes. Her boyfriend, Jonas, is an ambulance driver who just wants to get married and have a family. When a mysterious stranger careens into their world, the delicate balance of their life together is thrown into chaos. Guided by an alive-dead cat named Schrödinger, FUGUE FOR PARTICLE ACCELERATOR asks the questions: What would happen if we could travel...
    Hope is career-focused physicist looking for parallel universes. Her boyfriend, Jonas, is an ambulance driver who just wants to get married and have a family. When a mysterious stranger careens into their world, the delicate balance of their life together is thrown into chaos. Guided by an alive-dead cat named Schrödinger, FUGUE FOR PARTICLE ACCELERATOR asks the questions: What would happen if we could travel the road not taken? How do the choices we make effect the lives we might have lived? Is there a world where we know how to make all the right choices?
  • Radiance (a witch hunt)
    RADIANCE (A WITCH HUNT) reimagines Medea in post-WWII America. Maddie, the daughter of a German nuclear physicist, leaves a her fatherland and her career as a scientist to become that most subtle of prisoners: a suburban American housewife in the 1950s. But Maddie’s world is blown open when she discovers her husband has betrayed her. A trio of perfectly-coiffed housewives accompany, torment, and galvanize her...
    RADIANCE (A WITCH HUNT) reimagines Medea in post-WWII America. Maddie, the daughter of a German nuclear physicist, leaves a her fatherland and her career as a scientist to become that most subtle of prisoners: a suburban American housewife in the 1950s. But Maddie’s world is blown open when she discovers her husband has betrayed her. A trio of perfectly-coiffed housewives accompany, torment, and galvanize her as she strives to avenge herself.