Company in the News August 2026

See what PlayGround-Chicago Writers, Company Members, and Alumni are up to this month including: Mab De Guzman, Beau Malone, Carmia Imani, Kaeli Meno, Leanna Gianoutsos Oliveira, Shariba Rivers, Matt Schutz and Katherine Swan.

Carmia Imani’s play, in • di • visible, is being produced as a part of the Living Color Festival from August 13-29 at the Berger Park Cultural Center. in•di•visible is a 10-minute poetic play that tackles themes of black girlhood, sexual trauma, systemic oppression, and the insurmountable pressure that lies within the stereotypes placed on black girls and women. TICKETS. She is also lead producer and performing the role of Erika in a staged reading of Exception to the Rule by Dave Harris presented by A Short Leap Theatre Company and The Understudy. Exception to the Rule follows five black students in detention navigating adolescence, flirting, fighting, and waiting, until “college-bound” Erika shows up to her first detention. It explores themes of race, systemic failure in education, and the school-to-prison pipeline as each student confronts how to move forward in an institution that aims to confine them. The staged reading will take place on Friday, August 21 at 7:30pm at The Understudy. MORE INFO.

Mab De Guzman is in a stage reading of “Moses Moses” with The Riveter and Backyard Theatre Co. This is an adaptation by Alishiana Uyao. Come see August 8th or 9th! Mab is also understudying for Strawdog Theatre Company’s production of “ADVANCE MAN” (Part One of The Honeycomb Trilogy). Show opens August 14 and runs September 27th.

Beau Malone is developing a new solo show called WOW, TWINK at a workshop in August, and is hosting a mini-revival of their last solo show RHYTHMIC ANIMAL PERFECTION (originally staged at Dixon Place’s HOT! Festival in 2013) at the monthly queer art salon they host in Logan Square. Performances of RHYTHMIC are 8pm on Thursday July 23rd, Friday July 24th, and Saturday July 25th. As it’s a private residence, please DM Beau on insta or contact via email for the event link. If you’re not able to make it this month, but are interested in showing artistic work (of any discipline) at the salon in future months (or just attending), please reach out! Theatre work (whether short plays, longer plays, or solo work) should be original, contemporary, queer and personal. There’s also room for musicians, comedy, writers, visual and video artists and more. Additionally, if you’re interested in volunteering your acting skills for a weekday afternoon reading series (plays and musicals) for adults with disabilities, contact Beau to be added to the pool of actors— particularly if you love LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.

Kaeli Meno is directing and producing a production of Willed Bodies by Ashley Rose Wellman from August 27th to September 6th at the Lookingglass Studio Space. At a Willed Body ceremony—an event where medical students meet the families of medical cadavers, Lydia, an ambitious first-year med student, meets Harrison, the son of the cadaver she is about to dissect. As Lydia and her lab group cut deeper and deeper into his father’s body, Harrison and Lydia enter into an unconventional relationship that straddles the line between sweet and horrifying. Willed Bodies is a play about strange forms of intimacy and what’s under our skin. Tickets on sale soon! instagram: willed.bodies

Leanna Gianoutsos Oliveira founded a new theatre company: Ways & Means Theatre. They are having a fundraiser and season 1 announcement party on August 11th at Bar Cocina in Lake View starting at 5:30pm and would love to see you there! Tickets are $20 and include a drink. TICKETS. 

Shariba Rivers is one of the “guides” in Theater of the Mind, which has been extended…AGAIN. Produced by Goodman Theatre and running at the Reid Murdoch Building at 333 N LaSalle now through September! MORE INFO. 

Matt Schutz’s full length play, windows, will receive its world premiere from August 7th – 23rd with PrideArts! When life breaks, imagination hits back. Olivia was a rising soccer star until a devastating, career ending injury stopped her life in its tracks. Now, she is stuck in her girlfriend’s apartment with too much time, too much pain, and absolutely no backup plan. Her only escape? Watching the windows across the street and turning the strangers next door into her own personal, chaotic soap opera. Winner of PrideArts’ Queery Playwrights Lab, windows was developed with community input and selected from dozens of new scripts for this world‑premiere production, bringing a bold new queer voice to the stage. Funny, raw, and sharply observed, this brilliant new queer comedy explores identity, ambition, codependency, and the beautiful mess of starting over when the life you planned completely disappears. TICKETS. 

Katherine Swan‘s play Room 504: Winner was selected as a Finalist in City Theatre of Miami’s Susan J. Westfall National Award for Short Playwriting. Room 504: Winner was originally written for Playground on the theme “The American Experiment”.