directing.
AZAZEL'S GIFT
Grace Herman, Director
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
April 5th-6th 2025
Three devils conspire against humanity. Their goal: complete annihilation. However, they would settle for enslavement. Will their schemes be successful? At every turn the Enemy counters them to protect the humans, but the struggle continues. Will they be successful in their efforts? Or will the humans, with the Enemy’s help, overcome the demon’s malice? Azazel’s Gift recounts the story of humanity’s struggle with itself through the eyes of the forces that would see it finished. This project is inspired by research into the origins and evolution of societies and offers a single narrative derived from various belief systems encompassing all of human history.
NOTES FROM THE FIELD
Deron S Williams, Director
Grace Herman, Assistant Director & Dramaturg
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
Feburary 2025
When fiction isn’t enough, stories must be told as they actually happened. Using verbatim transcripts of real-life interviews, Notes from the Field tackles incarceration, police brutality, and systemic educational issues with heart and hope. Anna Deavere Smith’s striking piece of documentary theatre shows the school-to-prison nexus not in allegorical critique, but in grotesquely real detail. Shattering notions of punishment and the justification of violent force, Notes from the Field interrogates what is activism, what is performance, and what you can do about it.
IN AOC WE TRUST
Annika Halonen, Playwright & Co-Project Lead
Grace Herman, Director & Co- Project Lead
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
November 2nd-3rd 2024
In the new play, In AOC We Trust, the first entirely non-male student government bill in Nettleton High School’s history comes face to face with the corruption, complexity, and brokenness of the American education system. As their world becomes increasingly absurd, the six students have to decide how much responsibility they have as student leaders, both over their own education, and to their peers, faculty, and school district at large. This project will be co-lead by a playwright-director team working to stage the new work drawing from the styles and practices of Pina Bausch, Viola Spolin, and Joyce Piven.
13 FRIENDS
Al Oltmanns, Director
Grace Herman, Assistant Director
NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL INSTITUTE, THEATRE DIVISION
July 29th - August 1st 2024
Fefu and her seven (in our version 12) female friends gather at Fefu's house to rehearse a presentation for their charity toward school education. Each character plays a role in this event. Before and after their rehearsal, the women interact with one another and share their thoughts and feelings about life along with their personal struggles and societal concerns. This piece was staged at The National High Institution Theatre Divison Summer Intensive, during play festival week.
CAFECITO
Grace Herman, Director & Playwright & Project Lead
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
November 18th-19th 2024
In their local coffee shop, creatives of all ages gather to work on, discuss, and perform art. Cafecito is a story about how the capitalist world constantly demands productivity and perfection from us, killing our creative joy. All in a desperate desire for profit in a not inherently profitable industry. Leading to extreme competition, self-doubt, and pressure. This original one-act play challenges the characters and the audience to reclaim their creative joy and reexamine how they operate as artists and humans within this capitalist society.
THE OLD MAN AND THE OLD MOON
Emily Ritger, Director
Grace Herman, Assistant Director
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
April 2025
The Old Man has filled the moon with liquid light each day for longer than any of us can recall. When the Old Woman sails west in search of a long-lost memory, the Old Man embarks on an epic quest to find his wife. PigPen Theatre Co.’s The Old Man and the Old Moon is a sea-faring fable of dusty promises kept, deleterious adventures taken, and the deathless forces that run our world.
