A Red Orchid Theatre Unveils 33rd Season

Two World Premieres and a Chicago Premiere Explore Themes of Power, Legacy, and Truth

Chicago, Illinois (April 29, 2025) – Following a groundbreaking 32nd season, A Red Orchid Theatre today announced its 2025-26 productions, the Company’s 33rd season. Featuring the World Premiere productions of Jojo Jones’ VEAL and Hanna Kime’s THE TARGETED, and the Chicago Premiere of Anna Ouyang Moench’s BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, season subscriptions are now on sale at www.aredorchidtheatre.com. Individual tickets ($30 - $50) will go on sale at a later date.

Boasting two World Premiere and one Chicago Premiere productions, A Red Orchid Theatre’s 33rd Season asks audiences to interrogate how we hold power, the legacy and consequences of our actions, and who ultimately gets to define the truth. In dystopian dark comedy VEAL, a newly crowned queen is forced to confront the wreckage of old friendships; in the family dramedy BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, a father and daughter struggle to connect when they need each other most; and a group of outsiders gather to reclaim their identity in THE TARGETED.

“In a world where power shifts on a dime, the future feels uncertain, and the truth seems always up for debate, how do we stay connected to each other and our own humanity?” asks A Red Orchid Theatre Artistic Director Kirsten Fitzgerald. “I cannot fully express how inspired I am by each of these playwrights and their creations. To collaborate with them and the visionary directors attached is my current answer. Each of these three plays presents deeply complex humans in deeply complicated relationships with each other and the world around them. Whether laugh or love or cringe inducing, it is thrilling as an artist to navigate and share their personal and intersocial collisions.” 

A Red Orchid Theatre’s 33rd Season is: 

VEAL - World Premiere

Written by Jojo Jones

Directed by Ensemble Member dado 

October 2 - November 9, 2025 

Following a violent coup, a young woman named Chelsea becomes Queen of North America. Into her new palace walk three friends from middle school — Franny, Lulu, and Noa — with whom she hasn’t spoken in years. They’ve come to ask Chelsea for a big favor, but before she grants it, she’s going to make them revisit their shared friendship — and its terrible end. 

BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA - Chicago Premiere

Written by Anna Ouyang Moench

Directed by Ensemble Member Kirsten Fitzgerald

Featuring Ensemble Member John Judd 

January 15 – February 22, 2026 

John and his daughter Caitlyn are birders. As they scan the skies over their backyard in suburban Maryland looking for elusive birds, years go by. Relationships begin and end. Children grow up and parents age. The climate and the world change in small and vast ways. BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA takes a close look at the relationship of a father and daughter over the course of a decade as they struggle to understand the parts of one another that defy understanding. 

THE TARGETED - World Premiere

Written by Hanna Kime

Directed by Grace Dolezal-Ng 

Featuring Ensemble Members Kirsten Fitzgerald, Lawrence Grimm, Sadieh Rifai, and Natalie West 

April 23 – May 31, 2026 

Welcome to the Unity and Hope Conference. A gathering of the most persecuted, tortured, and misunderstood people in the entire world. They call themselves Targeted Individuals, and they are victims of a vast and covert program of systematic torture, surveillance, and harassment by global intergovernmental powers. Over the course of this weekend in the woods they will discuss strategies to take down the deep state, bring awareness to their plight, and, despite their suffering, stay human. 

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Images available at the Media Center at this link

ABOUT A RED ORCHID THEATRE

A Red Orchid Theatre has served as an artistic focal point in the heart of the Old Town community of Chicago since 1993 and was honored with a 2016 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. Over the past 32 years, its Resident Ensemble has welcomed into its fold an impressive array of award-winning actors, playwrights and theatre artists with the firm belief that live theatre is the greatest sustenance for the human spirit. A Red Orchid is well known and highly acclaimed for its fearless approach to performance and design in the service of unflinchingly intimate stories.  

A Red Orchid Theatre is: Karen Aldridge, Lance Baker, Kamal Angelo Bolden, Esteban Andres Cruz, dado, Mike Durst, Sherman Edwards, Myron Elliott, Jennifer Engstrom, Kirsten Fitzgerald, Joseph Fosco, Steve Haggard, Levi Holloway, Mierka Girten, Lawrence Grimm, John Judd, Karen Kawa, Karen Kessler, Travis A. Knight, Danny McCarthy, Shade Murray, Brett Neveu, Sadieh Rifai, Grant Sabin, Michael Shannon, Guy Van Swearingen, Doug Vickers and Natalie West.  

Sponsor Information 

A Red Orchid Theatre remains grateful for the support of our board, donors, and loyal audience who continue to champion our ambitious and powerful storytelling. These sponsors help to create a platform for our talented Ensemble to reach new audiences, and ensure that we remain a source for honest, compassionate, and aesthetically rigorous theatre-making. 

A Red Orchid Theatre’s 33rd Season is sponsored by Heidi Graham.

Interested in sponsoring a production? By partnering with us as a sponsor, you will help to take our work to the next level of artistic excellence, while also receiving deeper access to our artists and the creative process. To learn more, please contact Marketing & Development Director Stephanie Shum at stephanie@aredorchidtheatre.org or 312-943-8722.