Steep Theatre Announces Two New Shows for 2024 Season

Steep Theatre will be back on stage in 2024 with two new productions that continue the company's tradition of bringing new work to Chicago audiences.

In July, Steep will open the Chicago Premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's A Case for the Existence of God at the Edge Off-Broadway Theatre, directed by Steep Ensemble Member Robin Witt. In September, the company will present the World Premiere of Ensemble Member Omer Abbas Salem's Happy Days Are Here (Again) at Steppenwolf Theatre's 1700 Theater, directed by Azar Kazemi.  

“We're excited for the year ahead and to be back with our artists and audiences doing what we do best - creating conversations and community through our work on stage,” said Artistic Director Peter Moore. “We're enormously grateful to Steppenwolf and the Edge for offering us homes away from home as we continue the work of building the new Steep Theatre.” 

Steep is currently in the process of transforming its new building in Edgewater into a state-of-the-art performance space, artistic home, and cultural center that will serve the company for years to come.

In Samuel D. Hunter's A Case for the Existence of God, two single parents search for understanding and connection as they confront crises of parenting and financial insecurity. The play premiered at New York's Signature Theatre in April 2022 and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best New Play. Director Robin Witt has been at the helm for some of Steep's most memorable productions over the years, including Harper Regan, Lela & Co, and 2021's critical and commercial hit, Light Falls. This will be Steep's second Hunter production, having produced the Midwest Premiere of Hunter's The Few in 2016.

Steep Ensemble Member Omer Abbas Salem's Happy Days Are Here (Again) was commissioned and workshopped by Steep and will receive its World Premiere production at Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater, bringing one of Chicago's rising playwriting voices to a prominent Chicago institution. Salem is a 3Arts Award winner whose work has been produced by About Face and First Floor Theatres and developed by the Goodman and Steppenwolf Theatres. This large ensemble piece explores how people in power abuse their systems and the resilience that fighting them requires. This production will mark director Azar Kazemi's debut with Steep. Kazemi recently directed Rivendell Theatre's smash-hit, world premiere production of Tuckie White's Motherhouse, which won Jeff Awards for both Best New Work and Best Ensemble.

General ticket sales for A Case for the Existence of God will begin on June 5th, and Happy Days Are Here (Again) general ticket sales will go on sale in August. 

About Steep Theatre

Founded in 2000 by three actors, Steep has grown into a dynamic ensemble of forty-five theatre artists, supported by a dedicated and inspired team of arts administrators and community members.  Described by Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune as "the most fearless theater in town", Steep creates powerful productions of plays by today's most exciting writers and features the work of Chicago's hottest theatre artists in an intimate, accessible space. Steep is known as a home for hard-hitting, finely-tuned ensemble work. With each production, the company has shepherded a growing community of audiences and artists into bold new territories of story and performance. Steep Theatre is committed to creating an inclusive and anti-racist environment for making and watching theatre. To learn more, please visit https://steeptheatre.com/antiracism. 

Steep is in the midst of its Lights Up Edgewater Capital Campaign to support the creation of Steep's new theater and artistic home and to fund robust and equitable compensation for artists and staff. To learn more about this campaign, please visit www.steeptheatre.com/lightsup.

Production Information

The Chicago Premiere of 

A Case for the Existence of God

Written by Samuel D. Hunter

Directed by Robin Witt

July 19 - August 25, 2024

The World Premiere of 

Happy Days Are Here (Again)

Written by Omer Abbas Salem

Directed by Azar Kazemi

September 20 - October 27, 2024

About the Artists

Samuel D. Hunter (Playwright; A Case for the Existence of God) grew up in Moscow, Idaho and lives in New York City with his husband and daughter. His full-length plays include The Whale (Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, GLAAD Media Award, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play), A Case for the Existence of God (New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play, Hull-Warriner Award), A Bright New Boise (Obie Award, Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), Greater Clements (Drama Desk nomination for Best Play, Outer Critics Circle Honoree), Lewiston/Clarkston (Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), The Few, A Great Wilderness, Rest, Pocatello, The Healing and The Harvest, among others.

His screenplay adaptation of The Whale, directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Brendan Fraser, was nominated for the 2023 BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and received two Oscars, including Best Actor. He was also a writer and producer on all four seasons of FX's Baskets.

He is the recipient of a 2014 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, a 2012 Whiting Writers Award and an honorary doctorate from the University of Idaho. His work has been produced off-Broadway in New York City by Lincoln Center Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, LCT3, Signature Theatre, Page 73 Productions, Clubbed Thumb and Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre. Elsewhere, his work has been produced by Theatre Royal Bath, Theatre Rotterdam, Dallas Theatre Center, Seattle Rep, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, South Coast Rep and Victory Gardens, among others.

Robin Witt (Director; A Case for the Existence of God) has directed 12 plays for Steep including Simon Stephens's Light Falls, Harper Regan, and Wastwater as well as Cordelia Lynn's Lela & Co for which she received a Jeff Award. She is an ensemble member at both Steep Theatre and Griffin Theatre in Chicago. Other theatres she has worked for include Steppenwolf, Goodman, Northlight, Writers Theatre, Lookingglass and The Artistic Home. Witt is a Professor of Directing at UNC Charlotte and she holds a MFA from Northwestern University. She is the daughter of the late actor Howard Witt. 

Omer Abbas Salem (Playwright; Happy Days are Here (Again); he/they) is an actor and playwright. As an actor, they've worked at Roundabout Theatre, Atlantic Theatre, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Goodman, Steep Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, Silk Road Rising, First Floor Theatre, The New Coordinates, About Face Theatre, Griffin Theatre, and The Second City. As a playwright, their work has been produced at The Goodman, Steppenwolf Theatre, About Face Theatre, Steep Theatre, First Floor Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, The New Coordinates, The Story Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, National Queer Theatre, Definition Theatre, and The Theatre School of DePaul. They are a member of the 2021/22 Goodman Playwrights Unit and had a play developed in The Goodman's New Stages Festival in 2022. They are the winner of the 2022 Blueprint Commission winner from First Floor and recipient of the 2021 Cunningham Commission from DePaul University. They were given an Emerging Playwright commission from Audible Theater and are also the most recent recipient of the Edgerton Commission at Steppenwolf Theater. They also won the 2022 3Arts Award in Theater. They are an ensemble member of Steep Theatre, First Floor Theater, and The New Coordinates. They graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and the University of Chicago. They are represented by Gray Talent and the Gersh Agency. Find out more at www.omerabbassalem.com

Azar Kazemi (Director, Happy Days Are Here (Again) is first-generation Persian American and a freelance director and educator based in Chicago. She directs socially-charged plays where the political and personal collide, most recently directing the Jeff Award-winning world premiere of Motherhouse by Tuckie White at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. Some of Azar's other Chicago directing credits include: the U.S. premiere of Debbie Tucker Green's Dirty Butterfly, the Midwest premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's Jack's Precious Moment, and Sarah Kane's Crave. Azar received her MFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University, where she is also on faculty and received the 2020-21 Excellence in Teaching Award. Azar has worked at The Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, Victory Gardens, American Theatre Company, Chicago Dramatists, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In New York City Azar worked at The New Group where she assistant directed three Off-Broadway productions, two under the direction of her mentor Ethan Hawke. Azar is a proud member of SDC. To learn more please visit: azarkazemi.com

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