Ada Grey, the young Chicago actress who has been known to Chicago theatergoers through the theater reviews she began writing at age four and her performances on Chicago stages from age six until she left to attend college at the London Academy of Dramatic Art, has joined the four-actor cast of BUDDHA’S BIRTHDAY. This will be Grey’s first stage role in Chicago since her recent graduation from that esteemed British institution. Grey will play Jennifer, the niece of the anxiety-ridden college professor Pamela who faces crises in her career, her marriage and her family relationships while planning an 80th birthday party for her overbearing mother. Jennifer disappoints her grandmother Roberta by defying family expectations in her choice of careers but provides some valuable life lessons for Pamela. BUDDHA’S BIRTHDAY will open to the press on Saturday, August 2 at 7:30 pm, at The Edge Theatre, 5451 N. Broadway.
Grey, whose Chicago stage credits include Scout in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD with Oak Park Festival Theatre, Girl in BLACKBIRD with Blank Theatre Company, and Rebbeca Gibbs in OUR TOWN with Redtwist, will join a cast of Chicago veterans in this world premiere comedy by Chicago playwright Amy Crider, whose WELLS AND WELLES was a breakout hit of summer 2024. Actors Equity member Kristie Berger will play the insecure professor Pamela. Berger’s career includes roles at the Goodman, Steppenwolf, and Victory Gardens; as well as productions at storefronts including City Lit, Lifeline, Strawdog, and many others. Pamela’s difficult mother Roberta will be played by Kathleen Ruhl, an ensemble member at Redtwist Theatre, where she has performed in nine plays. Ruhl’s decades-long career includes two Jeff Awards (for supporting actress in DOLLY WEST’S KITCHEN and ensemble for THIS HAPPY BREED, both with TimeLine), and roles with Piven Theatre, Writers, and Shattered Globe. For Shattered Globe, she played the title role in FOR PETER PAN ON HER 70TH BIRTHDAY, written for her by her daughter Sarah Ruhl. Pamela’s husband Lawrence, a self-assured philosophy professor, will be played by Christopher Hainsworth, a Lifeline Theatre ensemble member who has also performed with The Gift Theatre, Remy Bumppo, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Factory, Strawdog Theatre Company, and The House Theatre of Chicago, among others. A pesky raccoon that is an habitual irritant to Pamela’s routine will be created and performed by Emilie Wingate of Flying Leap Productions.
Top Row L-R: Kristie Berger, Kathleen Ruhl.
Lower Row L-R: Christopher Hainsworth, Ada Grey
Iris Sowlat, a Chicago-based director who holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she directed Sarah Ruhl’s ORLANDO and Lauren Gunderson’s EMILIE: LA MARQUISE DU CHATELET DEFENDS HER LIFE TONIGHT, will direct BUDDHA’S BIRTHDAY. Sowlat’s previous Chicago directing credits include productions with Accidental Theatre Company, PrideArts, Piven, and others. The creative team will also include Kevin Hagan (scenic design) and Alvaro Ledesma (sound and lighting design).
BUDDHA’S BIRTHDAY has been in development for over a decade, starting as a ten-minute play written for a Scene Shop Showcase at Chicago Dramatists in 2014. Crider expanded it into a full-length play for a Chicago Dramatists’ Master Class in 2020, and it has received several readings since then.
Tickets for BUDDHA’S BIRTHDAY are $38.00 plus applicable fees and are on at www.lucidtheater.com. Performances will be Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30, and Sundays at 3:00, from August 1 – 17 at the Edge Theatre, 5451 N. Broadway, Chicago.
LISTING INFORMATION
BUDDHA’S BIRTHDAY
WORLD PREMIERE
Written by Amy Crider
Directed by Iris Sowlat.
Produced by Lucid Theater Company
August 1 - 17, 2025
Press Opening Saturday, August 2 at 7:30 pm
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30, and Sunday at 3:00
Edge Theatre, 5451 N, Broadway, Chicago
Tickets: $38.00 plus applicable fees, on sale at www.lucidtheater.com
Please visit www.lucidtheater.com for more information.
BUDDHA’S BIRTHDAY is a comedy about anxiety, enlightenment, and raccoons. Pamela, an insecure history professor, is pressed by her husband to try medication for anxiety. She’s always counted on the benefits of meditation. Stressed by her overbearing mother and some relentless animals, she learns that liberation is open to all of us in a moment of grace. In the end, her journey is only beginning, and the raccoons will always be with us.
BIOS
Amy Crider (Playwright) studied comedy at Second City, and attended workshops with Chicago Dramatists, Jackalope Theatre, and LaMaMa. Her last production, WELLS AND WELLES, produced in Chicago in July/August 2024, was a nominee for the 2025 ATCA/Steinberg Award. Her plays have won the Tennessee Williams One Act Play Contest, Word Wave, and New Plays from the Heartland. Two of her plays have been published by TRW. She is also the author two novels published by the University of New Orleans Press. Her podcast Continuous Dream is on Spotify. You’re welcome to find out more at www.amycrider.com
Iris Sowlat (Director) is a Chicago-based director who holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she directed Sarah Ruhl’s ORLANDO and Lauren Gunderson’s EMILIE: LA MARQUISE DU CHATELET DEFENDS HER LIFE TONIGHT. This year, she directed Gunderson’s THE BOOK OF WILL for Triton College (as Adjunct Faculty) and will direct COME ALONG FOR THE RIDE by Rozina Kanchwala for Eco Logic (June 2025). Favorite Chicago directing credits include ROMEO AND JULIET (Accidental Shakespeare Company), JOAN OF ARC and UNDERWORLD ANTHEM (RhinoFest), THE DAYS ARE SHORTER (Pride Arts), ABCD (Piven Theatre) and NARRATIVES OF ACHROMATOPSIA and TURN THAT THING AROUND, (Chicago Fringe Festival), and three different sold-out fundraiser readings of Paula Kamen’s JANE: ABORTION AND THE UNDERGROUND. She has also worked with Northlight Theatre, About Face Theatre, American Theatre Company, Chicago Dramatists, Collaboraction, Broken Nose, Stage Left Theatre (former Artistic Associate), Possibilities Theatre Company, NoPassport Theatre Alliance, and many others. Iris is one half of the leadership (with Allison Fradkin) of the DIY queer feminist theatre Violet Surprise. In 2018, she was named one of WINDY CITY TIMES “30 Under 30.” Find her on the web at www.IrisSowlat.com.
Kristie Berger (Paula) last appeared in THE MOUSETRAP at Citadel Theatre. Regional theater credits include Barbara Fordham in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY and Frankie in FRANKIE & JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE at The Human Race Theatre in Dayton; the long-running national tour of THE ODD COUPLE: FEMALE VERSION starring Barbara Eden; VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE, CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION, BUS STOP, and RESIDENT ALIEN at Nebraska Repertory Theatre. Chicago area credits include Diane in THE BIRDS, Citadel Theatre; Jeanette in THE LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS, Illinois Theatre Center; THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, ALWAYS…PATSY CLINE, and THE ODD COUPLE: FEMALE VERSION, Apollo Theater. Other theaters she has worked with include the Goodman, Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, Equity Library Theater, City Lit, Lifeline, Strawdog, Mary-Arrchie, Touchstone, Center Theater, and Absolute. She also works in TV, voice-overs, commercials, films, and industrial films. Kristie is a proud member of Actors’ Equity.
Ada Grey (Jennifer). Television credits include THE RED LINE (CBS), SHRINK (NBC), SIRENS (USA), and CHICAGO FIRE (NBC). Most recent credits at the London Academy of Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) include: DANCE NATION (LAMDA), CHAOS, SAINT GEORGE AND THE DRAGON, and OUR HOUSE. Chicago stage credits include NO HOME FOR BEES (20% Theatre), OUR TOWN (Redtwist Theatre), THE HAVEN PLACE and I AND MY IPHONE (A Red Orchid Youth), SCARCITY (Redtwist Theatre, Broadway World Chicago Nomination Best Actress), THE AWAKE (First Floor Theatre), THE HAMMER TRINITY (The House Theatre), TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (Oak Park Festival Theatre), JANE EYRE (Lifeline Theatre), MEN SHOULD WEEP (Griffin Theatre, Jeff Award Best Production), and SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR (The Hypocrites). She recently graduated from London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art with a BA in acting.
Christopher Hainsworth (Lawrence) is a Lifeline Theatre ensemble member, where he has performed in TREASURE ISLAND, NEVERWHERE, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, THE KILLER ANGELS, A TALE OF TWO CITIES, MISS HOLMES, FRANKENSTEIN and MISS HOLMES RETURNS; and penned the adaptations of HUNGER, MONSTROUS REGIMENT, MIDNIGHT COWBOY and FABLE-OUS! He has also worked for The Gift Theatre, Remy Bumppo, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Factory, Strawdog Theatre Company, and The House Theatre of Chicago, among others.
Kathleen Ruhl (Roberta) Over many years in Chicago, Kathleen Ruhl has been lucky enough to have performed on a lot of stages with many wonderful actors and directors. She started on the Chicago City Players stage (four shows) which later became the TimeLine stage (three shows), where she won Jeffs for best supporting actor (DOLLY WEST’S KITCHEN) and member of a Best Ensemble (THIS HAPPY BREED). Kathleen did Shakespeare at the outdoor Court Theatre at the University of Chicago (MACBETH, TWELFTH NIGHT, and AS YOU LIKE IT) and Noel Coward at the “new” Court Theatre (HAY FEVER). She studied with Joyce Piven and performed in seven shows directed by Joyce at the Piven Theatre. Some of the other stages she has trod in Chicago and the northern suburbs include those at Writer’s Theatre (HEDDA GABLER), the Attic playhouse in Highwood (three shows), Shattered Globe (Peter Pan in FOR PETER PAN ON HER SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY) and Music Theatre of Hyde Park (Sarah Brown in GUYS AND DOLLS). Kathleen is currently a company member at Redtwist, where she has done nine shows.
ABOUT LUCID THEATER COMPANY
Lucid Theater Company has been producing plays since 2017. Previous productions include LEDA (2017), CHARLIE JOHNSON READS ALL OF PROUST (2019), METADATA (2021), and A LEGACY (Rhinofest, 2023). The company also produces the podcast series of audio plays CONTINUOUS DREAM.
Mission:
Lucid Theater produces original plays with a broad range of subjects and styles. We center ideas and emotions to evoke thoughtful reflection, courageous choices, and compassion. Our goal is to fight against numbness and awaken our audiences to the richness and depth of emotional experience. Rather than replicate reality, we seek to reveal subjective experience for its dreamlike sensibility.
Values:
We honor the artist by paying everyone involved.
We commit to a respectful work environment.
We strive to hire female directors and leadership.
We pledge to listen deeply and question authentically.
We vow to uplift the human spirit.