Momentary Theatre (Founding Artistic Director Jacob C. Shuler) and Producer Jordan Merimee Navidar are proud to announce the World Premiere of The Unknown Variable, written by Nahal Navidar, and directed by Jacob C. Shuler. The production dates are March 29 at 7pm and March 30 at 2pm and 7pm at Jarvis Square Theater located at 1439 W Jarvis Ave, Chicago, IL 60626.
Synopsis
Separated from her bābā in Iran and living in a strange new land, a determined young girl contacts the President, Santa Claus, and God to determine the unknown variable – when her father will be granted a visa from the United States so they can be reunited.
Artistic Statement
“In this play, I’m exploring the nature of time, how formative memories become jewels when the familial unit is torn apart, and how reunification does not reverse the damage of separation nor make up for lost time. The Unknown Variable is the first play I’ve written since the pandemic cancellation of My Dear Hussein at Silk Road Rising and since my father passed away in July 2023. As an immigrant who was separated from my father for six years as a result of the American immigration bureaucracy, I have felt alone in my singular form of grief. I am reminded of the migrant children who were separated from their parents and empathize with the lifelong ways this trauma will manifest in their lives.”
-Playwright, Nahal Navidar
“As Momentary's Curator, I'm thrilled to be mounting this triumphant return of Nahal Navidar's work to the Chicago stage. And as a dramaturg, director, and friend to Nahal, I'm awed by the honesty, insight, and humor she's woven into The Unknown Variable. The play contains relics of Iran Melancholia; our pre-COVID commission and reflection of one young girl's immigration experience to the United States. But it also carries with it the weight and that wisdom of all that's unfolded over these past four years. For Nahal, that included the loss of her father; an experience she documents, dissects, and connects back to the sociopolitical systems that kept them apart for so long. It's a play that is, at once, both intimately personal and invariably universal. It's a story that belongs both only to Nahal, and to everyone in the audience who comes to hear it.”
-Dramaturg/Director, Jacob C. Shuler
Cast/Crew
The creative team for The Unknown Variable includes Nahal Navidar (Playwright), Jacob C. Shuler (Dramaturg/Director), Jordan Merimee Navidar (Producer), Jacob C. Shuler and Erik Jonathan Shuler (Scenic Designers), Erik Jonathan Shuler (Stage Manager), Allyson Leisure (Costume Designer), Caitlin Stegemoller (Vocal Coach) Wanees Zarour (Composer), and Kousha Navidar (Sound Designer and Audio Engineer).
The cast includes Joan Nahid as Āvā, Adam El-Sharkawi as Bābā, and Antonio L. Rodriguez as Chorus.
About the Playwright
Nahal Navidar (Playwright) is an Iranian-born dramatist raised in upstate New York. Her plays are motivated by the exploration of social issues while employing magical elements to embody the expanse of human emotions. Nahal’s plays have been developed or produced at Momentary Theatre, Boston Court, Silk Road Rising, Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, The Vagrancy Writer’s Group, Rogue Machine Dramaturge’s Table, Coeurage Theatre CoLab Play Development, Pasadena Playhouse, Playwright’s Arena, Troy Foundry Theatre, Voices of the Marianas, The Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Golden Thread Productions, Company of Angels New Play Series, The Kennedy Center, and The University at Albany. Nahal is a member of the Dramatist's Guild of America and holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the University of Southern California.
Jacob C. Shuler (Dramaturg/Director) is a 2012 graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University where he achieved a BFA in Playwriting. He authored Momentary’s inaugural production, The Death of Gaia Divine, which also received a staged production through The Theatre School’s New Playwright Series. While at DePaul, he also wrote and directed an adaptation of August Strindberg’s The Stronger. In addition to producing, Jacob dramaturged Momentary’s 2020 co-production of Nahal Navidar’s My Dear Hussein with Silk Road Rising prior to its COVID-19 cancellation. 9 to 5, Jacob works at Chicago’s Field Museum where he produced First Queens of the Field, the Museum’s first ever drag show.
Performance Schedule
March 29th at 7pm
March 30th at 2pm and 7pm
Tickets
Pay-What-You-Can
Tickets are now available and can be reserved at thisismomentary.com.