Refracted Theatre Company proudly announces its 2026 season, featuring I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire by Samantha Hurley, directed by Tyler Struble. Following its Off-Broadway premiere in 2023 and an eight-week London engagement, the production will run September 18 - October 31 at The Den Theatre. The season also marks the return of Role Call, Refracted’s free, community-centered reading series, with events scheduled throughout the year. Additional details about the 2026 season and programming can be found at RefractedCo.com.
Says Artistic Director Tova Wolff, “Refracted’s seventh season is a celebration of the people who make our work possible, our artists and our audience. It is a season rooted in renewal and possibility, where artists embrace new opportunities and audiences encounter stories that invite laughter, reflection and deep feeling. We remain committed to telling powerful stories and asking essential questions: work that lingers, challenges and brings us closer together.”
The 2026 season includes:
CHICAGO PREMIERE
I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire
September 18 - October 31
Written by Samantha Hurley
Directed by Tyler Struble
Previews: Friday, Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 20 at 3 p.m. and Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Press Opening: Thursday, Sept. 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Performance schedule:Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.
Bookspan Theatre at The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Tickets go on sale in summer 2026
To cope with the absence of her father, neglect of her mother and ridicule by her classmates, eighth-grader and president of the Tobey Maguire Fan Club, Shelby Hinkley decides to risk it all for love, kidnap famous actor Tobey Maguire and marry him in her basement. Her fantasies of happily ever after start to crumble as she realizes Tobey may not be the charismatic, heartthrob actor she thinks she knows,while Tobey does everything he can to escape the clutches of his number one fan. A Y2K farce, I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire is a full-throttle explosion of our para-social relationships and the obsessions that detonate them.
I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc, ConcordTheatricals.com.
Role Call
For more than three years, Refracted has hosted free community events during its Role Call series. Part book club, part performance, part debate and part community building, Refracted calls the artistic community together with the theatrically-curious Chicago community to investigate exciting works of theatre…in a setting where everyone has a role to play. Refracted will host several community Role Call events before launching its corporate and educational initiatives this year.
The 2026 season includes three Role Call in May, August and December with details to be announced.
ABOUT SAMANTHA HURLEY, playwright, I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire
Samantha Hurley (she/her) is a Maine-raised, Chicago based playwright and comedy writer. Her first play, I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire premiered off-Broadway at Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre to critical acclaim and a sold-out run. The play had its international debut in London at the Southwark Playhouse. I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire is published by Concord Theatricals and has been featured in Teen Vogue, Interview and Pleaser magazine. Hurley’s original sketches have been performed at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre, Brooklyn Comedy Collective, Characters Welcome and the People’s Improv Theatre. Her plays have been developed at the cell theatre, Pocket VR/Theatre L’acadie, Impostor’s Theater, Two Chairs Theatre Company and Avalanche Theatre.
ABOUT TYLER STRUBLE, director, I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire
Tyler Struble (he/they) is a director, dramaturg and producer. As a director, they are a frequent collaborator with playwright Samantha Hurley, who they developed with and premiered their play I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire, Off-Broadway at Nancy Manocharien’s the cell theatre and Off-West End at London’s Southwark Playhouse, both with NYC-based production company Regular People. Recent credits include director for RE(VULVA) (Avalanche Theatre Company), this dry spell (Regular People, New York City, NY), The Quiet Part (Freshly Brewed at The Understudy), Sharon (A Red Orchid Theatre A Taste of Red Series), Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Kitchen Theatre Company, Ithaca, NY), assistant director for Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin (A Red Orchid Theatre), Aesop’s Fables (Mudlark Theatre) and dramaturg for What The Constitution Means to Me (Hangar Theatre, Ithaca, NY). They served as associate producer at Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, NY before relocating to Chicago.
ABOUT REFRACTED THEATRE COMPANY
Refracted Theatre Company was started by co-founders Graham Miller and Tova Wolff in 2019 in New York City. At the time of Refracted’s conception, Miller and Wolff observed a fractured nation, polarized and insular in its political/social motivations, a world inhabited by people deeply distrustful of those with whom they did not share ideological overlap. Miller and Wolff ventured to create a theatre company that would challenge their audience’s biases, a space to become a mental and emotional fitness center where audiences could use theatre to grapple with the issues/feelings/forces in their lives. They wanted to inspire healthy discourse and empathic discussions, to encourage people to seek nuance and understanding again.
In Refracted’s first season ever, they were able to produce a Refracted Reading...before everything came to a screeching halt. The pandemic changed the landscape of theatrical engagement in a way Wolff and Miller could never have predicted. But they stuck true to their mission, which seeks not only to provide Refracted content, but also Refracted form. While most theaters shuttered their doors, the co-artistic directors relied on adaptivity and innovation to continue to produce safety driven, live theatrical events that combined audio, immersive and movement theatre. In 2021, Refracted moved from New York to Chicago, where it continues to invite audiences to engage with new forms of storytelling, forms that are sure to upend their expectations.
In the years since its arrival in Chicago, Refracted has set a new standard for storefront theatre in a city renowned for its theatre scene. In 2023, the company was heralded as a “Rising Star in Storefront Theatre” by NewCity, nominated for the Broadway In Chicago Emerging Theatre Award, had sold out performances, received rave reviews and swept the Joseph Jefferson Awards, winning eight awards for its production of Tambo & Bones by Dave Harris, including Best Production. In 2024, Refracted’s production of Coronation, written by Laura Winters and directed by Tova Wolff, received the most Jeff Non-Equity nominations for a non-musical offering and won three Jeff Non-Equity Awards for lighting Design (Garrett Bell), projection design (Abboye Lawrence) and supporting actor (Jodi Gage). Refracted exists as a space for people seeking to engage the world with nuance, curiosity and empathy. We believe truth is not singular but multifaceted. Like a prism, it reveals its full clarity only when we make space for the spectrum of perspectives that shape it.
I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire is sponsored by CityArts, Illinois Arts Council and Paul M. Angell Family Foundation
(L to R) director of I’M GONNA MARRY YOU TOBEY MAGUIRE Tyler Struble and playwright of I’M GONNA MARRY YOU TOBEY MAGUIRE Samantha Hurley. Photo by Zachary Ochinko
(L to R) playwright of I’M GONNA MARRY YOU TOBEY MAGUIRE Samantha Hurley and director of I’M GONNA MARRY YOU TOBEY MAGUIRE Tyler Struble. Photo by Andrew Patino