Don’t miss Theater Wit’s Midwest premiere of Inanimate, the story of a woman in love with her local Dairy Queen sign, the best - and only! - objectum-sexual romance this year.
Theater Wit Artistic Director Jeremy Wechsler directs Nick Robideau’s comic exploration of objectum sexuality, a true phenomenon characterized by a sexual or romantic attraction to inanimate objects.
Enter Erica Grillo, who suddenly, at 30, finds herself in love. Dee really understands Erica, and opens her eyes to true romance. He's everything she's ever wanted: warm, compassionate, a great listener and sexy AF. The fact that he's a Dairy Queen sign is just a plus.
A New York Times Critics Pick, Inanimate is “a sly and very likable comedy” that walks a beautiful line between humor and depth.
Sign up now for an ideal night out for people who see the joy and value in human diversity, are curious about experiences outside their own, and appreciate comedy about the human condition…and why who we love can still define us.
Previews of Inanimate are Friday, March 22 through Sunday, March 31: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. Press opening is Monday, April 1 at 7 p.m.
Performances run through Saturday, May 4: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $18-$55. Run time is 90 minutes, no intermission. Purchase tickets at theaterwit.org, call (773) 975.8150, or buy in person at the Theater Wit box office.
Better yet, show your support of Chicago storefront theater, purchase a Theater Wit Membership. For a low monthly fee of $35 – often less than the price of a single ticket – Theater Wit members see as many shows as they want on the company’s three stages, including productions by resident and guest companies, year round. Sign up at theaterwit.org/boxoffice/membership.
Theater Wit is located at 1229 W. Belmont Ave., in the Belmont Theatre District in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. Convenient parking is available for $10 across the street from the theater in the lot behind Kubo restaurant (pay at the Theater Wit box office.) Neighborhood street parking is available, as are private paid lots (tip: book ahead and at a discount with SpotHero). Theater Wit is also accessible via the CTA 77 Belmont bus, and is three blocks west of the CTA Belmont Red/Brown/Purple line stop.
A sign of things to come: behind the scenes of Theater Wit’s Inanimate
Theater Wit’s Chicago premiere of Inanimate features (from left) J.G. Smith as Erica, Jodi Gage as Trish, Aaron Latterell as Dee, William Anthony Sebastian Rose II as Kevin, with Khloe Janel, Erin Long and Dustin Valenta.
Theater Wit’s Chicago premiere of Inanimate features J.G. Smith (they/she) as Erica, Jodi Gage (she/her) as Trish, Aaron Latterell (he/him) as Dee and William Anthony Sebastian Rose II (he/him) as Kevin. Khloe Janel (they/she), Erin Long (she/her) and Dustin Valenta (he/him) play the three-person chorus. Understudies are Lexi Alioto (she/her), Kevin Aoussou (he/him) and Nick Pardo (he/him).
Designers are Joe Johnson (set, he/him), Mara Blumenfeld (costumes, she/her), Levi Wilkins (lights, he/him), AnnaMae Durham (props, she/her), Joe Court (sound, he/him), Sarah Luse (stage manager, she/her), Matthew R. Chase (production manager, he/him) and Catherine Miller (casting director, they/them).
Nick Robideau’s (playwright, he/him) play Inanimate debuted in 2017 at The Flea in New York, was named a New York Times Critic's Pick and is published by Broadway Play Publishing. His other plays include Passing Through, Barbarians and Against the Flesh. His work has been developed or performed with The Lark, Stillwrights, HB Studio, The Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, The Silent Barn, Title Point, The Brick Theater, Pipeline Theater Company, The Flea Theater, and at fringe festivals both in the U.S. and internationally. Awards include The Rita Goldberg Playwriting Prize and The A.R. Gurney Prize for Playwriting. Robideau holds an M.F.A. in playwriting from Hunter College and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
Jeremy Wechsler (director, he/him) is the founding Artistic Director of Theater Wit. Under Wechsler’s leadership over the last 15 years, Theater Wit has emerged as the go to destination for cutting edge contemporary work, gaining national recognition for excellence. His Theater Wit directing credits include the Chicago premieres of The Whistleblower, Hurricane Diane, Admissions, The Realistic Joneses, The Antelope Party, 10 Out of 12, Naperville (Jeff Award), This Way out of Santaland, The New Sincerity, The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Best of 2015, Chicago SunTimes), Bad Jews (Best of 2015, Newcity), Mr. Burns: a post electric play (Time Out Peoples’ Choice Award for Direction, Best of 2015), Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England (Sun-Times Best of 2014), Completeness, Tigers Be Still, The Four of Us, Feydeau-Si-Deau, Men of Steel, Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) (Jeff Award, Best Solo Peformance), Two for the Show and many, many productions of The Santaland Diaries. He has directed over 60 shows in the last 20 years at various theaters, including Tragedy A Tragedy, The Flu Season, A Taste of Honey (U.S. Best of 2008, Wall Street Journal), Now Then Again (Jeff Award, Best New Work), The Play about the Squirrel, The White Devil, This is Not a Play about Cancer, Peer Gynt, The Real Thing, Shinhaz, The Duchess of Malfi, Titus Andronicus, The Roaring Girl, Flight, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, This is the Fill Speaking, Hay Fever, A Month in the Country, Europe, Henry VI: Blood of a Nation, The Promise, Spin, Un Robot, Horror Academy, Kind Lady, Playing by the Rules, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Solitaire, The Coarse Acting Show, Life is a Dream, The Prisoner’s Dilemma, Cabaret and The Threepenny Opera. His productions have been nominated for and won multiple awards for design, performance, adaptation and best new work.
About Theater Wit
Founded in 2004, Theater Wit is a cultural hub of the Chicago Theater landscape, specializing in contemporary works of comedy, intellect and heart. Under a unique, playwright-centric second production process, Theater Wit has become a nationally-recognized producer of new work by writers like Anne Washburn, Will Eno, Itamar Moses, Joshua Harmon and Madeleine George.
Under founding Artistic Director Jeremy Wechsler’s leadership, Theater Wit has grown from a small $40K annual budget to a leader in the Chicago landscape with an annual budget of $750K. In 2007, he supervised and designed a new home for Theater Wit, a three-theater facility that hosts Wit’s own award-winning work and gives a home to a number of Chicago's best neighborhood theaters with over 500 performances per year from 20+ companies in a typical season.
To learn more, visit theaterwit.org or follow the company on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.