World Premiere: THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY Via Her Story Theatre March 28 - April 19, 2026 at The Den

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar: Her Story Theatre presents World Premiere of  THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY  March 28 - April 19 at The Den An aging novelist and a young writer of creative non-fiction flirt with the seduction and danger of storytelling as they play cat and mouse with conflicting versions of the truth.

Her Story Theatre has announced the World Premiere of Kurt McGinnis Brown’s two-hander THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY, to play March 28 – April 19 at The Den Theatre in Chicago. When young black journalist Xan Smith is assigned to interview the once successful, now aging white novelist, Henry Percival, the two form an unlikely bond during their contentious meetings. After Henry reveals something unexpected about his past, the two writers must consider the uncertain relationship of truth to storytelling in general, and specifically to the story of Henry’s life. THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY will keep audiences guessing as they follow its plot twists, surprises, and suspect decisions. The drama, which was workshopped at Chicago Dramatists in 2017 and Art Lit Lab in Madison, Wisconsin in 2016, is the work of prolific playwright Kurt McGinnis Brown, who has had plays produced across the country, including in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. The Jeff Award-winner and former Artistic Director of Strawdog Theatre Richard Shavzin will direct. Previews on March 28, 29 and 31. It will play through April 19. Veteran Chicago actor and Actors Equity member Gary Houston, whose many credits include GEM OF THE OCEAN and JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE at the Goodman Theatre, will play the septuagenarian novelist Henry Percival. Shelby Marie Edwards, seen most recently in Pegasus Players’ YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL and RABBITS IN THEIR POCKETS at Lifeline Theatre, has been cast as the young journalist Xan Smith.   The production team includes Garrett Bell (Set Design), Sam Bessler (Lighting Design), Mary Bonnett (Costume Design), George Zahora (Sound Design), Wendye Clarendon* (Actors Equity member, Stage Manager), Morgan Watkinson and Josh Hogan (Assistant Stage Managers), Steve Kruse (Technical Director), Tristan Predmore (Lighting Technician), Nora Brooks (Scenic Painter), and Lucas Holeman (Carpenter).  Tickets to THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY are $40 for General Admission and $30.00 for Seniors plus taxes and fees) for regular performances; and $35 General Admission for previews. Students and industry members are $20.00 all performances, and group prices are $30.00 per person for all performances. Tickets are on sale now at www.thedenthreatre.com and The Den Theatre Box Office 773-697-3830.

Her Story Theatre THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY WORLD PREMIERE By Kurt McGinnis Brown Directed by Richard Shavzin Featuring Gary Houston and  Shelby Marie Edwards March 28 – April 19, 2026 Previews Saturday, March 28 at 7:30 pm, Sunday, March 29 at 3:00 pm, and Tuesday, March 31 at 7:30 pm Thursdays – Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm (No performance Easter Sunday, April 5) The Den Theatre Upstairs Main Stage, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago 60622

Ticket Prices: Previews – General Admission $35.00, plus taxes and fees. Regular performances - General Admission - $40.00, Seniors - $35.00. Students and industry $20.00 all performances. Groups $30.00 per person all performances. Tickets on sale now at www.thedentheatre.com and The Den Theatre Box Office 773-697-3830 Info: www.HerStoryTheater.org   When young black journalist Xan Smith is assigned to interview the once successful, now aging, white novelist, Henry Percival, her mission is clear. She is prepared to dismantle his career with a scathing expose that will cement her own reputation as a fearless cultural critic. But during their contentious meetings, Henry reveals something unexpected about his past. As she digs deeper, the story she uncovers changes the one she came to write. Xan must decide what she's willing to tell, because in this game of perception and power, the biggest revelation may be about herself.  BIOS

Gary Houston (Henry Percival) was last seen onstage at the Goodman Theater in August Wilson's GEM OF THE OCEAN and JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE, both directed by Chuck Smith.  As well as numerous film roles, Gary is a Jeff-nominated actor, with a long history of performances at Northlight, Writers Theatre, Steppenwolf, Victory Gardens, Wisdom Bridge, National Jewish Theater and in the original Organic Theatre ensemble. As a former books and arts staffer for the CHICAGO SUN TIMES, he interviewed Studs Terkel, Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Elie Wiesel. Gary is presently managing editor of CHICAGO QUARTERLY REVIEW and a member of Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA. (Photo by Sandy Morris)

Shelby Marie Edwards (Xan Smith) is an actor-musician and solo performer. Chicago theatre Credits include RABBITS IN THEIR POCKETS (Lifeline Theatre), YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL (Pegasus Theatre Chicago), QUALIA (Subtext Studio Theatre), A BRONX TALE, THE WEDDING SINGER (Surging Films and Theatrics), HOLLY’S IVY, LOST HOME WIN HOME (Lifeline Theatre’s Fillet of Solo Festival). Regional credits include: ABIYOYO (Chicago Symphony Orchestra), FLEX (Summit Performance Indianapolis), CHICKEN & BISCUITS (Virginia Repertory Theatre), LITTLE WOMEN (Virginia Theatre Festival). Education: M.A. from the University of Chicago and B.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University. Film Credits include HBO’s LOVECRAFT COUNTRY. Shelby is a proud alumna of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s professional leadership program. IG: @ShelbyMarieEdwards

Kurt McGinnis Brown (Playwright) has had plays performed across the country, including in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. His fiction has appeared in national journals such as AMERICAN LITERARY REVIEW, DENVER QUARTERLY, GLIMMER TRAIN, and NEW LETTERS, and he recently completed a memoir about crime and creativity. Kurt’s work on land and poverty issues took him to Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Peru, and Russia; a few lives perhaps are better for it. Richard Shavzin (Director) is delighted to have had the opportunity to help bring this excellent new play into the American theatrical canon. He has also directed the world premieres of the musical ANY SOMEONE AT ALL at Second City; DEFAMATION, TOPS OR BOTTOMS, and FALLOUT for Canamac Productions; TEN CENT NIGHT (Chicago Dramatists); NEVER THE BRIDESMAID (Polarity Ensemble), KLUB KOKOMO (PS Theatricals); and Studs Terkel's RACE at Strawdog Theatre, where he was the Artistic Director from 1993-1998 and won a Jeff for Direction for BURN THIS. He is a member of Perennial Theatre Company, an Artistic Affiliate Emeritus with American Blues, and an Associate Artist at Chicago Dramatists, where he has directed almost 100 readings of new plays over the last 32 years. Mary Bonnett (Producing Artistic Director) is an award-winning artist who is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of Her Story Theater. As a playwright, her work has been seen in Chicago, NYC, Houston, Philadelphia, Wyoming and Connecticut. She has written a series of plays on domestic sex trafficking in Chicago. Her work also includes monologues, one acts and full-length plays. She is a member of Chicago Dramatist, Dramatist Guild, Perennial Theatre, Chicago Radio Players and SAG-AFTRA. Her new play, THE NOVELIST, has most recently had readings in Chicago and London, England. Mary is also a novelist with a published children's book and an adult literary novel on the way. Since 2011, Her Story Theater's mission has been to shine bright lights in dark places on women and children in need of social justice and community support.   HER STORY THEATER Her Story Theater was founded in 2011 and has focused primarily on raising awareness of the epidemic of sexual exploitation of minors and homelessness. The four produced plays in Her Story’s “Chicago Sex Trafficking Cycle” include SHADOW TOWN (2013), THE JOHNS (2014), MONEY MAKE'M SMILE (2016, 2017) and MONGER (2018).  As a group, the plays depict domestic sex trafficking from the perspectives of the various participants – the traffickers, the youths who are trafficked, and the men who buy them. INVISIBLE (2019) is concerned with issues of bigotry, nativism and violence against minorities. Her Story Theater continues its work to raise awareness of the prevalence of domestic sex trafficking and the trauma-based victim through its touring presentations and programs.   Her Story Theater is a theater for social change. Through theater and the written word, our mission is to shine bright lights in dark places on women and children in need of social justice and community support. Since 2011, we have partnered with countless organizations to raise awareness on current issues that impact women and children.  Her Story Theater is supported by Driehaus Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Illinois Arts Council, Oppenheimer Family Foundation, Com Ed Powering the Arts, Northern Trust, Sunlight Project, Vanguard Charitable and private donations.

REVIEW: World Premiere of INVISIBLE Via Her Story Theater Now Playing Through November 3, 2019

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

INVISIBLE

Written by Mary Bonnett

Directed by Cecilie Keenan

The World Premiere of a play about the Women's Ku Klux Klan 

in 1920's Mississippi

REVIEW:

by bonnie kenaz-mara

Her Story Theater's Invisible is full of characters you'll love to hate. These women, in a small Mississippi town in 1925, are the most dangerous kind of self-righteous, southern bigots, who justify hate crimes, violence, and even murder in the name of Christianity and white supremacy. Though subservient to their husbands and sometimes even domestic violence abuse victims themselves, these women have power and use their smarts, social standing and ability to ostracize to amass an army for the first Women’s Ku Klux Klan. The clan not only harassed and hurt African Americans, but Jews, Catholics, and even disenfranchised whites who were perceived as "other" as well. Greed, deception, corruption and theft ran rampant among the ranks of the KKK movement, which eventually imploded, but not before amassing a frightening number of members. This period piece is a stark reminder of how little has changed in 100 years, as white supremacy, scapegoating immigrants, and race based discrimination is once again gaining mainstream credibility in our current political climate.

Invisible is a character driven exploration of a moment in history, between world wars, where immigrants were maligned, race based violence was condoned, and patriotism and Christian religion got twisted to justify horrific ends. It's an era of errors we'd best remember as a country, as we teeter on the bring of repeating it. 

There is a bright spot in the morass. Without revealing too many spoilers, there are those who step up embrace human decency regardless of skin color, heritage or religion, just because another person is in need. Invisible has a wonderful character, a well educated artist from Chicago, who has gone back to the location of family trauma and tragedies to challenge the status quo with poetry, music, activism and acts of human kindness. We're also huge fans of the swamp foundling who can hear and speak to the dead. There's also a compelling mystery around the lineage of "ghost girl" and an intriguing dose of the supernatural, which makes Invisible great storytelling. This production has nuance and depth, and avoids coming across as preachy, on a tough topic.

Invisible also does an excellent job of including conflicted characters, trying to do the right thing. In every movement there are those who embrace an ideology for financial reasons, out of fear, or for other reasons aside from true belief in the cause. It's telling that the core KKK women relied on bullying and fear of financial ruin to control this segment of their base. Even white women were seen as "other" if they were Irish, not born in town, or showed any slight immodesty, impropriety, or rebellion. 

 

The casting is excellent, and Maddy Flemming and Lisa McConnell are particular standouts. Though the subject matter is heavy, particularly the end with video projections of throngs of hooded KKK members, it's a story that needs to be seen. As long as hate crimes and immigrant bashing are still happening, racial inequality is acceptable, and religion is used to justify hate, there's a need for theatre and art to shine a light in those dark corners, and make audiences think and feel again. Kudos to Her Story Theater for bringing this world premiere to life on stage. 

Bonnie Kenaz-Mara is a Chicago based writer-theater critic-photographer-videographer-actress-artist-general creatrix and Mama to two terrific teens. She owns two websites where she has published frequently since 2008: ChiILLiveShows.com (adult) & ChiILMama.com (family friendly).

INVISIBLE imagines a woman in a small Mississippi town in 1925 who is forced to reconcile her involvement in the modern Women’s Ku Klux Klan movement with her religious beliefs and sense of decency. Wrapping their anti-immigrant mission in a cloak of patriotism following the passage of women’s suffrage, Mabel Carson’s neighbors have convinced her of the justness of their cause, but the arrival in town of a Chicago newspaper reporter just as their WKKK chapter is gaining momentum forces Mabel to question her beliefs. INVISIBLE is a powerful and suspenseful drama in the tradition of American southern-set narrative fiction.

Performance Details
Thursdays – Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm, plus Saturday, November 2 at 3 pm

Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago

Tickets: https://www.stage773.com/show/invisible, 773-327-5252

PRICES: $35.00, Students $15.00
For information on group rates, visit www.HerStoryTheater.org or call 312-835-1410.

Info: www.HerStoryTheater.org

In the 1920s in America, the Women's KKK came into being. By then Black Codes in the South were firmly in place; the oppression was profound and often violent. Unlike the Klans of the Reconstructionist Era and Civil Rights Movement who specifically targeted the African American community, this Klan turned its main attention toward Immigrants, Catholics and Jews. 

Under the guise of an all welcoming flag of patriotism, they wrapped themselves up in Nationalism, Nativism and Purity -- 100% American. "America for Americans". The newly formed Women's Klan of that era fought their way to power after winning the women's right to vote. They infiltrated churches, schools, civic organizations and appealed to motherhood, the future and safety of children. 

They were the inventors of "Poison Squads" who spread lies and destroyed reputations. If any of this reminds you of today's climate, come see this show and understand what we collectively inherited from this brief but impactful time in history. It was a movement that swept the nation. It was when the Klan went mainstream in America. While the plot and characters of INVISIBLE are imagined, the descriptions of the WKKK activities are accurate, and actual historical figures are mentioned as off-stage characters. 

Cast 

left-right: Morgan Laurel Cohen, Richard Cotovsky, Maddy Flemming, Brad Harbaugh.

Lower row left-right: Barbara Roeder Harris, Megan Kaminsky, Lisa McConnell.

INVISIBLE was written by Her Story Theater’s Producing Artistic Director Mary Bonnett, author of the company’s earlier productions that comprised its “Chicago Sex Trafficking Cycle.” The cycle includes SHADOW TOWN, voted one of the 2013 “Ten Best Productions of the Year” by Chicago Theater Beat; THE JOHNS, MONEY MAKE ‘M’ SMILE for youth, and 2018’s breakout hit MONGER, of which the SUN TIMES said “It lands with a crushing (and factually supported) weight.”  SPLASH MAGAZINE gave it four stars, saying, “The Play’s action is mesmerizing; at a tightly crafted 75 minutes… it hits many nerves at once; anger, disbelief, compassion, fear and a desire to help.” BUZZ CENTER STAGE said “What I really want is for you to go see this play. This is something real.”

INVISIBLE will be directed by longtime Chicago director Cecilie Keenan, who earned raves for her direction of WEDDING BAND in 2017 for The Artistic Home. That production prompted Tony Adler, the then-theater editor of the READER to declare “ So praise the Lord, as one of its characters would certainly say, for the Artistic Home revival of Childress's WEDDING BAND.”

INVISIBLE will be the first HerStory Theater production to be eligible for Chicago's Jeff Awards.



HER STORY THEATER
Her Story Theater is a theater for social change. Through theater and the written word, our mission is to shine bright lights in dark places on women and children in need of social justice and community support.  Since 2011, we have partnered with countless organizations to raise awareness on current issues that impact women and children.

Sponsored by the Oppenheimer Family Foundation