Chicago’s Raven Theatre Company today announced two newly commissioned works and a play in development, which will anchor the company’s upcoming new-play development slate by Alex Lubischer, Omer Abbas Salem, and Felicia Oduh. These commissions and developments demonstrate Raven’s ongoing commitment to supporting Chicago’s artistic talent and amplifying stories that challenge, educate, and inspire us to move forward.

“Raven has always been home to bold, complicated stories,” said Sarah Slight, Executive Artistic Director of Raven Theatre. “These three playwrights are asking enormous, necessary questions about fear, forgiveness, identity, and community. We’re continuing to support their visions and to bring Chicago audiences new work that challenges, surprises, and moves them.”

COMMISSIONS:

BLOODMOBILE: 1988
By Alex Lubischer
A queer Midwestern writer raised on a Nebraska farm and now living in Rogers Park, Lubischer brings his signature blend of dark humor, moral tension, and small-town emotional truth to this new commission. In BLOODMOBILE: 1988, is the Landlord undead, and does it even matter? The farmers will have to pay up, regardless, when ground rent comes due on November 1st. They fixate instead on a far greater threat: a sickly kid, via blood transfusion, has caught the disease homosexuals get, and many concerned parents want him expelled. BLOODMOBILE: 1988 is a story about good, hardworking people who Fear For Their Children in America’s Heartland.

Lubischer’s plays include BOBBIE CLEARLY (Roundabout Theatre Company, Steep Theatre, Jeff Award Winner: Outstanding New Play), PIVOT (Yale School of Drama, GPTC New Play Conference 2024, Shelterbelt Theatre, Angels Theatre Company, Rivendell Theatre Ensemble), YOU DESERVE TO BE HERE (Goodman Playwrights Unit commission; Roundabout Theatre Lara Pels commission, the Bruntwood Prize for Playwrighting - Longlist), DO WASPS HAVE DESIRES? (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre), WEIRD KIDS (Haven Chicago), THE QUONSETS (Yale Cabaret, co-written with Majkin Holmquist), and SURVEY NO. 5 (House of International Theatre, Copenhagen). He is a former Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence and teaches playwriting at DePaul University and Bramble Theatre.

UNTITLED NEW PLAY
By Omer Abbas Salem
What would you do if your child shared memories from their past life? And how would you manage if those memories belonged to your childhood abuser? In this haunting, emotionally charged commission, a parent faces the unimaginable and is forced to confront reincarnation, trauma inheritance, and the impossible ethics of raising someone you fear, hate, or cannot forgive.

Abbas Salem (he/they) is a celebrated Chicago actor and playwright whose work has been produced by The Goodman, Steppenwolf Theatre, About Face Theatre, Steep Theatre, First Floor Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, The New Coordinates, The Story Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, National Queer Theatre, Definition Theatre, A Red Orchid Theatre, and The Theatre School of DePaul. They are a member of the 2021/22 Goodman Playwrights Union and a winner of the 2022 Blueprint Commission from First Floor Theatre and the Cunningham Commission from DePaul University. They are an Emerging Playwright Commission from Audible Theater and are also the most recent recipient of the Edgerton Commission from Steppenwolf Theatre. They were a member of the 2024/2025 New Stages Commission at The Goodman. They were part of the 24/25 Chicago International Film Festival Screenplay Cohort, and they are the winner of the 2022 3Arts Award in Theater.

PLAY IN DEVELOPMENT:

MERCY
By Felicia Oduh
After 18 years of wrongful imprisonment, Eric is finally home, and his mother is throwing a party whether he’s ready to celebrate or not. In MERCY, a new drama about forgiveness, second chances, and the failures of our justice system, one man struggles to reclaim the life he lost while his family attempts to heal an age-old fracture.

Oduh is a first-generation Nigerian-American, Chicago-based actor and playwright, whose work has been developed or produced with Definition Theatre, Jackalope Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre, Vertigo Productions, and Black Lives, Black Words. She is a 2024 Definition Theatre Amplify Series Four Winner, a 2024 O’Neill Theater Center NPC Semifinalist, a 2024 Kilroys Web playwright, and a 2021 Reva and David Logan Foundation Artist Grant recipient.