Performance Practice

My artistic foundation in theater directing, event production and education (most active from 2011-2017) continues to inform my current work in urban research, community engagement and creative activations of public space. I have directed devised works, new plays, and site-responsive performances for a variety of Chicago “storefront” theater companies, and also served in other production roles for companies including Albany Park Theater Project/Third Rail Productions, Chicago Shakespeare Theater/onestepatatimelikethis, Steppenwolf Theater, SpeakEasy Stage, Actors Shakespeare Project, with artists including Lisa D’Amour, Joe Mantello, Michael Rohd, and Wallace Shawn.

Both my theater and urbanism work typically explores themes of belonging, coexistence, visibility, and speculative fictions rooted in history and research. The skills used in devising, directing and site-specific work—deep listening, spatial storytelling, and facilitating collective imagination—now serve my practice investigating how we share and shape our urban environments. This page presents selected directing projects that have strongly influenced my current approach to urban interventions and policy. All works with an asterisk (*) are world premieres.

PUNK*

The New Coordinates (formerly The New Colony), fall 2017
By Michael Allen Harris | Co-directed by Diana Raiselis & Katrina Dion
Best New Work Nominee, BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards 2017

PUNK invites audiences into the rarely glimpsed world of the Queens Unit—an pilot unit within a maximum-security prison which houses gay, bisexual, and transgender inmates. At its heart is Miss Olivia, a compassionate prison official fighting tirelessly for her inmates’ safety against administrative constraints. When Travis, a new prisoner with a complicated past, enters this delicate ecosystem, long-established bonds are tested and tensions rise. Set against the harsh backdrop of the American prison system, Michael Allen Harris's world premiere drama offers an intimate look at identity, chosen family, and the search for dignity in the most confined spaces. PUNK examines how people create community and maintain humanity in circumstances designed to strip both away.

a man walks into a coffeeshop*

Chicago Home Theater Festival: Rogers Park (The Solarium), May 2017
By Ryan Oliveira | Directed by Diana Raiselis

Shaped from interviews with Rogers Park residents and small business owners and performed in a kitchen nearby, this play-ritual depicts a slow-brew between breakneck development and deep-rooted culture as shown through the nearly universal morning ritual: coffee.

Resolution*

Pride Films and Plays, Oct-Nov 2016
By Nancy Nyman and Heather McNama | Directed by Diana Raiselis
Best New Play Nominee, Joseph Jefferson Awards 2017

New Years' Eve, New York City, 1892. High-society husband and wife Jack and Hannah make their resolutions for the coming year — but when their maid discovers the happy couple's long-held secret, their lives may never be the same. A world premiere, Resolution is a vintage queer thriller for the modern era.

“…a tender and gratifying theatrical experience…the ensuing clash between unconditional love and orthodox prudence is, in terms of theater history, deeply conventional—and I mean that in the best possible way.” —Chicago Reader

“Diana Raiselis has done her homework, as has her cast…[who] generate sympathy and suspense right up to the surprise twist concluding the steadfast lovers’ adventures in the best classic tradition.” —Windy City Times

“Resolution is a breath of fresh air for those tired of only a slim cross-section of the LGBT community being represented on Chicago’s stages, and on top of that, is simply an excellent show. Pride Films & Plays has brought something truly special to life.” —Splash

co | ex | ist*

Collaboraction PEACEBOOK Festival, August 2016
By Danielle Littman | Directed by Diana Raiselis

Shaped from interviews with Uptown residents, business owners and workers, COEXIST explores a central question: What does it mean for Uptown residents to live well together? This hyper-local performance piece touches on not only the neighborhood's concerns, but also its gifts, strengths and joys.

RED TEAM*

Jackalope Theatre Living Newspaper Festival, August 2015
By Joel Kim Booster | Directed by Diana Raiselis

Privilege meets principle in "Red Team," a razor-sharp short. An ambitious young coach faces off against a father willing to buy his son's success—unflinchingly confronting dynamics of race, gender, power and privilege in sports as a microcosm of America.

party/theater/party*

Co-directed and produced by Diana Raiselis and Spencer Neiman, 2014-15
Plays by Alex Lubischer, Isaac Gomez, Addison Heimann, Juli del Prete, Danielle Littman, Matt Beard, and more

Quarterly series of BYOB house-party/performance mashup nights, all created for and around the live-work loft it calls home.  Featuring site-specific works by emerging playwrights, poets, dancers, vaudevillians, musicians and more. Browse the archives on Facebook.

THIRST: a climate change theatre action

Jackalope Theatre, with NoPassport, The Arctic Cycle, and Theatre Without Borders, in support of the UN 2015 Paris Climate Conference
Co-directed and produced by Kaiser Ahmed and Diana Raiselis, December 2015

In collaboration with NoPassport, The Arctic Cycle, and Theatre Without Borders, THIRST brings together new plays and poems from 7 different countries with original music and a dash of science.  One of 90+ worldwide events, THIRST is presented as part of a theatre action on an urgent international issue. Featuring Good Evening with Pat Whalen, and new plays from Kendra Fanconi (CA), Naomi Iizuka (US), Amahl Khouri (JO), Abhishek Majumdar (IN), Sitawa Namwalie (KE), Elyne Quan (CA), Silvia Peláez (MX), August Shulenburg (US), and Elspeth Tilley (NZ). Read more on HowlRound.

Chicago 1-Minute Play Festival 2015 & 2016*

The Den Theatre & 1MPF, spring 2015 & 2016

The One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) is America's largest and longest running short form theatre company. #1MPF is a social barometer project, which investigates the zeitgeist of different communities through dialogue and consensus building sessions and a performance of 70-100 short moments. #1MPF works in partnership with theatres sharing playwright, educational, or community-specific missions across the country. The aim is to create locally sourced playwright-focused community events, with the goal of promoting the spirit of radical inclusion. #1MPF represents playwrights of different age, gender, race, cultures, and points of career. The work attempts to reflect the theatrical landscape of local artistic communities by creating a dialogue between the collective conscious and the individual voice.

The Rise and Fall of Everything in the World*

Collaboraction SKETCHBOOK 14 Festival, May 2014
By Brooke Allen | Directed by Diana Raiselis

When two impulsive beings discover the newfound power to create anything they can imagine...how much is too much?

Pippin

Sit & Spin Productions at Northwestern University, September 2011
Music & lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Roger O. Hirson
Directed by Diana Raiselis | Choreography by Brandon Powers | Music direction by Matt Deitchman

Newly graduated from university with the world at his feet, Pippin seeks the adventure and excitement he believes he is due.  But after trying his hand at war, romance, revolution, and the ultimate Finale, he realizes that nothing is as "extraordinary" as it seems.  Rock-inflected orchestrations, athletic choreography, and an intimate staging bring this 1972 musical into the modern day.

Thank You, Everything!*

Vertigo Productions at Northwestern University, February 2011
By Ed Krystosek | Directed by Diana Raiselis | movement direction by Crescence Birder

Ecstatic and musical on a grand scale, Thank You, Everything! follows a group of friends reuniting on the road for the comeback tour of the band they followed in their youth--but a decade later, must contend with changing relationships, growing older, and the pressure to join the "real world" at last.