Heckfire!! After a sold out run last season, Birds of North America is back, baby! A Red Orchid Theatre is getting the band back together for a limited engagement run: September 10 – October 4, 2026!
The initial run got rave reviews and was nominated for 7 Joseph Jefferson Awards including Outstanding Production!
But more importantly, I like it.
It’s one of my favorite shows I’ve ever gotten to do, and I highly recommend it. It’s an honor to reconvene with this wonderful group of artists and step back into this backyard.
I was fortunate enough to go on for the first four previews of the initial run and get this play in front of a Chicago audience for the very first time. There’s always a chance I may get to go on during this remount, but I’m understudying the legendary John Judd, and he’s a machine.
My only guaranteed performance is an understudy show on…
Sunday, Sept 27 at 6pm!
If you’re planning to attend, message me for the private reservation link!
Birds of North America takes a close look at the relationship of a father and daughter over the course of a decade as they struggle to understand the parts of one another that defy understanding. As they scan the skies over their backyard in suburban Maryland looking for elusive birds, years go by. Relationships begin and end. Children grow up and parents age. The climate and the world change in small and vast ways.
It’s a damned good production. But you don’t have to take my word for it:
★★★★ (out of four)
“A gorgeous little 90-minute two-hander, a beautifully acted and directed father-daughter play capable of transporting you away from the frozen tundra and back to when leaves were just beginning to fall and birds still sang from the trees.”
– Chicago Tribune
★★★1/2 (out of four)
“Complex and resonant…a gripping generational dialogue”
– Chicago Sun-Times / WBEZ
★★★★ (out of five)
“Birds of North America conveys this ache deeply: the grief of adaptation, the dangers of loyalty and the devastation of finding out that change comes whether we’re ready or not.”
– TimeOut Chicago
Recommended
“A tender portrait that walks the taut line between pain and sentimentality with the vivid humor of recognition”
– Chicago Reader
If you can’t see me on the 27th, you should just see this show, whenever you can! It’s so good!
A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N Wells St in Oldtown.
September 10 – October 4, 2026.
Thursdays at 7pm
Fridays at 7pm
Saturdays at 3pm and 7pm
Sundays at 3pm
But of course, my understudy show is Sunday, Sept 27 at 6pm!