FRONTIERES SANS FRONTIERES
Written by Phillip Howze
10 BEST THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS OF [2019]!
“Linguistically acrobatic and piercingly funny, Frontieres is a whip-smart modern burlesque that deserves a wider audience.
- New York Magazine
"A brightly colored, comic fantasia on cultural imperialism.
There is much beauty in this abundance, and something deeply unsettling, too."
- The New York Times
CHICAGO PREMIERE
Directed by Kezia Waters
Jul 17, 2025 - Aug 24, 2025
Thursdays at 7pm, Saturdays at 3pm and 7pm, and Sundays at 3pm
3611 W. Cermak, Chicago, IL 60623
Critics' Pick! "Howze's exciting piece is a savage burlesque,
a clear-eyed bouffon treatment of war."
- Time Out New York
SUMMARY
Here, at the corner of a country that feels both foreign and familiar, three orphaned, stateless youth have built a simple life out of recreation and mischief-making. Their world is rocked as a parade of immodest strangers slowly invade, offering gifts of language, medicine, art, and commerce. As the lure of development blurs their beliefs, life and landscape mutate, threatening their long-held values, community, and humanity. In a comic spectacle to challenge the pretense of altruism and civilization,
Frontieres Sans Frontieres asks what happens when generosity looks a lot like self-interest?
How to comprehend when the promise of language matures to the tyranny of words?
Who wins and who loses in a war to hold on to the people and places we love?
Notes from Director/ Theatre Doula/o Kezia Waters:
Phillip Howze’s play Frontieres Sans Frontieres is about three orphans navigating the abstract yet familiar world called, “here”—a place shaped by the imperial systems of education, healthcare, media, and even theater itself. Through the lens of absurdism and dark comedy, Frontieres Sans Frontieres asks the audience to confront how these systems shape our values, our relationships, and even our bodies. This play reflects on how soft power has built the worlds that we assume have been around forever, but what happens when we begin to pull the loose ends of these fragile structures of reality? Ok, now take all of that but make it funny!!!
There’s resistance in how we remember things, there’s imagination, there’s a spark of something ancient and wise—embodied knowledge, art, presence—that reminds us we weren’t always THIS way. Humans are not wired THIS way, and therefore there is also resistance in how we forget things.
The questions at the heart of this play are both simple and profound:
What becomes possible when we unlearn? And another strikingly timely question posed by Toni Cade Bambara, “What are you pretending not to Know?”
Phillip Howze is an American writer and theater maker whose works include Self Portraits (BRIC-Arts Media) and Frontieres Sans Frontieres (Bushwick Starr). His plays have been developed or produced at Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Clubbed Thumb, Cutting Ball, New York Theater Workshop, PRELUDE Festival, Public Theater/NYSF, San Francisco Playhouse, Signature Theatre, Theater Masters, and Yale Cabaret.
A graduate of Yale School of Drama, he is a Fellow of the Sundance Theater Lab, a Lucas Artist Fellow at Montalvo Arts Center, a 2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, a MAP Fund grantee, and a Resident Writer at Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3. His commissions include the American Repertory Theater, the Manhattan Theatre Club/Sloan, and Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3. He was recently appointed the inaugural Associate Senior Lecturer in Playwriting at Harvard University’s Theater, Dance & Media program.
CAST: Tania Musso (WIN) Roesha Townsel (NOON/NOBEL LAUREATE) Carrington Thornton (PAN) Cameron Austin Brown (THOM) Nadia Pillay (WHO, ACTRESS, CLOWN) Terreon Collins (BABY BOO, BACKPACKER, MILITIA, ASSISTANT) Jo JB Schaffer (CIGARETTE MAN, MIME, DEVELOPER)
Lighting Design by Ryan Burkle with technical support from Makoto Yamaguchi, Costume design by Nia Vines with support from Iyanna Harris, Sound Design by Carissa Lee, Set Design by Kezia Waters, Stage Management by Genesis Beecham, acting coaching by Melissa Lorraine, Assistant Direction by Raven Dargan, Production Management by Melissa Lorraine and Deena Eichhorn, and technical support from E.R. Emison.
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Kezia Waters - Director: Kezia Waters is an anti-discipline artist whose work is deeply rooted in storytelling. Their practice leans heavily into sonic performance, guided by the principles of deep listening, where body and emotional intelligence hold central importance. Through their process, they engage with the immediacy of the moment, manipulating elements by repeating, elongating, reducing, and expanding them in ways that reflect intuitive response and Jazz sensibilities. Time traveling serves as both a thematic focus and a creative methodology, functioning as a praxis and pedagogy within their work. Allowing them to explore layered temporalities, and blur theatrical boundaries. Kezia’s upbringing under a Black Liberation Theology informs their artistic exploration, even as queerness reframes and reimagines those traditions. They received their MFA in Acting from Ohio University and an MFA in Studio Art from School of The Art Institute of Chicago. They have also served as an Adjunct Professor for Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. They have performed in the Biennale d’art Performative de Rouyn-Noranda of Canada, Dazibao Gallery in Montreal and Recto- Verso in Ouebec City and numerous galleries around Chicago. Kezia was a 2023 In-Session Fellow at ThreeWalls, studying the Performance and Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston.
Carissa Lee - Sound Designer: Carissa Lee is a performance and sound artist. She received her BFA in theater from NYU And MFA from the School of the Art institute Chicago. Her work uses recordings, writing, Black southern culture and voice to materialize emotions ranging from grief to joy.
In addition to being an artist she is a passionate teacher who has worked with theaters and non profits across Los Angeles - helping students of all ages use their lived experience to make performances. She has exhibited and performed in New York NY, Los Angeles CA, Chicago IL, and Quebec City Canada. She is extremely proud to be a member of Chicago based artist collective Suspended Culture.
Thank you Vikas for being by my side every step of the way. Thank you to Kezia and Theater Y for giving me the opportunity to bring my sound work to the theater stage.
Nia Vines - Costume Designer
Ryan Burkle - Lighting Designer: Ryan Burkle (he/they) is a Chicago Based Lighting Designer and Technician. They are currently pursuing an MFA in Lighting at Northwestern University and has worked in places like Dallas Theater Center, Trinity Repertory Company, Court Theatre, Opera Saratoga, Watertower Theatre, and more. He is so pleased to be joining Theatre Y for the first time!
Genesis Beecham - Stage Manager: Genesis Beecham (She/Her) is an actor at heart, with years of theatre experience and a couple of short films under her belt. She earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre Arts from Eastern Michigan University, honing her skills in both performance and production. Currently pursuing an MFA in Screen Acting at Oklahoma City University, Genesis is expanding her artistic range and storytelling abilities.
Now at Theatre Y, she's ventured into stage management, and it's been an exciting journey. While the stage will always feel like home, she's discovered a surprising love for the organized chaos of running the show behind the scenes. As a first-time stage manager, Genesis has quickly realized that managing the flow of a production can be just as thrilling as performing. Though she's recently dipped into the film world, theatre will always have her heart. Whether on stage or backstage, Genesis is all about the magic of storytelling, just from a slightly different seat this time.
Makoto Yamaguchi - Assistant to Lighting: Makoto Yamaguchi was born and grew up in Japan. He is a writer, director, and performer. He became interested in acting and took some minor roles in TVs and films in his native country. When he was in a touring theater troupe, he was introduced to American method acting and decided to cross the ocean to learn theater art here. He attended the City College of New York and immersed himself in all different kinds of artistic expressions as well as theater. He has become interested in the physical theater of Jerzy Grotowski and primitive tribal rituals and has been developing a new form of performance called, “Jazz Theater.” He recently performed a solo piece called, HAMLET IN JAZZ, in the Elgin Fringe Festival and often presents his experimentation at the Friday Night Swerve in Theatre Y. He is very grateful to be able to work with all the people in this wonderful Chicago theater and hopes to continue working there.
FRONTIERES SANS FRONTIERES is presented by arrangement with
Samuel French and Concord Theatricals.
For press inquiries, interviews, or more information, please contact:
Director Kezia Waters: keziawaters013@gmail.com
Managing Director Deena Eichhorn: deenaeichhorn@theatre-y.com
Artistic Director Melissa Lorraine: melissalorraine@theatre-y.com
info@theatre-y.com/ www.theatre-y.com
Performance Schedule: July 17 - August 24, 2025
Showtimes: Thursdays 7 pm, Saturdays 3 pm & 7 pm, Sundays 3 pm.
Location: Theatre Y - 3611 W Cermak Rd, Chicago, IL 60623
All performances are FREE to the public thanks to members who donate as little as $5/month ($60/year). We welcome DONATIONS and MEMBERS!
Theatre Y is a Chicago-based international incubator that creates connections between diverse artists seeking mutual growth through collaboration. Since 2006, Theatre Y has been a point of convergence for diverse activisms, and all of the uncomfortable conversations that happen as a result. Artistic director Melissa Lorraine and the Theatre Y ensemble are committed to continuously re-thinking the practice of theater as a tool of liberation and a revolutionary practice, bringing Theatre Y to venues ranging from La MaMa’s historical theater to Illinois prisons. Newly and permanently relocated to the West Side (on the border of North Lawndale and Little Village), Theatre Y, now in its 19th year of award winning experimental productions, challenging international content, and a member-based FREE theater model, occupies a unique place in Chicago's theater community.
