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May 22nd - June 28th, 2025
Neighborhood Watch
by Rehana Lew Mirza
World Premiere of...
Neighborhood Watch
by Rehana Lew Mirza
directed by Kaiser Ahmed
Event Info:
VENUE: Jackalope Theatre in Broadway Armory, 5917 N Broadway St, Chicago, IL 60660
RUN-TIME: 2 hrs
PREVIEWS: May 22nd - 26th, 2025
REGULAR RUN: May 27th - June 28th, 2025. Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 2:00 pm
OPEN CAPTIONS: Monday, June 16 at 7:30 pm
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Sunday, June 22, touch tour at 1:30 pm, performance at 2:30 pm
TICKETS: $15 - 40
In the weeks following the 2024 election, Paul, a suburban family man, lives in terror of what’s to come. When a Muslim neighbor, Mo, moves in, Paul launches into a battle of his own fears and liberal beliefs — a battle that will affect the entire neighborhood.
The Cast
(Top to bottom, Left to Right):
Harsh Gagoomal as MO RIZVI
Jamie Herb as BECCA MARCHANT
Omar Bader as JAVED ANSARI
Frank Nall as PAUL MARCHANT
Victor Holstein as SHAWN RAYMOND
Faiz Siddque as MO RIZVI U/S
Lila Rutishauser as BECCA MARCHANT U/S
Eustace Allen as PAUL MARCHANT U/S
Jordan Tannous as JAVED ANSARI U/S
JJ Gatesman as SHAWN RAYMOND U/S
The Team
PRODUCTION TEAM –
Aden Haq (assistant director); Karina Patel* (dramaturg); Amal Mazen Salem (production manager); Miguel Salgado Jr. (stage manager); Tianxuan Chen (scenic designer); Delena Bradley (costume designer); Roman Jones (props designer); Maaz Ahmed (lighting designer); Newton Schottelkotte (sound designer); Juan Barrera Lopez (technical director); Chase Barron (lead electrician); Tristin Hall (fight/intimacy director); Hudson Therriault* (accessibility manager); Amira Danan (development director) and AJ Links, CSA* (casting director)
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PLAYWRIGHT – Rehana Lew Mirza
Rehana Lew Mirza recently held a prestigious National Playwrights Mellon residency at Ma-Yi Theatre in New York from 2016-2022, after also being a playwright in residence at La Jolla Playhouse, where her musical Bhangra Nation (previously titled Bhangin’ It, 2019 Richard Rodgers Award; developed at The Orchard Project, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat and their 3R program, Goodspeed and Project Springboard) premiered in 2022. It recently had its United Kingdom premiere at Birmingham Rep in February of 2024. Mirza’s plays include: Hatefuck (First Floor; Colt Coeur/WP); A People’s Guide to History in the Time of Here and Now (Primary Stages Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation's Women Playwrights Commission; AADA workshop production); Soldier X (Ma-Yi; Brooklyn College; NYSCA/Lark commission); Tomorrow, Inshallah (Living Room Theater, Kansas City; Storyworks/HuffPost commission); Neighborhood Watch (NNPN/InterAct commission) and Barriers (Desipina, Asian American Theater Company). She founded the award-winning South Asian theater and film company, Desipina & Co, alongside her sister Rohi Mirza Pandya in 2001, where together they produced the popular Seven.11 series (seven, 11-minute plays all set in a convenience store.) Additional awards/honors include: Kleban Award, Cape Cod Theatre Artist in Residence, NYFA Artist Fellow, TCG Fellowship with New Georges and an HBOAccess Writing Fellow. She currently holds a Julia Miles Playwriting Residency with WP Theater. She has an MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
DIRECTOR – Kaiser Ahmed*
Kaiser Ahmed is a Bangladeshi-American theatre director, producer, teacher and actor based in Chicago. He has worked as a director at Steppenwolf, Remy Bumppo, The Artistic Home, Northlight Theatre, Silk Road Theatre, American Blues Theatre, First Floor Theatre, Rasaka Theatre and many others. Ahmed was featured in the Kilroy's Web 2023 and named on NewCity’s Players 2019 and 2022: "Fifty People Who Really Perform For Chicago”. Kaiser was the co-founding artistic director of Jackalope Theatre Company from 2008-2012, he continued to serve as the associate artistic director through 2019 and returned as artistic director in 2020. Recent directing credits include Queen (Penobscot), Passage (Remy Bumppo), Among the Dead, Fast Company (Jackalope), and Language Rooms (Broken Nose). Kaiser is a member of the Columbia College Advisory Board and the Sarah Siddons Artistic Council, a 2015-16 Eugene O’Neill National Directors Fellowship finalist, a 2016-17 Victory Gardens Directors Inclusion Initiative recipient, and an Associate Member of SDC. He holds a BA in theatre directing from Columbia College Chicago.
This project is made possible by Season Sponsors Michael and Mona Heath. Learn more about supporting Jackalope.
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