Hooded; or Being Black for Dummies

By Terreance Arvelle Chisholm
Directed by Mikael Burke

Fielder/Dionysus

First Floor Theater
The Den, Chicago
October – November 2018​

Marquis and Tru are both fourteen year old black boys, but they exist in two totally different worlds. Marquis is a book smart prep-schooler living in the affluent suburb of Achievement Heights; while Tru is a street savvy kid from deep within the inner city of Baltimore. Their worlds overlap one day in a holding cell. Tru decides that Marquis has lost his “blackness” and pens a how-to manual entitled “Being Black for Dummies.” He assumes the role of professor, but Marquis proves to be a reluctant pupil. They butt heads, debate, wrestle, and ultimately prove that Nietzsche and 2pac were basically saying the same thing.

As a part of the cast of Hooded, I received a Non-Equity Jeff Award Nomination for best Ensemble in 2019.  The Production as a whole was also nominated.

NewCity Players 2019: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago​

Photo by Joe Mazza, Brave Lux

In 2019, alongside my colleagues Amanda Fink and Hutch Pimentel, I was honored to be included in the NewCity Players list for my work with First Floor Theater.  As a founding member of the company, and its Associate Artistic Director since 2012, I take a great deal of pride in the work that First Floor does in Chicago.  

As the article notes, "First Floor Theater made a name for itself among young storefronts with daring theatrical aesthetics and meme-friendly marketing tactics (their social media game is supremely on point). Add a stellar lineup to that, year-after-year, of some of the most promising and acclaimed young playwrights in the country including Jiehae Park, Leah Nanako Winkler, Nathan Alan Davis, Lucas Baisch and Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, whose play “Hooded, Or Being Black for Dummies” made a splash..."

Red Bowl at the Jeffs

By Beth Hyland
Directed by Rebecca Willingham

Andy/Tuzenbach

The Sound,
The Frontier, Chicago
March – April 2018

The group of college friends who started Red Bowl Ensemble have been plugging away in Chicago's storefront theater scene for years, but now they’ve finally made it: to the Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Awards, that is. Loosely inspired by Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, Red Bowl at the Jeffs is a bittersweet comedy about a group of young artists dealing with ambition, failure, friendship, and making it to Moscow.

“Willingham gets supremely unguarded performances out of her top-notch young cast...” – Max Maller, Chicago Reader

We're Gonna Be Okay

By Basil Kreimendahl
Directed by Lisa Peterson

Jake

2017 Humana Festival of New American Plays
Actors Theatre of Louisville
March – April 2017

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, two average American families build a slapdash bomb shelter on their shared property line. With nuclear warfare looming, they wonder: is it the end? The end of baseball…and table manners…and macramé? But as they fret about the fall of civilization, they start to worry that something more personal is at stake. A slyly hilarious, compassionate look at anxiety in America, We’re Gonna Be Okay is about finding the courage to face who we are—and who we want to be.

“an outstanding cast…” – Marty Rosen, LEO Weekly

The Many Deaths of Nathan Stubblefield

By Jeff Augustin, Sarah DeLappe, Claire Kiechel, Ramiz Monsef
Directed by Eric Hoff

Various Roles
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2017 Humana Festival of New American Plays
Actors Theatre of Louisville
March – April 2017

The mysterious demise of a Kentucky inventor—and other stories of visionaries from the Bluegrass State—inspire a play that explores the nature of innovation and the myths we tell about it. Writing for the nineteen actors in this season’s Professional Training Company, four playwrights boldly celebrate unsung dreamers, unlikely breakthroughs, and the beauty (and occasional hilarity) of failure.​

“Haunting and beautiful…” – Elizabeth Kramer, The Courier Journal

A Christmas Carol

By Charles Dickens
​Adapted by Barbara Field
Directed by Drew Fracher

Peter Cratchit, Various Ensemble

Actors Theatre of Louisville
November – December 2016

Celebrate the warmth of the holidays with Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future in this delightful take on an old favorite. A beloved family tradition for four decades, Actors Theatre’s rendition of Dickens’ classic tale is brought to new life with visual splendor and joyous music.

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World Builders

By Johnna Adams
Directed by Jesse Roth

Max

First Floor Theater
Collaboraction, Chicago
June – July 2016

A new drug has been developed to suppress the complex internal worlds of those with schizoid personality disorder. Max and Whitney are two participants in a clinical trial, and as the drug begins to take effect, they must choose which dream to pursue: their disparate fantasies or a future together. Johnna Adams, playwright of the 2014 Chicago hit, Gidion’s Knot, presents a funny, intimate, and beautifully observed love story about what it really means to be “cured.”

"...watch this excellent actor subtly strip away his protective shell..." – Chicago Theatre Review

Solstice

By Zinnie Harris
Directed by Karen Kessler

Adie

A Red Orchid Theatre, Chicago
January – February 2014

In a war-torn world, in an unnamed city divided by a river–and religion, politics, and money– a devout candlemaker, his sick wife, and their son struggle to survive. When they learn of a plan for their side of the river to be mined for minerals, and, worse, that their son has taken drastic action against their oppressors, their lives dramatically change. Zinnie Harris’ otherworldly play explores terrorism and a family attempting to keep ahold of their faith and each other in a world torn apart by violence and inequality–a world we often fear ours becoming.

"a soulful Andrew Cutler (Adie) and zealous Sarah Price (Sita) are a frenzy of emotional turmoil" – Chicago Theater Beat

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Polaroid Stories

By Naomi Iizuka
Directed by Hutch Pimentel

Skinheadboy

First Floor Theatre
Red Tape Theater, Chicago
Fall 2013

Polaroid Stories, an explosive re-imagining of Ovid's Metamorphoses, blended interviews from street-based youth and sex workers with ancient myth. The production took place in the underbelly of a city where junkies scheme, lovers run and the lost wander. It was a refuge for those living on the edge of society. In her script, Iizuka illuminates the depths of a metropolis with her chaotic elegy of desire, desperation and transcendence. FFT's production explored the complex intersection of two different modes of storytelling, documentary and mythology, and the power of their confluence.

"A powerful cast and sensory experience..." – TimeOut Chicago

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Sexual Perversity in Chicago

By David Mamet
Directed by Will Bishop and Audrey Francis

Bernie

First Floor Theater
The Den, Chicago
February – March 2013

Under the co-direction of Will Bishop and Audrey Francis of Black Box Acting Studio, this production allowed the audience to experience Bernie, Dan, Deb, and Joan navigate their friendships and relationships alike within the walls of an immersive dive bar. Every night, in between the early and late night performances, the Perversity bar remained open and hosted Chicago musicians playing acoustic sets. First Floor Theater’s inaugural production invited you to join these four characters in celebrating the highs and lows of being young in Chicago.

"Andrew Cutler...delivers a credible, side-splitting performance." -- Chicago Reader

Tea and Sympathy

By Robert Anderson
Directed by David New

Tom Lee

The Artistic Home
Stage 773, Chicago
March – April 2012

Behind the closed doors of a seemingly idyllic boarding school, one boy struggles with what it means to be a man. A woman realizes her marriage has taken a very wrong turn. Drawn together, the two discover the personal cost of trying to fit in as they dance around illicit emotions and head toward a relationship that is much more than an offering of tea and sympathy.

"[Tummelson] and Cutler make a pair to root for..." –  New City Stage