David Y. Chack, Artistic Director

ShPIeL-PERFORMING IDENTITY is a theatre and performance project with roots in Jewish performance – producing, developing and being a catalyst for works in a transcultural world. David Y. Chack is ShPIeL’s Artistic Director, a professor at The Theatre School at DePaul University and Executive Director of the Association for Jewish Theatre.

ShPIeL Performing Identity puts the “play” into a deep investigation of identity, heritage and culture. Based in Chicago, we work with theatremakers through methods that explore an authentic identity in performance. Its projects include: A Jewish Joke with Phil Johnson at Victory Gardens Theater; Imagining Heschel by Colin Greer; Cities of Light with Rebecca Joy Fletcher and David Chack performing alongside; The Passions of Emma Goldman with Roslyn Alexander;  The Invasion of Skokie by Steven Peterson at the Elaine and Zollie Frank Theatre at the Mayer Kaplan JCC; Paulus by Motti Lerner at Silk Road Rising, Signs of Life by Ullian and Derfner at Victory Gardens; Date Me! and Sounds of Silence with Noemi Schlosser at Theatre Wit; Cities of Light with Rebecca Joy Fletcher at Piven Theatre and in Louisville, Ky.; The Last Act of Lilka Kadison by Behrman, Kersnar, Phillips, Stillman and White at Lookingglass Theatre; Conviction by Ami Dayan at Theatre Wit; and ShPIeL 2010 and 2011 Showcases at the Hoover-Leppen Theatre at Center on Halsted and N’Namdi Galleries.