Cast: Shawna Franks, Camilla Frontain, Lawrence Grimm, and Lenin Izquierdo
Author
S. L. Daniels (Playwright) (she/her) S. L. Daniels’ plays have been produced around the world including Victory Gardens Theatre, American Blues, etc. (Chicago), New York Theatre Workshop, the West End Theatre, Hudson Warehouse (New York), Bread and Roses Theatre, Matchstick Theatre (London), and Newtown Theatre, Defector Art Theatre (Australia). Her play Rain, River, Ice, Steam received the Illinois Artist Award for Playwriting, and was produced in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Television: Committed, starring Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, ROC, starring Charles Dutton (HBO IND/FOX TV), Workout (NBC pilot), and the Chicago indie pilot, The Resentful Angel, which won multiple film festival awards for Best TV Pilot, and streamed on Amazon Prime and The Indie Channel.
Director
Spencer Huffman (Director) (he/him) is a playwright and director based in Chicago. His plays include: THE SHAPE OF THE BONES (The New Theatre Project, 2026), EVIL PERFECT (Bramble Theatre Co, 2024), THE BASEBALL GODS, WHEN WE WERE LITTLE, and SHINE DOWN ON US. His plays have earned recognition from theatres and festivals across the country, including The National Playwrights Conference, The Bay Area Playwrights Festival, The Austin Film Festival, American Stage’s 21st Century Voices New Play Festival, and Landing Theatre Company's New American Voices Festival, among others. He has been a fellow at Millay Arts, The Marble House Project, and the Kerouac Project of Orlando. His directing work includes productions of BLACKBIRD by David Harrower (NTP, 2025), UNCLE VANYA by Anton Chekhov (NTP, 2025), FAR AWAY by Caryl Churchill (NTP, 2024), JERUSALEM by Jez Butterworth, BUG by Tracy Letts, and AALST by Duncan McLean and Pol Heyvaert, among others.
Stage Manager: Lauren Lassus / Assistant Stage Manager: Maggie Perisho / Scenic Design: Emily Blanquera / Lighting Design: Josiah Croegaert / Costume Design: Myron Elliott / Sound Design: Daniel Poppen / Properties: Chas Mathieu / Violence and Intimacy Design: Max Fabian / Publicity and Still Photographer: George Hudson / Co-Producers: Lawrence Grimm and S. L. Daniels
Any Rebellion of Will
Written by S. L. Daniels
Directed by Spencer Huffman
October 8th – November 1st, 2026
Runs: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm. Sundays at 2pm.
Admission: $5 – $30.
Where: Trap Door Theatre is located at 1655 W. Cortland St.
A dark absurdist comedy with a twist of vaudeville, Any Rebellion of Will finds a depressed, anguished Will being kicked out of his authoritative parents’ home on his 25th birthday. Will returns home with an odd, mystical street performer Giselle who ignites a rebellious passion in Will, and a demented, destructive mania in his parents.
Group tickets: Special group rates are available. For information, call (773) 384-0494 or email boxofficetrapdoor@gmail.com.
According to playwright S. L. Daniels, “I wanted to write an absurdist comedy that was both wild and honest. A mash-up of genres – Absurdism, Realism, and Magical Realism – that reflects the characters’ clashing worlds.” In speaking about the play’s origins Daniels was partly inspired by an article she read in the early aughts on the Japanese Hikikomori, “It’s a phenomenon where an adult man withdraws from society, lives at home with his parents, and depends on them for food and basic needs. I wondered, what causes this very specific type of depression, this failure-to-launch, that has since become so common?”
Any Rebellion Of Will has found its way to a production thanks to the Independent Projects Initiative. The visionary IPI Founder, LC Bernadine remarked on the way IPI has fulfilled a specific need in Chicago, "As much as we love and regularly attend the work of existing companies, there is a rich vision as to where Chicago theater is headed, and independent work is part of it. IPI grants are helping an entire track of theatre happen in Chicago — ambitious, brilliant projects created by teams working outside of traditional theater company seasons.”
Additional funding for this project has been granted by Heidi Hoblit Graham’s Grey Area Productions whose mission is to support Chicago female, BIPOC and LGBTQIA artists who might not otherwise have the resources to produce their work. Graham succinctly summarizes “In a nutshell, Grey Area Productions strives to leverage privilege to lift the voices of the most underserved artists.”
Director Spencer Huffman’s pioneering work with New Theatre Project of reimagined classics in unconventional and non-traditional theatre spaces (Far Away, Uncle Vanya, Blackbird) now extends his vision with new and originally penned work like Shape of Bones and Any Rebellionof Will in Chicago’s traditional storefronts. Lawrence Grimm (Ferdinand), a founding ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre, has long been a diehard fan of this play which he is excited to co-produce with its playwright. The storefront veteran finds his perfect marital match in Shawna Franks (Mona) who originated the role of Dottie in Tracy Lett’s Killer Joe and continues to marvel audiences as a Jeff Award Winner (Right Now) founder and ensemble member with Facility Theatre. Rounding out the younger end of the cast generationally by way of Utah, Texas and Idaho comes Camilla Frontain (Giselle) whose talents in clown and improv bring a captivating mystique to the fast emerging Lenin Izquierdo (Will) whose first two professional productions in Chicago with Goodman Theatre’s Life of Oscar Wao and City Lit’s Jesus Hopped The A Train landed him actor Equity and Non-Equity Jeff Nominations in 2026.