Tin Drum Theatre Company is proud to announce the second production of the 2025 season: The Unseen at Bramble Arts Loft (5545 N. Clark St., 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL, 60640), November 7 – 23, 2025. The provocative political play by Craig Wright is directed by Steve Needham.
The Unseen tells the story of Wallace and Valdez, two men kidnapped and held captive by an authoritarian regime without charge or trial. They have only each other’s voices to keep their minds alert and alive, along with their guard, a man called Smash, whose job it is to torment them. When a mysterious new prisoner arrives and begins communicating in code, the men must evaluate what they know of themselves, their captors, and their hope for escape. The Unseen is a darkly humorous exploration of faith and trust in a world in which cruelty for its own sake seems to be the point.
The preview for The Unseen is Friday, November 7 at 7:30 p.m. and the opening night/press performance is Saturday, November 8 at 7:30 p.m. The performance schedule for Saturday, November 8 - Sunday, November 23, 2025, is Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 - $30 and may be purchased at www.tindrumtheatre.com
The cast for The Unseen is Jordan Gleaves as Wallace, Carlos Andrés Mai as Valdez, and Jacob Coggshall as Smash.
The creative team includes Steve Needham (Director), Emily Nicholas (Stage Manager), Malia Hunter (Technical Director & Scenic Designer), Jack Goodman (Lighting Designer), Kasey Wolfgang (Costume Designer), and Zach Stinnett (Sound Designer).
ABOUT Tin Drum Theatre Company
At Tin Drum Theatre Company, our mission is to challenge, provoke, and inspire our audiences. Through intelligent storytelling and bold artistic choices, we aim to shift mental perspectives while stirring the soul. By subverting conventional frames of reference, we seek to engage our audience more deeply and encourage critical and active involvement with the world around them. www.tindrumtheatre.com
ABOUT Craig Wright, playwright
Craig Wright is a celebrated playwright, screenwriter, television producer, and musician, known for his compelling and emotionally resonant storytelling. Born on April 25, 1965, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he studied at Minnesota State University–Moorhead and St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, before earning a Master of Divinity from the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Wright’s work has earned numerous honors, including the Jerome Fellowship, a McKnight Foundation playwriting apprenticeship, and the 2009 Horton Foote Excellence in American Playwriting Award from Baylor University.
His acclaimed plays include Mistakes Were Made, Blind, The Gray Sisters, The Unseen, Lady, Grace, Recent Tragic Events, Melissa Arctic, Main Street, Orange Flower Water, Molly’s Delicious, and The Pavilion. In television, his writing and producing credits include Lost, Brothers & Sisters, United States of Tara, and the series he created, Dirty Sexy Money and Greenleaf. He received an Emmy nomination for the Six Feet Under episode “Twilight.”
ABOUT Steve Needham, Director
Steve Needham is Tin Drum Theatre Company’s Co-Artistic Director. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, he is a founding member of Convergence-Continuum, where he directed and performed, and which he is proud to say is still producing provocative and experimental black box theatre nearly 25 years later for a new generation of audiences. In Chicago, Needham has worked with The Bailiwick Repertory Theatre, About Face Theatre, and Pride Films & Plays. While completing graduate studies at The University of Chicago, he wrote the play Winter Garden about Edwin and John Wilkes Booth, which he later developed with Jason Palmer into Tin Drum Theatre’s inaugural production in 2024. Earlier this year, Needham produced the Chicago premiere of Incognito by Nick Payne, which Tin Drum presented at Theater Wit. During the day, he can be found playing the role of an attorney with a boutique litigation firm located in the River North neighborhood.
Tin Drum Theatre Company is proud to announce its production of The Unseen at Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N. Clark St., 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL, 60640, November 7 – 23, 2025. The provocative play by Craig Wright is directed by Steve Needham. The preview for The Unseen is Friday, November 7, at 7:30 p.m., and the opening night/press performance is Saturday, November 8, at 7:30 p.m. The performance schedule for The Unseen is Saturday, November 8 - Sunday, November 23, 2025, Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 - $30 and may be purchased at www.tindrumtheatre.com .