Ike Holter

Ike Holter’s taut and fast-paced The Wolf at the End of the Block tells the story of a young Latino named Alejandro, known as Abe, who seeks justice after being beaten by a Chicago policeman. A mystery that envelops Abe, his protective sister, and his boss, as well as the police department and a zealous investigative reporter, the play slowly discloses the hidden motives of the characters and the nature of a community long subjected to institutionalized oppression and neglect. The Wolf at the End of the Block complicates and illuminates this urgent and timely story of police violence by avoiding the clichÉs of faultless victims and two-dimensional villains. Praised for its power and grace, the play is one of Holter’s most unforgettable. The Wolf at the End of the Block is one of seven plays in Holter’s Rightlynd Saga, set in Chicago’s fictional fifty-first ward. The other plays in the cycle are Rightlynd, Exit Strategy, Sender, Prowess, Red Rex, and Lottery Day.

Avenging Chicagoans form a league for justice in Ike Holter’s superhero-inspired play, Prowess. In this heartfelt yet fantastical homage to Chicago, award-winning playwright Ike Holter introduces us to a quartet of “average” citizens who have been the victims of violence and felt powerless because of it. In the face of the city’s seemingly intractable ills, the play’s characters join forces to rescue Chicago—and themselves. But how? With heart, wit, and wisdom, Holter explores how one responds to violence. Does a person focus on self-defense and personal survival? Or fight back—with more violence? Pulsating and physical, Prowess is about vulnerability, vigilantism, heroism, and self-knowledge. Prowess is one of seven plays in Holter’s Rightlynd Saga, all to be published by Northwestern University Press. The other plays in the cycle are Rightlynd, Exit Strategy, Sender, The Wolf at the End of the Block, Red Rex, and Lottery Day.

Ike Holter’s Sender thrives on the contrast between order and chaos and the tensions that emerge as we leave childhood and adolescence behind to contend with the demands of “adulting.” In this comedy, Holter presents us with four millennial friends wrestling with these issues. While each is at a different stage of “growing up,” one of the friends has disappeared and has been presumed dead. Yet, at the beginning of the play, he returns and completely upends the balance established in his absence. This witty, foul mouthed, and razor-sharp play asks: “What does growing up mean . . . and is it even desired in this day and age?”Sender is one of seven plays in Holter’s Rightlynd Saga, all to be published by Northwestern University Press. Modeled on August Wilson’s iconic series exploring African American life in Pittsburgh, Holter’s plays are set in Chicago’s fictional fifty-first ward. The other plays in the cycle are Exit Strategy, Lottery Day, Prowess, Red Rex, Rightlynd, and The Wolf at the End of the Block.

Righteously angry, riotously funny, and wise to the tensions between abstract policy and lived experience, Ike Holter's play Exit Strategy centers on vivid, unforgettable characters struggling to maintain faith in a vocation that is being determinedly undermined.Drawing from the headlines, Exit Strategy is set in Chicago and tells the story of a fictional public high school slated for closure at the end of the year. Despite funding cuts, bureaucrats run amok, apathy, and a rodent infestation, a small, multiracial group of teachers launch a last-minute effort to save the school, and put their careers, futures, and safety in the hands of a fast-talking administrator who may be in over his head. The tenuous situation also raises fears and anxieties among students, and within the volcanic neighborhood that is home to the school. Holter has said that Exit Strategy was inspired by the 2013 mass closure of forty-nine Chicago public schools, which displaced nearly 12,000 children—the majority of directly impacted students were African American and Latinx. Hailed as ""riveting,"" ""sharp,"" and ""richly metaphoric"" by critics, the play indicts how we educate our children in big American cities, and shows why gaps between ""haves"" and ""have nots"" continue to grow.Exit Strategy is one of seven plays in Ike Holter's cycle of works set in Chicago, or Chicago-inspired, neighborhoods.