We use radical hospitality to produce new plays that highlight our region.
Audition for Professor House, our October 2025 show, written by Jacob Juntunen, directed by Sam Hayes, produced by e.k. doolin. More info here.
Our Next Show:
One Night Only!!
May 10, 2025 @ 8pm
(6238 Alexander Dr., St. Louis)
A Benefit for Contraband Theatre
Ozark Phantasmagoria
Written and Performed by Ursa Miles
A rare opportunity to see acclaimed Ozark storyteller Ursa Miles in St. Louis!
The Ozarks in the 1930s is a strange and mystical place. As new dams are built and towns plunged underwater, cryptids that once hid in the woods and the rivers are forced into contact with humans. When Sarah Jane's brother is taken, it is the hills that will be her revenge.
A benefit production for Contraband Theatre, tickets are pay what you wish $0 - $30 with $15 suggested.
Jacob Juntunen founded Contraband Theatre in 2016 to produce his script Hath Taken Away outside of 501c3 legalities in order to center creators rather than bureaucracy. For that inaugural production, Jacob found an abandoned church on a hill in the cornfields of Illinois and filled it with theatrical lights. When spectators drove up, the church glowed in the darkness. There was a single row of seating in a rectangle with room for thirty spectators around the small playing space. It was exactly what Jacob meant: no asking permission, just art.
Today, Contraband Theatre consists of co-producers Jacob Juntunen and e.k. doolin, and executive director, Dr. Meghann Pytka. Contraband produces new plays in St. Louis and fosters a community-based, flyover-focused, and human-centric model of theatre in an intimate and welcoming setting. We invite panels of experts who connect our plays’ themes to the community, and we love to provide free food. We employ diverse artists in accessible locations and promote radical hospitality by making every ticket pay-what-you wish, $0-$60. We exclusively produce new, regional work.
Welcome!
All of her life, sixteen-year-old Philoten has been told about dangerous women. Those who flaunt their bodies. Those who are different. Those who do not follow the rules. And she’s tried, so hard, not to be dangerous. But then, something really awful happens. A few things, actually, but one of them is unforgivable and forces her to ask the question of herself, Am I Dangerous?
Am I Dangerous? springboards off ancient questing stories like Shakespeare’s Pericles, creating a brand-new fem-tagonist origin story with themes around coming of age, familial reconciliation, bodily autonomy, and cultivation of the native and natural biosphere.
Featuring:
Tress Kurzym, Director
e.k. doolin, Playwright
Rachel Bailey as Lychorida
Jade Cash as Marina
Zahria Moore as Dionyza
Allison Sexton as Philoten
Erik Kuhn, Set Designer
Tress Kurzym, Costume Designer
Theresa Comstock, Lighting
De'Janna Hand, Sound Designer
Jack Gulley, Stage Manager
Sadie Harvey, Intimacy Coordinator
Maribel Paty, Lobby Display Assistant
Jacob Juntunen, Co-Producer
Nominated for Outstanding New Play by the St. Louis Theater Circle (award announced 3/24/25)
The script had a workshop production at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Okay, so, in 2041, during a future pandemic, Kathryn returns to her childhood home to take care of her aging parents. But her dad just wants to eat sandwiches and play puppets. Her mom is pissed that the smart city locked them in the house. Kathryn’s boss wants her working in person at their off-Broadway theatre as Education Director for a century-old snoozefest play. Kathryn doesn’t want to explode her carefully built theatre career, but she’s got to take care of her parents, doesn’t she? After all, they took care of her during the last pandemic. And this whole mess isn’t bringing up any unresolved feelings, is it? Nothing worth mourning anyway. Right?
Featuring:
Ellie Schwetye, Director
Spencer Lawton, Assistant Director
Jacob Juntunen, Playwright
Ricki Franklin as Kathryn
Joseph Garner as Joseph
Kelly Howe as Deb
Joshua Mayfield as Kris
Caleb D. Long, Set Designer
Carly Uding, Costume Designer
Morgan Brennan, Lighting
Ellie Schwetye, Sound Designer
e.k. doolin, Dramaturg & Producer
Spencer Lawton, Stage Manager
Ely German, Marketing Art Director
Semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival
Nominated for Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Supporting Performer in a Drama, Female or Non-Binary role, and Outstanding Performer in a Drama, Female or Non-Binary Role by the St. Louis Theater Circle (2023)
The script has had readings with Tantrum East Theatre and Southern Illinois University
After the president's contested re-election, Emma has to leave her home in St. Louis in a desperate bid to escape the USA.
Cast (in speaking order)
EMMA: E.K. Doolin
ANNE: Stephanie Stroud
JENN: Deanna Lee
LIZ: Jennifer Remke
JOHN: Minoru Jackson
ALEX: Peter Moore
18 Months After November began in October 2020 as a short play that Jacob Juntunen wrote for an evening of streaming pieces with his students at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, where he heads the MFA Playwriting program.
The short play was met with such enthusiasm that Jacob continued the story, imagining what could happen to the USA after a highly contested election. He finished the first draft of the play in October, cast it during the long counting of the presidential election ballots in early November, and filmed it shortly after the election was called for Biden on November 7th, 2020.
Even so, the ultimate twists and turns the play takes make it eerily relevant today. It won a Pet Projects Grant from Jeremy O. Harris to produce.
Dorothea is a young, Midwestern Evangelical whose faith and steadfast love for her best friend, Lucy, and new husband, John, are put to the test by her child-to-be. Faced with medical complications that leave Dorothea and her pregnancy at risk, these three characters must make decisions that rupture the boundaries between their religious beliefs and complicated feelings for one another.
Featuring:
Greg Aldrich, Director
Jacob Juntunen, Playwright
Kristin Doty as Dorothea
Abigail Warhus as Lucy
Mike Terrana as John
MK Hughes, Set Designer
Da'Veon Burtin, Costume Designer
Brooke Oehme, Dramaturg
Patrick Burke, Stage Manager
Rita Medina, Marketing DIrector
Semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference; finalist for the Activate Midwest Theatre Conference, for the March Forth Productions Summer Series, and for production at the Source Theatre Festival.
The script has had readings at The Last Frontier Theatre Conference,
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