HIGHLIGHTS
The Wizards by Ricardo Gamboa - Concrete Content - Fall 2023 - APO Cultural Center
In 2018, Ricardo Gamboa wrote The Wizards through the Goodman Theatre Playwright Unit. In 2023 Gamboa, Dion and Sean James William Parris came together to produce this play and formed Concrete Content. The Wizards is an immersive play about the histories and people that haunt us. The Wizards follows Amado and Sam, a Brown and Black genderqueer couple that move back to Amado’s hometown of Chicago after surviving a hate crime in New York the day after the 2016 presidential election. In their new apartment in the city’s gentrifying Pilsen neighborhood, the two find a Ouija board that puts them in touch with the ghost of four boys who were members of The Wizards, a Mexican-American Motown cover band on the Southside during the 70s. The Wizards is a supernatural thriller about the histories and people that haunt us.
LOOK MORE AT OUR SPECIFIC PRODUCTION CONTENT HERE
*Katrina received The Chicago Reader Best of Award for Best Stage Director after directing this play. The play sold out for two months, selling out our extension in under 24 hours.
“Dion pursues an atmospheric style that reveals omens in flickering midcentury modern lamps and records of Mexican American empowerment in Chicano-inspired murals. In her director’s note, she writes to the audience, “You may even be physically uncomfortable.” But as disturbing as white supremacy is, I can say that I did not feel uncomfortable once. The Wizards made me cringe, rage, laugh, and (almost) cry, but its greatest strength was its ability to make me feel safe. “ - Boutayna Chokrane, The Chicago Reader
photos by Joel Maisonet
KNOCKOUT- Presented at Steppenwolf Lookout - created by Erin Kilmurray & Kara Brody - January 2025, co-director & dramaturgy
“Knockout is a fierce contemporary dance duet created + performed by Erin Kilmurray + Kara Brody. Inspired by film editing techniques that manipulate time and perspective, Knockout lives in the messy space between attraction and danger, strength and survival, family and friendship, action and inertia. The work propels audiences through a cinematic thrill ride of femme fight sequences, lush sonic landscapes, late night cruising. toothy camp, and partnerships that sidestep tidy categorization. TKO, baby.” - Erin Kilmurray
Katrina started with this process in 2022, working with the small team of collaborators through a. residency at the Dance Center, and workshop showing at the WaterShed. As a dramaturg, Katrina’s job was to understand the rules of the world and show, and ensure that content & design aligned with those rules. Katrina provided reference research where applicable. In addition, Katrina worked closed with Kilmurray as a co-director, downloading overall vision & goals, and supporting the synthesis and actualization of those concepts onto the stage as Kilmurray performed in the piece.
photos by Sarah Larson, Chloe Hamilton, and Zoe Rain
spark - Free Street Theater - A Devised Show - May 2026
spark tells the stories of youth activists and activists in their youth, couched in the worlds of punk, archives, and revolution.
the youth will make the revolution
In spark, Free Street's youth question how the burden of change falls on the shoulders of youth with little to no support. How do you find your spark to mobilize, when the system works against you? To answer this question, spark tells the stories of youth activists and activists in their youth. The process engages interviews with over 20 adults about their youth, the book “Let This Radicalize You,” by Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba, and looks at archive projects as both an aesthetic and important practice in an age of erasure.
co-directed by Katrina Dion, Xitlali Celeste, and Marilyn Carteno, this new pieces invites audiences to think about their own spark, and welcomes them into intergenerational collaboration.
“spark provides history lessons, inspiration and a call to action” - Kerry Reid, Chicago Reader, Recommended
photos by Sarah Larson; videography by Tom Conway, video edit by Elly Tier
Chronicles of the Kaleidoscope Visitors by Omer Abbas Salem - Playworks Chicago - May 2025
Sister Fibonacci and her family live on a secluded winter island, growing food for the town on the mainland. When the island is visited by two green creatures with the ability to make sunflowers grow in the snow, their lives take an unexpected turn. Can Fibonacci save her new friends from being exploited for their powers? The Chronicles of the Kaleidoscope Visitors encourages keeping curiosity alive and standing up for what is right.
photos by Michael Brosilow
Survived By - The Theatre School at DePaul University - A Devised Show - Spring 2022
Over the course of six weeks, Katrina worked with four DePaul acting students to create a devised play that asked, “When remembering those who passed, are obituaries enough? How do we tell and holld onto the stories of those who have passed?” The play used the obituaries of over 15 Chicagoans who had passed away as base text. Katrina led the students through a process that included interviews with death doulas, field trips, moment work, and in-depth research, to premier this 70 minute original work.
photos by Elly Tier
punk by Michael Allen Harris - The New Coordinates - Fall 2017 - The Den : video samples available by request
"...the perfect example of activist theater done right." -Hayley Slamon, PerformInk
"PUNK is thought provoking and wrenching, yet not heavy handed, or without humor and charm. It's well worth an evening out." -Bonnie Kenaz-Mara, ChiIL Live Shows
zipped and pelted by Lucas Baisch - The Wulfden - Summer 2015 - The Chicago Fringe Festival
in the news:
The Chicago Reader (article): ‘We really try to be a place where people can be themselves’ Youth theater companies have quietly figured out how to make space for queer and gender-diverse kids. - Kerry Reid
Teen Vogue (article): How Theater Programs are Adjusting to Online Learning - Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel
Jack Shop Talk (video): Interview with Bri Ng Shwartz
The Chicago Reader (review): We can all learn a lot about water politics from the young artists who created Parched - KT Hawbaker
New City (article): Players 2019: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago - Sharon Hoyer
Scapi Magazine (interview): Challenging Invisibility: An Interview with Free Street Theater’s Melissa DuPrey and Katrina Dion - Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel