Prowess
photo by ryan borque
Click above for script
“Nobody else in Chicago writes anything like the massively talented Holter, whose poetic language often emerges in thrilling torrents. But he's hardly a formalist — rather, he's a young artist skating through the city he loves, and his emotion and hope for the future cascades all over "Prowess," which is at times very beautiful even as its themes reveal the ugliness of life when safety is elusive.
- Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
★★★★/5 “Prowess zooms in to examine the damage inflicted on the psyches of these street-level non-supers by fighting violence with violence. Holter’s work is engaging and exhilarating... as in some of his other best works, Prowess uses disarming irreverence and a little bit of fantasy to get us thinking freshly about real-world heroic themes."
- Time Out Chicago
"Stunningly good!"
- Chicago Reader
"Absolutely perfect."
- Chicago Theater Beat
"Genre-bending, alternately hilarious and frightening, and simply exhilarating!" - Talkin' Broadway
"Powerful...beautifully honest!"
- Chicago Stage Standard
Prowess
“Avenging Chicagoans form an avengers style battalion 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.”