Cody Estle (Photo: Joe Mazza at Brave-Lux)

Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alumnus Cody Estle ’11, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s Theatre Directing program, is directing the Chicago premiere of Bess Wohl’s American Hero, running May 8-June 3 at the Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee, in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Presented by the First Floor Theatre, American Hero concerns three up-and-coming “sandwich artists” working at a toasted subs franchise — a teenager, a single mom, and a downsized refugee from corporate banking — striving to perfect the mustard-to-cheese ratio dictated by their company manual. American Hero‘s depiction of life in a post-recession world is described as “a supersized dark comedy about life, liberty and the pursuit of sandwiches.”

Cody Estle is associate artistic director of Raven Theatre. For this production, his team includes fellow Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alumnus Sam Hubbard ’12, a graduate of the Columbia College Theatre Department’s Acting Program, as fight choreographer, and current Columbia College student Jennifer Sloan, a senior in the Theatre Department’s BFA Program in Theatre Directing, as assistant director.