Michael Allen Harris

Punk, a provocative new drama by Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alumnus Michael Allen Harris ’11, will receive its world premiere October 4-November 5 at the Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee, in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Produced by The New Colony, Punk — set in a contemporary American maximum-security prison — concerns a group of prisoners housed in a special unit for gay, bisexual, and transgender inmates. Tensions rise when a Travis, young man sentenced to life in prison for murdering a gay man, requests to transfer into this unit. For tickets, click here.

Harris, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s Acting program, is an associate company member of The New Colony, which previously presented Punk in a developmental workshop production. Harris’ other plays include Rocky Road, which received its world premiere at the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Center in 2013 — the first play by a Columbia College alumnus ever featured in the Theatre Department’s mainstage season. Harris, currently studying playwriting in the master’s program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, is also an actor and is an ensemble member of Chicago’s Eclipse Theatre Company.