I started writing Covenant in 2018, at a time when I wasn’t entirely sure I was a writer. I was primarily an actor who had written a few plays that hadn’t gone anywhere. I applied to several playwriting programs and was met with rejection after rejection. But I made a decision: if a play didn’t connect, I would keep writing until one did.
In 2019, I moved to New York City with the hope of establishing myself as a playwright. I put acting on hold and took my first full-time survival job as a receptionist. I hated that job with a passion—but every morning, I arrived early, grabbed some free coffee and tucked myself into a small conference room to write. Those quiet hours before my shift became sacred. They were a daily reminder that I was working toward the life I wanted, even when there was no external evidence it was working.
That same year, I finished the first messy draft of Covenant. What followed were years of readings, workshops, revisions, collaborations, letdowns and small miracles. In 2023, the play finally premiered Off-Broadway with Roundabout Theatre Company.
Around that time, my dad started joking that I needed to find a way to bring the play to Chicago—my home, and the city where I grew up—because he had already “sold hundreds of tickets.” It became a running bit he repeated every time we spoke. On one hand, it felt like a classic dad joke; on the other, I think he was quietly manifesting this moment for me.
And now, three years later, here we are at Goodman Theatre, as part of its 100th Season, in the city where I first fell in love with theater.
Bringing this play home means more than I can put into words. Thank you for being here. And thank you, Dad, for dad-joking this all the way to The Goodman.
York Walker
Covenant Playwright
