About Gaby

Gaby Labotka (she/her/hers or anything respectful*) is an actor, director, choreographer, and more based in Chicago and working across the country. She is a fierce advocate for respect, empathy, representation, inclusion, and safety in the theatre, and so she is dedicated to making art that reflects that.

Recent Performance credits include: Groups of Ten or More People (Littlebrain); She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms (Signifying Nothing); The Legacy of Sherwood Forest (Inkwell Productions); Neverland (Prop Thtr); A Story Told in Seven Fights (Neo-Futurists); We're Gonna Be Okay (ATC); Peter and the Starcatcher (Metropolis Theatre Company); Henry V (Babes with Blades); Romeo and Juliet (Teatro Vista); and The Hammer Trinity (The House Theatre of Chicago). 

Recent Fight and/or Intimacy Direction credits include: Paradise Square (Broadway); Revenge Song (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); First Deep Breath (Victory Gardens); Jane Eyre (Northwestern University); Zṻrich (Steep Theatre); Borealis (The House Theatre); Hamlet (The Gift Theatre); Through the Elevated Line (Silk Road Rising); A Story Told in Seven Fights (Neo-Futurists); Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea (First Floor Theater); The Good Fight (Babes with Blades); A Swell in the Ground (The Gift); Night in Alachua County (WildClaw Theatre); and Romeo and Juliet (Teatro Vista, 2017). 

Recent Directing credits include: Revenge Song and Peter and the Starcatcher (Oregon Shakespeare Festival [Assistant Director]); Groups of Ten or More People (Littlebrain); In an Instant (Unheard Of); Tilikum (Sideshow Theatre Company [Assistant Director]); Wasteland Hero (Reutan Collective); [Trans]formation (The Living Canvas); and The Dictionary Project. 

As part of the Chicago Theatre Marathon, Gaby developed her one-person show Hermana Blank(a), an exploration of familial and cultural alienation and what it means (if anything) to be a “white person of color.” She is currently seeking producers/producing companies to help her bring this show to full production. She has written two other full length plays that she is seeking workshop and/or production for, which can be read here.

Gaby is an Adjunct Professor of Theatre at University of Illinois Chicago, a Certified Intimacy Director and Certification Pending Intimacy Coordinator with Intimacy Directors & Coordinators, an Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors, and is often a Teaching Assistant for stage combat classes at MACE and The Actors' Gymnasium. Gaby is a proud member of the Alliance of Latinx Theatre Artists (ALTA).

before Chicago

When Gaby Labotka was sixteen-years-old, she was working on The Laramie Project presented by her high school. Because Judy Shepard was speaking at the Auditorium Theatre during their rehearsal process, the Hinsdale Drama Group went on a field trip to hear her speak. She spoke about her son, and her activism to make the Matthew Shepard Act/Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law. Judy spoke about how important it was to keep her son’s story alive, how she had hope that the world could change. That evening, Gaby decided that theatre would be her vehicle for activism by sharing stories like Matthew’s, empathy, and progressive notions and politics with audiences in hopes of changing their hearts and minds for the better.

Her journey on stage began long before that, though. When she was three-years-old, her mother began taking her to dance lessons, which were not only a fun, artistic activity, but the groundwork for her vocabulary and craft as an artist. Gaby danced in recitals every year, and danced competitively with her companies. Though, before transferring to the School of Performing Arts (SPA), she was bullied by her classmates for her weight and lack of flexibility. One night, the bullying was so intense that she confided to her mother about it. She encouraged Gaby to stay strong instead of quitting, and that to combat the bullying she should respond with smiling. “They look over their shoulders to see if the bullying is working, if they are hurting you. But you cannot show them that it is or isn’t working, so smile at them. You have a beautiful smile, baby. If you smile at them, it will show them that it isn’t working, it’ll really get their goat. Keep Smiling.” It worked: Not only did the bullying subside, but it instilled resilience in the face of rejection. It was the best advice she has ever received, and Gaby still signs her notes, e-mails, and letters with the phrase to this day as a reminder to herself and a hope for others.

In 2003 Gaby starred at Tom Piper in Golden’s School of Dance’s recital “Babes in Toyland.” It was the first time that she performed as an actor, and she thrived in it while encouraged by audiences and teachers that she was good at it. After that, Gaby began performing beyond recitals and dance competitions, joining musical theatre productions at SPA and high school, eventually performing in plays (including the aforementioned The Laramie Project), and becoming the President of the Hinsdale Drama Group. Her drama teacher, Christine Hicks, encouraged her to apply for the Steppenwolf Young Adult Council (YAC) in 2007, and Gaby became a founding member. The YAC made programming surrounding the plays at Steppenwolf for their peers, met artists from all over the city, and went on field trips to see new work being performed in Chicago. Through her experiences there she formed relationships with theatre companies that would continue after graduating college (including The House Theatre of Chicago), and confirmed that not only could she use theatre as activism, but that she could make a career as a theatre artist.

In 2008, Gaby was accepted into the acting program at Illinois State University. There she began cross-training in performance, a (one class shy of completed) minor in dance, and eventually added on her own devised directing major under the mentorship of Paul Dennhardt and Christopher Marino. Paul was also a catalyst to Gaby’s pursuit of studying fight choreography: she found a kindred artistic heart in his focus and passion for movement for the actor and stage. Paul was Gaby’s first teacher and mentor in stage combat in movement direction, and his constant advocacy for his students was inspiring. ISU provided opportunities for Gaby to create her own work and to persevere: she found ways to work as an artist in many areas of theatre so that she could constantly create. Gaby performed in student-directed plays and dance concerts, worked as an assistant director and choreographer, and designed costumes for productions at ISU whenever she wasn’t cast in a Main Stage or Second Stage show. She served as the Co-President of Theatre of Ted under the mentorship of Pete Guither. Gaby began collaborating with Pete and his project The Living Canvas, and in the summer of 2011, she directed her first production in Chicago produced by Pete: The Living Canvas: Rain. In her senior semester, Gaby wrote and directed her first play The Wonderful. The Wicked. and produced it in a drawing studio with the support of the student organization FreeStage. Also in her senior semester, she competed as a director in the Region III KCACTF Design Storm Competition, and she and her team received Honorable Mention for their interpretation of Marisol by Jose Rivera.  Gaby graduated from ISU a semester early with a BA in Theatre: Acting and a BA in Theatre: Directing, magna cum laude with the honor of Exceptional Merit in the Arts, and immediately began working in Chicago.

*Gaby is comfortable with the pronouns she was assigned at birth, but ultimately their pronouns are flexible just like xer gender. One cannot go wrong with em’s pronouns unless gender is used in disrespectful, diminutive, or weaponized ways. She/her/hers are her base pronouns, which is why you see those used mainly throughout this site. (Learn more about gender neutral and neo-pronouns here.)