If you’ve been around the Chicago theater scene, you’ve likely heard the name Ike Holter — typically followed by heaps of praise. 

Holter, a DePaul graduate and celebrated playwright, rose to popularity in 2012, when his play “Hit the Wall” was produced at Steppenwolf Theatre and subsequently achieved national success. He gained more notoriety with plays produced across the country, including “B-Side Studio,” “Exit Strategy,” “The Light Fantastic” and “The Wolf at the End of the Block.”

 But before Holter was a critically acclaimed playwright, he was a student at DePaul’s The Theatre School. He came in 2003, and chose the school because of its reputable theater conservatory and adjacency to landmark Chicago theaters. Once there, he discovered a flourishing artistic ecosystem.

 “There were so many opportunities for collaboration,” Holter said. “If you walked into the lobby, everyone was there because people around the city would book the space for rehearsals. I would go see their shows; they would come see mine.”

 By his second year at DePaul, Holter was already producing and showcasing his work in Chicago. People immediately took note of his talent and work ethic.

 “It happens now and then — you read a writer’s work and immediately think, ‘Oh, you have a gift,’” Carlos Murillo, the head of DePaul’s BFA playwriting program, said of Holter. “I read his early work — I was like, ‘Oh, he already has a sense of who he is as an artist.’”

 The entirety of Chicago became Holter’s artistic home as he curated his craft. He learned a lot in his time at DePaul but felt the most important lessons took place outside of the classroom.

 “What I learned (at The Theatre School) is that there are a lot of different ways to collaborate in the city,” Holter said. “I don’t need to be someone who just stays in one building and does things. I need to be someone who goes out.”

 In 2007, when Holter was a fourth-year student at DePaul, he had his play “Good Worker” produced as part of The Theatre School’s New Playwright Series. The show depicted the racy workplace politics of a futuristic whole-food market.

 “He got to see his writing take shape,” Murillo said. “He understood the physicality of the play. He did wonderful rewrites, and it was a terrific production. I was very proud of that show.”

 Holter had no trouble integrating himself into the Chicago theater scene upon graduation, working mostly with The Inconvenience, a theater company he formed with fellow students while at DePaul.

 “I was 19 years old, and we were producing our own shows in the city,” Holter said. “By the time I got out at 22, I was like, ‘OK, I have a company.’ I graduated in June and had a show go up in July.”

 Holter says his journey as an artist was largely influenced by The Theatre School’s focus on multidisciplinary collaboration and training. 

 “I didn’t just stay in my position,” Holter said. “When I was there, I learned how to stage manage, I learned how to produce. I got jobs out of school because of that.” 

Holter and his peers completely self-financed and self-produced their work, congregating in whatever space they could. 

“There was really no big break handed to any of us,” Holter said. “We all had our own mini-breaks.”

 Perse Grammer, author of this year’s New Playwright Series show “Left Unheard,” believes the spirit of collaboration is alive and well within the halls of The Theatre School.

 “It’s so great how willing people are to participate in projects,” Grammer said. “If my fellow playwrights are struggling to get people to read for them, I’m like, ‘OK, what kind of person do you need? Who do I know, whose email can I give you, whose number or Instagram I give you?’”

 Murillo agrees that the process goes well beyond the classroom. “You need bodies onstage, and you need human voices to really get what the play is doing and not doing,” he said.

 Holter said he still owes much of his success to that ecosystem. In January 2025, his 2019 play “Lottery Day” was produced at The Theatre School, creating a full-circle moment. He came back to his alma mater for a special “Chicago Live” event, sharing his journey to a crowd of eager young artists.

 “DePaul has my favorite group of designers, actors, dramaturgs, theatre-makers, etc.,” Holter said, fondly recalling his time in the rehearsal room. “Seeing them do this was really special.”

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