We’re happy to announce that you can now sign up for auditions for Season 8 of Impress These Apes, everyone’s favorite live, eight-week, non-elimination talent competition hosted by hyper-intelligent apes from the future. Auditions will be June 3 & 4 with the show on Mondays starting July 7.

If you’re a performer in Chicago—of any sort, not just comedic—you really should audition because it will be the best/hardest nine* weeks of your performing life. When I talk to any of the 56 people who have competed in the show so far, a) the show inevitably comes up and b) there’s always at least one story of intense frustration and one story of incredible triumph and pride. The Apes make you earn your victories, but earn them you will. Erica and I were both contestants before we were producers and judges/hosts of the show, and it remains a seminal experience of our theatrical lives.

If you’re one of the dozens of people who’ve asked over the last year “when are you doing Apes again?”, here you go. And as we say every time, you’ll want to be in this season, because who knows if we’ll ever do it again (those frustrations and triumphs happen on the production side as well).

* We’re doing the live callback thing again this year.