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Some theater transports you to a distant time or place, and some theater holds up the mirror to the life you lead. Theatre Seven, a four-year-old company taking up residence in Lincoln Park's Greenhouse Theater Center later this spring, falls decidedly into the latter camp. The company has the surprisingly unique dedication to being "a company of Chicago, from Chicago, but...minus the corruption."
Or so says Artistic Director Brian Golden, who, sitting in the Greenhouse lobby, points out enthusiastically that the company's breakout success, 2007's Diversey Harbor , was set just "six blocks from here." He's barely exaggerating. And in an age in which people are increasingly engaged in local food and local businesses, Golden sees local theater as a natural and necessary reflection of the community that fosters and supports it, "People are more interested in a purse snatcher on their street than a murderer in Rhode Island."
Golden likens it to the rock concert ritual of "Hello Cleveland! I had a drink at the lions pub tonight!" And the audience's inevitable response, "Whoo! Lion's Pub!" But it's not a cynical experiment, "As our world gets more choices, more entertainment, more options, more size...we have the ability to customize the experience."
In addition to Diversey Harbor, Golden also cites 2008's stylistically divergent but equally local Yes, This Really Happened to Me as an important milestone in the company's history. The play, commissioned by the company to be written by five different playwrights recounting true autobiographical stores based mainly in Chicago, in Golden's words, "couldn't have been more different [from Diversey Harbor ] but both were able to connect with storytelling and mission and immediacy."
Elaborating on the local theme, Theatre Seven's current offering, the layered and comic Mimesophobia splits its time between Hyde Park and Hollywood, building, in Golden's wry phrase "a bridge between Chicago and the rest of it. It's a play that has a core in Chicago but is also connected to other things."
It's of a piece with a company striving to make engaging and dynamic theater that doesn't ignore the rest of the world, but acknowledges the magnitude of this microcosm.
To find out more about Theatre Seven check out their website, become a fan on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.
Benno Nelson
You can read more of Theatre In Chicago contributor Benno Nelson's writing at The@er (http://the-at-er.blogspot.com)
Full Storefrontal
Read the other articles in Benno Nelson's "Full Storefrontal" series that focuses on small theatre companies around Chicago on the Full Storefrontal page.