Stage Left Theatre

In a political climate where pundits look for clues of liberal or conservative agendas in every leaf that falls, the name of Stage Left Theatre makes for pretty easy work. There's only one problem: this storefront company with twenty-eight years of experience in Chicago aims to fight any bias their moniker evokes. Rather, their hope is to offer fierce ambiguity, providing a forum and an inspiration for debate that gives equal respect to both sides.

Vance Smith, Stage Left's artistic director since September 2009, acknowledges common misconception, "People expect a liberal agenda, but what we really try to do is ask a question and not tell you what to think."

For the past decade Stage Left has principally used world premiere plays to ask those questions, though Smith asserts that the two aren't necessarily tied together, "At least for me," he says, "I don't think you can't do political theater without doing new work - there are plenty of classic texts that still ask relevant political and social questions." Indeed this upcoming season boasts the first revival that Stage Left has done in about a decade (Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People). However, Smith sees the artistic opportunity to provide a forum for authors working on new plays with meaningful political questions simply too exciting to overlook.

Keeping things exciting for Stage Left is their unique new play development program, and their annual workshop and new play presentation and workshop LeapFest and their longer development program, Downstage Left. For Stage Left, their role in new play development offers a chance to foster and encourage new works that struggle with political issues. "All of the Leapfest plays," says Smith, "are selected to address the mission of debate and of raising debate." Moreover, unlike typical reading series where new plays are given about ten hours of rehearsal for a single reading and no technical flourishes, LeapFest plays rehearse for a full forty hours as well as ten hours of technical rehearsals and three performances. This way, according to Smith, the playwright can benefit from more audience feedback as well as see how the play fares under larger scrutiny.

And it's working: of the roughly forty plays that have gone through the LeapFest process, a full twelve of them have subsequently been given full production either at Stage Left or at theaers across the country.

Partly as an antidote to taking themselves too seriously, Stage Left also hosts the annual DrekFest, a hilarious festival where entrants compete for the dubious honor of writing the worst ten-minute plays in the country. "It's just fun," Smith beams, "It's a catharsis for us. Stage Left is always looking for a great comedy and we've definitely produced a few, but it's hard to produce a funny play that raises political and social debates. It's great to get out there and do something stupid."

After twenty-eight years, Stage Left finds itself at a new crossroads. With a new artistic director, a fresh crop of ensemble members, and a new permanent home in the Theater Wit space on Belmont, Stage Left is poised to use its substantial artistic experience and institutional memory to continue on its engaging course. Or at any rate, that's one side of the debate.

Learn more about Stage Left and their new home in Lakeview by visiting their website or becoming a fan on Facebook.

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.