Goodman Theatre Chicago

Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls has announced the addition of Mirror of the Invisible World—a critical and popular success originally produced in the intimate Goodman Studio in 1997 and now re-imagined for the Albert stage—as a part of his dynamic 20th anniversary season. Adapted and directed by Goodman Manilow Resident Director and Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman, the highly-acclaimed Mirror of the Invisible World will take place in the Albert Theatre June 16 – July 22, 2007.

"I’m delighted to welcome the breathtaking Mirror of the Invisible World to the Goodman’s Albert stage,” said Artistic Director Robert Falls. “My anniversary season at the Goodman would not be complete without Mary’s phenomenal vision, and this revisit is yet another wonderful way to celebrate the unprecedented history and prestige of our artistic collective.”

Adapted from a great 12th century Persian epic, Mirror of the Invisible World tells the story of a young King, who, after falling in love with seven princesses—each from a different land—builds seven pavilions to house his beautiful brides. Each night, a different princess weaves for him another wondrous tale of love, loss and adventure. Praised for its rich theatricality when first produced in the Goodman Studio, Mirror of the Invisible World was deemed "a beautifully understated Kama Sutra that transcends sexuality." (Chicago Sun-Times)

Mary Zimmerman, who most recently directed her adaptation of Pericles at Goodman Theatre, is the recipient of a 1998 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2002 Tony Award for best direction and 10 Joseph Jefferson Awards, including prizes for best production and best direction. She is the Manilow Resident Director of the Goodman, a member of Lookingglass Theatre Company, an artistic associate of Seattle Repertory Theatre and a professor of performance studies at Northwestern University. Works that she has adapted and directed include Silk at Goodman Theatre; The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci at the Goodman, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and Seattle Repertory; The Odyssey at the Goodman, Lookingglass, McCarter Theatre and Seattle Repertory; Arabian Nights at Lookingglass, Manhattan Theatre Club and BAM; Journey to the West at the Goodman, Huntington Theatre and Berkeley Repertory; Metamorphoses at Lookingglass, Seattle Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Mark Taper Forum and Second Stage; Secret in the Wings at Lookingglass, McCarter Theatre and Berkeley Repertory and Eleven Rooms of Proust at Lookingglass and About Face. Zimmerman has also directed the highly acclaimed Pericles at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.; Measure for Measure and Henry VIII at New York Shakespeare Festival; A Midsummer Night's Dream at Huntington Theatre; All's Well That Ends Well and Seneca's Trojan Women at the Goodman. In 2002, she created a new opera with Philip Glass called Galileo Galilei which premiered at Goodman Theatre and traveled to the Barbican in London and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.