Raven Theatre announced a revamped 2020-21 Season, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This fall's planned revival of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's drama Inherit the Wind directed by Ian Frank has been cancelled. Instead, the three-play season will kick off next February with Jonathan Harvey's sweet and charming coming-of-age play Beautiful Thing. Mikael Burke directs.... Read More
Performance Spotlight
As part of the annual recognition of theater excellence, the 47th Non-Equity Jeff Awards announced honorees in 21 artistic and technical categories. Recipients included 27 theater artists whose work was featured at 14 theater companies during the 2019-2020 season. With respect for current times calling for reflection, conversation and action towards issues of social justice, commemoration of the.... Read More
Executive Director, L. Walter Stearns and partner, Business Manager Eugene Dizon announced the permanent closure of Mercury Theater Chicago after ten years and 25 productions, due to the loss of revenue following the COVID-19 shutdown. Most recently, Mercury's productions of Shear Madness and Priscilla Queen of the Desert were forced to close prematurely in March 2020.... Read More
Whether or not you agree that the pen's might exceeds that of the sword, the scarcity in recent decades of scripts showcasing the second instrument's utility seemed to indicate the two weapons rarely occupying the same dramatic sphere. How, then, did two classically-trained fight choreographers come to start a publishing outlet for literature reflecting the high-fantasy themes and.... Read More
Writers Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announced plans for the company's 2020/21 Season with a new adaptive producing model, one committed to remaining flexible and responsive to current events and that allows the theatre to welcome patrons back to the theatre when the time is right.
New.... Read More
It's safe to say that no matter who you are or what your profession is, the problems that have come with COVID-19 have left you stressed and tired. Sometimes it might even feel as though these health and economic threats will never end. One way to reassure yourself that you will get through the madness that has taken.... Read More
You can help support Chicago Theatre through the COVID-19 pandemic by purchasing a great "Chicago Acts Together" t-shirt. Designed by Steppenwolf Theatre, who worked with Rowboat Creative and their Creatives Who Care initiative along with over 100 other local theatre companies, this limited edition t-shirt featuring the names of all participating companies is an incredible showcase.... Read More
With the conclusion of the 2019-2020 Chicago non-Equity theater season, the Jeff Awards announced the nominees for the 47th annual awards for theater excellence that include 120 theater artists across 21 categories. During this past season, which ended a few weeks early in mid-March due to government guidelines on public gatherings related to the COVID-19 virus, Jeff Awards.... Read More
Unlike the real-life Interregnum that shuttered London playhouses between 1642 and 1660, the remedy for the current halt to the spring theater season is not a simple change of venue—not when propelled by the very prospect of performers and spectators occupying the same space.
Almost as soon as the order to back off/stay inside was.... Read More
Coronavirus has made a huge impact on the theatre industry. Theatres from across the country were forced to postpone or cancel their shows. It goes without saying that a very large percentage of the revenue generated by most theatres comes from the sell of tickets and holding other events that are directly tied to people getting together in.... Read More
The Chicago theater community's annual awards recognizing non-Equity theater productions will be presented in a virtual format on Monday, June 8, 2020. In preparation for this program, the 2020 non-Equity nominations will be publicly announced, as previously planned, on Tuesday, April 28. To protect the health and safety of the community and comply with government guidelines on public.... Read More
During the period in English history known as the Interregnum, when the Puritans ruled under Oliver Cromwell, London playhouses were shuttered for a record EIGHTEEN YEARS!!! You heard that right—from 1642 to 1660, all public performances of plays were declared illegal, and miscreants subject to a fine.
Of course, this didn't mean theater disappeared altogether:.... Read More
Theatres across the Chicago-area are canceling or postponing their shows in response to conerns over the novel coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19.
We will continuously be updating this page with any news of the cancellation or the postponments of shows.
-Goodman Theatre: Has suspended all performances until further notice. This includes "School Girls;.... Read More
Theatergoers already familiar with Windy City Playhouse's "immersive theater" techniques were unperturbed when their access into its production of Mart Crowley's The Boys In The Band led them through a faux foyer, then up a trompe l'oeil elevator and down an anonymous hallway to arrive at a likewise nondescript door. Oh, but nobody, not even playgoers retaining.... Read More
The Otherworld playhouse is not a large room, by any stretch of the imagination, but the characters occupying its auditorium for Valiant Theatre's New Works Festival share a global diversity of backstories spanning centuries—supreme court justices, Episcopal ministers, Community Activists, Hollywood actresses, pro athletes and New Testament disciples.
The assembly comprises such distinguished trailblazers.... Read More
The folly of expecting human beings to behave with the efficiency of machines has manifested itself over a more than a century of unhappy consequences precipitated by the imposition of commercial paradigms upon social agendas—error constituting a major theme for playwrights from Henrik Ibsen to Arthur Miller. Female reformers, too, have protested the damage inflicted on families viewed.... Read More
The Goodman Theatre's El Cantico de Navidad (literally, "The Song of Christmas") was not conceived in a vacuum. Chicago's long history of welcoming foreign-born residents is evidenced in its abundance of public buildings, neighborhood shops, and street signs whose exterior displays reflect the cosmopolitan ethnicity of their locales.
"The Goodman has always been committed to.... Read More
That time of year is back, and what winter season is complete without a trip to the theater to take in some holiday plays? Whether you want to sit back and enjoy the classics that remind you of the true meaning of the season or you want to change things up and experience Christmas through a slightly more.... Read More
Hardly had the backpacks and lunchboxes disappeared from the store shelves than preparations commenced for the advent of the three-day festival celebrating ghoulies and goblins, Calacas and Calaveras, hyperglycemic diets and toilet-paper lawn decor.
The earliest of the seasonal offerings opened in September, only to close by mid-October, but the historical true-crime Bloody Bathory is.... Read More
Prepare to see an abundance of floor-length skirts and lintel-brushing headgear this autumn. No, theaters haven't adopted a formal dress code for their patrons, nor has Chicago been declared a "Game of Thrones" re-enactment site. A cursory overview of the theater offerings in the months between the major cool-weather holidays reveals a predominance of period plays, some depicting.... Read More