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See video previews of shows before you go with TheatreInChicago.com!
We currently have video previews for 36 shows that are now playing or coming soon to the Chicago area.
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| The Addams Family |
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Ford Oriental Theatre
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In a prolific career spanning six decades, Charles Addams created several thousand cartoons, sketches and drawings, many of which were famously published in The New Yorker. But it was his creation of characters that came to be known as The Addams Family that brought Addams his greatest acclaim. Now The Addams Family comes to life in a new musical which will make it's world premiere in Chicago in November 2009.
Watch a video preview of The Addams Family |
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| America: All Better! |
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Second City
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Its official – the United States is moving forward. We have a new President taking office, sweeping international economic crisis, and the effects of global warming all around us. It’s time to fire up the Rahminator and transplant a little Midwestern charm to Washington making America: All Better!
Watch a video preview of America: All Better! |
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| Banana Shpeel - Cirque du Soleil |
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Chicago Theatre
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Propelled by crazy humor and intense choreography, Banana Shpeel plunges us into the world of Schmelky, a cruel and irritable producer who dangles fame and fortune in front of Emmett, an innocent and romantic actor who has come to audition for him. Emmett soon finds himself trapped in a flamboyant, anarchic world where Schmelky sows terror and reigns supreme. Emmett falls in love with the beautiful Katie and meets a bunch of absurd characters, including the strange Banana Man. But who is this mysterious Banana Man and how can Emmett escape the clutches of Schmelky and his henchmen?
Watch a video preview of Banana Shpeel |
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| Billy Elliot the Musical |
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Ford Oriental Theatre
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Billy Elliot the Musical is the funny, heartwarming tale of a young boy with a dream, and a celebration of his triumph against the odds. Set against the historic British miners' strike of the 1980s, the story follows Billy's journey as a boy in a small mining town who, after stumbling across a ballet class while on his way to a boxing lesson, realizes that his future lay not in the boxing ring but on stage as a dancer.
Watch a video preview of Billy Elliot the Musical |
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| The Black Duckling |
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Dream Theatre
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In the darkness of the city, one light refuses to be extinguished. Part fantasy, part burlesque show, part macabre melodrama. Jeremy Menekseoglu takes you into a dark Dickensian city where a young girl struggles to keep her innocence in a world drowning in perversion and misery.
Watch a video preview of The Black Duckling |
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| Blue Man Group |
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Briar Street Theatre
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Blue Man Group is best known for its award-winning theatrical productions which critics have described as "ground-breaking," "hilarious," "visually stunning" and "musically powerful." These performances feature three enigmatic bald and blue characters who take the audience through a multi-sensory experience that combines theatre, percussive music, art, science and vaudeville into a form of entertainment that is like nothing else.
Watch a video preview of Blue Man Group |
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| Calls to Blood |
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Royal George Theatre
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Based on an extraordinary true story, Calls to Blood tells the darkly comic tragedy of the perfect American couple and their seemingly impenetrable happiness – even as they struggle to conceive the child they want so desperately. But in trying to find a solution to this continual failure, they unearth the one truth that can destroy everything upon which their perfect lives have been built. Staged in the intimate environment of the Royal George’s studio theater, the audience will be no more able to escape the emotionally powerful debate over the couple’s future than the couple’s own best friends and family.
Watch a video preview of Calls To Blood |
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| Cotton Patch Gospel |
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Provision Theater Company
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The revamped version of this entertaining musical features the reverential retelling of the Gospels of Matthew and John in a contemporary southern setting, set to bluegrass music. The award winning musical is based on the book The Cotton Patch Gospel of Matthew and John by Clarence Jordan, a Bible scholar and Civil Rights activist. Tom Key and Russell Treyz adapted Jordan's writtings and worked with the late Harry Chapin to create this musical stage version.
Watch a video preview of Cotton Patch Gospel |
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| End Days |
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Next Theatre Company
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When Elvis knocks, will you be ready? The Stein's are having an identity crisis: Mom has been "born again" and spends all day chatting with Jesus in the kitchen; Dad hasn't gotten out of his pajamas in weeks and is starting to smell; and 16 year old Rachel is coping by going "goth." Who will save this family? Jesus? Stephen Hawking? Or Rachel's awkward new classmate who shows up at their door in his Elvis jumpsuit? To everyone's surprise, the invasion of his big heart and blind optimism might be their best hope for a new beginning.
Watch a video preview of End Days |
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| Fake |
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Steppenwolf Theatre
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In 1914, renowned mystery writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle invites four guests to his English country home. Each visitor has a connection to the infamous “Piltdown Man,” purported to be the missing link between ape and man—later exposed as a hoax. Swinging back and forth through time, Fake investigates how “Piltdown” rattled assumptions about evolution, faith and science—and how we are transformed by our quest for the truth.
Watch a video preview of Fake |
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| Fedra: Queen of Haiti |
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Lookingglass Theatre
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Only the fiercely wicked pen of Ensemble Member J. Nicole Brooks (Black Diamond) could ignite the hidden power of this enduring myth. a re-telling of this magnitude that would make Seneca, Euripides and Jean Racine blush. Afrodite's fury is unleashed upon Haiti, the world's greatest superpower, in this story of power and lust.
Watch a video preview of Fedra: Queen of Haiti |
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| Graceland |
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National Pastime Theater
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Chicago's oldest cemetery is the backdrop for Graceland, the story of four lonely Chicagoans whose lives collide one August weekend while the Blue Angels airshow is in town. As fighter jets buzz the skies from dusk till dawn, estranged brother and sister Sam and Sara try to make sense of their father's recent suicide. Sara's one night stand with Joe, an aging lothario, brings further trouble in the form of Joe's mercurial teenage son, Miles. Graceland is a World premiere comedic drama about the loneliness of family, the tenderness of strangers and the unexpected benefits of bad decisions.
Watch a video preview of Graceland |
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| Hairspray |
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Marriott Theatre In Lincolnshire
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From the tip-top of its super teased coif, to the bottom of its dynamic dancing toes, “You Can’t Stop the Beat” of this Broadway musical comedy phenomenon that inspired a major motion picture and won eight Tony awards, including Best Musical. Set in Baltimore in 1962, Hairspray is the story of the pleasantly plump teen, Tracy Turnblad, who will do whatever it takes to appear on the popular Corny Collins show and win the heart of Link Larkin, all without denting her ‘do. Direct from Broadway where it’s played for over 2,300 performances, Hairspray brings its hipness and hilarity to the Marriott stage.
Watch a video preview of Hairspray |
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| Heroes |
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The Greenhouse Theater Center
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| Tom Stoppard's translation of Gerald Sibleyras' play won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. It's 1959 and Philippe, Gustave and Henri, three veterans from WWI keep each other company on the back terrace of a retired soldiers' home. Through a series of witty scenes, the men goad one another into new adventures. The men's cantankerous camaraderie becomes strained as they plot an expedition to Indochina, or at least as far as the poplar trees on the distant hill.
Listen to "Talk Theatre In Chicago" for an interview with Mike Nussbaum, one of the stars of Heroes.
 Listen
Watch a video preview of Heroes |
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| The House on Mango Street |
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Steppenwolf Theatre
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Based on the book by celebrated Chicago writer Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street is a touching and humorous collection of vignettes told by a young girl growing up in one of Chicago’s Latino neighborhoods. Esperanza Cordero dreams of a new life far away from her tiny home on rundown Mango Street in this classic coming-of-age story about those defining experiences that shape our beliefs and help us discover who we are.
Watch a video preview of The House on Mango Street |
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| The Hundred Dresses |
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Royal George Theatre
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Wanda Petronski speaks strangely, has a funny last name, and lives in the wrong part of town. Who would believe she has a closet full of one hundred beautiful dresses? The kids at Franklin Elementary School sure don't believe her. In The Hundred Dresses, Maddie Martin and Peggy Hawthorne learn first-hand the danger of stereotypes and harsh words. The Hundred Dresses is a poetic tale about the power of words and finding the courage to stand up for others, even if you are standing alone. For everyone ages 6 and up.
Watch a video preview of The Hundred Dresses |
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| In the Heights |
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Cadillac Palace Theatre
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Experience an exilarating journey one of Manhattan’s most vibrant communities, where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open, and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. Welcome to In the Heights, the 2008 Tony® Award winning Best Musical, with an amazing cast, incredible dancing and a gripping tale of hope and self-discovery.
Watch a video preview of In The Heights |
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| Jersey Boys |
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Bank of America Theatre (formerly LaSalle Bank Theatre)
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This is the story of how four blue-collar kids became one of the greatest successes in pop music history. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide – all before they were thirty! JERSEY BOYS features their hit songs “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Rag Doll,” “Oh What a Night” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”
Watch a video preview of Jersey Boys |
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| A Love Lost Life- The Unauthorized Story of Marlon Brando |
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Theatre Building Chicago
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A Love Lost Life tells of the bonds and barriers between fathers and sons manifesting in Brando's own efforts to understand fatherhood. The 90-minute biopic reveals his feelings towards his father and his confusion about being a father to his own children. Brando's final years inspired the author's title and focus. And although Marlon Brando was a famously private man, what is indisputably known about him is that he changed the way actors act.
Watch a video preview of A Love Lost Life- The Unauthorized Story of Marlon Brando |
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| Lucinda's Bed |
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Chicago Dramatists
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Lucinda is six years old, and all she wants is to be good. But when the Monster under her bed introduces himself one night, Lucinda finds out that staying good will be harder than she thinks. Even when she’s grown and married, the Monster turns up in the most peculiar places. Can she ever find goodness in her life, or will there always be something sinister lurking just beneath the covers? Lucinda’s Bed was previously workshopped at the Ensemble Theatre in New York.
Watch a video preview of Lucinda's Bed |
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| Mamma Mia! |
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Rosemont Theatre
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An independent, single mother who owns a small hotel on an idyllic Greek island, Donna is about to let go of Sophie, the spirited daughter she’s raised alone. For Sophie’s wedding, Donna has invited her two lifelong best girlfriends—practical and no-nonsense Rosie and wealthy, multi-divorcee Tanya - from her one-time backing band, Donna and the Dynamos. But Sophie has secretly invited three guests of her own. On a quest to find the identity of her father to walk her down the aisle, she brings back three men from Donna’s past to the Mediterranean paradise they visited 20 years earlier. Over 24 chaotic, magical hours, new love will bloom and old romances will be rekindled on this lush island full of possibilities.
Watch a video preview of Mamma Mia! |
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| The Man Who Was Thursday |
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Lincoln Park Cultural Center
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Adapted from G.K. Chesterton's 1908 novel by Neo-Futurist ensemble member and New Leaf collaborator Bilal Dardai, The Man Who Was Thursday is part espionage thriller, part comedy of manners, part outright farce. Directed by New Leaf Artistic Director Jessica Hutchinson, The Man Who Was Thursday interrogates who we really are, where our loyalties lie and how far we’ll go to defend them.
Watch a video preview of The Man Who Was Thursday |
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| The Mercy Seat |
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Profiles Theatre
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In a time of national tragedy, the world changes overnight. On September 12, 2001, Ben Harcourt finds himself in the downtown apartment of his lover, Abby Prescott. Over the course of the night, Ben and Abby explore the choices now available to them in an existence different from the one they knew just the day before. LaBute presents the brutal realities of their relationship and explores whether one can be truly opportunistic in a time of universal selflessness.
Watch a video preview of The Mercy Seat |
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| Million Dollar Quartet |
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Apollo Theater
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On December 4, 1956, an auspicious twist of fate brought together Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley. The place was Sun Records’ storefront studio in Memphis. The man who made it happen was the “Father of Rock-n-Roll,” Sam Phillips, who discovered them all. The four legends-to-be united for the only time in their careers for an impromptu recording session that embodied the birth of rock ‘n’ roll and has come to be known as one of the greatest rock jam sessions of all time.
Watch a video preview of Million Dollar Quartet |
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| Night Watch |
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Jedlicka Performing Arts Center
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In Night Watch, an unbalanced society woman witnesses two murders across a dark alley…or does she?! This suspenseful thriller, in the tradition of Rear Window and Wait Until Dark keep you guessing until the very end.
Watch a video preview of Night Watch |
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| A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas |
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Apollo Theater
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Taking its source material from ETA Hoffman's tale and the famous ballet, A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas remixes the story for a whole new generation of theatergoers. This new spin follows Fritz, a video game obsessed boy, and a heroic female Nutcracker as they chase down and stop the dastardly Mouse King from ruining Christmas. Suited for families with children ages 3 and up.
Watch a video preview of A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas |
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| Rhymes With Evil |
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Storefront Theater
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For this Midwest premiere, InFusion Theatre Company brings creepy puppets and visual spectacle to a very human tale of an imaginative and inventive stay-at-home dad. In his Midwest farm house, he creates a beautiful yet bizarre world of puppets, costumed characters and fanciful stories for his young daughter. But all is not what it seems in this suspense-filled and disturbing tale of love, loss and danger appropriate for the Halloween season.
Watch a video preview of Rhymes With Evil |
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| Shrek The Musical |
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Cadillac Palace Theatre
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Shrek The Musical tells the story of a swamp-dwelling ogre who goes on a life-changing adventure to reclaim the deed to his land. Joined by a wise-cracking donkey, this unlikely hero fights a fearsome dragon, rescues a feisty princess and learns that real friendship and true love aren't only found in fairy tales.
Watch a video preview of Shrek The Musical |
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| South Pacific |
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Rosemont Theatre
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Set on a tropical island during World War II, the musical tells the sweeping romantic story of two couples -- US Navy nurse Nellie Forbush and French plantation owner Emile de Becque and Navy Airman Joe Cable and a young local native girl Liat -- and how their happiness is threatened by the realities of war and by their own prejudices. Considered by many the finest musical ever written, the score’s songs include such classics as “Some Enchanted Evening,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” “Younger Than Springtime,” “Bali Ha’i,” “There is Nothin’ Like A Dame,” “This Nearly Was Mine” and “A Wonderful Guy.”
Watch a video preview of South Pacific |
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| The Sublime Beauty Of Hands and Klown Kantos |
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Theatre Zarko
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| Created for the Infinitesimals Festival at Links Hall in Chicago in 2004 and remounted for the Winterroot Festival at Links Hall in 2005 and the Tulipanes Festival in Holland, Michigan in 2007, this piece explores the vicious cycle of modern technology that destroys and then attempts to redress the wrongs it creates. "Sublime Beauty" is paired with "Klown Kantos", a set of seven short comic pieces.
Listen to "Talk Theatre In Chicago" for an interview with Michael Montenegro, the artistic director of the newly-founded puppet theatre, Theatre Zarko, who joins Anne Nicholson Weber to talk about the unique capabilities and limitations of puppet theatre.
Listen
Watch a video preview of The Sublime Beauty Of Hands and Klown Kantos |
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| Supernatural Chicago |
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Excalibur Nightclub
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"Is it real? Or isn't it?," marvels the Chicago Tribune. So will you, when you experience this funny and slightly creepy one-man show by Neil Tobin, Necromancer that explores the true stories of Chicago's paranormal past, and brings them to life for the audience through interactive demonstrations of psychic magic. It all takes place in the landmark (and reputedly haunted) Excalibur nightclub. Now in its fourth year of weekly performances.
Watch a video preview of Supernatural Chicago |
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| Ten Square |
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Truman College- O'Rourke Theatre
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On the heels of the government’s apology to African-Americans for slavery, the Reparations Movement was born. The movement was successful, checks were written to the descendants of slaves and the seeds for a new America were sown. Ten Square is one of the cities that emerged in "New America" and the life of the African-American community has been forever altered. We watch Roosevelt, a soldier duty bound to protect the new world order and a resident of Ten Square, negotiate his obligations to his lover, his family and his government.
Watch a video preview of Ten Square |
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| Two By Pinter: The Lover and The Collection |
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Piven Theatre
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Is it all a game, or isn't it? Flirting between sexual fantasy and danger, acts of betrayal are turned upside down in these two short plays by Harold Pinter. Joyce Piven (Founder and Artistic Director Emeritus) returns to the stage to direct these two tales of sexual intrigue.
Watch a video preview of Two By Pinter |
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| When She Danced |
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TimeLine Theatre Company
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Travel to Paris in 1923 for this gorgeous and incredibly funny portrait of legendary dancer Isadora Duncan. The so-called mother of modern dance is desperate to keep herself financially solvent and to realize her dream for retirement: the chance to inspire young dancers with her art. With a multi-lingual script of great heart and appeal, Sherman mixes the high comedy of a colorful cast of characters with a poignant view of the importance of the arts to move and inspire us. Through the eyes of those in Duncan’s life we glimpse her greatness and how she touched so many lives when she danced.
Watch a video preview of When She Danced |
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| Yeast Nation (the triumph of life) |
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American Theatre Company
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The Primordial Soup. 3,000,458,000 B.C. The world’s first family, a colony of salt-eating yeasts, float in the brine of the primordial soup under the rule of a tyrannical baritone. When resources deplete and fear pervades, the faith of a single-celled dreamer starts an evolutionary chain reaction that changes the course of existence forever. ATC brings together an all-star Chicago cast including Barbara Robertson, Gary Houston, Michael Mahler, Phil Ridarelli and many more. Here come the Yeasts!
Watch a video preview of Yeast Nation |
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| Young Frankenstein |
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Cadillac Palace Theatre
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The classic Mel Brooks movie is ALIVE! The sensational cast delivers favorite moments from the classic film, plus brand-new numbers for the stage. This inspired re-imagining of the Frankenstein legend follows bright young Dr. Frankenstein as he attempts to create a monster—but not without scary and hilarious complications. The brains behind the laughter is mad genius and three-time Tony Award-winner Mel Brooks who wrote the music and lyrics and co-wrote the book—along with his record-breaking team from The Producers.
Watch a video preview of Young Frankenstein |
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