A Home On The Lake at Piven Theatre

Chicago Tribune - Recommended

"...Written by Stephen Fedo and Fleetwood-Jourdain artistic director Tim Rhoze (who also directs), the play isn't a docudrama in the style of "The Project(s)" at the late American Theater Company. Instead, Fedo and Rhoze have taken stories from older residents of the city - collected through Dear Evanston, a nonprofit that uses storytelling as a tool for social justice - and crafted a fictional cross-generational portrait of two families enmeshed in racism and real estate issues."

Chicago Reader - Not Recommended

"...A collaboration between Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre and the Piven Theatre Workshop, directed by Rhoze, the play is so determined to make woke points that it ends up cumbersome, contrived, and dull-an extended teaching moment rather than a living drama. The setup is ambitious, alternating between Fowler's time, when the shit is generated, and the present, when it (sort of) hits the fan. But nobody breaks type and every conclusion is foregone. Speaking as a native Evanstonian whose Jewish family arrived in the early 1950s, I can testify that there's a hell of a play to be written about bigotry in what used to be called the City of Churches. A Home on the Lake isn't it."

NewCity Chicago - Recommended

"...For all its literary imperfections, the show is worth seeing by Evanstonians, who are likely to come away viewing their city a little differently. Inspired by oral histories of long-time Evanston residents, the play is a valuable repository of local memories and experiences, reminding us that what seems fixed and forever is in fact the result of human decisions made in the past, and that different choices made now can produce a very different future. While not great art, "A Home on the Lake" is good history, sure to spark lively discussions. My advice is to see the play on a day when a post-show talkback is scheduled, and to complete the circle of this communal, place-based project."