In terms of organization and real estate, Chicago Dramatists is a relatively small operation, but it is a giant in its ongoing pursuit of introducing new plays and playwrights to the theatre world.  Where some companies focus on an ensemble of actors such as Steppenwolf, others specialize in daring directorial innovations.  At Chicago.... Read More

Archive, gallery, library, study center, museum... however you picture the place, Chicago's performing arts community needs somewhere to celebrate its past, anchor its present and envision its future. Richard Christiansen, former Chief Critic for the Chicago Tribune, was the first to articulate this need in an essay published in the Tribune last March.  In an.... Read More

Goodman Theatre starts its 2008/2009 season on a high note with the greatest music of the 20th century in Turn of the Century, a star-studded romantic tour through time and the American songbook, directed by the nine-time Tony Award-winning director/ choreographer Tommy Tune. The latest work from Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice- the.... Read More

Amelia Earhart was much more than a historical figure or the subject of an unexplainable mystery, she was an American original whose spirit still fascinates today.  And as the title character in a brand new theatrical work by a young and emerging group of Chicago artists, her legend inspires a new generation over.... Read More

Broadway In Chicago has announced the new national tour of Rent, starring original Broadway cast members Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, will play a limited engagement at Chicago's Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre (24 W. Randolph St.) March 31 - April 12, 2009. 

Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp originated the.... Read More

One of the best kept secrets on the North Shore may be the Attic Playhouse, now beginning its eleventh season above an Indian restaurant in downtown Highwood.  It's the kind of charming and intimate venue where everyone knows your name and goes out of their way to make you feel like a.... Read More

American Theater Company (ATC) kicks off its Season 24 with The People's Temple about Jonestown and the followers of Jim Jones' People Temple movement. The production, directed by co-creator of The Laramie Project Leigh Fondakowski, will run September 4 - September 28, 2008 at American Theater Company, 1909 W Byron St, Chicago.

The play centers around Jonestown,.... Read More

Where do some of Chicago's best actors and directors spend their summers?  For a growing number of them, it's Spring Green, Wisconsin, known as the summer home of architect Frank Lloyd Wright called Taliesin, and also for one of the finest classical repertory companies in the country, the American Players Theatre.  Nestled in a.... Read More

Continuing a tradition of recognizing achievement in Chicago's diverse theatre scene, The Jeff Awards announced 150 nominations in 35 categories for Chicago Equity theatrical productions which opened between August 1, 2007 and July 31, 2008. The Jeff Awards sent judges to the opening nights of 123 openings offered by 52 producing .... Read More

As a native of the great state of Michigan, I can speak to a certain wry affection for the habits of the denizens of that northernmost one-third of my home state known as the Upper Peninsula.  Cold, isolated, and often neglected (it once tried to secede from Michigan and form its own.... Read More

This year, the Piven Theatre Workshop celebrates 35 years of training actors how to play. Byrne and Joyce Piven founded the Piven Theatre Workshop in 1973 to teach then-revolutionary techniques growing out of the improvisational theatre games and story theatre of Viola Spolin and her son, Paul Sills.   The technique uses what Joyce.... Read More

The Hypocrites prepare for the opening of their 2008 - 2009 Season with Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera, directed by Sean Graney. The Hypocrites are taking their singular theatrical style and applying it for the first time to a musical. Performances of The Threepenny Opera will run August 30 -.... Read More

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. has been wrapping up its last 19 seasons by inviting theater groups and performing individuals into its performance space at Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan to celebrate the anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair of 1969.  Abbie Hoffman Died For Our Sins was inspired by the need to do.... Read More

Eclipse Theatre Company of Chicago announced that their 2009 season, including four full productions, will be the second and final year of celebrating their past ten years focusing on one playwright per season.  Eclipse Theatre's 2009 Season: Celebration Series Part II will showcase some of Eclipse's past featured playwrights, including works by Rebecca Gilman,.... Read More

Nobody puts Baby in a corner, but come September 28 they'll certainly put her on stage, along with 39 other actors and actresses who make up the cast of the U.S. Premiere of Dirty Dancing, opening at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in downtown Chicago.  Already rehearsals are underway for what could prove.... Read More

Theatre reviewers make personal, un-testable and necessarily fallible judgments that have enormous impact on the careers of artists. Former New York Times critic Frank Rich could once single-handedly make or break a Broadway show.  He was rewarded with the moniker "the Butcher of Broadway."  The relationship between reviewer and reviewed can get pretty cranky. 

But most.... Read More

Broadway In Chicago has announced the surprise hit Broadway musical Xanadu will premiere in Chicago at the Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place beginning January 16, 2009.  Tickets will go on-sale at a later date to be announced.

Xanadu opened at Broadway's Helen Hayes Theatre to critical acclaim on July 10, 2007 as the first.... Read More

Artistic Directors Joe Jahraus and Darrell W. Cox announce Profiles Theatre's 20th Anniversary Season, to include five new plays- two by acclaimed Chicago playwrights Jason Wells and Ellen Fairey.  Profiles' 2008-2009 Season is the most ambitious offering in its distinguished twenty-year history and includes a world premiere, a U.S. premiere and two Midwest.... Read More

Due to high demand for tickets, Cirque du Soleil has added the final 18 performances to the Chicago engagement of Kooza. The final Kooza performance in Chicago will now be August 24, 2008, under the blue and yellow Grand Chapiteau at the United Center (parking lot K).

Kooza is a return to the origins.... Read More

Two years ago, Chicago actress and singer Alene Robertson suffered a life-threatening brain aneurysm that sent shock waves through the theatre community.  When Theatre in Chicago reported the news, we were inundated with e-mails from friends and fans of the plucky musical theatre star, who was in the midst of starring in a.... Read More