Theatre News Wire

Lookingglass Theatre is emerging. After the uncertainty that has defined the past year plus, the Company's coming back! Having weathered the virus thanks to stalwart support from its community, Lookingglass forges into the future with imaginative, boundary-breaking art focused on that community. The upcoming 2021-22 Season aims for more inclusion, better representation, and a renewed sense of purpose and growth in multiple directions. All pieces plotted are original works that have been incubated and developed by the brilliant artists in the Lookingglass Ensemble and Artistic Associate collective.

About the Season

Her Honor Jane Byrne
Written and Directed by Ensemble Member and Mellon Playwright in Residence J. Nicole Brooks
November 11- December 19, 2021
Lookingglass Theatre in Water Tower Water Works

Lookingglass Ensemble Member J. Nicole Brooks' smoldering new play, Her Honor Jane Byrne, premiered onstage in March 2020 just five days before the theatre went dark due to COVID-19. We are thrilled this timely and brilliant play will now have its deserved run onstage.

Chicago is "The City That Works"-but does it work for everybody? It's 1981, the city's simmering pot of neglected problems boils over, and Chicago's first woman mayor is moving into Cabrini-Green. Is this just a P.R. stunt, or will it bring the City together? For the next three weeks, residents, activists, media, the "Machine," and the Mayor herself will collide as the City's raw truths are exposed. Who will come out on top?

Lucy and Charlie's Honeymoon
Book and Music by Artistic Associate Matthew C. Yee
Directed by Amanda Dehnert
February 16- April 10, 2022
Lookingglass Theatre in Water Tower Water Works

Hooray! Lucy and Charlie just got hitched...and they're embracing the worst of the American dream. They do what they want. Take what they want. They're First Generation Asian American Renegades. In love. And on the run.

Featuring original country western and folk songs, Lucy and Charlie's Honeymoon tracks a young couple as they rev it down quintessentially American highways and across stereotypic borders, fleeing expectation and trawling up trouble along the way.

Directed by Amanda Dehnert (Peter Pan (A Play), Eastland), Artistic Associate Matthew C. Yee's world premiere musical romp gives a nod to America's past, takes tally of its present, and blows its future wide open.

Lookingglass Alice
Adapted and Directed by Ensemble Member David Catlin
From the Works of Lewis Carroll
Produced in Association with The Actors Gymnasium
May 12- August 21, 2022
Lookingglass Theatre in Water Tower Water Works

Lookingglass Alice returns for a fantastical trip down the rabbit hole, through the looking glass, and deep into your heart. The New York Times calls this circus-infused adaptation of Lewis Carroll's beloved stories "eye-catching entertainment." The Chicago Tribune lauds it as "ingenious," and the Chicago Sun-Times calls it "pure, unadulterated magic."

This signature Lookingglass production, adapted and directed by Ensemble Member David Catlin (The Little Prince, Moby Dick), has toured the country, enchanting audiences of all ages, painted each time with a fresh coat of magic. Now, after a seven-year hiatus, the awe-inspiring production comes back home for a new generation (artist and audience) to rediscover.

50 Wards: A Civic Mosaic
Five Short Films
Filmmakers: Ensemble Members Kasey Foster, Kareem Bandealy, Philip R. Smith, J. Nicole Brooks with Latesha Dickerson, and Artistic Associate Matthew C. Yee
Premiering 2021
LookingglassTheatre.org

Chicago from above. Contiguous. Glittering. Bordered only by vast, shimmering Lake Michigan. A city connected.  

Chicago at street level. Blocks sliced into 50 circuitous, disparate districts. A city splintered.

Practiced in "connection," our artistic collective hits the pavement with cameras, curiosity, and storytelling savvy to bring you a series of multi and mixed media pieces from each of Chi-town's 50 municipal parcels.

50 Wards: A Civic Mosaic is an ambitious attempt to make our town feel like it looks from above: linked, complete. Watch as we weave together a dazzling tapestry of hometown experiences, bridge the distance between neighborhoods, and plot the line from our fascinating history to our complex present on through to tomorrow's promise. 

See your city through the glimmer of the artist's eye and discover how and where we fit...together. 

Gglasspass members are brought into closer relationship with the art. It's a badge of commitment. And by committing to Lookingglass, members add value and get value. With gglasspass, members receive tickets to all three productions in the 2021-22 Season: Her Honor Jane Byrne, Lucy and Charlie's Honeymoon, and Lookingglass Alice plus direct access to the artistry! Throughout the year, members will have invaluable opportunities to explore Lookingglass' creative process through oeep-delving conversations on each play, making engagement with Theatre fuller, stronger, more meaningful.

Members also get the best seats at the best prices, and enjoy a bounty of benefits including priority seating, no ticket fees, unlimited ticket exchanges, savings when purchasing additional tickets for friends or family, a discount at our online store, and more!

Ticket packages start at $75 and are now on sale at lookingglasstheatre.org/membership