the project(s) presented by Stage Left Theatre at Online Stream

Around The Town Chicago - Recommended

"...The young people of Chicago, when they hear the term "projects", are unaware of what they truly were. In fact, almost 100% of the white population never truly understood what they were. When I was a young man, I was told when one drives down Division Street, through the Cabrini-Green "projects", make sure your windows are rolled up and your car doors are locked! We did not have air conditioning in our cars, so we were warm during the one mile drive. The projects were a way of replacing slums in neighborhoods that were mostly populated with African-American families. Not just in Chicago, but in every urban area that has a huge population of Negroes. Ida B. Welles was another"project" and one that many know of, two miles on the south side, called The Robert Taylor Homes."

Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended

"...Christian Helem directs this live production, viewed online through the technology of Zoom and smart video editing. The docudrama is told through interviews with residents of Chicago public housing projects with names like Robert Taylor, Ida B. Wells, Cabrini Green, Lathrop and Wentworth Gardens. Eight actors skillfully perform multiple roles. Their stories give us a flavor of the strong sense of family and community during the early years of public housing and the anger and disappointment when the early promise became a new kind of blight."

NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...Presented in a live Zoom format, "the project(s)" is a documentary-style play by the late creative talent PJ Paparelli and Joshua Jaeger. Directed by Christian Helem, "the project(s)" follows a reporter's attempt to gain insight into the lives of residents of Chicago's Robert Taylor Housing Projects. Paparelli and Jaeger's script draws from interviews with former residents of the massive Bronzeville development that stretched from Pershing to 54th-for a time the largest public housing development in the country."