Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended
"..."The Project(s)," which looks at the life and times of Cabrini-Green, Wentworth Gardens and the Robert Taylor Homes as well as the Ida B. Wells Homes (the projects really feel like characters in the play), is an exceptionally well-researched work, using verbatim personal interviews in a dramatic fashion, very much in the tradition of "Columbinus" or the work of Anna Deavere Smith. But it is performed with such a riveting level of personal intensity, such emotional engagement and such richness of purpose, that the facts in the piece resonate in entirely new ways."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Conceived and directed by ATC’s gifted and audacious artistic director, PJ Paparelli, written by him in collaboration with Joshua Jaeger, and featuring choreography and music by Jakari Sherman, “The Project(s)” homes in on the history of public housing in Chicago. And it explains how the city first embarked on the grand scale demolition of seriously overcrowded slum neighborhoods that were the result of the mass migration of poor southern blacks to jobs in the north, and the often artificial means used to separate the races."
Chicago Reader - Somewhat Recommended
"...They cobble together 100-plus interviews with former and current CHA residents, academics, and city official into a broad outline covering so much history and so many issues it's more reductive and instructive than resonant. Moments of concentrated truth do arise, thanks to the nuanced work of the eight-person cast. Even more might if Paparelli didn't insist on displaying his directorial cleverness at every opportunity."
Windy City Times - Somewhat Recommended
"...The great success of The Project( s ) is that it delivers all this in a way which is highly personal and involving, through the eyes, ears, words and music ( Jakari Sherman ) of those who were there ( and some still are ). We meet wonderful people: a 95 year old man whose grandmother was a slave, two life-long best friends and housing council leaders, a photographer and teacher for whom the projects were home, a passionate expert on public housing. All characters-even several white ones-are played by a versatile and personable ensemble of eight African-American actors, most with a few years on them which adds to their credibility and warmth."
Gapers Block - Highly Recommended
"...The cast of five women and three men excel at their many dramatic and musical roles. It's hard to choose any of the performers as superior to others, but Kenn E. Head as historian Dr. Timuel Black is memorable, as are Linda Bright Clay and Joslyn Jones as friends, neighbors and building organizers. Penelope Walker is eloquent as a narrative voice and Stephen Conrad Moore is convincing as Dr. D. Bradford Hunt, a white social science professor, who provides research insights on the history and nature of public housing in Chicago. Omar Evans, AmJi White and Eunice Woods round out the outstanding ensemble."
Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...Playwrights PJ Paparelli and Joshua Jaeger might have edited out a few of the seeming dozens of instances of interview subjects talking about the future play itself, which taken en masse edges on indulgently self-referential. But The Project(s) is ultimately an affecting and effective overview of a grand project gone wrong."
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...As Paperelli puts it, "We wanted this story to return to the places where it was born." ATC is literally doing it by offering free performances this month in the Cabrini-Green and Wentworth environs. But it's on the Byron Street stage that this kinetic remembrance resonates and reminds. So many tales from the front, the anecdotes, memories, rationalizations, analyses, and songs accumulate into a burning oral history as civic-minded as it is theatrically intense. Like Cold Basement's recent Heat Wave at Steppenwolf Garage or Chicago Slam Works' Redlined, this is Windy City storytelling worthy of Sandburg and Algren. Even better, it's the real deal."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Seeing this powerful show brought back memories for me of those thankless and dangerous time at Cabrini Green. We were only pawns in the government’s games. We lost as did the residents. Let’s hope this important oral history strikes a cord that will lead to positive solutions to these urban social problems. Letting everyone know exactly what and why this social experiment happened can be a first step. See this show, it’ll give you a new perspective on these complex issues. Kudos to the cast."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...The Project(s) smartly lays personal and political histories side by side and the results are illuminating. A local university professor (played by Stephen Conrad Moore) with a deep knowledge of the history of the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) serves as this play's structural guide. Shading this portrait of the displaced and socially maligned are interviews conducted by co-writers Joshua Jaeger and ATC Artistic Director PJ Paparelli, who also directs."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...As I entered the theater known as American Theater Company, on the walls there were old maps of the city indicating areas where “public housing” was located. These “homes” were also called “the Project(s)”, and these complexes were the homes to many poor Chicagoans. Granted, these were “people of color”, and that is why P J Paparelli and Joshua Jaeger began what became their project to bring us the inside story of the buildings known as “the Project(s)”"
Buzznews.net - Highly Recommended
"...For many theatre-goers, life in the projects is a foreign world. Just as the tragic headlines of South Side violence may only be static for a Lincoln Park homeowner who doesn't see shootings on their block. "The Project(s)" forces audiences to confront the everyday aggressions of an oppressed community. It also throws gentrification in the face of its supporters. Too often we hear people casually debate, "Gentrification isn't that bad - it's a good thing, it helps people." Paparelli's script begs to differ. It lends a voice and a face to the droves of people displaced when developers turn neighborhoods."