LAST CALL: REVIEW: Agency Theater's World Premiere of Nautilina at The Den Theatre

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

THE AGENCY THEATER COLLECTIVE OF CHICAGO PRESENTS

THE WORLD PREMIERE OF 

NAUTILINA,

WRITTEN BY BRIAN FOSTER

CO-DIRECTED BY SOMMER AUSTIN AND ANNA LUCERO

JUNE 16 – JULY 16 AT THE DEN THEATRE

(L to R) Armando Reyes, Manny Ortiz.
Photo by Robert Littwin

Grab a drink at one of the Den's several well stocked bars and saunter on in to Finnegans, a dark and edgy alternate reality Cheersesque bar, where nobody knows your name. Pull up a bar stool or pick a booth, or table. It's impossible to tell the actors from the audience at first, and you just may find yourself sharing space with someone with more than a few lines... pick up or otherwise. There's even a live piano man with a storied past, ready to reminisce through a medley of memorable music. The plethora of candles are illuminating, and the characters' back stories even more so. From PTSD and search for meaning in dead end jobs through crazy rants full of wisdom and loves found and lost, Nautilina will keep you captivated. Recommended.

The Agency Theater Collective is pleased to announce its summer  production the world premiere of Nautilina, written by Brian Foster and co-directed by Sommer Austin and Anna Lucero, June 16 – July 16, at The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. Opening night is Friday, June 16 at 7:30 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Closing is Sunday, July 16 at 3 p.m. Ticket prices for previews are $15 and for the regular run $24.  For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit http://thedentheatre.com or call The Den Theatre Box Office at 773-697-3830.

Nautilina is series of scenes and monologues that lock into each other like puzzle pieces to create a larger narrative of a fracturing psyche. Nautilina is an examination of what makes people tick, what makes them behave the way they do and the power that history has over us all.


Meg Elliot
Photo by Andrew Gallant

The Agency Theater Collective Nautilina acting company includes:
The artistic and production staff of includes: Sommer Austin*, co-director; Anna Lucero, co-director; Niki Dreistadt, asst. director and sound designer; Kathryn McNall; production stage manager; Shannon Lauzier, asst. stage manager; Hope Rehak, dramaturg; Kate Jacobsen*, costume designer; Ellie Humphrys*, lighting designer; Alec Long, scenic designer; Manny Ortiz, technical director; Taylor Tolleson, properties designer; Zachary Sigelko and Huck Poe, video designers; Michael Chancellor, scenic painter.  Andrew Gallant, artistic director of The Agency; Sommer Austin, managing director of the Agency and Tim Touhy, company manager of The Agency.

The acting ensemble includes: Matthew Collins, (The Couple/Rod); Meg Elliott (Ray); Zach Hebert (Owen); Logan Hulick (Eric); Alex Kliner (Piano Player/Walter); DeChantel Kosmatka (Cassandra); Manuela Rentea (Simone/Mary); Bob Norman (Bar Patron/John); Manny Ortiz (Bar Patron/Robert); Armando Reyes (Bartender/Paul/SSG Cooper); Sara Faye Richmond* (The Couple/Ashley); Kate Gilbert (Understudy); Kate Jacobsen* (Understudy); Carter Petray (Understudy); and David Trudeau (Understudy).

*indicates The Agency Theater Collective Company member

ABOUT THE AGENCY THEATER COLLECTIVE
Founded in 2010, The Agency Theater Collective creates relevant, authentic work with a focus on new or rarely produced plays. Past productions include Paul Pasulka’s Skin for Skin, Mia McCullough’s Chagrin Falls, Copi’s Four Twins, Clifford Odets’ Paradise Lost, Out of Tune Confessional, I Wish to Apologize to the People of Illinois, At the Center, Truth in Context (Non-Equity Jeff Award nominee for Best New Work in 2015/2016), and The Spirit of ’76. The Agency also hosts “No Shame Theatre,” a weekly theatrical open mic, every Saturday night at The Lincoln Loft. The Agency Theater Collective hold these principles sacred: revelation, paradox, humor, mischief and collaboration.

Zach Hebert, DeChantel Kosmatka
Photo by Andrew Gallant

REVIEW: Rabe World Premiere, Visiting Edna Personifies TV and Cancer

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

STEPPENWOLF THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS 

VISITING EDNA 

A WORLD PREMIERE BY DAVID RABE DIRECTED BY ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ANNA D. SHAPIRO PLAYING NOW THROUGH NOVEMBER 6, 2016 

41ST SEASON OPENS WITH MOVING NEW PLAY FROM TONY AWARD WINNER DAVID RABE 

Visiting Edna has a slow narrative arc without much action or plot. Still, there are nuggets of dialogue that are pure gold and Debra Monk gives an excellent performance carrying the brunt of the dialogue in what almost amounts to a one woman show. We enjoyed David Rabe's clever construct of personification for both cancer and the TV. This enables some dark humor and inner dialogue with a deadly disease that's amusing yet uniquely disturbing. The TV as constant companion and distraction manages to amplify the loneliness of families scattered by distance and lack of deep communication even when they are together.

Although the rapport is decent between characters, the big reveal about the reason for the rift in the mother/son relationship was anticlimactic. Compared to Rabe's other productions, particularly Good for Otto at The Gift Theatre last season, Visiting Edna is a bit underwhelming, yet still worth a look. Recommended. 

Steppenwolf Theatre Company launches its 41st season, the first curated by Artistic Director Anna D. Shapiro, with the moving and enthralling world premiere of Visiting Edna by renowned American playwright David Rabe (Streamers, Good for Otto). Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro (Mary Page Marlowe, August: Osage County) directs this powerful play about the enduring connection between a mother and her son. The cast features Tony and Emmy Award winner Debra Monk as Edna and ensemble member Ian Barford as her son, Andrew. Ensemble members Tim Hopper and Sally Murphy form a supporting trio with Michael Rabe. 

The production runs through November 6, 2015 in the Downstairs Theatre (1650 N Halsted St). Tickets ($20 - $89) are available through Audience Services at 312-335-1650 and steppenwolf.org. 

Edna has suffered a number of losses as she has aged, and now faces the stealthy advance of cancer embodied by an intimate figure that she could do without. Home for a visit, Edna’s son Andrew tries to bridge the gulf between the childhood love they shared and the aggressively polite but baffling relationship they now live with. Mother and son stumble toward honesty as they wrestle with the distractions–-both mundane and profound—that keep us from real connection. 

“Steppenwolf is thrilled to bring David Rabe back on our stage after last producing his play Streamers in 1985. Mr. Rabe, along with being a lion of the American Theatre, has impacted every generation of Steppenwolf’s ensemble. With his form-pushing narratives and deeply complex character construction, he has, decade by decade, created a sweeping body of work that represents everything Steppenwolf aspires to be: truthful, brave, original and vital,” shares Director Anna D. Shapiro. 

“Visiting Edna marks Mr. Rabe’s 18th play and signals yet another chapter in his own formidable journey as an artist and we are deeply honored that he has chosen Steppenwolf as his partner for this next chapter,” adds Shapiro. 

   

Visiting Edna features three Steppenwolf ensemble members—Ian Barford, an original cast member of August: Osage County, who performed at Steppenwolf last season in Mary Page Marlowe; Tim Hopper, most recently seen in 2015’s critically acclaimed Between Riverside and Crazy; and Sally Murphy, also an original cast member of August: Osage County, who was last on the Steppenwolf stage in 2012’s Time Stands Still. 

Debra Monk’s stage accolades include a Tony Award for her performance in Redwood Curtain, an Obie award for The Time of the Cuckoo, two Drama Desk Awards for Curtains and Oil City Symphony, and most recently a 2012 Tony Award nomination for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Monk has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including Devil's Advocate, Center Stage and currently both TV series, Mozart in the Jungle and Mercy Street. Michael Rabe was last seen in The Future is Not What It Was at New York’s Kindling Theatre Company and makes his Steppenwolf debut with Visiting Edna. 

BIOS:
David Rabe (Playwright) is an acclaimed American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He completed his graduate studies in theatre after serving in the army (1965–67), and his experiences as a draftee assigned to a hospital-support unit in Vietnam provided a key influence on his early career as a playwright. Four dramas, later collected in The Vietnam Plays (1993), include his first play, The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1971); Sticks and Bones (1972; film 1973), the first of David’s plays to be mounted on Broadway and which won a Tony Award for Best Play; Streamers; and The Orphan (1975), a contemporary reworking of Aeschylus’s Oresteia trilogy. Subsequent plays include In the Boom Boom Room (1975); Goose and Tom Tom; Hurlyburly (1985; film 1998); Those the River Keeps (1991); A Question of Mercy (1998); The Dog Problem (2002); The Black Monk (2004), based on a Chekhov short story; and An Early History of Fire (first performed 2012). Rabe wrote the film adaptations of Streamers and Hurlyburly. He also contributed screenplays for the movies I’m Dancing As Fast As I Can (1982) and Casualties of War (1989). His fiction includes A Primitive Heart (2005), a collection of his short stories and the novels Recital of the Dog (1993); Dinosaurs on the Roof (2008); and Girl by the Road at Night (2010). Most recently, Chicago’s The Gift Theatre produced the world premiere of Good for Otto in 2015 to critical acclaim. 

Anna D. Shapiro (Director) has directed many notable productions with Steppenwolf, including most recently Mary Page Marlowe by ensemble member Tracy Letts. She won the 2008 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Director August: Osage County, also by Letts. In 2011 she received a Tony Award nomination for her direction of The Motherf**ker with the Hat, which she also directed at Steppenwolf. Broadway credits include Larry David’s Fish in the Dark, the revival of Steppenwolf’s production of This Is Our Youth and the Broadway revival of Of Mice and Men, which National Theatre Live selected as the first American production to be broadcast to over 700 cinemas across the US and Canada. Additional Steppenwolf directing credits include A Parallelogram, Up, The Unmentionables, The Pain and the Itch (also at Playwrights Horizons), Tracy Letts’s Man from Nebraska, (named by TIME Magazine as one of the Year’s Top Ten of 2003), Side Man (also in Ireland, Australia and Colorado), among others. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and Columbia College and the recipient of a 1996 Princess Grace Award, as well as the 2010 Princess Grace Statue Award. Shapiro began working with Steppenwolf in 1995 as the original director of the New Plays Lab, joined the ensemble in 2005 and became Artistic Director at the start of the 2015/16 Season. 

Visiting Edna by David Rabe opens 41st season (Sept 15 – Nov 6) Page 3 of 4 

Visiting Edna production team includes David Zinn (scenic design), Linda Roethke (costume design), Marcus Doshi (lighting design), Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen (original music and sound design). Additional credits include Jonathan Berry (artistic producer), JC Clementz and Tam Dickson (casting) and Christine D. Freeburg (stage manager) and Brian Maschka (assistant stage manager). 

TICKET AND PRODUCTION INFO
Single tickets to Visiting Edna are available through Audience Services (1650 N Halsted St), 312-335-1650 and steppenwolf.org. Regular Run: $20 – $89. Prices subject to change. 20 for $20: twenty $20 tickets are available beginning at 11am on the day of each performance (1pm for Sunday performances). Rush Tickets: half-price rush tickets are available one hour before each show. Student Discounts: a limited number of $15 student tickets are available online. Limit 2 tickets per student; must present a valid student ID for each ticket. Group Tickets: all groups of 10 or more receive a discounted rate for any performance throughout the season, steppenwolf.org/groups. 

Subscriptions: Season Subscriptions available through mid-October for audiences who like to lock in dates and secure seats in advance. Black and Red Card Memberships: Card memberships are for audiences interested in extreme flexibility with six tickets for use any time for any production. The credits are valid for one year with the option to add additional credits as needed. Perks include easy and free exchanges, access to seats before the general public, savings on single ticket prices and bar and restaurant discounts for pre- and post-show socializing. To purchase a 2016/17 Subscription or Membership, visit Audience Services at 1650 N Halsted St, call 312-335-1650 or visit steppenwolf.org. 

  

Accessible Performances include Sunday, October 16 at 7:30pm (ASL Interpretation); Saturday, October 29 at 3pm (Open-captioned); Sunday, October 30 1:30pm touch tour with 3pm audio-described performance. 

Full performance schedule included at end of the release. Curtain Times are Tuesdays through Sundays at 7:30pm; Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3pm; Wednesday matinees at 2pm on October 19, October 26, and November 2. 

SPONSOR INFO 

Lead support for Visiting Edna is provided by the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation and Northern Trust is the Corporate Production Sponsor. 

Major support for Steppenwolf’s New Play Development Initiative is provided by The Davee Foundation and the Zell Family Foundation. 

2016/17 SEASON 

Steppenwolf’s 2016/17 Season also includes the world premiere of The Fundamentals by Erika Sheffer, directed by ensemble member Yasen Peyankov (November 10 – December 23, 2016); the Chicago premiere of The Christians by Lucas Hnath, directed by ensemble member K. Todd Freeman (December 1, 2016 – January 29, 2017); the Chicago premiere of Straight White Men, written and directed by Young Jean Lee (February 2 – March 19, 2017); the world premiere of Linda Vista by ensemble member Tracy Letts, directed by Dexter Bullard (March 30 – May 21, 2017); and the Chicago premiere of Hir by Taylor Mac, directed by Hallie Gordon 

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is America’s longest standing, most distinguished ensemble theater, producing nearly 700 performances and events annually in its three Chicago theater spaces—the 515-seat Downstairs Theatre, the 299-seat Upstairs Theatre and the 80-seat 1700 Theatre. Formed in 1976 by a collective of actors, Steppenwolf has grown into an ensemble of 46 actors, writers and directors. Artistic programming includes a seven-play season; a two-play Steppenwolf for Young Adults season; Visiting Company engagements; and LookOut, a new multidisciplinary performance series. While firmly grounded in the Chicago community, nearly 40 original Steppenwolf productions have enjoyed success both nationally and internationally, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, London, Sydney, Galway and Dublin. Steppenwolf has the distinction of receiving the National Medal of Arts, in addition to numerous other prestigious honors including an Illinois Arts Legend Award and 12 Tony Awards. Anna D. Shapiro is the Artistic Director and David Schmitz is the Executive Director. Nora Daley is Chair of Steppenwolf’s Board of Trustees. 

For additional information, visit www.steppenwolf.org, facebook.com/steppenwolftheatre and twitter.com/steppenwolfthtr. 

REVIEW: Enamorarse De Un Incendio A World Class Treat Through 9/24

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

We're incredibly fortunate in Chicago to have world class, award winning productions come to us! Chicago Shakespeare Theatre's partnerships with amazing companies around the globe is truly a treasure. Enamorarse De Un Incendio is just such a gem. This is a short run, September 22-24 only, in the intimate upstairs space on the 6th floor of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Do note, this is entirely in Spanish without subtitles. Brief descriptions are typed in English at the top of each scene, but those fluent in Spanish will get the most out of this production.

Honest and unpretentious...a work you cannot miss. 

Ibero

Read More

  Performed in Spanish with

      projected English introduction

      before each scene

  Run Time: 1 hours 30 minutes,

     (no intermission)

 Tickets start at $38

This production resembles Romeo and Juliet in theme only (star crossed lovers, suicide, tragedies) not in plot or characters. There is little action in this dialogue driven drama that encompasses three time periods from the 1930's to present day, and a floral portrait with a tragic, storied history that connects them all. Yet the themes of love and loss are timeless, universal and achingly human. Recommended.

THE PLAY

A modern play both in form and substance, this is the culmination of an exciting collaboration between one of Mexico City’s most innovative and courageous theaters, Foro Shakespeare, and the award-winning Chilean playwright, Eduardo Pavez Goye. It is a contemporary, cultural response to the thought-provoking theme of unrequited love—reminiscent of Shakespeare’s own exploration of tangled relationships and the human condition. Presented as three interwoven vignettes, the piece is performed in Spanish, with a projected English introduction before each scene. In one vignette, three colleagues debate what kind of love story to pitch a television station. Another brings a long-lost daughter home, with a request of her estranged parents. The third sees a love triangle blossom among an artist, his friend and art dealer, and the dealer’s girlfriend. Each in turn scrutinizes the consequences of love unrealized—reaching far beyond the lover and the beloved.

REVIEW: Stories With Branches Enlighten in I Do Today at Greenhouse Theater Center

THE GREENHOUSE THEATER CENTER 

PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF 

“I DO TODAY” 

Through OCT. 9th

Chicago natives, playwright Sarah Myers and Carin Silkaitis make a stellar story telling team, and this tale has branches and tangents galore. Sarah's family tree has roots and a lineage of Biblical proportions that fills an entire wall! She's delightfully full of contradictions, ordained to marry others, yet cynical about the marriage institution. She's a bisexual woman who has loved other women, yet marries men. Both of her parents are serial divorce/remarriage machines and she's lost track of all the step siblings, relatives never met. Sarah includes an assortment of lovers, crushes, imaginary friends, and religious figures to the mix. Add in the tangle of separating an inescapable Jewish heritage from an optional active Jewish faith, and you've got a unique take on not only Sarah's personal story, but that of modern families as well. 

All photos by Michael Brosilow

Carin does justice to this quirky script with the charisma and character necessary to carry a solo show. The personal is political with this production and I Do Today does an excellent job of highlighting the hypocrisy and hope of society's current marriage issues. I Do Today throws in current legal marriage contradictions, including quotes from "The Notorious RBG", Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and others. Our take away was, stop waiting around and embrace your own unique family past and future. Marry your best friend, someone who accepts the best and worst of you, through doubts, fears and good times. Ultimately this show highlights just how complicated and wonderful relationships, family, religion, sexuality, and the messy business of being human can be. Recommended. 

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

Failed relationships, former lovers and half-eaten wedding cake clutters the mind of one Jewish woman determined to track the trajectory of love and loss in her life thus far. As the play builds a constantly confounding and quickly changing family tree of many marriages (and even more divorces), it poses questions about how modern marriage fits in with potentially outdated ideals. Bisexuality, Kabbalah and baby teeth dangle from the many branches of this thoughtful play, exploring how we might use our inheritances to reimagine what's possible.

Carin Silkaitis Stars In a One- Person Play Challenging Old Ideals of Love, Sexuality and Commitment

Here at ChiIL Live Shows, we've caught all but 2 of the Solo Celebration Shows so far this season and highly recommend coming out to Greenhouse Theatre for this excellent series. The topics have run the gamut from heartfelt to hilarious and everything in between. All have brought something unique to the table. 

The World Premiere of “I Do Today” will run at the Greenhouse Theater Center (2257 N. Lincoln Ave) through Oct. 9. Co-produced with The Other Theatre Company, written by Sarah Myers and starring Carin Silkaitis, “I Do Today” will be directed by Greenhouse’s Artistic Director Jacob Harvey, making his Chicago directorial debut.   

In “I Do Today,” Silkaitis portrays a Jewish woman determined to uproot a family tree grown wild with multiple marriages, dates and even more divorces. As she delves deeper into her own subconscious, she must grapple with her past, questioning how it has defined her and what it means in this moment. She quickly discovers that she must challenge the notions of love, sexuality and commitment in a world where modern marriage refuses to fit into old ideals.

“This innovative new play about one woman’s internal explorations allows all of us an opportunity to identify and assemble the pieces of ourselves that constitute who we are today and who we might be tomorrow,” said Harvey.  “Myers has crafted a theatrical puzzle that this ensemble of collaborators and I has been able to assemble in an unexpected and captivating evening of theater.”

The performance schedule for “I Do Today” is as follows: Thursday – Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.  and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Performances continue through Oct. 9.

Flex passes to the Solo Celebration! series, which offers admissions to three plays for $99 or five plays for $164, are now on sale.  Single tickets, which range in price from $34 – 48 are also on sale.  Flex passes and tickets can be purchased by contacting the box office at 773-404-7336 or by visiting greenhousetheater.org.

Sarah Myers is a Chicago native currently living in Minneapolis. Her work has been produced and developed at the Wild Project (New York); the Side Project with The Other Theatre Company, The Women & Theater Conference (Chicago); FronteraFest, the Off Center, the Blue Theater, the David Mark Cohen New Works Festival (Austin); and Indiana Repertory Theater (Indianapolis), among others. Myers’ published plays include “The Realm” (Bonderman National Youth Playwriting Award), “God of the Gaps” (Pushcart Prize nominee), and “In and Out.” Myers is a former company member of Austin-based theater collective Rude Mechanicals, an associate member of Twin Cities-based Workhaus Collective, and an ongoing collaborator with Sod House Theater, a company that creates adaptations and new works with communities throughout Minnesota.

Carin Silkaitis is the founding Artistic Director of The Other Theatre Company where her credits include “The Realm and Other Letters,” “Others,” “Daughters of Ire” and “Barney the Elf.”  Notable television/film credits include: a co-staring role on “Chicago Fire,” nurse in “Unexpected” and Maggie in the short film “Blood and Water.” Silkaitis recently shot back-to-back commercials for the Arkansas Lottery, a recent spot for The Onion and a commercial for Progressive Insurance and Instant Care. Notable theater credits include Chloe in “Lips Together, Teeth Apart,” “Sons of the Prophet,” Queen Margaret in “Richard III,” Mama/Sherry/Vera in “Distracted” and Izzy in “Rabbit Hole” (Goodman Theatre).

Jacob Harvey is the Artistic Director of the Greenhouse Theater Center. Harvey is also a producer for Your Theatrics International, a full service entertainment production company, specializing in the production of theatrical events around the world. He was awarded the Bret C. Harte Director/Producer Fellowship for Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s 2013/14 Season; served as Associate Producer and Interim Director of Programming for the Drama Desk Award Winning New York Musical Theatre Festival; and served as the Co-Artistic Director of the Ovation Award-Nominated Mechanicals Theatre Group in Los Angeles. He was the co-producer of “Ladyhawks” (NYMF 2013 Best of Fest under the title Volleygirls); the associate producer of Ryan Scott Oliver’s “35MM: A Musical Exhibition” and the director of the Eberhardt and Collyer musical “Right Together, Left Together.”  Other directing credits include, “Mr. Marmalade” (The Theatricians), “The Shape of Things” (Silver Bell Productions), the world premiere of “The Many Selves of Mia Scott” (Carrie Hamilton Theater) and assistant director of the world premiere of Marcus Gardley’s “The House The Will Not Stand” (Berkeley Repertory Theatre). 

About The Other Theatre Company

The Other Theatre Company is dedicated to telling the stories of individuals or groups who are “othered” by systems of oppression. Othering individuals or groups sustains power and privilege and is an "us" vs. "them" mentality often centered around race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, identity, class, religion, and ability. The Other Theatre Company is committed to telling these stories in the hope that we can lessen the amount of discrimination and oppression in our world. 

An Illinois non-profit, TOTC was founded in 2014 in Chicago, Illinois with their first festival titled “Others: A 24 Hour Play Festival.”  Since then, their season has expanded to include three shows a year, including their annual production of “Barney the Elf” (a musical parody of the film Elf starring Will Ferrell). 

About Solo Celebration! 

 “I Do Today” is one of 12 plays featured in Greenhouse’s “Solo Celebration!,” which includes ten full productions, two limited engagements and other special events running June 2016 through February 2017. Among the other directors connected to solo series are Goodman Theatre Producer and Artistic Collective Member Steve Scott, Writer’s Theatre Resident Director Kimberly Senior, Directors Lab Chicago Artistic Director Elizabeth Margolius and Remy Bumppo Artistic Associate Linda Gillum. Some of the performers confirmed to star in solo works include Jeff Award-winners Kate Buddeke, Gene Weygandt, Linda Reiter acclaimed British actor Simon Slater, Will Allan and Carin Silkaitis. Most productions will be produced in their entirety by Greenhouse, while other plays will be stated with co-producers including Sideshow Theatre Company and The Other Theatre Company. Greenhouse’s “Solo Celebration!” is co-produced by Forum Productions and underwritten by the Wendy and William Spatz Charitable Foundation.

About the Greenhouse Theater Center. 

The Greenhouse Theater Center is a nonprofit performance venue located at 2257 N Lincoln Ave, in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Our complex offers two newly remodeled 190-seat main stage spaces, two 60-seat studio theaters, an in-house rehearsal room, and Chicago’s only dedicated used theatre book store.

Our mission at the Greenhouse is first and foremost to grow local theatre. We strive to cultivate a fertile environment for local artists, from individual renters to our bevy of resident companies, to develop and produce their work. In 2014 alone, The Greenhouse Theater Center provided space for almost 1,000 ticketed performances, serving more than 54,000 patrons. Among these events were at least 30 productions by our resident companies, including the celebrated American Blues Theater and Remy Bumpo Theatre Company. Through our Trellis Program, we offer the community affordable access to our work by housing Chicago’s only dedicated used theatre bookstore, located on the second floor of our complex, as well as offering a free reading series each Tuesday night where local artists workshop their latest scripts. Additionally, we also continue to play an active role in cultivating and nurturing our community through continued partnerships with the League of Chicago Theaters and local Chambers of Commerce.

As of 2016, the Greenhouse Theater Center embraced the true spirit of growth and launched its producing entity. With the announcement of our 8 month long Solo Celebration Series, helmed by Artistic Director Jacob Harvey, we will produce 12 solo plays from June 2016 to February 2017. Through this inaugural effort, we hope to expand the solo play cannon while also cultivating a larger conversation about the possibilities of the one-person play.

With new ideas always incubating, the Greenhouse Theater Center is flourishing.

Come grow with us!