Ernestine spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her insignificance in the universe. Then her 18th. Her 41st. Her 70th. Her 101st. Five generations, an infinity of dreams, and one cake baked over a century.
It’s 1930 in Harlem and jazz singer Angel has just gotten fired from The Cotton Club. Supported by her closest friends, Angel hopes for her next big break …
The first opera that revealed Wagner’s genius, The Flying Dutchman is the story of a young woman’s obsession. Senta dreams of the Dutchman, who’s cursed to wander the …
The second play in Mark Pracht's projected “Four-Color Trilogy” of plays set during the early years of the comic book industry. The first play in the trilogy, The Mark of Kane, opened City Lit’s forty-second season. The Innocence of Seduction examines the 1950s Congressional investigation into the supposed link between comic books and juvenile delinquency, and the effect of the investigation on the careers of three persons: William Gaines, the originator of the horror genre of comic books; Matt Baker, a Black closeted gay artist of romance comics; and Janice Valleau, creator of a pioneering comics feature starring a woman detective.
A View From the Bridge at Shattered Globe Theatre revisits a timeless story about desire, the decay of old values, and the yearning for what is lost when you leave home to build something new.
"Jane" was the code name for an underground service in Chicago, run by a collective of housewives and students, that brought safe and affordable abortions to 11,000 women …
Ring of Fire showcases the story of Johnny Cash through his music. From country rock n’ roll to searing ballads of love and faith, Cash’s iconic songs highlight …
When the widowed Duchess of Malfi chooses to love again, honestly and defiantly, the men in her family do everything in their power to break those that would dare to flout the unspoken rules of a “traditional” society.
Washed up actress Marjorie Moore finds herself trapped in the Fallen Angels Hotel, where she meets other "retired" celebrities. She must fight her way through reality and delusion …
Told in three parts over one evening, THE LEHMAN TRILOGY is the quintessential story of western capitalism, rendered through the lens of a single immigrant family.
Newark, NJ. Post-9/11. Two teenagers, brought to America as children, now face an unlikely foe: unexpected, unreciprocated love. Their friendship is no longer enough (for one of them) and their adopted country doesn’t love them back. Pulitzer Prize-winner Martyna Majok brings light to the sacrifices made by DREAMers, lovers and life-long friends in the heartbreaking and hopeful Sanctuary City—a story that fractures and transcends—crossing boundaries, borders and genres in search of a place to call home.
The extraordinary encounter between two icons of World Literature: the great North American writer Edgar Allan Poe, who is recognized as one of the foremost progenitors of modern …
This one-act play concerns two characters, Peter and Jerry, who meet on a park bench in New York City. Peter is a wealthy publishing executive with a wife, two daughters, two cats, and two parakeets. Jerry is an isolated and disheartened man, desperate to have a meaningful conversation with another human being. He intrudes on Peter's peaceful state by interrogating him and forcing him to listen to stories about his life
and the reason behind his visit to the zoo.
Shakespeare Blood Oath returns with their production of Hamlet, the classic tale of Murder, Revenge, and … Indecision! Plus: There’s a swordfight! And you’d better believe someone’s gonna …
WHAT ONCE WAS, MAY NO LONGER BE TRUE. How do you chart freedom? How can you package liberty? Who’s included and who’s deliberately discarded? How can you create …
What’s more nightmarish: not being able to trust those around you… or not being able to trust yourself? Moonlit streets, a restless mind and a large window have …
Obie Award-winning collaborators Roger Guenveur Smith and Marc Anthony Thompson have devised a new work inspired by Otto Frank, father of diarist Anne Frank.
Smith’s intimate meditation, scored live by Thompson, illuminates our present moment through a rigorous interrogation of our not-so-distant past. Smith’s version of Frank addresses his daughter beyond her time and his own, navigating his loss as the only survivor of his immediate family and negotiating his subsequent service to the living and the dead as the steward of her work.
A reinterpretation of Mexican writer Juan Rulfo’s classic novel "Pedro Páramo.” Johnny, the protagonist, arrives in a small town in wintery Wisconsin in search of his father. While encountering the ghosts of former residents, Johnny discovers his father’s, his family’s and the town’s past.
Subtext Studio TC announces the world premiere play The American Dream by Juan Ramirez, Jr., as part of Destinos: 6th Chicago International Latino Theater Festival.
Under the direction of …
RIGHT NOW, written by Catherine-Anne Toupin and translated by Chris Campbell, is about Alice and Ben, a couple in an apartment building. Alice is bereft and haunted. While …
Originally developed in Jimenez’s own neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn, Taxilandia was inspired and drawn from his nine years driving a taxicab and his documentation of conversations with passengers, residents, locals, and immigrants to the neighborhood.
Nobel Prize winning Poet T. S. Eliot had never forgotten. Drawing on Judeo-Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu imagery, his Four Quartets is a beautiful exploration of the spirit, a blazing journey into time and eternity and the heart of creation written by one of our finest poets at the height of his powers.