This rivetingly modern, astonishingly inventive view of the Brothers Grimm’s fairytale features an eye-popping production that does full justice to Humperdinck’s glorious score.
https://www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming/2022-23/hansel-and-gretel/
Don Carlos masterfully reveals the private turmoil of very public personalities. In 16th-century Spain, King Philip II is torn apart by his own jealous suspicions that his son, crown prince Carlos, and Queen Elisabeth — Philip’s young wife and Carlos’s stepmother — are in love. The drama unfolds and washes over you with unforgettable intensity and thrilling musical splendor.
https://www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming/2022-23/don-carlos
High jinx ensue when Countess Adèle sequesters herself in her castle while her valiant brother is away on a crusade. In his absence, the amorous Count Ory stops at nothing (including disguising himself as a nun!) to gain entry to the castle and woo the virtuous Countess.
https://www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming/2022-23/le-comte-ory/
Ernani reveals Verdi at his most irresistibly melodic and dramatic. A persecuted nobleman forced to disguise himself as an outlaw, Ernani loves beautiful Elvira, but she’s pursued by two other men — her uncle, Silva, and the King of Spain, Carlo.
A Tony Award-winning masterpiece. Join us as Tevye, his wife Golde, and their five daughters experience the real joys and sorrows that have made this meaningful work an enduring part of our culture.
https://www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming/2022-23/fiddler-on-the-roof/
Unfolding Disability Futures is a multi-organization, site-specific performance and installation by local disabled artists throughout The Plant, a former meatpacking facility. Over the past decade, this space has been revitalized to highlight the importance of sustainable agriculture and community collaboration. Unfolding Disability Futures embraces the importance of sustainability and community care in artistic practice and performance. Performances and installations unfold throughout the space, highlighting how The Plant has been redeveloped to make the building accessible in ways that are both functional and beautiful and proposing access not as a drain but a plentiful resource in and of itself.
Unfolding Disability Futures takes place over four events on June 4-5 & 11-12. Each performance cycle, audiences will be guided through The Plant in groups of ten, experiencing six original dance works set in various locations throughout the building, as well as the six visual artist spotlights. Performance cycles begin every half hour over the duration of all four events with a total of five performances per event. Each performance cycle runs about an hour. Thie set up is intended to build in the flexibility needed to respond to current COVID protocols to ensure the safety of audiences and dancers while simultaneously allowing audiences to fully experience the architecture, performances and visual art exhibits throughout The Plant.
Additionally, we will host a post-show artist talk after the final performance cycle concludes at 5pm on Sunday, June 12 and two community workshops in April 30 and on May 15 at 3:30pm.
Masks and vaccination/negative tests required for all events. See our website unfoldingdisabilityfutures.com for more information.
**ASL Interpreters will be available for all performance cycles on Sunday, June 5 and Saturday, June 11. If you require ASL interpreters, please register for any cycle on these dates.
This show contains some images containing partial nudity in the context of the performance of care tasks. Audiences will be notified before they encounter partial nudity and be given the option to forgo portion of the event.
Goodman Theatre Presents the Woolly Mammoth Production of Where We Belong
In Association with the Folger Shakespeare Library
An indigenous theatre-maker journeys across geographic borders, personal history, and cultural legacies; in search of a place to belong.
In 2015, Mohegan theatre-maker Madeline Sayet travels to England to pursue a PhD in Shakespeare. Madeline finds a country that refuses to acknowledge its ongoing role in colonialism, just as the Brexit vote threatens to further disengage the UK from the wider world. In this intimate and exhilarating solo piece, Madeline echoes a journey to England braved by Native ancestors in the 1700s following treatise betrayals – and forces us to consider what it means to belong in an increasingly globalized world.
Content Transparency: This production contains flashing lights, depictions of racism, and discussions of borders, war, loss of language, residential schools, colonial theft of human remains and repatriation.
“Easily Mr. Wilson’s most adventurous and honest attempt to reveal the intimate heart of history.” -The New York Times
Amidst the Civil Rights Movement, Memphis Lee’s restaurant is slated for demolition. While Memphis fights to sell his diner for a fair price, the rest of the restaurant’s regulars search for work, love, and justice as their neighborhood continues to change in unpredictable ways.
Two Trains Running explores Black identity in the 1960s with passion and humor, demonstrating why Wilson is one of America’s most essential voices. With his singular point of view, Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson directs the penultimate play in Court’s ongoing commitment to staging all of Wilson’s American Century Cycle.
Accessible performances: June 4 @2pm TT/AD (Touch-Tour @ 12:30pm) | June 5 @2pm OC | June 5 @7:30pm ASL
“Easily Mr. Wilson’s most adventurous and honest attempt to reveal the intimate heart of history.” -The New York Times
Amidst the Civil Rights Movement, Memphis Lee’s restaurant is slated for demolition. While Memphis fights to sell his diner for a fair price, the rest of the restaurant’s regulars search for work, love, and justice as their neighborhood continues to change in unpredictable ways.
Two Trains Running explores Black identity in the 1960s with passion and humor, demonstrating why Wilson is one of America’s most essential voices. With his singular point of view, Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson directs the penultimate play in Court’s ongoing commitment to staging all of Wilson’s American Century Cycle.
Accessible performances: June 4 @2pm TT/AD (Touch-Tour @ 12:30pm) | June 5 @2pm OC | June 5 @7:30pm ASL
Selma Blair has played many memorable Hollywood roles, from “preppy ice queen” in Legally Blonde, to “the ingenue” in Cruel Intentions—but we love her most as herself. In her memoir Mean Baby, Blair gets candid about the roles that have made her compassionate and wise: from friend and mother to advocate for people with disabilities. Join Blair and Rachel Fleit (director of the documentary Introducing, Selma Blair) for an intimate conversation about acting, addiction, activism, and becoming yourself. This program will include clips from Introducing, Selma Blair.
America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars champion Nyle DiMarco knows “just how damn cool it is to be Deaf.” DiMarco’s career (which also includes executive producing the reality show Deaf U and Academy-award nominated documentary Audible) has been dedicated to celebrating what makes Deaf culture so unique and beautiful. Join DiMarco at CHF for a conversation about his new book Deaf Utopia: A Memoir—and a Love Letter to a Way of Life with Chicago Today host Matthew Rodrigues.
MCA Advisory Partners Bodies of Work and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago invite you to Access Praxis, a collaborative and participatory event in The Commons. Combining theory and practice, “praxis” is ideas in action. Join disabled artist Justin Cooper, a former 3Arts/Bodies of Work Fellow, as he shares how narrative, accessibility, and disability aesthetics coalesce across his work in documentary film and photography. As part of Access Praxis, museumgoers will have the opportunity to meet Cooper and participate in a hands-on activity in and around the Commons related to their own experiences moving through the museum landscape.
mcachicago.org/calendar/2022/04/common-use-access-praxis-justin-cooper
Want your events to be more inclusive? Join us for a community building festival of movement workshops and access presentations! We will explore the concept of making inclusion part of the creative process from beginning to completion, as opposed to the “burden approach” of tacking it on at the end.
“Musical theater perfection…exquisite from start to finish” (BroadwayWorld).
Frank Carter famously authored self-help books. But Alice, his 16-year-old daughter, finds cold comfort in his positivity platitudes when he tragically never comes home one night. As she puzzles out the events of the day that changed her family forever, Alice’s relentless search for the facts reveals a more complicated truth. With big humor and bittersweet wit, this “luminous new musical…lush, poetic and surprisingly funny” (The San Diego Union-Tribune) explores how we move through and live with loss.
https://www.goodmantheatre.org/season/2122-Season/Life-After/Life-After-Accessibility/
It’s about damn time. Together at Last is a non-stop celebration of how we have persisted and even thrived during these impossibly difficult times. From laughing at the sheer absurdity of our current reality to cheering for our tiny wins, nothing is off-limits: family dynamics, marriage & divorce, girls’ nights out, working from home, and readjusting to society at large. Come laugh at what unites us all in a show that asks the question… is anyone out there going to save us?
After a sold out run this winter, Tyla Abercrumbrie’s world premiere play comes to the Goodman, weaving a mother’s past with her daughters’ present in a centuries-spanning tale of family, legacy and progress.
Set in the Black Victorian era, Relentless looks at the deep personal secrets we keep to protect the ones we love most. The year is 1919. After the death of their mother, two sisters come home to Philadelphia to settle her estate. Annelle is a happy socialite desperate to return to the safe illusion of a perfect life with her husband in Boston. Janet is a single, professional nurse, determined to change history and propel Black women to a place of prominence and respect. After discovering diaries left by their late mother, they find themselves confronted with a woman they never really knew, exposing buried truths from the past that are chillingly, explosively Relentless.
Developed through TimeLine Theatre Company’s Playwrights Collective
Anything can happen on live TV. And one night, it did. Emmy Award-winning actor and producer Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) stars as the irrepressible Oscar Levant.
It’s 1958, and Jack Paar hosts the hottest late-night talk-show on television. His favorite guest? Character actor, pianist and wild card Oscar Levant. Famous for his witty one-liners, Oscar has a favorite: “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity; I have erased this line.” Tonight, Oscar will prove just that when he appears live on national TV in an episode that Paar’s audience—and the rest of America—won’t soon forget. Good Night, Oscar explores the nexus of humor and heartbreak, the ever-dwindling distinction between exploitation and entertainment, and the high cost of baring one’s soul for public consumption.
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none”… how hard could it be? Shakespeare’s nuanced coming-of-age love story is brought to new life in the uniquely intimate setting of the Courtyard Theater, staged by acclaimed director Shana Cooper. Bold, complex characters and hilarious turns of wit and wisdom make for a vivid exploration of love and loss, courtship and class. Besotted with a man who does not return her love, the intelligent, resourceful young Helena navigates the complexities of unrequited romance, courtly drama, and the pesky meddling of her elders—only to discover the reality that happy endings are never quite as simple as they seem in fairy tales.
For our access performances, “Pay-What-You-Can” tickets, ranging from our full price of $90 to as low as $35, are available to patrons whose disability requires the use of the service (plus one companion). Book your tickets today by calling 312.595.5600 or emailing access@chicagoshakes.com. When booking tickets, please indicate your wish to participate in the Access program so we may provide the best possible seats and service. Please purchase your tickets in advance—access programs with no attendance may be cancelled 48 hours prior to the show. For more information, visit https://www.chicagoshakes.com/plays_and_events/allswell
Pharus Young is now a senior at the Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys, an institution committed to building “strong, ethical black men,” where he endeavors to be the best leader of the school’s prestigious choir in its 50-year history. But in a world built on rites and rituals, should he conform to the expectations of his peers in order to gain the respect he desperately seeks?
Written by Oscar-winning ensemble member Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight), this Tony-nominated play—threaded throughout with soul-stirring a cappella gospel hymns—is the story of a young gay black man and his battle between identity and community. Choir Boy is an elegy to quiet rebellion, filled with the sound of longing and aspiration. It is a love song in pianissimo to the unseen heart that beats inside us all.
Touch Tour begins at 1:30 pm for a 3:00 pm performance.
https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons/2021-22/choir-boy/
On a long summer weekend in the Russian countryside at an estate bursting at the seams with guests, three generations collide in ensemble member Yasen Peyankov’s extraordinarily funny and lyrical adaption of Anton Chekhov’s Seagull, the play that will open Steppenwolf’s new in-the-round Ensemble Theater in Honor of Helen Zell. In classic Chekhovian style, a sparkling cast featuring many Steppenwolf ensemble members will wrestle with the eternal questions that haunt the intellectual artist class: What is Love? What is Art? When is Lunch? Join us for this historical moment in Steppenwolf’s journey as we explore the work that inspired us, laugh at the battles that consume us and celebrate, together, all that makes us grateful for each other.
Touch Tour begins at 1:00 pm for a 2:30 pm performance.
https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets–events/seasons/2021-22/seagull/
In 1905, a Black seamstress named Esther sews her way out of poverty stitch by delicate stitch, creating fine lingerie for her Manhattan clientele while longing for a husband and a future. She finds common ground with a Jewish fabric merchant, a relationship they both know cannot grow. So when correspondence with a lonesome Caribbean man leads to a marriage proposal, she accepts. But as her new marriage quickly leads to regret, Esther turns back to her sewing machine to rebuild her life and refashion her future.
There will be a touch tour at 1:30pm inside the theater where patrons will be invited into their seats for a pre-show introduction to the space and the cast.
Join SGT artists for a Touch Tour at 6:45 PM and an audio described performance at 8 PM of Rasheeda Speaking by Joel Drake Johnson, directed by AmBer D.Montgomery on Friday, May 6 Shattered Globe performs at Theater Wit, 1229 West Belmont, Chicago. Rasheeda Speaking is a comedy- turned- social thriller about workplace racism.
When two strangers meet by letter during World War II, a love story begins. U.S. Army Captain Jack Ludwig, a military doctor stationed in Oregon, begins writing to Louise Rabiner, an aspiring actress and dancer in New York City, hoping to meet her someday if the war will allow. But as the war continues, it threatens to end their relationship before it even starts. Two-time Olivier Award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig tells the poignant story of his own parents’ unlikely courtship during World War II.
Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com
There will be a touch tour at 1:30pm inside the theater where patrons will be invited into their seats for a pre-show introduction to the space and the cast.
Anything can happen on live TV. And one night, it did. Emmy Award-winning actor and producer Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) stars as the irrepressible Oscar Levant.
It’s 1958, and Jack Paar hosts the hottest late-night talk-show on television. His favorite guest? Character actor, pianist and wild card Oscar Levant. Famous for his witty one-liners, Oscar has a favorite: “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity; I have erased this line.” Tonight, Oscar will prove just that when he appears live on national TV in an episode that Paar’s audience—and the rest of America—won’t soon forget. Good Night, Oscar explores the nexus of humor and heartbreak, the ever-dwindling distinction between exploitation and entertainment, and the high cost of baring one’s soul for public consumption.
Wired is an immense and intimate experience that traces the fine line between “us” and “them” through aerial and contemporary dance and the metaphoric use of barbed wire. The dancers of Wired spin and soar together in this meditation in sound, light, and movement on the gendered, racial, and disability stories of barbed wire in the United States, showing how this material shapes common understandings of who belongs. Barbed wire is designed as a material for containment. It is used, time and again, to limit individual and community movements and delineate boundaries as large as a nation state and as small as a personal fence. In Wired, this fraught material comes to highlight not only danger and contradiction, but also beauty and interconnection.
To create Wired, the artists of Kinetic Light—Alice Sheppard, Laurel Lawson, Jerron Herman, and Michael Maag—and their collaborators—composers Ailís Ní Ríain and LeahAnn Mitchell and scenic designer Josephine Shokrian—defy both gravity and assumptions about what dance can be. The artists of Kinetic Light see interdependence as a political position as well as an approach to making dance from a disability aesthetic: in which disability is a powerful creative and cultural force, and the many ways of accessing the performance are the art itself.
ASL interpretation and AD are available for all shows. There is no spoken dialogue in Wired. Audio description is available through Kinetic Light’s app, Audimance. More information will be provided to ticketholders by email in advance. Orientation to and demonstration of the app will be available in the lobby prior to all shows, along with a tactile exhibit that serves as an introduction to the Wired set, props, costumes, and theatrical elements.
Wired content and artistry will remain the same for all performances. The show shares many aspects of MCA’s Relaxed Performances. Audience members are welcome to exit and reenter.
Light haze is present in certain sections. There are no strobe lighting effects. Quiet spaces and stimulation kits are available for all performances.
The show will be livestreamed on Saturday, including ASL, with one channel being audio described. Friday and Sunday’s performances will offer an alternative lighting design.