Join us for an evening of fresh works by Synapse Arts and Unfolding Disability Futures at the beautifully rehabbed and fully accessible Clarendon Community Center Park gallery!
Doors and installation open 6pm
Performances 6:30-7:30pm
Two projects will be shown on this shared evening, stemming from U.D.F. and Synapse Arts’ inclusive dance partnership.
Damon’s heartfelt performance project In Andrea’s Shoes is a dance-theater tribute to her lifelong friend, told through Damon’s perspective and created in collaboration with the Halverson family.
Dancers from Unfolding Disability Futures will perform improvisational scores curated by Sydney Erlikh, drawn from her work abroad. These scores focus on community and collaboration, and invite the audience to consider what moving together offers to the self and to others.
Coexisting with the special performance on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, Damon is creating a textile installation that invites anyone to contribute a message to or about Andrea Grace Halverson, or to express thoughts on loss and connection. Reflecting on friendship and remembrance, this art piece will be on display at Clarendon Park. The installation is free and open to all in person, with the option to contribute online.
In addition to the in-person program, this event will be live-streamed by the Chicago Dance History Project. A ticket is required to access the live-streamed performances from 6:30 to 7:30 PM (CDT) — reserve yours now to witness this moving tribute and powerful artistic dialogue.
The performance is all ages appropriate – there is no swearing, nudity, or scary moments. Themes around death are referenced abstractly and with love.
The livestream video will be available for on-demand viewing soon after the December 9 event. Everyone who purchases a ticket for the livestream will receive the link to the video recording at no additional cost.
FAQ’s are available at this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/176LFs7AeAV9UeQWpgjlx0CG36ZAgAq88HZcr7kIMKEw/edit?usp=sharing
All tax-deductible donations go toward our inclusive dance programming, co-taught and co-presented by Synapse Arts and Unfolding Disability Futures.
ASL-INTERPRETED PERFORMANCE!
$30.00 TICKETS AVAILABLE USE PROMO CODE: WTASL2526
If you experience any issues with this promo code, please reach out to the box office at 847-242-6000 or email them at BOM@WritersTheatre.org.
Facing exile at home, Orlando, Duke Senior, his daughter Rosalind and niece Celia seek safety and refuge in the Forest of Arden. Lost amidst the trees, these wounded souls end up finding a community of acceptance and transformational love, where all are welcomed and embraced. Featuring an original folk-pop score by Shaina Taub (the Tony Award-winning composer of Suffs), this musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic is an immersive dream-like tale of faithful friends, feuding families and chance encounters.
Accessibility: ASL interpreted, wheelchair accessible, and assisted listening devices.
Motherhood, marijuana, and the multiverse collide in this Chicago-set story of family, immigration, and American identity.
Like millions of Americans, Clara is doing her best to hold everything together—working hard, raising her tween daughter Stella, caring for an aging father, and supporting her under-employed ex-husband. But when she applies for U.S. citizenship ahead of a mother-daughter trip to Paris, her application is unexpectedly flagged, exposing minor infractions in her past and threatening the only home she’s ever known. Blending grounded family drama with otherworldly wonder, this Chicago-set world premiere is a moving and provocative exploration of our country’s most fundamental values.
Originally commissioned by the Chicago Park District’s Theatre on the Lake In the Works project, in partnership with The Chicago Dramatists, previous development of Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars included stagings as part of Goodman Theatre’s New Stages Festival in 2018 and Northeastern Illinois University’s thINKtank Series, co-produced in partnership with Teatro Vista, in 2024.
These performances of Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars will be open captioned with a text display of words and sounds heard during the performance. The display is positioned in such a way that it is open for anyone to see in a particular seating area. It is a service you may choose to use or ignore during the performance. Captioning is provided by c2 Inc., www.c2net.org.
Motherhood, marijuana, and the multiverse collide in this Chicago-set story of family, immigration, and American identity.
Like millions of Americans, Clara is doing her best to hold everything together—working hard, raising her tween daughter Stella, caring for an aging father, and supporting her under-employed ex-husband. But when she applies for U.S. citizenship ahead of a mother-daughter trip to Paris, her application is unexpectedly flagged, exposing minor infractions in her past and threatening the only home she’s ever known. Blending grounded family drama with otherworldly wonder, this Chicago-set world premiere is a moving and provocative exploration of our country’s most fundamental values.
Originally commissioned by the Chicago Park District’s Theatre on the Lake In the Works project, in partnership with The Chicago Dramatists, previous development of Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars included stagings as part of Goodman Theatre’s New Stages Festival in 2018 and Northeastern Illinois University’s thINKtank Series, co-produced in partnership with Teatro Vista, in 2024.
These performances of Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars will be open captioned with a text display of words and sounds heard during the performance. The display is positioned in such a way that it is open for anyone to see in a particular seating area. It is a service you may choose to use or ignore during the performance. Captioning is provided by c2 Inc., www.c2net.org.
A Tale of Two Cities
By Charles Dickens
Adapted by Brendan Pelsue
Directed by Mikael Burke
It’s still the best of times and the worst of times. In a society where the gap between the rich and poor widens, and the cries for revolution grow louder, one can relate. This bold reimagining of Charles Dickens’s classic tale of revolution shows us that while a story may be 165 years old, some things never change. Or, can they?
Open-Captioned Public Performance:
Sunday, May 25th at 3 pm
https://www.theaterwit.org/tickets/productions/530/performances
On Friday, February 7, Full Spectrum Features presents a selection of contemporary trans short films from Ireland presented in person by Dublin-based curator James Hudson: from an artist’s self-destructive spiral to giallo-inspired rape revenge by way of a surreal techno-horror, to a multidimensional dramedy starring an up-and-coming stand-up comedian and more.
James Hudson is a Dublin-based programmer at the forefront of trans Irish cinema, both showcasing international trans filmmaking in Ireland and bringing Irish-made trans films to the world stage. He is traveling to Chicago specifically for this one-night-only event, part one of a trans cinema cultural exchange between Chicago and Dublin.
The shorts program will be followed by a post-screening discussion with curator James Hudson, moderated by Henry Hanson.
Accessibility: All films will be presented with open captions. The post-screening Q&A will have live CART captioning.
Note on wheelchair accessibility: The building and theater are accessible via ramps. The bathrooms are accessible via a heavy door, have a larger stall with grab bars, but are not fully wheelchair accessible.
https://facets.org/programs/hard-done-by-contemporary-irish-trans-films/
Following critically acclaimed runs in New York City and London, TimeLine will create a site-specific, immersive Chicago premiere of the american vicarious’ imagining of the historic debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr., on the occasion of the event’s 60th anniversary.
“Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?” This was the topic on February 18, 1965 when an overflow crowd packed the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, to bear witness to a historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America’s most influential conservative intellectual. The stage was set for an epic confrontation that pitted Baldwin’s call for a moral revolution in race relations against Buckley’s unabashed elitism and implicit commitment to white supremacy. This historic clash reveals the deep roots and lasting legacy of racial conflict that continues to haunt America.
Debate: Baldwin vs. Buckley will feature Teagle F. Bougere as Baldwin and Eric T. Miller as Buckley in the cast. Additional casting and production team members are to be announced.
This performance features narration about visual elements of the production around the dialogue, available for individual patrons via headphones.
Please note: Touch Tours can be arranged for patrons attending the audio described performance of Debate. Please reach out to Kellyn Henthorn at kellyn@timelinetheatre.com to request a Touch Tour.
Following critically acclaimed runs in New York City and London, TimeLine will create a site-specific, immersive Chicago premiere of the american vicarious’ imagining of the historic debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr., on the occasion of the event’s 60th anniversary.
“Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?” This was the topic on February 18, 1965 when an overflow crowd packed the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, to bear witness to a historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America’s most influential conservative intellectual. The stage was set for an epic confrontation that pitted Baldwin’s call for a moral revolution in race relations against Buckley’s unabashed elitism and implicit commitment to white supremacy. This historic clash reveals the deep roots and lasting legacy of racial conflict that continues to haunt America.
Debate: Baldwin vs. Buckley will feature Teagle F. Bougere as Baldwin and Eric T. Miller as Buckley in the cast. Additional casting and production team members are to be announced.
On the occasion of the opening of The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies, 1970-2020, featured artists Tishan Hsu, Tala Madani, and Jacolby Satterwhite chat with Senior Curator of the MCA and organizer of the exhibition, Jamillah James, about the past, present, and future of painting.
Spanning an international and intergenerational group of artists, The Living End surveys the arc of painting over the last 50 years, highlighting it as a mode of artistic expression in a constant state of renewal and rebirth.
CART captioning in English and Spanish is provided for this talk.
https://visit.mcachicago.org/events/talk-the-living-end-artist-roundtable/