CURTAINS UP

The 11th annual Chicago Theatre Week celebrates the best of our world-renowned theater scene, with value-priced tickets at stages throughout Chicago and the North Shore.

EDITED BY SHERRY THOMAS THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND

What’s your Chicago story? We all have one. And starting February 16, some of the best stories on our area stages will be featured in the 11th annual Chicago Theatre Week—a celebration of the fearless artists that make our local theater scene second to none.

From the heart of the loop to the North Shore, discounted tickets to more than 100 performances and theaters open the doors to an extraordinary range of performances. For as little as $15 or $30, you can experience the best of Chicago theater, from musicals and improv to dramas, ballets, comedy, and beyond.

Sponsored by the League of Chicago

Theatres in partnership with Choose Chicago, Chicago Theatre Week continues through February 26. And don’t miss out on special dining offers for Chicago Theatre Week patrons at a long list of participating restaurants.

While we can’t highlight every performance or theater on this incredible lineup (read to the end of the story for the full list of participating venues and restaurants), here are 10 Chicago and North Shore productions (in alphabetical order) you won’t want to miss.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Chicago

Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s WorldStage Series returns after a two-year hiatus with groundbreaking theatermaker Emma Rice’s exuberant reimagining of Emily Brontë’s gothic masterpiece, Wuthering Heights. The wild moors of Yorkshire are the setting for an epic story of love, revenge, and redemption. An orphaned Heathcliff is adopted by the Earnshaws and taken to live at Wuthering Heights—where he finds a kindred spirit in Catherine. As they grow up together, a fierce love ignites between them—and when forced apart, a brutal chain of events is unleashed. The production combines live music, dance, puppetry, and a dash of impish irreverence to create an intoxicating revenge tragedy for our time. Hailed a Critic’s Pick by The New York Times, this wildly imaginative theatrical event from the UK is a co-production with the National Theatre, Wise Children, Bristol Old Vic, and York Theatre Royal in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Wuthering Heights runs as a special limited engagement in The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater is at 800 E. Grand Avenue in Chicago. Use promo code: CTW23.

Citadel Theatre, Lake Forest Citadel Theatre presents The Christians, written by Lucas Hnath and directed by Scott

Westerman. Twenty years ago, Pastor Paul’s church was nothing more than a modest storefront. Now he presides over a congregation of thousands, with classrooms for Sunday School, a coffee shop in the lobby, and a baptismal font as big as a swimming pool. Today should be a day of celebration. But Paul is about to preach a sermon that will shake the foundations of his church’s belief. A big-little play about faith in America—and the trouble with changing your mind—The Christians tackles a theological battle and the mystery of faith. Described by Hnath "a debate over a particular point of theology rather than a play about believers vs non believers,” he says the goal is to show a series of arguments and try to create an understanding of what’s at stake in those arguments. “By showing what's at stake in a particular belief or argument,” he says, “there's a kind of pathway to empathy.

Citadel Theatre is located at 300 S. Waukegan Road in Lake Forest. Use promo code: CTW23.

Court Theater, Chicago

Jeff Award-winning director Vanessa Stalling returns to Court Theatre to bring Fen, her striking clarity and fresh perspective to the path-breaking text that won Caryl Churchill the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and cemented her reputation as one of our greatest living playwrights. On the marshy fens of eastern England in the 1980s, ghosts of the past haunt the women who labor as tenant farmers in the potato fields and who lead lives essentially unchanged from their 19th-century forebears. When Val seizes on a new relationship as a path to escape the crushing bonds of work, poverty, and family, she is confronted with the explosive repercussions of her decision. Employing astonishing theatrical imagery, Churchill’s Fen shows with grace and sly humor how the intricate pressures of gender and class both shape and distort the characters of women.

Court Theatre is located at 5535 S. Ellis Avenue in Chicago. Use promo code: CTW23.

Goodman Theater, Chicago

The sensational true story of the first woman to play professional baseball knocks it out of the park as a can’t-miss theatrical event. Toni Stone is an encyclopedia of baseball stats. She’s got a great arm. And she doesn’t understand why she can't play with the boys. Rejected by the AllAmerican Girls Professional Baseball League because of her race, Toni sets out to become the first woman to play in baseball’s Negro Leagues. Challenges on and off the field—from hostile crowds to players who slide spikes-first—only steel her resolve to shatter racist and sexist barriers in the sport she’s loved since childhood. An original play inspired by the book Curveball, The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone by Martha Ackmann, this New York Times Critic’s Pick will have you cheering along.

Goodman Theatre is located at 170 N. Dearborn Street in Chicago. Use promo code: CTW23.

Joffrey Ballet, Chicago

The Joffrey Ballet remounts Yuri Possokhov’s blockbuster Anna Karenina at the historic Lyric Opera House for the first time since its crowdpleasing world premiere in 2019. Based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy, Possokhov’s immersive adaptation—winner of the 2019 “Oscars of Dance” Benois de la Danse International Prize for Best Choreography—features an original composition by award-winning composer Ilya Demutsky, costumes and sets by Emmy Awardwinning designer Tom Pye, and lighting by famed designer David Finn.

Love is all-consuming for the beautiful but married Anna, who finds herself caught in a life-changing affair with the dashing Count Vronsky. Set in the late 19th century of Imperial Russia, Tolstoy’s classic shows the triumph of romance, family, and faith against a backdrop of fraught political and social transformation. With countless adaptations across ballet, theatre, opera, and film, Anna Karenina is often considered the earliest example of modernist literature and one of the greatest works of literature in history.

Lyric Opera House is located at 20 N. Wacker Drive in Chicago. Use promo code: CTW23.

Lookingglass Theater, Chicago

Charlotte Brontë’s undiscovered gem, Villette, offers a hero unlike any you’ve encountered before. Suddenly without family, friends, or funds, young Lucy Snowe journeys unaccompanied to an unfamiliar land armed only with determination, a fiercely dry sense of humor, and her prodigious brain. She soon finds herself entangled in romance and intrigue, as a vain debutante, quarrelsome teacher, and mysterious ghost draw her into a complicated maze. Will tenacious Lucy, and her wry wit, emerge intact? An eclectic carousel of characters soon draws Lucy into a complicated maze of multiple doorways leading towards fulfillment or peril— which door should she choose? From the author of the captivating classic Jane Eyre, Brontë’s Villette finds brash, honest life in this adaptation by Lookingglass Artistic Associate Sara Gmitter (In the Garden) and directed by Lookingglass Ensemble Member Tracy Walsh (The Old Curiosity Shop).

Lookingglass Theatre Company is located at 821 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Use promo code: CTW23.

Northlight Theater, Skokie

Northlight Theatre, under the direction of Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans, presents Andy Warhol in Iran by Brent Askari. In 1976, the artist Andy Warhol, having re-invented himself as the portrait painter of the rich and famous, travels to Tehran to take Polaroids of the Shah of Iran’s wife. Amidst taking in the Crown Jewels and ordering room service caviar, Warhol encounters a young revolutionary who throws his plans into turmoil, and opens the pop icon’s eyes to a world beyond himself. This riveting new drama features Chicago favorite Rob Lindley as Andy Warhol. “When I first read Andy Warhol in Iran, it had not yet been produced,” says Jones, who is both producing and directing the show. “Since Andy’s time, the revolutionary events in Iran have changed the balance of the events in the play in an important and intriguing way. It has become a fascinating look at the history of political unrest in Iran and how it informs the current upheaval, led by women. It also reaffirms our own view of the dangers of theocracy to a democratic state. Andy Warhol and Farhad are both revolutionaries: Andy a disrupter as an artist, and Farhad, seeking to overthrow the Shah. These two revolutionaries meet and realize their deeper connections rather than their obvious differences.”

Northlight Theatre is located inside the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts at 9501 Skokie Boulevard in Skokie. Use promo code: NLCTW23.

Steppenwolf Theater, Chicago

Steppenwolf for Young Adults presents the world premiere adaptation of Mahogany L.

Browne’s popular young adult novel, Chlorine Sky—an intimate coming-of-age story told in verse about two girls who are best friends, until they aren’t. “Ok, so boom. / We ain’t friends anymore.” Sky and Lay Li were always in sync. But now their rhythms are changing; Sky likes swimming, and Lay Li is all about beauty. Sky, basketball; Lay Li, boys. Things just make more sense underwater and on the court. Sometimes, growing up means growing apart.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is located at 1650 N. Halsted Street in Chicago. Use promo code: CTW23.

The Second City, Chicago

It’s love at first laugh with The Second City! Bring your partner, lover, significant other, spouse, platonic BFF, or your spectacularly single self to The Second City Swipes Right: An Incomplete Guide to The Ultimate Date Night, the brand-new experience you’ve been longing for. Spend a naughty 90 minutes with our caliente cast of comedians as they (consensually) annihilate everything that turns us on—and off— about love, dating, relationships, and everything else in-between the sheets!

This show is at the UP Comedy Club at The Second City, located at 230 W. North Avenue in Chicago. Use promo code: CTW23.

Writers Theater, Glencoe

Writers Theater’s Once is a soft-spoken, deeply felt musical about the forces that compel us to reach out to one another and hold on for dear life. Guy is a young Irish musician ready to give up his career because his songs, written about his ex-girlfriend, are too heartbreaking to perform any more. When he encounters Girl, an inquisitive young Czech woman who believes he could win his ex back by playing to her in New York City, he resumes writing and performing—now with Girl. As the two form their band and write new songs together, a love grows between them—one that inspires and challenges them. This 2012 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical is based on the 2007 Irish musical film and features gorgeous songs like the Oscar-winning “Falling Slowly.” Performed by an accomplished cast of actors playing their own instruments on the intimate Nichols Theatre stage, this will be a Once like you’ve never seen it before.

Writers Theatre is located at 325 Tudor Court in Glencoe. Use promo code: CTW23.

Dining Deals and More

Some of Chicago’s finest restaurants are doing their part to support Chicago theaters and Chicago Theatre Week patrons with a variety of special deals, including discounts (10 to 20 percent), happy hour specials, pris fixe specials, complimentary appetizers, and other promotions. Your Chicago Theatre Week ticket gets you access to one of these deals at the following Chicago restaurants: Port and Part Bistro; Fig & Olive; Porter Kitchen & Deck; Bistronomic; Forte at Symphony Center; Tortoise Supper

Club; Mercat la Planxa; Robert’s Pizza; Formento’s; Saigon Sisters; Tao Chicago; Barcocina; Jaleo by Jose Andres; Lirica Restaurant; Lil' Ba-Ba-Reeba!; Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeb; Sociale Chicago; Atwood Chicago; Carlucci; Gene & Georgetti Restaurant; Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse; Harry Caray’s; Harry Caray’s 7th Inning Stretch; and Napolita at Millennium Hall.

In addition to the theaters listed in this feature, other participating Chicago Theatre Week venues include: A Theater in the Dark; Actor’s Gymnasium; Aguijon Theater; Beverly Theatre Guild; Bienen School of Music (Northwestern); Blue Man Group; Broadway in Bronzeville; Broadway In Chicago; Buffalo Theatre Ensemble; Cabaret ZaZou; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; City Lit Theatre; Collaboraction Theatre Co; Columbia College Chicago; Defintion Theatre; DePaul School of Music; Dominican University Performing Arts; Drunk Shakespeare; Drury Lane Theatre; First Folio Theatre; Greenhouse Theatre Center; Harris Theater for Music and Dance; Invictus Theatre Company; iO Theatre; Lifeline Theatre; Loyola University Fine Arts; MadKap Productions; Marriott Theatre; McAninch Arts Center; Mercury Theater Chicago; Metropolis Performing Arts Center; Nuns4Fun Entertainment; Oil Lamp Theater; Paramount Theatre; Porchlight Music Theatre; PrideArts; Raven Theatre; Redtwist Theatre; Remy Bumppo Theatre Company; Saint Sebastian Players; Shattered Globe Theatre; The Drama Group; The Factory Theater; The Neo-Futurists; Theatre School at DePaul; Three Brothers Theatre; TimeLine Theatre Company; Trap Door Theatre; Wirtz Center (Northwestern); and Young People’s Theatre of Chicago.

For more information about Chicago Theatre Week, visit chicagotheatreweek.com. You can also follow @chicagoplays on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for updates and announcements.

EDITED BY DUSTIN O'REGAN ILLUSTRATION BY TOM BACHTELL

For KATIE TAYLOR, protecting kids and empowering families to lift themselves out of generational poverty is personal. The mother of three fled to the United States as a political refugee with her parents when she was 6 years old, with nothing but one small suitcase. Inspired by the Chicago skyline and professionals hustling by with a sense of purpose, Taylor determined that she would change her family’s story. Through a combination of fierce will, endless grace, and positive relationships within the community, she helped her family achieve the American Dream and has dedicated her life to paying it forward. She is a constant in her community through volunteer work and is passionate about teaching her children the power of philanthropy, positive relationships, and giving back full circle. Taylor recently played an instrumental role in strategy at Northwestern Settlement, where she oversaw all fundraising and communications for the organization. We can’t wait to see what is in store as she brings that knowledge, personal experience, and passion to her very own nonprofit consulting business, Propel Social Good, partnering with nonprofits to create positive transformational change. Here is how this graceful advocate stays on-trend.

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