A major new theater makes its debut, and music makes its way into spring productions.

May dance highlights ...

Don’t be surprised if you recognize Charin Alvarez, as her extensive career in Chicago theater and film continues to grow. Alvarez has been acting in Chicago since 1996, and it would be simpler to ...

The founder of Making a Difference Dancing (the M.A.D.D. part of the name) continues to do just that. His twenty-three-year-old organization, founded to disrupt the “school-to-prison pipeline,” has ...

It’s 6:30 in the morning, and Jackie Taylor is a bundle of high energy and vibrancy. She greets me with a friendly, “Hi sweetheart!” at the newly built Black Ensemble Theater, a 59,000-square-foot ...

The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire has reinvented classic musicals and produced Chicago premieres and new works for fifty years—but they’re not out of surprises. “Our favorite shows,” says Peter ...

It was the summer of 1980—the first season for American Players Theatre in rural Spring Green, Wisconsin. The company was performing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on the hilltop stage. William Borth, ...

I arrived late to the puppet cabaret, but my friend had kindly saved me a seat. A standing-room crowd filled the larger of two studios housed in an unassuming one-story brick building on Western ...

For centuries, lighting designers have been integral to bringing stories to life on stage, playing a noble role as an artist who avoids the spotlight to illuminate others. You know good lighting ...

The Saints have been a pillar of support for the cultural community for more than forty years, providing volunteer ushers to medium and small performing-arts companies throughout the Chicago area. The ...

Chicago stages have been described as petri dishes for talent development, with the city seen as a particularly fertile launching pad for the stars of tomorrow, whether in acting, comedy, writing or ...

Sought-after choreographer Aszure Barton was named Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s second-ever resident artist in 2023 and has been adding gems to the company’s wide-ranging repertoire since. Two of ...