Christopher W. Jones

Actress, Willow Geer discusses the character she plays in JULIUS CAESAR at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Enjoy!

'A lean an hungry look,' Julius Caesar’s oft-quoted descriptor for Cassius, is an apt metaphor for the season-opening production of JULIUS CAESAR at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, and not always in a good way. The leanness box is dutifully checked, but director Ellen Geer’s production could certainly be hungrier and more thought out.

Two beloved plays by William Shakespeare are set to welcome audiences back to the spectacular outdoor venue at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum this summer.

William Shakespeare's rollicking and ever-popular comedy of mistaken identity, TWELFTH NIGHT, brings its magical combination of mischief, madness and romance into the outdoor amphitheater at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum this summer where it plays in rep through September 28. Written in 1601 and first seen in the Inns of Court shortly after Christmas (hence, the title), the holiday was celebrated as a festival during which everything was made delightfully topsy-turvy, much like the world of the play's Illyria. And you could not ask for a more ideal cast of characters to bring The Bard's non-stop, high energy hijinks to life.

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum continues its mission to resist and struggle against the forces of inequality and injustice by presenting socially conscious classics that speak to today. A new version of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, freely adapted by artistic director Ellen Geer and co-directed by Geer and Melora Marshall, joins Theatricum's 2019 summer repertory season beginning Saturday, June 22.

Mischief, madness and romance are in the air this summer when Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum presents William Shakespeare's rollicking comedy, Twelfth Night, in its magical, outdoor Topanga amphitheater. Twelfth Night opens Theatricum's summer repertory season onSaturday, June 1 at 8 p.m., where performances will continue through Sept. 28.

Mischief, madness and romance are in the air this summer when Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum presents William Shakespeare's rollicking comedy, Twelfth Night, in its magical, outdoor Topanga amphitheater. Twelfth Night opens Theatricum's summer repertory season on Saturday, June 1 at 8 p.m., where performances will continue through Sept. 28.

First Folio Theatre (Mayslake Peabody Estate, 31st St. & Rt. 83.) has announced the casting for the remainder of its 2018-2019 indoor season. 

Porchlight Music Theatre begins its sixth season of Chicago's "lost" musicals in staged concert series with Porchlight Revisits 1776, music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and book by Peter Stone with direction by Artistic Director Michael Weber, musical direction by Jeremy Ramey and musical staging by Michelle Lauto. Porchlight Revisits 1776 is presented for only three performances Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. and Thursday, Nov. 15 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street. Tickets for 1776 are available now for $37, subscriptions to the three performance series including 1776, Can-Can, March 6 and 7, 2019 and Minnie's Boys, May 22 and 23, 2019 are $90/per person and available at porchlightmusictheatre.org or by calling the Porchlight Music Theatre box office at 773.777.9884.

Porchlight Music Theatre begins its sixth season of Chicago's "lost" musicals in staged concert series with Porchlight Revisits 1776, music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and book by Peter Stone with direction by Artistic Director Michael Weber, musical direction by Jeremy Ramey and musical staging by Michelle Lauto.

Chicago's premier outdoor professional theatre, First Folio Theatre (Mayslake Peabody Estate, 31st St. & Rt. 83), presents the world premiere of SHREW'D!, a new musical based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, adapted by Executive Director David Rice and Lydia Hiller, with music by Christopher Kriz and lyrics by Lydia Hiller and David Rice.  Directed by Johanna McKenzie Miller, SHREW'D! previews July 11-13, opens July 14 and runs through August 19, 2018.

A parable of mass hysteria that draws a chilling parallel between the Salem witch hunts of 1692 and McCarthyism, which gripped America in the 1950s, The Crucible by Arthur Miller remains eerily timely in today's climate of fake news. Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum, its own history firmly rooted in the McCarthy-era Hollywood blacklist - when actor Will Geer and his wife, Herta Ware, created the theater as a haven for blacklisted actors - opens a new production of Miller's modern classic onJune 30. Theatricum artistic director Ellen Geer, Will's daughter, is at the helm, with family members Thad Geer,Willow Geer and Melora Marshall featured in the cast.

Stage Left Theatre announces the upcoming rolling world premiere of The Luckiest People, written by Meredith Friedman and directed by Co-Artistic Director, Jason A. Fleece[AS2] [ADF3] . The Luckiest People is the final production of Stage Left's 36th season. Press opening is Thursday, January 11, at 8 PM in Studio 1 at the Athenaeum Theatre Chicago, 2936 N. Southport Ave. The show runs through April 29.

Stage Left Theatre announces the upcoming rolling world premiere of The Luckiest People, written by Meredith Friedman and directed by Co-Artistic Director, Jason A. Fleece. The Luckiest People is the final production of Stage Left's 36th season. Press opening is Thursday, January 11, at 8 PM in Studio 1 at the Athenaeum Theatre Chicago, 2936 N. Southport Ave. The show runs through April 29.

Stage Left Theatre presents Robert O'Hara's INSURRECTION: HOLDING HISTORY. Directed by Wardell Julius Clark, INSURRECTION: HOLDING HISTORY runs January 11th through February 11th.

INSURRECTION: HOLDING HISTORY, directed by Wardell Julius Clark, opened at Stage Left Theatre on January 11th and runs through February 11th. The play, written by Robert O'Hara, tells the story of a Ron, a young African-American man who trying to complete his grad school thesis on Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion. Aided by his great-great grandfather, he travels 189 years back in time to meet Nat in person. This journey forces Ron to confront his identity, his sexuality, and his family history.

INSURRECTION: HOLDING HISTORY, directed by Wardell Julius Clark, opened at Stage Left Theatre on January 11th and runs through February 11th. The play, by Robert O'Hara, tells the story of a young African-American man who trying to complete his grad school thesis on Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion. Aided by his great-great grandfather, he travels back in time to meet Nat in person.

Raven Theatre is pleased to launch its 35th anniversary season with the Chicago premiere of CHOIR BOY, by recent Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney who, together with writer-director Barry Jenkins, won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the Academy's Best Picture winner, Moonlight. Directed by Artistic Director Michael Menendian, CHOIR BOY will play September 27 November 12, 2017 in Raven's 120-seat East Stage, 6157 N. Clark St. (at Granville) in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at www.raventheatre.com or by calling (773) 338-2177.

Raven Theatre is pleased to launch its 35th anniversary season with the Chicago premiere of CHOIR BOY, by recent Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney who, together with writer-director Barry Jenkins, won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for the Academy's Best Picture winner, Moonlight.  Directed by Artistic Director Michael Menendian, CHOIR BOY will play September 27 - November 12, 2017 in Raven's 120-seat East Stage, 6157 N. Clark St. (at Granville) in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at www.raventheatre.com or by calling (773) 338-2177. The press opening is Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 7:30 pm.

TROUBLE IN MIND, the scathingly funny and thought-provoking backstage drama about interracial politics by pioneering African American playwright Alice Childress, is currently enjoying a brilliant revival at Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum in Malibu thanks to director Ellen Geer's vision of the groundbreaking 1955 satire in which an integrated theater company in rehearsal for a “progressive” anti-lynching drama marks the first opportunity for gifted African American actress Willetta Mayer (portrayed by multiple NAACP Award-winner Earnestine Phillips who commands the stage) to play a leading lady on Broadway. This could be her dream come true, but what compromises must she make to succeed?