Steppenwolf Theatre Reveals LookOut Series' 10th Anniversary Season
Highlights include the homecoming of the cult-classic variety show Erik and Jessie and Everyone You Know (hosted by Erik Hellman and Jessie Fisher), and more.
Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series has unveiled its lineup for Summer 2026. Since launching in 2016, the LookOut Series has hosted 1,043 performances of 365 unique engagements spanning dance, drag, music, comedy, puppetry, storytelling, experimental work and theatre. Over 69,000 patrons have come through the doors of the 1700 Theater to witness the work of more than 3,200 local artists. And the series has injected nearly one million dollars directly into the wallets of the artists and companies that it bolsters.
From June through August, LookOut is throwing a summer-long party to celebrate! Of the 18 unique engagements announced, highlights include many returning acts, including: the homecoming of the cult-classic variety show Erik and Jessie and Everyone You Know (hosted by Erik Hellman and Jessie Fisher), an experimental blending of sound and myth from the indescribable artist collective Mocrep (returning to Steppenwolf for the first time since 2019), the 11th Steppenwolf-hosted iteration of the endlessly popular storytelling showcase You’re Being Ridiculous and the triumphant return of local drag icon Bambi Banks with a two week run of an all new drag parody show.
But the summer wouldn’t be complete without newcomers to the LookOut Series performing at Steppenwolf for the first time. First time performers include: the comedy show Women Off-Colour, complete with sketches, musical numbers and more, The Lizzie McGuire Movie: The Play fresh off a sold out run at Color Club, award-winning "Comic-To-Watch" in the Chicago standup scene Deanna Ortiz and the Chicago premiere of Forgottonia, a music and storytelling show about West Central Illinois.
All LookOut performances take place in Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater, an intimate and flexible venue nestled behind Front Bar, 1700 N. Halsted St. in Chicago. Tickets, which range in price from $13 – $50*, are now on sale by visiting steppenwolf.org/lookout or by calling the Box Office at (312) 335-1650. *Pricing includes a $3 fee
The full Lookout Summer 2026 Season (in chronological order):
You’re Being Ridiculous: Plot Twist
Dates: Thursday, June 4 – Saturday, June 6 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, June 6 at 3 pm
Ticket Price: $30
Description: At You're Being Ridiculous, real people tell true stories about their lives. Each performance is linked by rotating themes, and by the desire to make you laugh... and, once in a while, cry. Our motto: Good stories are better than good times. We laugh at ourselves and laugh with each other. Everyone has a story to tell. What's yours?
Softie
by Tim Felton
Dates: Friday, June 12 & Saturday, June 13 at 7:30 pm
Ticket Price: $20
Description: Sometimes a dad is also a daddy. And sometimes that daddy is also a Softie. Chicago-based comedian, Tim Felton (picture the lovechild of Mr. Rogers Pee-Wee Herman and Buster Bluth), invites you along in his journey as he figures out how to connect with people as he gets older... and softer.
Jillian Ebanks: Who All Gone Be There?
Directed by Kiley Fitzgerald
Dates: Thursday, June 18 at 7:30 pm
Ticket Price: $23
Description: Life for Jillian in her 30s has been one big, weird party, and all she has wanted to know is Who All Gone Be There? Come join Jillian for this live taping of new material as she explores the guest list of her life through comedy.
Funny Slut
A solo show by Deanna Ortiz
Dates: Saturday, June 20 & Sunday, June 21 at 7:30 pm
Ticket Price: $25
Description: Deanna Ortiz used to think her job was just posting thirst traps for porn stars. Turns out, it was also therapy… with a 401(k). In Funny Slut, Deanna tells the hilarious and unexpectedly heartfelt story of working in social media for the adult entertainment industry where she learned to embrace chaos, confidence and her inner hot girl.
Mocrep Presents: I Live Every Day
Dates: Thursday, June 25 – Saturday, June 27 at 7:30 pm
Ticket Price: $13 – $53
Description: The “mostly performance, arguably music” Chicago-based collective Mocrep returns to the LookOut Series. I Live Every Day is a noisy yet mellifluous riff on twang, repetition, feedback and kitchen appliances simultaneously inspired by the myth of Narcissus and the music of Tammy Wynette.
Women Off-Colour
Featuring Anelga Hajjar, Alondra Rios and Mantra
Dates: Wednesday, July 1 – Friday, July 3 at 7:30 pm
Ticket Price: $23
Description: Ethnicities we’ve dated, ethnicities who’ve wronged us, dads (alive and not), older sister trauma, ethnic moms, cycles we want to break and growing up with curves. These are some of the topics Mantra, Alondra and Anelga muse on in Women Off-Colour. Featuring musical numbers, sketches and monologues, this show invites women to be offensive, wrong and unapologetic.
Erik and Jessie and Everyone You Know: Past and Future
Dates: Monday, July 6 & Tuesday, July 7 at 7:30 pm
Ticket Price: $43
Description: Ten years ago, Erik Hellman and Jessie Fischer brought everyone they knew to celebrate the opening of the 1700 Theater. Now EVERYONE will return for two nights, TWO DIFFERENT SHOWS! Monday: we visit the PAST. Tuesday: we visit the FUTURE. Join us for either or both.
Derek Begrudgingly Presents: The Lizzie McGuire Movie: The Play
Dates: Friday, July 10 & Saturday, July 11 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, July 11 at 3 pm
Ticket Price: $28
Description: After two sold out runs at Color Club and winning runner up in Chicago Reader's Best New Play category, The Lizzie McGuire Movie: The Play is back to show you what dreams are really made of. Through dance, drag, a live band, over-the-top acting and giant DIY cardboard props, this parody production reimagines Lizzie McGuire's iconic trip to Rome in a way Disney would never allow and finally answers the question, "what the hell happened to Miranda??"
Nervous Breakdown in G Minor
by Lewis Rawlinson
Dates: Friday, July 17 & Saturday, July 18 at 7:30 pm; Sunday, July 19 at 3 pm
Ticket Price: $30
Description: How do you pursue an art form you love when you no longer feel you belong? In this solo show with live music, Lewis Rawlinson traces his journey through queerness, addiction and mental health. Nervous Breakdown in G Minor is a lyrical autobiography about growing up Mormon in Montana, training as a classical cellist and confronting the realities of pursuing a life in music.
Dream Devis: The Death and Life Of
Created by Abhijeet & Leha Salam
Dates: Thursday, July 23 – Saturday, July 25 at 7:30 pm; Sunday, July 26 at 3 pm
Ticket Price: $33
Description: Dream Devis, Chicago's trans femme South Asian collective, return to Steppenwolf after their sold-out eponymous show last year. Join our Devis for an existentialist romp through time, history, mythology and pop culture through song, dance and comedy.
The Real Time – Live!
With Briana Bower, Ian Paul Custer, Kelan M Smith, Jack Morsovillo & Lior Shragg
Dates: Thursday, July 30 at 7:30 pm
Ticket Price: $23
Description: The Real Time is a Chicago-based female-fronted five-piece band specializing in unique original music. Their music blends multiple eras and genres resulting in their pop-rock-funk sound. They’ll be sure to get you movin’ and groovin’ with their upbeat jams and four-part harmonies. Come rock out with them!
Michiganderish
Written and performed by Julie Ganey
Music by Mike Przygoda, Directed by Ann Filmer
Dates: Saturday, August 1 at 7:30 pm; Sunday, August 2 at 3 pm
Ticket Price: $15 – $50
Description: Julie Ganey finds a little place for her family to get away from it all in the Great Lakes State and discovers it's not that simple. Cue chainsaws, chipmunks, menacing deer and eco-heroes! Michiganderish is a solo show about apocalyptic nature, reaping what we sow and an examination of what it means to truly belong to a place.
The Not That Late Show
Dates: Thursday, August 6 at 7:30 pm
Ticket Price: $23
Description: Blending news-driven comedy with late-night-style interviews, The Not That Late Show is a Chicago-based variety show that aims to create space for people to live, laugh, learn... and leave at a reasonable hour. A show for Chicago, by Chicago.
Chris Vallillo Presents: Forgottonia
Dates: Saturday, August 8 at 7:30 pm; Sunday, August 9 at 3 pm
Ticket Price: $25
Description: Forgottonia is a musical journey through the evolution of the people and places in rural Midwestern America as seen through the eyes of songwriter Chris Vallillo. Vallillo combines storytelling and live music with the images of award-winning rural photographer Tim Schroll to create an audio-visual love letter to the region’s past, present and future.
Dionna Griffin-Irons: This is My Moment
Directed by Anthony Irons with music by Alexander Burke
Dates: Thursday, August 13 – Saturday, August 15 at 7:30 pm
Ticket Price: $38
Description: Blending “theatricalized” essays, satirical songs and poetic prose, This is My Moment features the real life story of a woman who has experienced the best life has to offer – a kingpin lover from the past, a jail adventure that tests her faith and a comedy career that teaches the gift of saying “Yes.”
Carl Chadek: You’re Not Right for That!
Dates: Wednesday, August 19 at 7:30 pm
Ticket Price: $38
Description: Carl Chadek: You’re Not Right for That! is an old-school style cabaret with music from Broadway, the great American songbook, classic pop and just maybe a little comedy. Think dinner jackets, evening gowns and martinis. Nobody is right for everything, and auditioning can be, well, interesting.
Claire Lochmueller: CRACKS
A one-trans-woman dark comedy memoir
Dates: Friday, August 21 & Saturday, August 22 at 7:30 pm
Ticket Price: $15 – $30
Description: Through a hybrid of storytelling, stand-up comedy and theatre, this one-trans-woman dark comedy memoir by Claire Lochmueller details a journey from a childhood in the Catholic Church/JROTC military school to a career as a multi-award-winning trans theatre-maker. CRACKS navigates topics of gender identity, substance abuse and finding joy in a story about how two lives, through laughter and tears, became one trans identity.
Bambi Banks Presents: Clue University: A Drag Parody
By Neutral Gena
Dates: Thursday, August 27 – Sunday, September 6; Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Ticket Price: $33
Description: Bambi Banks returns to the LookOut Series with Clue University, a slasher parody play that combines all the fun and whimsy of the game of Clue with the complicated world of a collegiate rush week. In this thrilling murder mystery, six Sorority Sisters must unmask a killer living amongst them, testing their bonds of sisterhood and bringing to light the question: is blood thicker than power?
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