Open Space Arts looks back at more than four decades of theater responding to the AIDS epidemic with BEFORE WE ARE HISTORY, a special three-week program of landmark plays, readings, conversations, and post-show panels. The program includes Robert Chesley’s groundbreaking JERKER...
The play follows J.R. and Bert, two gay men who develop an increasingly intimate relationship entirely through telephone calls. What begins with anonymous sexual fantasy slowly becomes affection, friendship and emotional dependence as AIDS reshapes the world around them.
A special pay-what-you-can staged reading of A QUIET END , Robin Swados’ deeply human drama about three gay men living together during the early years of AIDS. The play examines friendship, chosen family, anger, illness, love and mortality as the men confront an epidemic rapidly...
Erik Patterson’s provocative and darkly funny FUCKING STRANGERS, directed by Jack Dugan Carpenter, brings four people together in an intimate exploration of sex, loneliness, desire, and the complicated ways we search for connection. Bold, contemporary, and deeply human, the play...
What did our critic think of MUD ROW at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company?…
The Winter’s Tale—now playing and soon to run in repertory with the even wilder Midsummer Night’s Dream—provides audiences with an emotional, uplifting, and even redemptive story sure to thaw frozen hearts and provide a much needed escape.…
Magic is a timeless art full of secrets, and as Parr reveals through the course of Time Traveler, history is even stranger and more serendipitous than we know.…
What did our critic think of HAYWARD at Gift Theatre?…
Saturday night brought the long-awaited return of Dance Theatre of Harlem to The Auditorium for a celebratory evening of dance that showcased the range and versatility of this 57-year old company, which had not been seen in Chicago since 2016.…
With spooky season upon us, what better way to get into the haunted spirit than with a murder mystery — one that no one has ever seen before, and one that no one will ever see again.…
Backyard Theatre Company’s production of Red Bike is an enchanting, imaginative story from a kid’s perspective about growing up and seeing the town you’ve grown up in change, and the formative stuff and thoughts that shape who we are as a result. …
Whether you leave the theater with intensified despair or renewed hope is up to you — and that’s what makes this terrifying and achingly sad story, with just the right dose of humor, hope, and humanity, a brilliant piece of art. …
Premonitions Inc. is an oddball new cabaret and acrobatics show in the Spiegeltent of the Loop’s Cambria Hotel.…
Vladimir is a powerful and potent story of defiance, strength, and sacrifice.…
24 total · showing 1–10
BEFORE WE ARE HISTORY opens with a double bill of ONE and BLOOD SPILL. ONE is Jeff Hagedorn’s groundbreaking solo play about a young man attempting to understand and confront his AIDS diagnosis at a time when the disease itself was still frighteningly new. Set in New York in...
A double bill pairing Jeff Hagedorn's ONE, a groundbreaking solo play about a young man confronting his AIDS diagnosis, with Lee Raines' BLOOD SPILL, set in New York in 1992 and following HIV-positive playwright Kenny King as he confronts Angela Turner, an old college friend...
THE SWALLOW is set during a private singing lesson between a choral director and a new student. As they work together on a song, what initially seems like a simple musical exchange becomes something more personal, more complicated, and more revealing. With humor, tension, and...
North American English-language premiere of the international hit by Spain’s Guillem Clua. When Alex leaves a voicemail for his ex, it lands in the inbox of Bruno—a stranger. What begins as a wrong message turns into an unexpected connection between two very different men. As...
BALLATA FEMMENELLA at Open Space Arts is featured as part of the League of Chicago Theatres' Pride Month LGBTQIA+ programming and events across the city during June 2026.
Seventeen-year-old Conor feels stuck in the London suburb of Croydon and dreams of doing something unexpected—entering a country-and-western dance competition. He’s joined by Michael , a fellow lifeguard at the local leisure center, and Zainab , sharp-tongued, brilliant, and...
Modern remix of Dorian Gray and the life of Oscar Wilde.
Junior is a queer sex worker in Hastings suffering from PTSD. His life is plunged into further turmoil during a booking with a new client when his homophobic gangster father “Senior” returns home. Why has his father returned? What does he want from his son? And why now? From...
The story of William Dorsey Swann, the first known drag performer and queer activist in U.S. history.
The story of the love between the emperor Hadrian and Antinous in pre-Christian Rome but framed in a twenty-first century setting with the statue of Antinous coming to life in modern Australia to tell his story.
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Adirondack Chair Circle Steppenwolf's Ensemble Theater (10/22-12/06) |
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Love Story: A Tribute to Taylor Swift Raue Center For The Arts (11/07-11/07) |
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Million Dollar Quartet Stolp Island Theatre (10/07-1/03) |
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The Christmas Carol Paramount Theatre (11/11-1/03) |
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Topdog/Underdog Steppenwolf's Downstairs Theater (9/17-11/01) |
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Blond Ambition: A Tribute to Madonna Raue Center For The Arts (11/07-11/07) |
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When We Were Young and Unafraid Greenhouse Theater Center (11/12-11/29) |
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for colored girls who considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf eta Creative Arts Foundation (11/08-11/29) |
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Cut to the Chase Lookingglass Studio Theatre (11/05-11/15) |
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Marriott Theatre Reveals A 2027 Season of Showstopping Musicals and Beloved Stories Marriott Theatre (9/30-1/27) |
