Kat Evans News

City Lit Theater has revealed the full cast and crew for the third production of its 2023-24  season: TWO HOURS IN A BAR. See who is starring and learn how to purchase tickets.

City Lit Theater has re-announced programming for its 41st year of production, according to Producer and Artistic Director Terry McCabe. The 2021-22 subscription season will open with a world premiere adaptation – THE VIRGINIAN: A HORSEMAN OF THE PLAINS.

Black Button Eyes Productions is pleased to present the world premiere of Masque of the Red Coronavirus, a free online-only script and video experience, written and directed by Producing Artistic Director Ed Rutherford and adapted, in part, from Edgar Allen Poe's short story The Masque of Red Death.

The October 1962 days in which the world appeared to be on the brink of nuclear war will be revisited in a world premiere adaptation of Robert F. Kennedy's THIRTEEN DAYS: A MEMOIR OF THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS. Brian Pastor, the Chicago writer-director-actor who serves as Artistic Director of Promethean Theatre Ensemble and Executive Director of Sideshow Theatre Company, has adapted Kennedy's account of the administration of President John F. Kennedy to the discovery that the Soviet Union was installing missile sites in Cuba, just 90 miles from the U.S.. As with City Lit's acclaimed 2017 production of Archibald MacLeish's J.B., which Pastor also directed, the powerful men of THIRTEEN DAYS will be played by a diverse ensemble of women. All the characters in the book are white males; none of the actors onstage will be. THIRTEEN DAYS will open to the press on March 15 at 3 pm, following previews from March 6, and will play through April 19.

The Company Theatre launched their new logo and icon, marking a dramatic change in their visual identity since 1978. Having recently celebrated their 40th anniversary, an updated version of The Company's iconic stage light has been redesigned to better reflect where the company is headed while giving a nod to the rich history of its past.

Black Button Eyes Productions is pleased to announce its 2019-20 Season, featuring two Chicago premiere musicals! The season kicks off this summer with GHOST QUARTET by Broadway composer Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812). This intriguing and entertaining song cycle is directed by Artistic Director Ed Rutherford, with music direction by Nick Sula and choreography by Derek Van Barham.

Promethean's critically-acclaimed production of Moises Kaufman's historical drama GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE, which enjoyed a two-week run in December 2016, will be remounted from February 15 through March 24, 2019 at Strawdog Theatre, 1809 W. Berenice. GROSS INDECENCY, which Promethean Artistic Director Brian Pastor will again direct, will be performed with cross-gender casting in some roles, as it was in the company's earlier production. Promethean Ensemble Member Jamie Bragg will reprise her leading role as Oscar Wilde.

Full casting was announced today for City Lit's commissioned world premiere of THE SAFE HOUSE, by the Chicago-based playwright, director and actor Kristine Thatcher. In this play commissioned by City Lit, 32-year-old Bridget has come back home for a visit to Lansing, Michigan from New York City, where she has been getting by--but not better than that--as an actress.  She is staying with her widowed grandmother Hannah, whose forgetfulness and declining physical abilities have begun to concern Bridget's uncle Matt. But in her own way, Hannah may just be the strongest member of the family. Thatcher's play, set in 1982, is a study in the sometimes unexpected ways families can support each other as they adapt to life changes and make peace with the past. Terry McCabe is directing this world premiere opening November 11, 2018, following previews from November 2.

Black Button Eyes Productions is pleased to launch its 2018-19 season with the world premiere of NIGHTMARES AND NIGHTCAPS: The Stories of John Collier, a non-musical adaption of British author and screenwriter John Collier's phantasmagoric short stories, written and directed by Producing Artistic Director Ed Rutherford with choreography by Derek Van Barham.

Black Button Eyes Productions is pleased to launch its 2018-19 season with the world premiere of NIGHTMARES AND NIGHTCAPS: The Stories of John Collier, a non-musical adaption of British author and screenwriter John Collier's phantasmagoric short stories, written and directed by Producing Artistic Director Ed Rutherford with choreography by Derek Van Barham.

Black Button Eyes Productions is pleased to announce casting for its world premiere of NIGHTMARES AND NIGHTCAPS: The Stories of John Collier, a non-musical adaption of British author and screenwriter John Collier's phantasmagoric short stories, written and directed by Producing Artistic Director Ed Rutherford with choreography by Derek Van Barham.

Full cast and crew have been announced for City Lit's world premiere translation of Aeschylus's theatrically boldest tragedy, PROMETHEUS BOUND, which will begin previews April 27, 2018 and open to the press on Sunday, May 6. This new translation was commissioned by City Lit from Nicholas Rudall, Founding Artistic Director of Court Theater and internationally acclaimed award-winning translator of Greek drama.

Black Button Eyes Productions presents the Chicago storefront premiere of SHOCKHEADED PETER, the silly and sinister musical based on Heinrich Hoffmann's popular German children's book The Struwwelpeter. Directed by Producing Artistic Director Ed Rutherford with music direction by T.J. Anderson and choreography by Derek Van Barham, SHOCKHEADED PETER was created for the stage by Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott with original music and lyrics by The Tiger Lillies. SHOCKHEADED PETER plays now through September 16, 2017 at The Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave., in Chicago. BroadwayWorld has a new selection of production photos from the show below!

Black Button Eyes Productions presents the Chicago storefront premiere of SHOCKHEADED PETER, the silly and sinister musical based on Heinrich Hoffmann's popular German children's book The Struwwelpeter. Directed by Producing Artistic Director Ed Rutherford with music direction by T.J. Anderson and choreography by Derek Van Barham, SHOCKHEADED PETER was created for the stage by Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott with original music and lyrics by The Tiger Lillies. SHOCKHEADED PETER runs now through September 16, 2017 at The Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave., in Chicago. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Black Button Eyes Productions is pleased to present the Chicago storefront premiere of SHOCKHEADED PETER, the silly and sinister musical based on Heinrich Hoffmann's popular German children's book The Struwwelpeter. Directed by Producing Artistic Director Ed Rutherford with music direction by T.J. Anderson, SHOCKHEADED PETER was created for the stage by Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott with original music and lyrics by The Tiger Lillies.

Black Button Eyes Productions is pleased to announce casting for the Chicago storefront premiere of SHOCKHEADED PETER, the silly and sinister musical based on Heinrich Hoffmann's popular German children's book The Struwwelpeter.

City Lit Theatre Artistic Director Terry McCabe has announced the cast for the company's season finale, the British comedy London Assurance. First produced in London in 1841 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, and shortly thereafter in New York City, London Assurance is considered a transitional play between the 18th century comedies of Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Oliver Goldsmith and the late 19th Century plays of Oscar Wilde. It has been one of Great Britain's most popular comedies of the standard classical repertoire and in recent decades has been performed by some of Britain's leading actors. 

Moises Kaufman's enduring drama of Oscar Wilde's three trials for homosexual behavior in late 19th Century England will be presented through a new lens with the casting of female actors in some of the roles traditionally played by men. Promethean's Artistic Director Brian Pastor, will who direct the production, made the announcement today.

Moises Kaufman's enduring drama of Oscar Wilde's three trials for homosexual behavior in late 19th Century England will be presented through a new lens with the casting of female actors in some of the roles traditionally played by men. Promethean's Artistic Director Brian Pastor, will who direct the production, made the announcement today.

High finance, family dysfunction, death -- and laughs. The world premiere of DINNER AT HOME BETWEEN DEATHS, a pitch-black comedy by Andrea Lepcio (Looking for the Pony), directed by Stuart Ross (Forever Plaid) and presented by Indie Chi Productions, opens as a guest production at the Odyssey Theatre tonight, April 2.