Displaying items by tag: LookOut Series

LookOut, Steppenwolf Theatre's performance series that presents the work of artists and companies across genre and form, proudly announces its Spring 2024 season, showcasing the work of Chicago's vibrant community of dancers, choreographers and movement makers. Highlights from the lineup of seven unique engagements include Anjal Chande's solo work The Next Cup of Tea that is the culmination of seven years of development; Maggie Bridger's multi-media and universally accessible inquiry of pain and care; and a work exploring Black futures against the backdrop of empire from interdisciplinary artist Benji Hart.

Additionally, the LookOut Series is excited to announce the return of its curatorial residency program, offering an opportunity for a Chicago dance practitioner to curate a series of performances over a two-week span. Following the success of last season's series work around curated by Kara Brody and Amanda Maraist, this season Helen Lee curates a series entitled MERGE, colliding musicians and dancers in unexpected configurations.

LookOut Series Associate Producer Lauren Steinberg comments, "When we hosted work around last spring, we were struck by how many members of the local dance community showed up to support the series. Since then, it has become abundantly clear that Chicago practitioners need more resources and space to show their work. We're thrilled that Helen Lee will continue this mission with MERGE, which will feature more than a dozen artists."

All LookOut performances take place in Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater, the intimate venue nestled behind Front Bar, 1700 N. Halsted St. Tickets, which range in price from $5 – $35, are now on sale by visiting steppenwolf.org/lookout or by calling the Box Office at (312) 335-1650.

The full LookOut Spring 2024 Season (in chronological order):

The Chronicles of Fabulous Freddie: That Love
By Fabulous Freddie
Dates: Friday, February 16 & Saturday, February 17 at 8 pm
Ticket Price: $20
Description: Fabulous Freddie brings his lived experience to the stage for an unforgettable night of dance, soundscapes and wearable design. This multi-practice and multi-media performance weaves a story of healing, heroism and humor into a FABULOUS tale of alchemizing surviving into thriving and shining.

Radiate
By Maggie Bridger
Dates: Thursday, February 22, Friday, February 23 & Saturday, February 24 at 8 pm
Ticket Price: $5 – $20
Description: Radiate explores the mundanity, humor and time-bending experience of pain and care. Working across video and movement, Radiate centers access through the open use of tools like captions, Artistic Sign Language and audio description, as well as various tools that will allow audiences to attend to and curate their embodied experience of the work.
Note: Masks are required in the theater for all performances of Radiate.

WORLDS END...WORLDS BEGIN
An evening with Kao Ra Zen and Friends
Dates: Friday, March 1 & Saturday, March 2 at 8 pm Sunday, February 18 at 3 pm
Ticket Price: $20
Description: An evening of multimedia performances that take you on a journey through worlds and words, dimensions and dances, multiverses and music. Featuring performances by: Kao Ra Zen, Il Worood Il Beledi, Devika Dhir, Chicago Mask Ensemble, Allen Turner, Shalaka, Vivian Meretrix, Jason Winslade, Christophe Preissing, Kyle Gregory Price, Alanis Zoe Castillo Caref and Marisela Tapia.

The Next Cup of Tea
By Anjal Chande with special guest Sharon Udoh
Presented in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Dates: Friday, March 8, Saturday March 9, Thursday, March 14, Friday, March 15 & Saturday, March 16 at 8 pm
Ticket Price: $11 – $33
Description: The Next Cup of Tea is a solo dance-theater performance by Anjal Chande that investigates how to make sense of the never-ending impulses that run through our hearts, our everyday moments and our contradictory experiences. Through improvisational dance and storytelling, Chande, accompanied by Sharon Udoh on the piano, reflects on money, her grandfather, the politics of art and more.
Accessible performances: Closed captioned (Friday, March 15), ASL interpreted and audio description (Saturday, March 16).

World After This One
By Benji Hart
Dates: Friday, March 22 & Saturday, March 23 at 8 pm
Ticket Price: $27
Description: Looking through the lenses of three Black art forms: the queer street style of vogue, the Afro-Boricua dance and drumming tradition of bomba, and gospel music, World After This One uses movement and spoken word to examine how Black people have historically reclaimed the materials of empire to construct portals to impossible futures.

MERGE
Curated by Helen Lee
Dates: March 28 – April 6
Description: MERGE is a portal into the works of various movement and sound artists from all walks of life. Each program moves like a concert with an opening gesture followed by a headlining performance. Together these pairings collide creating a world where the entanglements of the chaotic and harmonious facets of dance and music can offer us a place to ruminate, delight and sometimes heal.

Program One:
Desert Turtle by Mitsu Salmon
bones fragile by Hannah Marcus
Dates: Thursday, March 28, Friday, March 29 & Saturday March 30 at 8 pm
Ticket Price: $35
Description: The evening begins with Hannah Marcus performing bones fragile, a movement and live sound looping piece that explores moments of infiniteness, tenderness and memory. Afterwards, artist Mitsu Salmon draws from her own family history, voice and geology in her work Desert Turtle.

Program Two:
Kissing The Earth by Kinnari Vora
Freedom From and Freedom To featuring Cristal Sabbagh, Scott Rubin, Amanda Maraist, Sharon Udoh, Kara Brody & Krissy Bergmark
Dates: Thursday, April 4, Friday, April 5 & Saturday April 6 at 8 pm
Ticket Price: $35
Description: Freedom From and Freedom To, led by Cristal Sabbagh, invites a pair of movement and sound improvisors from across Chicago to gather in front of a live audience, where they are grouped by chance. Artist Kinnari Vora dives into ritual with her piece Kissing The Earth, an offering to the ancestors who lived and breathed and at the same time are alive within us.

Accessibility
Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater is equipped with an induction hearing loop and assistive listening devices are available upon request. Our building features wheelchair-accessible seating and restrooms, push-button entrances, a courtesy wheelchair, and all-gender restrooms, with accessible counter and table spaces at our bars. For additional information regarding accessibility, visit steppenwolf.org/plan-your-visit/accessibility/ or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sponsor Information
The LookOut series is supported in part by the Walder Foundation. United Airlines is the Official and Exclusive Airline of Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf is also grateful for the significant season support from Allstate Insurance Company, Northern Trust, Amazon, ArentFox Schiff, Conagra Brands Foundation, Kirkland & Ellis, PNC, and Vinci Restaurant. Steppenwolf also acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. This project is partially supported by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theater that is home to America's ensemble. The company began performing in the mid-1970s in the basement of a Highland Park, IL church—today Steppenwolf is the nation's premier ensemble theater with 49 members who are among the top actors, playwrights and directors in the field. Deeply rooted in its ensemble ethos, the company is committed to equity, diversity, inclusion and making the Steppenwolf experience accessible to all. Groundbreaking productions from Balm in Gilead and August: Osage County to Downstate and Pass Over—and accolades that include the National Medal of Arts and 12 Tony® Awards—have made the theatre legendary. Artistic programming includes a membership series; a Steppenwolf for Young Adults season; and LookOut, a multi-genre performance series. The nationally recognized work of Steppenwolf Education engages more than 20,000 participants annually in Chicagoland communities promoting compassion, encouraging curiosity and inspiring action. While firmly grounded in the Chicago community, more than 40 original Steppenwolf productions have enjoyed success nationally and internationally, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, London, Sydney, Galway and Dublin. 2021 marked the opening of Steppenwolf's landmark Lefkofsky Arts & Education Center—deepening the company's commitment to Chicagoland teens and serving as a cultural nexus for Chicago. Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis are the Artistic Directors and E. Brooke Flanagan is Executive Director. Keating Crown is Chair of Steppenwolf's Board of Trustees.

Steppenwolf's Mission: Steppenwolf strives to create thrilling, courageous and provocative art in a thoughtful and inclusive environment. We succeed when we disrupt your routine with experiences that spark curiosity, empathy and joy. We invite you to join our ensemble as we navigate, together, our complex world. steppenwolf.org, facebook.com/steppenwolftheatre, twitter.com/steppenwolfthtr and instagram.com/steppenwolfthtr.

Where’s Plano? I’m not sure, but it’s a place some characters of the namesake play like to visit often. Perhaps Plano doesn’t even exist.

Presented as part of Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series and directed by Audrey Francis, this Will Arbery’s dark comedy is progressively more disturbing. All of its characters seem to be suffering: Genevieve (Ashley Neal), the outspoken artsy sister, is very unhappy but won’t say why. Her husband Steve (Andrew Cutler) has a split personality disorder, quite literally actually. Anne (Elizabeth Birnkrant) feels un-loved and worthless, and in her quiet desperation she fills her time with killing slugs in her apartment. Her husband John (Chris Acevedo) who is suffering from a “small feet curse” that runs in his family, is “probably gay”. And, according to her cruel sisters, he’s using Anne to get his green card. The youngest sister, Isabel (Amanda Fink), is in most pain because her mysterious illness is spiritual in nature. Which, naturally, makes her a saint. Not to mention that she has a “friend” (Faceless Ghost, played by Andrew Lund), who intermittently acts as her mate and her illness. But if you think the sisters are mad, you should see their mother, Mary (Janice O’Neil). This is no ordinary dysfunctional family, it’s a study in subclinical mental illness: not quite ill enough to seek help, but really, really unwell. Kind of like most of us.

Plano is staged with an admirable efficiency: great use of props (scenic design by Kristen Martino) and clever use of language, which helps to effortlessly span long durations of time and various spaces, bringing continuity to the events without having to change decorations or go through many props. Excellent acting and intimate space that’s First Floor Theater will leave you feeling like you’ve just visited with your own dysfunctional family. It’s funny, all right, but the underlying sadness subtly gets in the way, making Plano more “dark” than “comedy”.

Plano runs through March 28^th at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre. www.FirstFloorTheater.com.