Today's guests are from Chicago’s 50 year old, South Side theater-making institution, Free Street Theatre.

Katrina Dion is a Chicago based director and producer, known for her radical youth work at Free Street Theater where she acts as Producing Artistic Director. In her 10 years at Free Street, Katrina has directed over 11 original plays, mentored over 200 youth, and produced over 40 shows. Recently, Katrina directed The Wizards by Ricardo Gamboa, presented by Concrete Content, for which she was named “Best Stage Director,” in the Chicago Reader Best of 2022 awards. In addition, Dion acts as an adjunct professor at The Theatre School at DePaul University, her alma mater. In 2019, Dion was listed as one of the top “50 People Performing for Chicago Theatre.” Her work has been featured in magazines such as Teen Vogue, and she has facilitated workshops across the country at places such as The National Civil Rights Museum, the Obama Foundation, ProPublic Illinois, and more.

Tanuja Devi Jagernauth is an Indo-Caribbean PIC abolitionist, writer, theater-maker, and yoga educator who believes in the necessity of creation during times of destruction. She is an In/House Artist-in-Residence with Free Street Theater, a member of the Playground Chicago writer pool, and the co-facilitator of Understory, a biweekly virtual space for activists and organizers to gather and contemplate that which they hold sacred. She is the writer and director of Free Street’s current production of Rupture/Repair, now playing until March 7th. For tickets, please visit freestreet.org or simply click the link in our show notes.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Katrina Dion and Tanuja Devi Jagernauth. Now let’s go to the top of the show!