The Infinite Room

In its rave review of The Steadfast Tin Soldier, the Chicago Tribune says “It’s transformational, truly. Barely more than an hour long and does not use a lick of human speech.” But how did the director, choreographer, actors and musicians put together a story without the use of the spoken word? Hear the secrets of collaboration and creation directly from Lookingglass Ensemble members, choreographer Tracy Walsh and actors Kasey Foster and Anthony Irons, as they discuss crafting a story the Chicago Sun-Times calls “gloriously creative and terrifically engaging.”

Her Honor Jane Byrne Revisited: An Introduction to the Radio Play

Live performances of Her Honor Jane Byrne were cut short by COVID-19, but the play now comes to vibrant life as a radio play on WBEZ.  Hear all about the play’s creation, its impact on a former resident of Cabrini-Green, and how the play’s events reflect our ongoing national conversations around race, class, and gender.  Now featuring new interviews with daughters of the two main characters, Mayor Jane Byrne and activist Marion Stamps.

Pequeños Milagros en La Villita

Las artes nos ayudan a conectarnos unos con otros, y durante el COVID-19, el parentesco y el bálsamo que el arte ofrece son aún más cruciales. Pero, ¿cómo se lleva el arte a la gente durante una pandemia? La BROCHA lo ha descubierto, brindando oportunidades para la creación artística y el compromiso a las personas de la tercera edad, especialmente aquellos individuos con la enfermedad de Alzheimer y la demencia relacionadas en la comunidad latinx. La narradora, activista y artista docente Jasmin Cardenas presenta una conversación con las fundadores de La BROCHA:

The arts help us connect with one another, and during COVID-19 the kinship and balm the arts provide is even more crucial.  But how do you bring art to people during a pandemic? LaBROCHA has figured it out, providing opportunities for artistic creation and engagement for people ages 60 years and older, especially individuals living with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) in the Latinx community. Storyteller, Activist, and Lookingglass Teaching Artist Jasmin Cardenas hosts a conversation with La BROCHA’s founders:

The isolation and loneliness we all feel due to COVID-19 is real, but it's even more dire for our seniors, especially those in under-invested communities.  How can the arts reach into those communities to activate, energize, and connect people -- to one another and to their creative selves that lie ready to be reawakened?  Join this conversation with Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center’s Karen Graham and Janice Layne, RADC’s Manager and Coordinator of Community Engagement.

When 844 people died in the Chicago River in the Eastland disaster, the event devastated Chicago and shook the nation. Lookingglass’ 2012 production of Eastland resurrected the ghosts and events of that day in a stunning folk musical.  Artistic Director Heidi Stillman sat down with playwright Andy White and co-composer Andre Pluess to talk about why they approached this forgotten calamity, and the journey to bring it to fruition in a production TIME called “remarkable.”

In cities across the country, Americans are fiercely arguing about which statues should stay up or come down. Meanwhile, the bloody Chicago Race Riots of 1919 have gone unmarked with any public monument for more than a century (though that is about to change).  What events from our past do we choose to recognize, and which do we choose to erase?  And how do those choices inform our present, and shape our future?

Join us in The Infinite Room for a conversation with Dr. Peter Cole and Dr. Franklin Cosey-Gay of Chicago Race Riot 1919 Commemoration Project about Chicago’s Red Summer, and the plans to make history come alive on our streets.

Chicago is no stranger to the anger currently roiling the nation’s streets, or the systemic inequities that underlie that anger. With so much tortured history, and a present that feels no simpler, how do we create a more hopeful future? Art on Sedgwick sits smack in the middle of a community where all those inequalities lie shoulder to shoulder, neighbor to neighbor – and is creating a path to move forward.

Guests:

Lookingglass’ Department of Curiosity brings theater as a tool for change to inquisitive minds and burning hearts of all ages in classrooms and communities all over Chicago.  Central to that work (and play!) is our premise that everyone is innately creative – we don’t all get to express that creativity as often as we wish, but it’s there inside all of us, waiting to be released. Lookingglass’ Director of Education Mara Stern Caesar, Teaching Artist Freddie Ramos, and Young Ensemble Member Harmony Elise discuss how arts experiences shaped them as kids, how collaboration is their greatest teacher, and how, even at a time when collaboration has more obstacles than ever, they keep their creative embers burning.

A baby strides determinedly across stage, the actors moving it in plain sight.

The tentacles of a giant squid grab a sailor, its huge eye gazing through the submarine’s porthole.

A terrified pig tells a graphic tale of terror, simultaneously ridiculous and bloody – all in silhouette.

Why do these moments work? How can inanimate objects evoke as much emotion, whether hilarity or sorrow, as their human counterparts? Why has this ancient form maintained a grip on the human imagination?

Lookingglass is one of many Chicago theaters that uses puppetry as part of our storytelling vocabulary. A conversation with masters of the form: