Displaying items by tag: Chicago events

For its sixth Halloween season, Rough House Theater Co. has transformed Steppenwolf’s Merle Reskin Garage into a spectacular puppet haunted house. Last year I visted House of the Exquisite Corpse V: BLOOD & PUPPETS, and this year’s installment feels familiar in form but distinct in approach. The experience unfolds across six short puppet performances, each about seven minutes long and staged in its own small, enclosed box. Instead of sitting in seats, audience members peer through peepholes and listen through headphones, becoming voyeurs of a series of strange, self-contained worlds.

Last year’s “Blood & Puppets” theme offered a direct prompt. This time, LULLABIES gives its six creative teams a more abstract one, and they take it in folkloric, tall-tale directions. The stories draw on the uneasy promise at the heart of a lullaby: sleep, and you’ll be safe; stay awake, and you’re powerless. The audio narration felt especially full and impactful this year, adding texture to the stories and pulling listeners further into each room.

Jumping Jack Money. Photos by Greg India.

Exquisite Corpse's unique format gives each team room to experiment and draw on personal or cultural connections to lullabies. This variety is one of the production’s greatest strengths. Puppetry appears in many forms, often layered together: shadow puppets, hand puppets, and full-body puppets all share these small spaces. You’re close enough to notice the details in the figures and the mechanics of their movement, while the peepholes keep you just outside the worlds you’re watching.

That close-up view, combined with each team’s total freedom to construct an original world, raises expectations and makes the weaker moments more noticeable. There are always limits in live theater, but it’s disappointing when a story sets up a moment and then declines to stage it. “Jumping Jack Money” is a hilarious, cheeky piece, and its audience interaction is among the evening’s most charming. All the more frustrating, then, is that when the central conflict arrives, the piece avoids the playful challenge of staging a puppet fight and opts for a blackout that isn’t even dark enough to make the absence feel intentional. Another piece introduces a tornado—a chance for an intricate, dynamic effect alongside its many forms of puppetry, then buries the moment under a simple projected animation. Both left me wishing the production had followed through on the possibilities it had deliberately established.

don’t you want to live it? don’t you want to live your dream? 

My favorite stories show what the format can do when its ideas and staging work in tandem. Designed by Caitlin McLeod, “Hushaby hush, you’re not going with them,” performed by Finn Bradley, Eddy Barber-Rozema, Rachel Hartmann and Emilie Wingate, uses an angled castle set with meticulous detail. From all angles, the perspective gives the scene the feeling of a storybook illustration, making it an especially apt fit for a show about the tales we tell to get children to sleep.

The final piece, “don’t you want to live it? don’t you want to live your dream?,” created by J. Felix and Abby Palen and performed by Mallory Limbrell and Shannon Twenter, makes memorable use of its floating, moving set. The performers move around it, giving the puppets space to transform along with the scene. It’s a playful, visually inventive take on lullabies and a strong finish to the sequence.

The experience design has also become more cohesive since last year. Each performance space’s exterior peepholes now feel connected to the story inside, and the paths between each story, between and around the boxes, carry a more unified atmosphere, giving the six distinct rooms a shared setting: an eerie, wonderful night of lullabies and puppets!

House of the Exquisite Corpse VI: LULLABIES runs at Steppenwolf’s Merle Reskin Garage through November 1. Tickets are available at roughhousetheater.com/tickets.

Avalanche Theatre announces the world premiere production of They Broke Up by Chicago playwright Skyler Tarnas, November 6–22, 2026.  Opening November 7 at 7:30pm) at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, 5779 Ridge Ave.

They Broke Up is Avalanche's first world premiere presented at their new home as a resident company at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble. The play is the professional full-length debut from playwright Skyler Tarnas, an ensemble member of Avalanche and graduate of Northwestern University's Writing for the Screen and Stage MFA program.

They Broke Up — which was originally developed in Avalanche's new play incubator the Next Draft Series in 2024 — is an apocalyptic absurdist comedy centered around a friend group trying to weather both the end of the world and the much more devastating end of a relationship. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit avalanchetheatre.com/event-details/they-broke-up.

"They Broke Up is one of the most fun, distinct, and laugh-out-loud plays we've come across at Avalanche. Skyler has such a clear voice and vision for this play, which made the workshop a delight," says Avalanche Theatre's Artistic Director Alexander Attea, who also will perform in production as Brett. "In the two years that we've been working on this play, it has grown and changed in some weird and wonderful ways; all while staying rooted in the comedy and tragedy of this insane group of friends having to grapple with the reality of being themselves."

It's New Year's Eve, and it sure looks like the world is ending. But much more importantly, Brett and Amy have just broken up. As aliens pollute the water, zombies run for Congress, birds ravage the housing market, and apocalyptic cult plans for the end of days, Brett and Amy's friends scheme to reunite them while the ex-couple themselves try to navigate a world with an end-date and a world without each other.

"I remember reading three grotesquely awful news stories in a row in a Trader Joe's parking lot and then dissociating heavily next to the oranges. I realized that's what this play was going to try to capture... the constant overload of tragedy and the deranged sense of detachment I felt like I needed to get through the day, letting numbness shut out helpfulness and growth," says playwright Skyler Tarnas. "I love how absurd I got to be with language and logic in this piece."

Avalanche Theatre's world premiere of They Broke Up plays Nov 6 - 22, 2026, at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble at 5779 Ridge Ave. Tickets are now available starting at an early-bird rate of $25 through September 15th and then increasing to $35 at AvalancheTheatre.com. A special edition of the script, published by Avalanche Theatre, will also be available for purchase as a ticket add-on.

The cast of They Broke Up features Avalanche Theatre ensemble members Gabriela Diaz, Alexander Attea, Ky Anderson, and Mitch Fischer. The cast also includes Reagan James, Jack Disselhorst, Maya McEntyre, and Jo Tannous. Understudies for the production are Lily Lourigan, Nathan Keiller, Becca Anderson, Curen Feliciani, Katie Bevil, and Matt Schutz.

They Broke Up is directed by Avalanche Theatre ensemble member Owen Hickle-Edwards. The design team includes Avalanche Executive Director Zoe Sjogerman (Production Manager), Emma Crumption (Stage Manager), Yukta Sinha (Assistant Stage Manager), Alishiana Uyao (Technical Director), Nathan Keiller (Lighting Designer), Drew McCall (Sound Designer), Eel Black (Costume Designer), Ab Rieve (Props Designer), and Tristin Hall (Intimacy Designer).

They Broke Up

World Premiere

By Skyler Tarnas

Directed by Owen Hickle-Edwards

Nov 6 - 22 (Opening night Friday Nov 6 at 7:30pm) at Rivendell Ensemble Theatre

Information

Tickets: www.AvalancheTheatre.com

General Admission Tickets: $35 - $45

About Avalanche Theatre

Avalanche Theatre, founded in 2019 by Alexander Attea and Zoe Sjogerman, is Chicago's new home for new play development. With a mission centered on developing new plays by Chicago playwrights, Avalanche has workshopped scripts that have gone on to be seen on stages including the Goodman Theatre, Shattered Globe Theatre, Alleyway Theatre, Silk Road Cultural Center, Renaissance Theatreworks, and others, as well as recognition from the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Award and as Finalists & Semi-Finalists for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. Through its script development programs like the Next Draft Series and its monthly Show & Tell events, Avalanche is committed to elevating the voices of Chicago's emerging playwrights.

Oil Lamp Theater is proud to announce the cast and creative team for its next production and the final production in its 2026 season, It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, November 20 - December 27, adapted by Joe Landry and directed by Becca Holloway at Oil Lamp Theater, 1723 Glenview Road. The schedule includes preview performances Friday, Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 21 at 3 p.m. with the opening performance Saturday, Nov. 21 at 7:30 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 3 and 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. with additional Wednesday performances on Dec. 2 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m, Dec. 16 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. and Dec. 23 at 7:30 p.m. There will also be an understudy performance on Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now for $30 for previews and $55 for the run at OilLampTheater.org.  

This heartwarming production is the perfect way to embrace the spirit of the Christmas season. Experience unmatched holiday cheer with Frank Capra's beloved classic, It's a Wonderful Life, reimagined as a captivating Live Radio Play, complete with foley sound effects and set in Oil Lamp Theater’s WBFR radio studio.

Audiences are invited to journey to Bedford Falls, where George Bailey's troubles lead him to wish he was never born. Clarence, an angel sent to intervene, steps in to make his wishes come true and George quickly learns just how blessed he is and how many lives he has touched.

The cast of It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play includes Ethan Smith (he/him, Jake Laurents); India Huy (she/her, Sally Applewhite); Adam Schulmerich (he/him, Freddie Filmore); Baxter Konstans (he/him, Harry “Jazzbo” Haywood); Julia Hope Budd (she/her, Lana Sherwood); Anthony Augustine  (he/him, Foley Artist); Christopher Ratliff (he/him, U/S Jake Laurents); Aly Mackenzie (she/her, U/S Sally Applewhite); Neil Figuracion (any, U/S Freddie Filmore); Payton Nesci (he/him, U/S Harry “Jazzbo” Haywood); Katherine Abel (she/her, U/S Lana Sherwood) and John N Williams (he/him, U/S Foley Artist).  

The production team includes Becca Holloway (she/her, director); Anthony Doyle (he/him, stage manager); Trenton Jones (he/him, scenic designer); Rachel D. Hemm (she/her, lighting designer); Taylor Pfenning (she/her, costume designer); Elly Burke (she/her, props designer); Conner Nicoson (they/them, technical director); Connor Windle (she/her, production manager and sound designer) and Rose Leisner (she/her, company manager). 

ABOUT JOE LANDRY, playwright

Joe Landry's plays have been produced across the country and internationally and include It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (named one of the top-ten most produced plays by American Theatre Magazine). His other Live Radio Play adaptations include Vintage Hitchcock, Meet Me in St. Louis, War of the Worlds: The Panic Broadcast and A Christmas Carol, published through Playscripts/Broadway Licensing and Concord. Other plays include The Wicked Stage, Reefer Madness, Numb and Hitchcocked!. He attended Playwrights Horizons/NYU and has taught playwriting at Sacred Heart University.

ABOUT BECCA HOLLOWAY, director

Becca Holloway is a director/choreographer based in Chicago. She’s thrilled to return to Oil Lamp Theater, where she made her directorial debut 10 years ago! Favorite directing credits include Curious Circumstances of Louis Le Prince, Wise Guys, Die Hard 4 Your Luv (The Factory Theater), Muted (Red Theater) and Wanderlust and The Muses (Chicago Music Theater Festival). As an associate director: Godspell (Music Theater Works) and the upcoming Sunday in the Park with George (Paramount Theatre). Holloway has also worked extensively as a casting director for more than 30 productions including work with Wicked and The Lion King. 

The Sarah Siddons Society is pleased to present its 2026 Award to actress and director Victoria Clark, who recently starred in Kimberly Akimbo as Kimberly on Broadway, for which she won the 2023 Tony Award for Leading Actress in a Musical, as well as a Grammy nomination. Clark also originated the role of Margaret Johnson in The Light in the Piazza both at Chicago's Goodman Theatre and on Broadway, which earned her the 2005 Tony Award for Leading Actress in a Musical. Additional Tony nominations include Sister Act, Gigi and Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. Most recently, she appeared in the critically acclaimed off-Broadway world premiere of Joshua Owen's play Human Things.  

The Society's annual Award is presented to an individual who has achieved outstanding artistic achievement in theatre. Ms. Clark will be honored at the Society's 2026 Benefit on Monday, November 9, 2026 at The Arts Club of Chicago, 201 E. Ontario St. in Chicago. (6 pm reception, 7 pm program).

Following a reception, the evening's program will include musical selections from Ms. Clark's most memorable shows performed by some of Chicago's most acclaimed theatre artists including Marta Bady, Lillian Castillo, Marya Grandy and Heidi Kettenring under the co-direction of Christopher Chase Carter and Christopher Pazdernik, with music direction by Linda Madonia. The evening, hosted by longtime Chicago radio personality Patti Vasquez, will also feature the induction of the Sarah Siddons Society 2026 Scholarship Recipients.

Single tickets and a variety of sponsorship opportunities are currently available here. All proceeds benefit the Sarah Siddons Society Scholarship Program, dedicated to funding scholarships for promising theater arts students at top Chicago area universities.

While in town to accept her award, Victoria Clark will lead a presentation for Chicago-area university theatre arts students at the Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. 

Sarah Siddons Society President Martin Balogh comments, "We are excited to honor Victoria Clark, the luminous, dynamic and highly respected Broadway actress. In addition to her extraordinary accomplishments as a performer, Victoria's work as a director, writer and teacher has established her as a highly regarded, versatile and truly well-rounded theatrical artist. Her remarkable breadth of talent and dedication to the theatre make her an especially deserving honoree."

More about Victoria Clark

In addition to appearing in fourteen Broadway shows, Victoria Clark's many film and television credits include The Gilded Age, Elsbeth, Almost Family, The Blacklist, Homeland, 911-Nashville, Pose, The Happening, Cradle Will Rock, Hallmark's One Royal Holiday, among others. Clark has had the honor of performing at Carnegie Hall several times, singing Ma Joad in the opera The Grapes of Wrath by Ricky Ian Gordon, and Katisha in the Master Voices production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado, directed and conducted by Ted Sperling.

Clark is also a director (Love Life for New York City Center's Encores! series) and avid educator, serving as Artist in Residence at both Duke University and Pace University. She is a frequent guest lecturer and Master Class Teacher at her alma mater Yale University. She is currently back at work re-writing her one-woman show for the 245^th time and will hopefully get it up sometime in the next 2-3 decades. 

Clark is the proud mama of green energy consultant and innovator Thomas Guest and resides in New York City with her husband Tom and their two Golden Retrievers Ollie (Zen Master) and Gracie (Naughty Princess). IG: victoriajclark

About Sarah Siddons Society

Since its inception, the mission of the Society has been to fund scholarships to promising theater arts students at top Chicago area universities including; The Theater Department, Columbia College; The Theatre School at DePaul University; Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, Northwestern University School of Communications and the School of Theatre and Dance at Northern Illinois University. For additional information, visit sarahsiddonssociety.org.

At fifteen, the world can feel like a television show you haven't quite figured out how to turn off.

For Salma (Jacqueline Guillen), it may be even more difficult. She watches too much television—especially detective shows—and has begun to see the world through the eyes of a detective. So when Maria (Andrea Ferro) disappears, Salma doesn't simply wonder where her friend is. She decides to investigate.

She recruits Este (Carmen Berkeley) and Phoebe (Ariana Burks) to help her find Maria, and Phanèsia Pharel's Dead Girl's Quinceañera takes off from there.

Produced by Goodman Theatre in association with Chicago Latino Theater Alliance, the production is a collective World Premiere with Barrington Stage Company and Hartford Stage. Directed by Melia Bensussen, the play has at times the quick-cut energy of the procedural television shows that inspired Pharel when she originally conceived the work.

And it moves fast.

Very fast.

Pharel understands the language of fifteen-year-old girls—the rapid-fire speech, the sudden shifts in thought, the jokes that arrive in the middle of serious conversations and the ability to move from one subject to another without warning. These girls don't simply talk; they process.

And Salma processes everything like a detective.

Television has given her a vocabulary for understanding crime, clues and suspects. She has watched enough procedural television shows to believe she knows how an investigation works. There is something funny about her confidence, but there is also something unsettling about it. For all the light-heartedness there’s an air that something isn’t right.

Pharel wisely doesn't allow that danger to become the only thing we see. The girls joke, argue, tease one another and behave like fifteen-year-olds. Their humor is genuine, but it also creates an increasingly uneasy contrast with what may be happening beyond their immediate world.

That contrast gives the play its darker edge.

The girls are dealing with situations that are far more adult than they are. Salma's television education has taught her that mysteries have clues and crimes have solutions. But real life doesn't necessarily follow the rules of a television show.

The four girls come from distinctly different cultural backgrounds. Salma is Cuban, Este is Salvadorian, Phoebe is Dominican/Haitian, and her cousin Maria is Dominican. Their different cultural experiences shape their ideas about family, friendship, behavior and what it means to grow up American, while their interactions allow Pharel to explore questions of identity, belonging and how young people see one another across economic and cultural lines. Yet they share something equally important: they are all approximately fifteen years old, and they are all American.

Pharel doesn't present Latino identity as one uniform experience. Instead, she allows the girls' differences to shape their relationships and their understanding of the world. They are negotiating family expectations, cultural identity and American teenage life simultaneously.

Dead Girl’s Quinceañera is ambitious, culturally layered and unapologetically youthful. Pharel gives us four girls who may come from different places, but who share the complicated experience of growing up American while carrying the histories, expectations and family secrets that shape who they are. As those secrets begin to surface, friendship is tested, identities are questioned, and the girls are forced to confront realities far beyond their years.

Ultimately, this is a play about friendship, identity and agency—and about young women discovering that sometimes the most important story is the one they have the courage to uncover for themselves.

RECOMMENDED

When: Through Nov. 1 (Extended through November 8th!)

Where: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.

Tickets: $34-$79

Info: www.goodmantheatre.org

Box Office: 312-443-3800

With Halloween creeping closer, there’s something fitting about revisiting one of opera’s earliest flirtations with macabre horror - especially in a production presented and performed by Chicago City Opera (COT). Der Vampyr may not enjoy the mainstream familiarity of later supernatural works, but its mix of moonlit superstition, doomed romance, and aristocratic menace makes it an ideal October offering. As audiences lean into the season’s appetite for the eerie, Marschner’s opera emerges as a surprisingly modern ancestor to everything from Victorian melodrama to contemporary horror musicals.

Though often treated as a standalone curiosity, Der Vampyr has a lineage that begins well outside the opera house. The story originates with John Polidori’s 1819 prose tale The Vampyre, one of the first works to codify the seductive, aristocratic vampire archetype. Polidori’s narrative was adapted into a German stage play by Heinrich Ludwig Ritter, whose dramatization became the direct source for Wilhelm August Wohlbrück’s libretto. Heinrich Marschner’s 1828 opera builds on Ritter’s theatrical version, shaping the material into a darkly romantic, musically driven narrative that blends early Romantic lyricism with gothic theatrics. In short: Polidori’s story inspired Ritter’s play, and Ritter’s play became the foundation for Marschner’s opera.

Set in early 19th century Scotland, the opera follows Lord Ruthven, a charismatic nobleman cursed with vampirism and bound to claim new victims before dawn or face eternal damnation. After surviving a near fatal attack, the young hero Edgar becomes unknowingly entangled in Ruthven’s hunt. Ruthven first targets the innocent Janthe, luring her to a ruined castle under the guise of seduction, and later sets his sights on Malwina, Edgar’s beloved, whose wedding night becomes his final opportunity to fulfill his deadly pact. As Edgar pieces together the truth, the opera accelerates toward a frantic race against sunrise: Ruthven’s identity is exposed, his supernatural bargain collapses, and the community rallies to save Malwina as the vampire is ultimately destroyed. What remains is a blend of gothic suspense, romantic rescue, and early Romantic moral drama - a seasonally perfect slice of operatic horror as Halloween approaches.

Jeremiah Strickler commands the evening as Lord Ruthven, delivering a performance that blends aristocratic charm with a chilling, predatory stillness. His presence anchors the production - vocally assured, theatrically magnetic, and always in control of the opera’s gothic pulse. Opposite him, Jordan Loyd brings a clear, earnest intensity to Edgar Aubry, shaping the role with a bright tenor and a palpable sense of moral urgency. Loyd had some of the most spectacular and heartfelt vocal moments of the evening, particularly toward the end of Act II as he reflects on his past love. Jessie Lyons’ Malwina adds welcome tenderness, her lyrical phrasing and grounded sincerity adding to the opera’s romantic core. Ariel Emma’s Janthe provides one of the night’s most striking early moments, her brief arc handled with vivid color and fearless commitment, and some of the notes she held were genuinely astounding - the kind that stop the room for a beat. Keaton Payne’s Humphrey von Davenaut provides a sturdy, authoritative counterweight, shaped by both his assured delivery and his expressive, sharply drawn presence. Meanwhile, Molly Clementz (also the production’s graphic designer) brings Emmy Perth to life with bright energy and an impressive finesse that lifts every moment she’s given, adding flashes of warmth, wit, and a polished musicality - especially in the way she shapes and sustains her notes with such control and clarity.

Bat Collazo’s George Dibdin and Kevin Wheatle’s John Berkley round out the ensemble with crisp, well-shaped character work that keeps the world of the opera humming with specificity.

Jerimiah Strickler (rear) Molly Clemenntz (left) and Bat Collazo in Chicago City Opera's Der Vampyr.

One of the unexpected pleasures of the evening was simply hearing each singer on their own - every voice carrying its own color, character, and emotional weight. But when paired, those timbres intertwined with a striking naturalness, and in the moments when all eight sang off one another at once, the result was nothing short of exquisite. The ensemble sound had a richness and immediacy that felt almost architectural, each voice reinforcing the next until the room seemed to vibrate with a unified, resonant force. It was a reminder of how thrilling Marschner’s writing can be when performed by artists who listen as intently as they sing.

Behind the scenes, Alexis Enyart conducts with sharp dramatic instinct, shaping Marschner’s score with clarity and momentum. SarahAnn Sutter’s direction deepens the production’s impact, treating Der Vampyr not merely as gothic spectacle but as a living, breathing psychological drama. She embraces the opera’s supernatural flair with confidence - the shadows, the proximity, the sudden shifts in tone - yet she never lets the human stakes slip away. Sutter has a keen sense for spatial storytelling, using the venue’s architecture to heighten tension and intimacy; she sends performers through the aisles and along the home’s sweeping historic staircase, activating much of the house as part of the dramatic landscape. Her staging choices reveal a director who understands how early Romantic horror works best: not through excess, but through precision, ambience, and emotional clarity. Supported by Jordan Crice’s deft piano work and Adam Nicholson’s distinctive set design, the result is a production where every element feels intentionally placed and dramatically charged. Thanks to this talented cast and creative team, Chicago City Opera builds a world where early Romantic horror feels both stylish and surprisingly immediate.

Although Der Vampyr travels through a handful Chicago area venues during its run, the performance I attended on opening night unfolded inside the storied Colvin House - a location that feels almost predestined for this opera. Colvin House, beautifully placed across the street from Lake Michigan on the corner of Thorndale Avenue and Sheridan Road, proves to be an inspired setting for Der Vampyr, its historic architecture and intimate, richly textured rooms amplifying the opera’s gothic mood in ways a traditional proscenium simply can’t match. The building’s carved woodwork, shadow friendly corners, period furnishings, and old-world elegance create a natural sense of suspense and closeness, allowing the audience to feel almost inside the drama rather than observing it from a distance. The scale of the space heightens the tension - Ruthven’s entrances feel more dangerous, Janthe’s fate more immediate, Malwina’s peril more personal. Colvin House becomes a living extension of the opera’s supernatural world and a perfect match for Marschner’s early Romantic horror.

Despite all its strengths, the evening wasn’t without a minor but noticeable drawback. Although brief stretches of dialogue were exchanged in English, the opera itself is sung in its original German, making the surtitles essential for most. Unfortunately, the monitor displaying those subtitles sat off to the front side and too low to be easily seen by much of the audience; only those in the unobstructed front section had a consistently clear view. Sitting in the third row opposite the monitor side, I was able to catch most of the surtitles when first‑row head movement allowed, but many around me – and further back - were blocked entirely. I’m no set designer, but raising the monitor and centering it - even if it encroached slightly into the stage picture - would make the surtitles far more accessible, a small trade off that would greatly improve audience experience. In the meantime, I strongly recommend that attendees read the Act I and Act II synopsis in the program before the performance begins; with that context in hand, most will have a solid grasp of the unfolding drama even if the surtitles prove difficult to see.

Regardless of that small hiccup, the opera itself remained a beautiful, wonderfully performed experience - rich in mood, artistry, and musical power.

Der Vampyr is recommended as a rare and atmospheric experience - the kind of intimate, site specific opera that feels tailor made for October. For audiences looking to embrace the season with something truly unique, this production offers a gothic thrill you won’t find anywhere else. Upcoming performances include Wednesday, October 7 at Colvin House (7pm), Friday, October 9 at Fulton Street Art Center (7pm), and Sunday, October 11 at Skokie Theatre (3pm).

https://www.chicagocityopera.com/

Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the nation's premier ensemble theater company, is pleased to launch its 51st Season with the world premiere of Chicago playwright Stephanie Alison Walker's biting satire Adirondack Chair Circle, directed by Tony Award winner Pam MacKinnon (Downstate, Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), playing October 22 — December 6, 2026 in Steppenwolf's Ensemble Theater, 1646 N. Halsted St. in Chicago. Single tickets are now on sale at steppenwolf.org or the Box Office at (312) 335-1650. The press opening is Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 6 pm.

The Adirondack Chair Circle cast features a stellar lineup of talent including ensemble member Caroline Neff, who returns to the Steppenwolf stage, adding to her extensive Steppenwolf credits including Mr. Wolf, Fool for Love, POTUS and Another Marriage. She is joined by David Darrow, who dazzled Steppenwolf audiences as Mozart in last season's record-breaking Amadeus. Broadway favorite Katrina Lenk, who received Tony and Grammy Awards for her turn in The Band's Visit, returns to Steppenwolf for the first time since 2005's Lost Land. Making her Steppenwolf debut is Chicago actor Wendy Mateo, while Sadieh Rifai returns to Steppenwolf after captivating audiences in last year's You Will Get Sick.

 About the Production:

A gaggle of suburban moms, armed with pickleball paddles and hard kombucha, are ready to take on the school board in the fight of their lives: attempting to ban the controversial books available to their kids in the school library. But is this trusted inner circle all on the same page? A piercing world premiere from a Chicago playwright, Stephanie Alison Walker's Adirondack Chair Circle exposes the hilarious hypocrisy of the causes we claim and the company we keep. And has a damn good time doing it.

The creative team includes Todd Rosenthal (Scenic Design), Izumi Inaba (Costume Design), Barbara Samuels (Lighting Design), Mikhail Fiksel (Sound Design), Nicholas Hussong (Projection Design), Steph Paul (Choreographer), Kate DeVore (Vocal Coach), Bryar Barborka (Dramaturg), Patrick Zakem (Creative Producer), Elise Hausken (Production Manager), JC Clementz, CSA (Casting), Michelle Medvin (Production Stage Manager) and Kathleen Barrett (Assistant Stage Manager). For full cast and creative team bios, click here.

Production Details:

Title: Adirondack Chair Circle
Playwright: Stephanie Alison Walker
Director: Pam MacKinnon
Cast: ensemble member Caroline Neff (Evelyn Grace) with David Darrow (Crow), Katrina Lenk (Banna), Wendy Mateo (Winona) and Sadieh Rifai (Libby).
Understudies: Tiffany Bedwell (Banna), Brittany Burch (Evelyn Grace), Alexandra Casillas (Winona), Warren Duncan (Crow) and Erinn Fredin (Libby).

Location: Steppenwolf's Ensemble Theater, 1646 N. Halsted St., Chicago

Dates: Previews: Thursday, October 22 – Saturday, October 31, 2026
Press performance/Opening: Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 6 pm
Regular run: Tuesday, November 3 – Sunday, December 6, 2026
Curtain Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 pm; Saturdays at 3 pm & 7:30 pm; and Sundays at 3 pm. Please note: there will not be 7:30 pm performances on Tuesday, October 27, Thursday, November 5, Tuesday, November 10, Wednesday, November 18, Wednesday, November 25, Thursday, November 26 and Tuesday, December 1; there will be an added 2 pm matinees on Wednesday, November 25 and Wednesday, December 2.

Tickets: Classic Memberships starting as low as $165 are now on sale for Steppenwolf's 2026/27 season at steppenwolf.org/myseason. Single tickets for Adirondack Chair Circle ($20 – $149*) are now on sale at steppenwolf.org and the Box Office at (312) 335-1650. Steppenwolf Flex Memberships are currently on sale: Black Card Memberships with six tickets for use any time for any production and RED Card Memberships for theatergoers under 30. *Pricing includes an $8.50 handling fee

Steppenwolf offers 20 tickets for $20 (no added fees) for each performance of every Main Series production. Use promo code 20FOR20 to redeem this offer online, available in advance until they're sold out for every main series show. Limit 2 tickets per person. You can also purchase by phone at (312) 335-1650 on the day-of show at 12 pm for main series performances. Limit 2 tickets per person.

Accessible Performance Dates:

Audio-Described and Touch Tour: Sunday, November 22 at 3 pm (1:30 pm Touch Tour)
Open-Captioned: Saturday, November 7 at 3 pm, Thursday, November 19 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, November 28 at 3 pm
ASL-Interpreted: Friday, December 4 at 7:30 pm

Education and Engagement:

Throughout the 2026/27 season, Steppenwolf continues its commitment to the next generation of theatre learners, makers and appreciators with robust education and engagement programming. Programming includes dedicated student matinee performances during four of the five Main Series productions including Topdog/Underdog, Adirondack Chair Circle, The Comeuppance and Ellen B., in-school residencies in partnership with Chicago Public schools, workshops, panels and events specifically geared towards teens, as well as professional development trainings and resources for educators. For additional information about Steppenwolf's Education and Engagement programming and to register your school for a field trip visit steppenwolf.org/education-community/school-teacher-programs/field-trips.

Artist Biographies:

Stephanie Alison Walker (Playwright) is an internationally-produced, award-winning playwright whose work is known for the personalization of the political, humor in darkness and the dramatization of the resilience of women. She is a native Chicagoburbian who has lived all over including London, Buenos Aires, San Juan Island and fifteen years in Los Angeles. She received her Bachelors in English/Creative Writing and Spanish from the University of Colorado and her Master of Professional Writing from the University of California. She began writing plays while working for Fox Theatricals in Chicago. Her play about the housing crisis, American Home, was the inaugural winner of American Blues Theatre's Blue Ink Award. Her play about the mothers of the disappeared in Argentina, The Madres, received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere at Teatro Vista in Chicago, Skylight Theatre Company in L.A., Moxie Theatre in San Diego and Shrewd Theatre Company in Austin. It was the 2019 Winner of the Francesca Primus Prize, winner of the Ashland New Plays Festival, the Generations Prize and semi-finalist for the CTG/ Humanitas Prize for playwriting. Her follow-up play The Abuelas, premiered at Teatro Vista and was recently adapted into a short film titled The Birthday Gift. The Art of Disappearing was a finalist for the Primus Prize and enjoyed critical praise for the world premiere in Chicago by 16th Street Theater in 2015. Friends with Guns, her play about liberals and gun ownership was an O'Neill Finalist, winner of Best New Play at the 2019 Valley Theatre Awards, and had its Chicago premiere by A Short Leap Theatre Company in 2025. Sophia Hayden Deserves Better tells the story of the architect of the Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and was recently a part of Gglassfest by Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago. The Ordeal of Water, inspired by the first women to work as Longshoremen at the Port of Los Angeles, was most recently a part of Bay Street Theater's New Works Festival. Adirondack Chair Circle, her play that tackles suburban book-banning moms, was developed at The Inkwell Theater Company and A Red Orchid's Studio at A Red Orchid. Her short plays have been anthologized by Smith & Kraus. Her full-lengths are published by Broadway Publishing, Inc. In addition to writing plays, she is currently adapting Friends with Guns and The Abuelas as features while raising two spirited boys and selling real estate in the suburbs of Chicago. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Honor Roll Playwrights, NNPN Affiliated Artist, and a proud alumni of the Playwrights Union. stephaniealisonwalker.com

Pam MacKinnon (Director) is a Tony, Drama Desk and multi-Obie Award winning director. She is the artistic director of American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She has directed more than eighty productions. Her Tony Award-winning production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? originated at Steppenwolf. Her production of Bruce Norris's Downstate (Steppenwolf, National Theatre and Playwrights Horizons) was celebrated with several Jeff Awards and won Pam her second Obie. She served as president of SDC, the national Union of choreographers and directors.

David Darrow (Crow) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Amadeus; Off-Broadway: Memnon (Classical Theatre of Harlem), All Is Calm (Drama Desk Award), The Revival (Project Y Theatre); Regional: Over ten productions at The Guthrie including A Little Shop Of Horrors, Juno And The Paycock  and The Tempest; Sweat (ACT); Ragtime, Sweeney Todd, Fiddler on the Roof (Asolo Repertory Theatre); Lookinglass Alice, Twelfth Night (Baltimore Center Stage); Romeo And Juliet (Ten Thousand Things); Television: RJ Decker, Ballard and Cupertino; Education: MFA Grad Acting – Tisch School of the Arts. David has written several musicals which have been developed/produced at theatres around the country.

Katrina Lenk (Banna) Broadway: Company, The Band's Visit (Tony, Grammy, Lucille Lortel Award), Indecent, Once, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, The Miracle Worker. Additional theater credits include: High Spirits (New York City Center Encores!), Indecent (Vineyard, La Jolla Playhouse, Yale Rep), iWitness (Mark Taper Forum), Lost Land (Steppenwolf), Lovelace: A Rock Opera (L.A./Edinburgh). Television: Cupertino, Apples Never Fall, Ozark, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Little Voice, The Good Fight, The Village, Tommy, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order, et al.

Wendy Mateo (Winona) is beyond thrilled to make her Steppenwolf debut. Wendy is the Artistic Director of Teatro Vista Productions (TVP) and a Chicago-based actor, director and filmmaker. An iO and Second City alum, she has been seen on stage in Beyond Caring and Big Lake Big City (Lookingglass Theatre). Her directing work includes The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Goodman Theatre); ¡Bernarda! (TVP); Mojada (upcoming at Court Theatre). Her TV/film acting credits include Chicago Med, Station Eleven and Widows, while her filmmaking credits include Good Mothers and Hair.

Caroline Neff (Evelyn Grace) is a Steppenwolf ensemble member. At Steppenwolf, she was last seen in Mr. Wolf, Fool for Love, POTUS, Another Marriage, Describe the Night, Seagull, Dance Nation, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, You Got Older, Linda Vista (also Taper Forum and Broadway), The Fundamentals, The Flick, Airline Highway (also Broadway), The Way West, Three Sisters, Annie Bosh is Missing and Where We're Born. Select theatre credits include: Lettie (Jeff Award Best Actor, Victory Gardens Theater); Uncle Vanya (Goodman Theatre); A Brief History of Helen of Troy (Jeff Award for Best Actress), The Knowledge, Harper Regan, In Arabia We'd All Be Kings (Steep Theatre); The Downpour (Route 66 Theatre); Port (Griffin Theatre); 4000 Miles (Northlight Theatre); Moonshiner (Jackalope Theatre). Regional credits include: Peerless (Yale Repertory Theatre). Film and television credits include: Parallax (upcoming Apple tv) FBI, Three Women, Let the Right One In, The Red Line, Chicago P.D., Chicago Fire, Open Tables and Older Children, and heard in multiple Audible Projects such as: Song of the Northwoods, Crowded Hours, Denali and Boar's Nest. She is a proud company member of Steep Theatre and holds her BA from Columbia College.

Sadieh Rifai (Libby) Steppenwolf Theatre: You Will Get Sick, August: Osage County (u/s). The Targeted, Do You Feel Anger, An Evening at the Talk House, Grey House (A Red Orchid). She's performed at theaters such as Goodman, American Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare and Milwaukee Repertory. Film: Block Party, Hekla, The Wise Kids, Nate and Margaret, Olympia, All Happy Families. Television: Bettendorf Talks, The Red Line, Chicago Med, Patriot, Shining Girls and Somebody Somewhere. Sadieh received the Princess Grace Award in 2011 & The Princess Grace Fellow in 2026. She's a graduate of The School at Steppenwolf and is represented by Venture and Paonessa Talent.

Accessibility:

As a commitment to make the Steppenwolf experience accessible to everyone, performances featuring American Sign Language Interpretation, Open Captioning and Audio Description are offered during the run of each STC production. Assistive listening devices (ALDs), large-print programs and Braille programs are available for every performance and all our spaces are equipped with an induction hearing loop. 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:

Adirondack Chair Circle is a recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. United Airlines is the Official and Exclusive Airline of Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf is also grateful for the significant season support from lead sponsors Allstate Insurance Company, Paul Angell Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Crown Family Philanthropies, Caroline and Keating Crown, Julius Frankel Foundation, Lefkofsky Family Foundation, Northern Trust, Anne and Don Phillips, John Hart and Carol Prins, Shubert Foundation, Inc, and Zell Family Foundation. Steppenwolf also acknowledges generous support from premier sponsors Anonymous, Andrew and Amy Bluhm, Michael and Cathy Brennan, Ann and Richard Carr, Chicago Community Trust, Rich and Margery Feitler, FROST CHICAGO, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Jessica and Dominic Green Family Fund, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Orlebeke Foundation, Sacks Family Foundation, Gary Sinise Foundation, Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Thoma Bravo, and Bryan Traubert and Penny Pritzker. Steppenwolf also acknowledges support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council, and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.   

About Steppenwolf Theatre Company:

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is the nation's premier Ensemble Theater with 51 members who are among the top actors, playwrights and directors in the field. Thrilling, powerful, groundbreaking productions have made this theatre legendary. From the early phenomenon of Balm in Gilead, to The Grapes of Wrath, August: Osage County, Downstate, The Brother/Sister Plays, and more recently, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Purpose, Steppenwolf Theatre has had a long-running and undeniable impact on American Theatre and Chicago's cultural landscape. Founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry and Gary Sinise, Steppenwolf started as a group of friends in their teens and early 20s performing in the basement of a school in Highland Park, Illinois. Today, the company's artistic force remains rooted in the original vision of its founders: an artist-driven theatre, whose vitality is defined by its appetite for bold and innovative work. Every aspect of Steppenwolf is rooted in its Ensemble ethos, from the intergenerational artistic programming to the multi-genre performance series LookOut, to the nationally recognized work of Steppenwolf Education and Engagement which serves nearly 15,000 teens annually. While 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. Steppenwolf also holds accolades that include the National Medal of Arts, 14 Tony Awards, two Pulitzer Prize-winning commissions and more. Led by Artistic Directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis, Executive Director E. Brooke Flanagan and Board of Trustees Chair Keating Crown — Steppenwolf continually redefines the boundaries of live theater and pushes the limits of acting and performance.

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.

Hell in a Handbag Productions is thrilled to announce its 25th Anniversary Season, featuring three "camptacular" shows guaranteed to delight lovers of their signature theater style. For a quarter-century, Handbag has served Chicago audiences its unique brand of camp and ridiculousness – earning a fiercely dedicated following and a recent induction into the 2026 Chicago LGBT+ Hall of Fame. Season subscriptions on are on sale here.

Hell in a Handbag opens its 2026-27 Season this holiday season with the world premiere of Artistic Director David Cerda's* It's a Horrible Life – A Golden Girls Lost Episodes Musical Parody, the first musical installment in the company's long-running Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes parody series. Following a string of holiday mishaps and a disastrous audition for the Miami Senior Center's production of It's a Wonderful Life, Dorothy (David Cerda*) begins to question her very existence. An angel intervenes, revealing that her roommates wouldn't last 20-minutes without her.

Directed by Ryan Kennedy, the cast also includes Kelly Bolton*, Grant Drager*, Ed Jones*, Scott Sawa*, Britain Shutters, Danne W. Taylor* and Honey West. It's a Horrible Life will be presented at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave. in Chicago. Single tickets are on now on sale here.

The season continues this winter with the return of the Handbag favorite Caged Dames, Artistic Director David Cerda's* musical parody inspired by the women's prison films of the '40s and '50s, particularly Caged starring Eleanor Parker. Originally produced in 2006, Caged Dames tells the story of Mary Parker, an innocent young woman who, through a series of unfortunate events, lands in the big house – the Calumet City, Illinois Women's Penitentiary – and learns all about the cold hard facts of life – the hard way. Caged Dames will also be presented at Theater Wit.

The final show of Handbag's 25^th Anniversary Season is out of this world (see what we did there?) Next summer, Handbag is proud to present the Chicago premiere of KHAN!!! The Musical! (A Parody Trek-tacular) featuring music, lyrics and book by Brent Black and co-conceived by Alina Roth.

This funny and clever parody/love letter is based on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: The Next Generation with an entirely original score. The beauty of the show is that it's fun for Trekkies, Broadway fans and "normies" alike – and you don't have to know anything about Star Trek to enjoy it! This spaced-out summer romp will be staged at The Clutch, Handbag's intimate boutique space at 4335 N. Western Ave. in Chicago.

Handbag will also continue to present readings and entertainment throughout the season celebrating 25 years of absurdity,

Hell in a Handbag Artistic Director and Co-Founder David Cerda* comments, "I suppose 25 years is a long time for a theatre company. Some days it feels that way. Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday. I'm proud of what we have done as a company and will continue to create art until I get that damn McArthur Genius Award. I want this season to celebrate who we are and continue to bring joy to people."

*Denotes Handbag ensemble member

Hell in a Handbag's 25th Anniversary Season:

December 3, 2026 – January 4, 2027

It's a Horrible Life – A Golden Girls Lost Episodes Musical Parody

By Artistic Director David Cerda*

Directed by Ryan Kennedy

Featuring Kelly Bolton*, David Cerda*, Grant Drager*, Ed Jones*, Scott Sawa*, Britain Shutters, Danne W. Taylor* and Honey West

at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago. Tickets now on sale here.

February 11 – 28, 2027

Caged Dames

Book and Music by Artistic Director David Cerda

at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago

August 7 – September 19, 2027

KHAN!!! The Musical! (A Parody Trek-Tacular)

Music, Lyrics and Book by Brent Black

Co-Conceived by Alina Roth

at The Clutch, 4335 N. Western Ave., Chicago

About Hell in a Handbag Productions

Hell in a Handbag is dedicated to the preservation, exploration, and celebration of works ingrained in the realm of popular culture via theatrical productions through parody, music and homage. Handbag is a 501(c)(3) Not for Profit. For additional information, visit handbagproductions.org.

Chicago’s Theater Wit is now offering new, state-of-the-art closed captioning service, marking a dramatic improvement in making live theater more accessible for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Until now, captioning typically involved a staff person backstage, projecting the text of the script on the set, or on patrons’ cell phones, thus allowing audiences to read along in real time. Captioning is traditionally offered at select performances only, and sometimes required users to sit in a specific section of the theater.

No more. Now, at Theater Wit, patrons can engage with closed captioning at almost every regular performance, from any seat in the house, free of charge.

“This is the same state-of-the-art closed captioning system used by large touring shows like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , but we believe we’re the first small theater in the nation to roll out fully automated closed captioning service for dozens of productions,” said Theater Artistic Director Jeremy Wechsler. 

Following successful trial runs during the final weeks of Wit’s season-opening smash hit, Adolescent Salvation , the new system, called Watchword, will now be available during the regular run of all Theater Wit productions.

What’s more, Wit is making the service available for free to all of its resident and visiting companies, thereby expanding and improving traditional closed captioning in all three of its 99-seat theaters.

With Wit’s new system, the text of the play is loaded into the software as usual. The difference is Watchword actually “listens” to every live performance on stage, recognizing phonemes, or the smallest unit of sound that can change the meaning of a word. When paired with the pre-queued script, the system syncs its captions with the dialogue, lyrics and sound effects as they happen in real time, almost never losing track of what’s happening live, on stage.

Each of Wit’s three theaters now has a dedicated Watchword monitor installed, which listens to incoming audio while simultaneously watching sound and light cues. As a result, the system delivers written captions to users on a small tablet, modulating its timing at each performance to match the pace of the dialogue being spoken by the actors on stage. Best of all, it requires no human operator, making it easy to offer at every performance.

In addition to patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing, many neurodivergent people find that following text alongside audio helps them engage more fully with a performance. It’s also a valuable service for audiences who speak English as a second language.

“Patrons tested the technology the past few weeks at performances of Adolescent Salvation, and feedback was very positive,” added Wechsler. “I’m thrilled to say our resident companies Shattered Globe Theatre, with its new production, Vladimir, and Remy Bumppo’s Mud Row , are both offering Wit’s enhanced closed captioning service at regular performances starting this fall. We expect many other companies will take advantage of this technology throughout the theater season.”

Audiences who’d like to try Wit’s new free closed captioning service can do so with a click of a button while purchasing tickets online at theaterwit.org, or by calling the Theater Wit box office, (773) 975-8150. Theater Wit is located at 1229 W. Belmont Ave., in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood.

The introduction of Wit’s new closed captioning technology is supported by a lead donation from a private individual (for more information about hearing loss visit hearingloss.org), with additional funding from The Saints. To learn more, visit theaterwit.org or follow the company on Facebook or Instagram. 

“God bless us, everyone,” because there’s a fresh, new, reimagined version of Charles Dickens’ classic tale A Christmas Carol debuting in Chicago this holiday season.

Downtown Aurora’s award-winning Paramount Theatre is conjuring up an elegant and innovative new spectacle version of A Christmas Carol, based on the novella by Charles Dickens. Performances are November 11, 2026–January 3, 2027. Opening Night is Friday, November 20 at 7 p.m.

Paramount’s refreshing new take on A Christmas Carol is adapted and directed by Trent Stork, the two-time, Jeff Award-winning director of Paramount’s Come From Away and Kinky Boots. For A Christmas Carol, Stork has adapted Dickens' classic holiday tale specifically for the Paramount stage, replete with laughter, redemption, the most memorable characters in literature, elegant dance numbers, and live music throughout.

Reintroduce your family to Ebenezer Scrooge, the bitter and lonely miser, who is visited on Christmas Eve by three ghosts who take him on a journey through his past, present, and future. Along the way, Scrooge learns how to reexperience joy, compassion, and the power of generosity. Whether seeing Scrooge’s transformation for the first time or reliving the magic of the classic story, Paramount’s A Christmas Carol will leave audiences filled with hope and holiday cheer. Per tradition, a two-story Christmas tree in Paramount’s Grand Gallery welcomes audiences as the perfect backdrop for holiday photos before and after the show.

Rediscover the magic of the season at Chicago’s newest holiday production, ideal for friends and friends alike. A Christmas Carol begins previews Wednesday, November 11. Opening Night is Friday, November 20 at 7 p.m. Performances run through January 3: Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m.; Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Sunday at 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Exceptions: No matinee Wednesday, November 11, and no shows Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 26, or Christmas, Friday, December 25. There’s an added Thanksgiving weekend holiday matinee Friday, November 27 at 2 p.m.

Single tickets to A Christmas Carol are $34-$107 when purchased in-person. Additional fees apply for phone and online orders. Of course, tickets to A Christmas Carol make excellent holiday gifts.

Paramount Theatre is located at 23 E. Galena Blvd. in downtown Aurora. For tickets or subscriptions, visit ParamountAurora.com, call (630) 896-6666, or stop by the Paramount box office Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and until show time on show days. For group discounts, contact Melissa Striedl, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (630) 723-2461.

A Christmas Carol is sponsored by Jake’s Inc. and Rush Copley Medical Center.

Paramount’s cast for A Christmas Carol is led by (top, from left) Michael Moreland Milligan in his Paramount debut as Ebenezer Scrooge, with Scott Westerman as Jacob Marley, Shawn Pfautsch as Bob Cratchit, Aja Alcazar as Mrs. Cratchit, Isabel Arianna Romero-Rodriguez as The Ghost of Christmas Past, Jared David Michael Grant as The Ghost of Christmas Present, Ben Dow as The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, Schyler Vargas as Fred, (bottom) Russell Konstans as Mr. Fezziwig, Michelle Duffy as Mrs. Fezziwig, Will Lidke as Young Scrooge, Angel Alzeidan as Belle, Teddy Gales as Dick Wilkins, and Morgan Michelle Barber as Martha Cratchit and others. Youth performers Seamus Flynn and Julian Totleben alternate in the role of Tiny Tim.