On the heels of Gem of the Ocean (2022), expert August Wilson interpreter Chuck Smith revives the second work in the famed American Century Cycle—one of Wilson’s best-loved, most compelling plays. Herald Loomis searches the country with his young daughter to find his estranged wife. But first, he must regain a sense of his own heritage and identity in this story of spiritual and emotional resurrection.

EPSG:4326

Joe Turner's Come and Gone

Goodman Theatre

For decades, the influential Jasper family has been a pillar of Black American Politics: civil rights leaders, pastors and congressmen. But like all families, there are cracks and secrets just under the surface. When the youngest son Nazareth returns home to Illinois with an uninvited friend in tow, the family is forced into a reckoning with itself, its faith and the legacies of Black radicalism. Rowdy, hilarious and filled with intrigue, Purpose is an epic family drama–a long-awaited world premiere from one of the country’s most celebrated voices.

Purpose

Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Short Shakespeare! returns with the tragic romance Romeo and Juliet. Verona burns under summer's heat—and the division of two prominent families. Against a backdrop of violence and an endless cycle of vengeance, Shakespeare sets his tale of young love found—and tragically lost. This 75-minute adaptation, told in Shakespeare's own words, poses a profound question—can true love survive in a divided community? The production combines Shakespeare's original verse with dynamic staging to connect young audiences with the characters’ journeys.

Romeo and Juliet

Chicago Shakespeare Theater

It’s just another (omg, wtf, lmfao) day at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. When a White House PR nightmare spins into a legit sh*tshow, seven brilliant and beleaguered women must risk life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble. POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is a bawdy and irreverent look at sex, politics and the women in charge of the man in charge of the free world. Who knew that global crisis is always just a four-letter word away. 

Potus

“If music be the food of love, play on.” Shakespeare’s cleverest comedy is brought to vibrant new life as director Tyrone Phillips reimagines Illyria in the Caribbean isles. Separated from her twin brother in a shipwreck and washed ashore in an unfamiliar land, the spirited Viola disguises herself as a man to work for charming Duke Orsino—and finds herself in the middle of a love triangle of hilarious mistaken identities. Filled with witty commentary on gender, class, and sexuality, this sparkling romance brims with heart and revels in the intoxicating power of love.

Twelfth Night

Newark, NJ. Post-9/11. Two teenagers, brought to America as children, now face an unlikely foe: unexpected, unreciprocated love. Their friendship is no longer enough (for one of them) and their adopted country doesn’t love them back. Pulitzer Prize-winner Martyna Majok brings light to the sacrifices made by DREAMers, lovers and life-long friends in the heartbreaking and hopeful Sanctuary City—a story that fractures and transcends—crossing boundaries, borders and genres in search of a place to call home. 

Sanctuary City

It’s a night in the theater that you’ll never forget. Experience the heart-pumping action ringside, as the Goodman transforms into a professional wrestling arena—a perfect backdrop for the high drama and rich cultural history of lucha libre. Originally developed with Prism Movement Theater and produced in partnership with CLATA as part of 2023 Destinos Festival, actors and luchadores (wrestlers) in masks representative of Aztec gods play out an exciting wrestling story about family, honor, tradition and redemption.

Lucha Teotl

In the drawing room of his stately Hampstead mansion, the wealthy, aging Hirst hosts his newfound acquaintance, the enigmatic Spooner, for an evening of endless beer, scotch and vodka. The night winds on, the drinks keep pouring and the ground keeps shifting—until two sinister younger men arrive and interrupt the bacchanal. Steppenwolf returns to Harold Pinter’s modern masterpiece: a generational power struggle, a tug of war between expert wordsmiths, a maze of murky meaning. Or perhaps it's just two old English sots waxing nostalgic and waiting for the sun to rise. In No Man’s Land, you can never be certain, and nothing is as it seems.

No Man's Land

A poetic journey of a artist/dancer/father questioning the balance of his passions—art, culture, family. From Brooklyn to Massachusetts to Russia, Antonio struggles to reconcile multiple ethnic identities. He wrestles with the legacy of stereotypes of masculinity while recognizing there is beauty in manhood and becoming a father. Powerful poetry is intermixed with original movement, music and projected imagery in a “brilliant, movingly done [and] virtuosic performance by Suarez” (DC Metro).

Antonio's Song / I was Dreaming of a Son

Endings and beginnings. Bittersweet departures. The comedy of life. When Madame Ranevskaya returns to her heavily-mortgaged estate on the eve of its auction, the aristocratic widow finds that the fate of much more than her beloved orchard hangs in the balance. Anton Chekhov’s canonical masterpiece is an exploration of loss, love and how to live in a society that’s changing fast. Following his critically-acclaimed productions of Three Sisters, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya, director Robert Falls takes on the last of Chekhov’s four major plays.

The Cherry Orchard

In 2003, newly-wed Layal and her family prepare to immigrate from Baghdad, Iraq, to a Chicago suburb. Seventeen years later, Layal’s life looks unimaginably different from what she had envisioned two decades prior, as she and her siblings explore queerness, face their grief, and discover what it takes to make home in a new place. Don’t miss this moving, powerful new play’s world premiere on the Owen Stage—fresh from Goodman’s New Stages and Future Labs programs.

Layalina

Alan Turing, a brilliant computer scientist, saves England from Nazi U-boats during World War II. Despite his innovative feat he was chemically castrated after being found guilty of gross indecency for a homosexual relationship. Turing was found poisoned alongside a cyanide-laced apple just two years later. While his death was ruled a suicide, there are alternative theories to the cause.

The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing

Harris Theater

Janice’s parents are prominent activists fighting for the integration of public swimming pools in 1960s Kansas. As injustice penetrates the warm bubble of her childhood, Janice grows apart from her family and starts a new life far away. When she receives a call asking her to speak at a ceremony honoring her father, she must decide whether she’s ready to reckon with her political inheritance—and a past she has tried to forget.

Drama events in Chicago, IL

Joe Turner's Come and Gon...

Goodman Theatre

Purpose

Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Romeo and Juliet

Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier...

Potus

Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Twelfth Night

Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier...

Sanctuary City

Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Lucha Teotl

Goodman Theatre

No Man's Land

Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Antonio's Song / I was Dr...

Goodman Theatre

The Cherry Orchard

Goodman Theatre

Layalina

Goodman Theatre

The Life and Death(s) of ...

Harris Theater

the ripple, the wave that...

Goodman Theatre