Lookingglass Theatre Company
Lookingglass Theatre Company is a non-profit, ensemble-based theater company located in Chicago, Illinois. Their pieces tend to focus on the spectacular and the physical.
As of June 2011, Lookingglass has won 42 Joseph Jefferson Awards and was the recipient of the 2011 Regional Theatre Tony Award.
History
Lookingglass was founded in 1988 by David Catlin, David Schwimmer, Lawrence DiStasi, David Kersnar, Eva Barr, Joy Gregory, Andy White, and Thom Cox. Their first production Through the Lookingglass was directed by David Kersnar and took place at the Great Room in Jones Residential College on the Northwestern University campus in the fall of 1988.
They have since performed more than fifty world-premiere original works (their most recent being Sara Gmitter's In the Garden: A Darwinian Love Story in 2014).
Facilities
An itinerant theater company for years, Lookingglass finally moved into a permanent home on June 14, 2003—a brand-new theater in the newly renovated Water Tower Water Works on Chicago's Magnificent Mile.
Its first production in the new space was an adaptation of Studs Terkel's Race, adapted and directed by ensemble member David Schwimmer.
Morris Architects Planners designed the new space in the black-box style, meaning that the seating area may be completely rearranged for each production. The maximum capacity is 270 persons, counting those in the removable balcony. There is also a studio space located in the second floor of the facility for smaller events and productions.[1]
Productions
Current season
- Moby Dick (add-on)
- Treasure Island
- Blood Wedding
- Thaddeus and Slocum: A Vaudeville Adventure
Past seasons
1988
- Through the Looking Glass
1989–90
- Of One Blood
- Treatment
- The Odyssey
1990–91
- The Jungle
- The Secret in the Wings
- West
1991–92
- Eurydice
- All Soul's Day
- Lookingglass Lab: Slap My Bald Head and The Third Voyage
1992–93
- The Arabian Nights
- The Scarlet Letter
- In the Eye of the Beholder
1993–94
- The Master and Margarita
- Up Against It
1994–95
- Dreaming Lucia
- HereAfter
1995–96
- The Naked King
- S/M
1996–97
- The Vanishing Twin
- Eye Plus One: In the Eye of the Beholder Plus Lookingglass Works in Progress
- 28: Pictures of Life in a High-Tech World
1997–98
- The Arabian Nights
- George
- The Idiot
1998–99
- Metamorphoses
- The Great Fire
- The Baron in the Trees
1999–2000
- Her Name Was Danger
- Eleven Rooms of Proust
- Lookingglass Hamlet
2000–01
- Metamorphosis
- Nelson Algren: For Keeps and a Single Day
- Hard Times
2001–02
- They All Fall Down: The Richard Nickel Story
- La Luna Muda
- Summertime
2002–03
- Hard Times
- Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession
2003–04
- The Secret in the Wings
- Great Men of Science Nos. 21 and 22
- The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World
2004–05
- 1984
- Lookingglass Alice
- Hillbilly Antigone
2005–06
- Hephaestus
- Manuscript Found in Saragossa
- Sita Ram
- The Old Curiosity Shop
- Wants and Needs
2006–07
- Clay
- Argonautika
- The Wooden Breeks
- Black Diamond
- Lookingglass Alice
2007–08
- No Child...
- Hephaestus
- Around the World in Eighty Days
- Nelson Algren: For Keeps and A Single Day
- Lookingglass Alice
2008–09
2009–10
- Fedra: Queen of Haiti
- Icarus
- Trust
- Hephaestus
- Lookingglass Alice
2010–11
- Peter Pan: A Play
- Ethan Frome
- The Last Act of Lilka Kadison
2011–12
- The Great Fire
- "Mr. Rickey Calls a Meeting" by Edward Schmidt
- Rick Bayless in Cascabel
- Eastland: An Original Musical
2012–13
- Metamorphoses
- Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
- Still Alice
- Big Lake Big City
2013–14
- The North China Lover
- The Little Prince
- In the Garden
2014–15
- Death Tax
- Lookingglass Alice
- Title and Deed