Chicago venues are staging pertinent productions to educate theater-goers and motivate voters. Or, as Darcey Regan says, “What better way to…save our democracy than with actors?”
Her rhetorical question refers to the “True Blue Revue” (Feb. 3) featuring veterans of The Second City improv scene. “Join us at the beautiful Athenaeum Theatre for political comedy featuring Chicago’s leading performers, a special performance by blues artist Melody Angel, and to find out how you can help progressive candidates win in 2020,” continues Regan, who serves as executive director of Indivisible Chicago.
Formed in the wake of the 2016 election, Indivisible Chicago is a local coalition of a dozen community-based chapters. With its new “3 States, 1 Mission” 2020 campaign, the group hopes to win back Wisconsin and Michigan, and maintain progressive gains already made in Illinois.
“Like so many others, we were stunned when the Midwest’s blue wall crumbled in 2016,” adds Indivisible Chicago board member Marj Halperin. “Our grassroots movement has mushroomed since that election and we won’t let this happen again in 2020, since we’re uniquely positioned for an easy drive to battleground regions in both Wisconsin and Michigan.”
Volunteer sign-ups will take place in the theater lobby before and after the show directed by TJ Shannoff. Admittance is free but seats should be reserved in advance at IndivisibleChicago.com.
“After the 2016 election, I was completely taken aback by the results,” admits writer/director/performer Taylor McWilliams-Woods, who created the documentary theater piece “Morning in America” (March 12-29). “I took it upon myself to ask family, friends, and strangers what their political beliefs were, where these beliefs came from, and how that informed their identity as Americans in hopes of better understanding the general population’s ideology as well as my own. It is from these conversations that the script was born.”
Produced by Connective Theatre Company in partnership with IL Vote at Home, “Morning in America” performs at Nox Arca Theatre. To learn more, visit ConnectiveTheatreCompany.com.
“Who gets elected and how? Who gets to lead us, and will they actually listen to us,?” asks J. Nicole Brooks, writer/director of the world premiere of “Her Honor Jane Byrne” which debuts at Lookingglass Theatre Company (Feb. 26-April 12). “Though I was very little, I can remember when it was announced that Mayor Jane Byrne was moving into Cabrini-Green. Can she stop the violence? Well, no one person can. Here we are decades later, asking the same questions. I hope our audiences walk away with a bit of the past, so they may know how to shape our future.” For tickets, visit LookingGlassTheatre.org.
Vanessa Stalling directs Norma McCorvey as Jane Roe and Sarah Weddington as the lawyer who argued the Roe v Wade case in Lisa Loomer’s “Roe” (through Feb. 23) in the Goodman’s Albert Theatre. For details, visit GoodmanTheatre.org/Roe.
Andrea Conway-Diaz (pictured by photographer Steve Graue) portrays U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan, the first African American congresswoman from the Deep South, in Kristine Thatcher’s “Voice of Good Hope” at City Lit Theater (through Feb. 23). The company will also stage a world premiere adaptation of Robert F. Kennedy’s “Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missle Crisis” (March 6-April 19) featuring an all-female cast. Visit CityLit.org for tickets to either play.
