Click here to subscribe FREE to Ray Hanania's Columns
Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago announces Fall LookOut series
LookOut is Steppenwolf’s performance series that presents the work of artists and companies across genre and form. Emerging artists and performance legends, quintessential Chicago companies and young aspiring ensembles, familiar Steppenwolf faces and new friends.
Unless specified otherwise, all performances take place in Steppenwolf”s 1700 Theatre, an intimate and flexible 80 seat venue nestled behind Front Bar: Coffee and Drinks.
Big Dipper: Live in Concert!
Thursday, August 16
8pm
$15
Plus-size gay rapper Big Dipper defies homophobes and celebrates sexuality with his unapologetically graphic lyrics, infectious beats and a body-positive image. You’ll find the hirsute emcee busting moves on stage in skin-tight outfits at this live show; a mix of original viral hits, stupid parodies, and tons of sweaty jiggling. Leave your inhibitions at home tonight.
Dear Finch: CD Release Party
By Jess Godwin
Friday, August 17 & Saturday, August 18
7:30pm
$20
1 piano. 9 voices. A billion stories. With original music by Jess Godwin and stories inspired by handwritten letters from all over the world, Dear Finch reminds us that we all have a story worth telling.
Walkabout Theatre Presents
The Brink! Or Nobody’s Ever Kissed Me Like That…
Directed by Thom Pasculli
Co-created by the Walkabout Ensemble in Collaboration with Fides Krucker
Preview: Thursday August 23
Regular Run: Friday, August 24 & Saturday, August 25
7:30pm
$15 Preview, $25 General Admission Regular Run, $15 Student/Industry
In a cafe at the edge of the world, a group of wayward performers present The Brink! an avant garde cabaret about longing and music, growing up and falling apart; about the ground beneath us shifting too quickly, and the world becoming unrecognizable. Drawing from American pop songs and jazz standards, the poetry of Gertrude Stein, and Ann Carson’s “The Gender of Sound,” the ensemble slides past the edge of reason in the unfettered encounter with the stranger inside.
Destinos
Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series is proud to be a venue partner for Destinos, the Chicago International Latino Theater Festival. Produced by the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA), Destinos brings together top Latino theater artists and companies from Chicago, the U.S. and around Latin America for seven weeks of shows, panels and student performances held throughout the city. From September 20 – October 14, Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre will feature the work of four daring Latino theater companies.
Water People Theater presents
Musas
By Néstor Caballero, Directed by Iraida Tapias
In a co-presentation with The Poetry Foundation and American Writers’ Museum
Thursday, September 20 – Sunday, September 23
$25
Produced by Chicago’s own Water People Theater, Musas imagines an extraordinary encounter between two icons of contemporary art, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and American poet Sylvia Plath, in which they share the most intimate and passionate moments of their lives.
Teatro Abya Yala presents
El Patio
By Oscar González, David Korish and Janko Navarro
Thursday, September 27 – Sunday, September 29
$25
This play, from Costa Rica’s Abya Yala Theater, offers glimpses of masculinity in different situations, exploring the impossibility of fulfilling the societal idea of what it means to be a man today.
Grupo Humo Negro presents
Quiero Decir Te Amo (I Want to Say I Love You)
By Mariano Tenconi Blanco, Directed by Juan Parodi
Thursday, October 4 – Sunday, October 7
$25
In this play, presented by Argentina’s Grupo Humo Negro, a young woman falls in love with a man whom she sees by chance in a car accident. She begins to write love letters that the man’s wife captures–a source of inspiration for her intimate diary.
Cuarzo Blanco presents
Luna de Cristal (Crystal Moon)
Written and Directed by Adriana Pantoja
Thursday, October 11 – Sunday, October 14
$25
There are always reasons and excuses to avoid the truth, to not assume responsibility, and to shift blame. Luna de Cristal, from Puerto Rico’s Cuarzo Blanco, tells the story of a family of three confronting the realities of their lives and the unexpected event that unites them.
Our Perspective: Asian American Play Readings
Curated by Mia Park
Monday, October 22
7pm
Free
The Asian Pacific American (APA) population is seriously under represented on stage. “Our Perspective: Asian American Play Readings” is a staged play reading series curated by Mia Park and produced by Asian Improv Arts Midwest’s AA Arts Incubator that intends to provide inspiration, space, and audiences for Midwest APA playwrights, directors, and actors.
Lucky Plush Productions present
The Better Half
Co-created and Co-directed by Julia Rhoads and Leslie Danzig
Devised in collaboration with the ensemble
Friday, November 2 – Saturday, November 17
$40
This lively spin on the noir classic Gaslight playfully captures the claustrophobia, escapist tendencies and resilience in domestic relationships, in a dance theater language full of surprising turns and contemporary resonance.
Lucky Plush Productions present
A Work-In-Progress Showing of Rink Life
Saturday, November 10 and Saturday, November 17
5pm
$60 The Better Half and Rink Life double feature
$25 Rink Life only
Join Lucky Plush for a double feature at a discounted price to see both The Better Half and a special work-in-progress showing of their upcoming world premiere Rink Life.
In Rink Life, the sound score builds upon disparate fragments of information—partially overheard conversations, whispered exchanges, pop-song earworms—and is generated by the performers in real-time.
Every house has a door presents
Scarecrow
Directed by Lin Hixson
Co-devised and performed by Matthew Goulish and Essi Kausalainen
Friday, November 30 at 8pm; Saturday, December 1 at 8pm; and Sunday, December 2 at 3:30pm
$15
Chicago-based performance group Every house has a door (USA) and Essi Kausalainen (Finland) along with local child performers weave a circuit of language, gesture, video, and elaborate costumes around inter-species communication and the slow progress of the snail.
His award winning columns can be found at www.HANANIA.COM Subscribe FREE today
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at [email protected].
Follow RayHanania at Twitter
- Regional leaders endorse John Harrell for 8th Illinois House District - February 13, 2026
- Rep. Ryan Secures Funding for Special Bus Lane in Evergreen Park - February 13, 2026
- Treasurer’s website offers easy way to update property tax bill name and address information - February 13, 2026
