Current Projects

The Building Stage is going back to basics this Spring.

We wanted to do a traditional piece of dramatic literature. We wanted to re-connect with the more straight-forward idea of a "play" and especially were eager to investigate the construction of narrative.

We chose Ibsen's odd little play The Master Builder. We were excited by how the narrative works: how simple, and possibly one-dimensional, themes are introduced but then we keep going back to them and revealing another layer. These layers don't just add in complexity and depth of character, some of them seem to open up completely new worlds. We want to explore the tightrope the play walks between its naturalistic impulses and the revelation of something bigger, more fantastic, more magical.

We are now at work.

The Master Builder opens May 11, 2008. Details coming soon.

We believe theater is made not written. And while every project has its own unique process of creation, each is driven by the spirit of investigation: to ask, through action on the stage, how a piece functions, how it is constructed, and what must be done to make it work.

Located in an industrial area of Chicago's West Loop, The Building Stage is a flexible performance space with the intimacy characteristic of storefront theater but also with a vertical dimension that makes it unique among Chicago's off-Loop venues.