Written and directed by Ensemble Member John Musial

Begins September 21, 2011

Coinciding with the 140^th Anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire

Written by Ed Schmidt

Directed by Ensemble Member J. Nicole Brooks

Begins January 4, 2012

Written by Ensemble Member Andrew White

Music by Artistic Associate Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman

Directed by Amanda Dehnert
Begins June 6, 2012

October 8, 1871

It has been one of the hottest, driest autumns on record, and now a strong wind blows from the Southwest.  At 9:40 pm, the Chicago Fire Department gets their first report of a small blaze on the city’s southwest side. Soon there is no stopping the Great Chicago Fire until it finally runs out of things to burn. In one night, the very rich, the very poor, and everyone in between are transformed forever.

Ensemble Member John Musial (Our Future Metropolis, Nelson Algren: For Keeps and a Single Day) revisits his acclaimed 1999 production about the disaster that redefined Chicago.  Spectacular, spiritual, highly physical and exquisitely emotional, the Chicago Sun-Times praised The Great Fire as “highly original, hugely entertaining” and remarked that “no one who sees this show will be able to look at Chicago in the same way again.”

April 9, 1947

Baseball’s Opening Day is one week away, and Branch Rickey, General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, will call up Jackie Robinson to break the color-barrier and play as the Major League’s first black ballplayer.  If he does, Robinson will face loud and heated opposition from virtually every owner, manager, and player in baseball – and it won’t be a cakewalk with the fans, either.  Who will be his allies if he makes the most daring and important play of his life?

Award-winning Ensemble Member J. Nicole Brooks (Black Diamond, Fedra: Queen of Haiti) directs this dazzling fast-ball script by Ed Schmidt. When 1947’s biggest African American personalities – baseball great-to-be Jackie Robinson, boxer Joe Louis, entertainer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, actor and activist Paul Robeson – meet, ideas and ideals clash and sparks fly, and America’s national pastime will never be the same.

Mr. Rickey Calls A Meeting is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

July 24, 1915

Moored on the Chicago River between Clark St and LaSalle, The Eastland begins boarding and thousands of Western Electric employees and their families climb the ramp, excited for their annual company outing. Overflowing with passengers about to depart, the boat leans port – and doesn’t lean back. Within minutes, cries fill the air, families are torn apart and unexpected heroes emerge to rescue dozens of Chicagoans from a watery end.

Artistic Director Andrew White (Of One Blood, 1984) resurrects the ghosts of America’s forgotten tragedy in this Lookingglass Original musical, with music by Artistic Associate Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman, the team behind the score of Lookingglass Alice, 1984, Metamorphoses, Hard Times, and The Secret in the Wings, as well as the acclaimed Winesburg, Ohio. Directed by Amanda Dehnert (Peter Pan: A Play).