ArtAntica Articles from The Argonautika Issue

The Argo has hoisted anchor and set sail in Mary Zimmerman’s world-premiere of Argonautika, the story of the first voyage of the world.

Water has played an elemental role in Lookingglass’ first two decades: we performed Alice in Wonderland on the lakefront in our student days at Northwestern; we retreated (many times) to an island off the coast of Maine as we planned our future, created Arabian Nights and watched two of our company members celebrate their wedding at the ocean’s edge; we ventured across the Atlantic to a new world with Christopher Columbus in Larry DiStasi’s fever dream staging of The Third Voyage; and Metamorphoses, set in a pool of water, made a huge splash on Broadway and secured Mary Zimmerman’s role as a prominent voice in American theater. It made perfect sense that we would make our home in a water pumping station. Our theater facility on Michigan Avenue is now in its fourth year at the Water Tower Water Works where pumps distribute 250 million gallons of water each day to Chicago residents.

As Argonautika launches us into the next Lookingglass adventure, we find ourselves looking forward to our 20th season and looking back to where we’ve journeyed. This story of Jason and the Argonauts is not our maiden Mary Z-voyage. We first crossed Poseidon’s realm together in The Odyssey fifteen years ago...

It is the winter of 1991—lots of snow and very cold. Mary has not yet won her Tony award. Nor received her PhD. Nor garnered much acclaim outside the borders of Evanston. After seeing a staging of a student production of The Odyssey, we persuaded (i.e. begged) Mary to direct us in the show’s professional premiere. - Read more