16th Street Theater Archives

A group of six Black actors (three women, three men) crouch in a circle, their arms stretched out and supporting each other.

Looking back at some of the best productions and biggest stories of 2022

by Kerry Reid December 13, 2022December 28, 2022

During 2020, my running joke was that, although there weren’t any plays happening, there was always plenty of drama to report on in Chicago theater. In fall of 2021, we started seeing some theater return, though the season was cut short by last December’s COVID surge. (Not to be confused with the one we’re currently […]

Ghost Light

Cody Estle flies north for his career’s Next Act

by Kerry Reid November 2, 2022November 3, 2022

The very first Ghost Light column I wrote back in summer of 2020, I interviewed Markie Gray, the incoming managing director for Raven Theatre. Gray was hired to work alongside artistic director Cody Estle, who assumed the job in November 2017 from founders (and married couple) Michael Menendian and JoAnn Montemurro. (The board’s decision to […]

Theater Review

Luminous storytelling

by Jack Helbig October 27, 2022October 27, 2022

Siena Marilyn Ledger’s brand-new two-person play, being produced here with 16th Street Theater and Dragonfly Theatre as part of the National New Play Network rolling world premiere program, is based on a deceptively simple premise. Luna, a quirky and precocious tween whose mother is undergoing cancer treatment, befriends Aaron, another cancer patient, also in the […]

A Black woman in a white lab coat stands left on one side of a desk. A mockup of a billboard reading "Abortion is self care. #TrustBlack Women" is behind her. Another Black woman is seated on the right, looking at the other woman.

Theater Review

Choice debates

by Kelly Kleiman July 6, 2022July 6, 2022

Natalie Y. Moore’s play The Billboard, now in a world premiere with 16th Street Theater, is subtitled “A Play About Abortion.” In the spirit of Chicago improv, allow me to say: Yes, and. The setup is as simple as it is powerful: a neighborhood gadfly puts up a billboard near the [fictional] Black Women’s Health […]

Melissa Gilbert in a white off-shoulder sweater on left, Dan Butler in black shirt on right

Ghost Light

Wild about Harry

by Kerry Reid November 19, 2021December 9, 2021

Harry Teinowitz is an affable guy. When I call him up to talk about his first play, When Harry Met Rehab (opening in previews next Wednesday at the Greenhouse), we easily slip into a conversation that runs over 30 minutes, which Teinowitz peppers with sly one-liners—reminders of his background in stand-up comedy and as a […]