House Theatre Archives - Chicago Reader

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 […]

Audrey Francis, a white woman in blue jeans and a black jacket, is standing left, and Glenn Davis, a Black man in dark trousers and shirt, is standing right in front of the empty new theater at Steppenwolf.

Performing Arts Feature

Plays in a pandemic

by Kerry Reid December 22, 2021January 6, 2022

By the time this year ends (it is gonna end, right?), Reader critics will, by my count, have reviewed 69 live theater and dance performances. That’s far less than in most years, but a veritable cornucopia after the onstage famine that began in March 2020. But just when we think it’s safe to go back […]

Elsa in glittery dress and Anna in darker dress in front of ice-covered arches

Theater Review

Two ways of looking at ‘The Snow Queen’

by Kerry Reid November 24, 2021November 24, 2021

For all the gleeful gore of the Brothers Grimm, I’d have to say that Hans Christian Andersen was the more disturbing creator of childhood nightmares for me, because his stories seem just close enough to things that could actually—do actually—happen to kids. Especially if you’re an anxious kid who obsesses about the consequences of not […]

Performing Arts Review

Chicago-style magic is ready for its close-up again

by Kerry Reid August 19, 2021August 23, 2021

Magical thinking is both bane and balm. Without a little bit of belief in the possibility of miraculous transformation, I’d probably never get out of bed (especially lately). Yet amid the toxic noise of resolute anti-vaxxers-and-maskers and QAnon, it’s obvious that obdurate faith in the impossible against the tide of science, facts, and reality carries […]

Arts & Culture

Lanise Antoine Shelley is opening up the House

by Kerry Reid March 11, 2021September 22, 2021

The new artistic director wants to take ‘amazing feats of storytelling’ into more diverse realms; Rick Bayless wants to give more money to local theaters.