Route 66 Theatre Company was founded in 2008. We produce plays and musicals that embrace the American spirit of risk, exploration, and fearlessness. We sponsor new play developmental workshops through Test Drive. The annual workshop awards one playwright with a developmental workshop that is focused on the playwright and what they need to move their script toward being production-ready. Playwrights must either reside in the Chicago area, or be willing to cover their own expenses to travel to Chicago for the workshop dates. Check website for submission guidelines and deadlines.

First floor theater stages stories of individuals facing moments of radical change. By combining visceral acting, immersive design, and collaborative dramaturgy, fft expands these stories to ask urgent social questions.

Mission: The New Colony develops NEW ART and NEW ARTISTS in order to educate and build NEW AUDIENCES.

We are a producer of theatre, performance and media that exists to be a haven for the future. We achieve this through championing the next generation of playwrights, directors and actors; by producing and promoting work and artists that are staking their claim as the immediate future of their art forms; and by investing in those at the very beginning of their professional journeys. Through this inspiration, we seek to ignite in each audience member a hope for the future - the future of theatre and performance, the future of each other, the future of our community.

Broken Nose Theatre is a Pay-What-You-Can company that develops and produces new work and seeks to cultivate empathy, spark conversation, and amplify underrepresented voices.

Artemisia produces plays with women characters who have agency, independence and are the focal point of their own stories. Artemisia promotes equality and social justice for women by giving them career-altering opportunities in creative leadership roles. Artemisia inspires audiences to engage directly in our mission through exciting after show discussions and practices its core values of empowerment, inclusion and diversity (ALAANA & LGBTQ+) in all of its work and daily operations.

We are a musical theatre company committed to employing and empowering women by expanding their opportunities on and off the stage.

Today, we are a multiracial and multigenerational theater company with a focus on original performance that explores the issues impacting our city and a strong commitment to economic accessibility. We offer all of our shows for free/pay-what-you-can, and we try to make theater accessible for families with small children by offering free co-programming for children during rehearsals and shows. Whenever possible (and it is almost always possible!), we close caption our shows. We offer free classes, trainings, and make space available to artists developing new work.

Adventure Stage Chicago, the participatory arts program of Northwestern Settlement, creates and tells heroic stories about and for young people. We do this to engage our community and inspire all of us to be heroes in our own lives.

Pegasus Theatre Chicago is a not-for-profit theatre company. Recently rebranded and revitalized, our new mission to produce boldly imaginative theatre, champion new and authentic voices, and illuminate the human journey. We make theatre that provokes dialogue and provide exemplary theatre, entertainment, and arts education to people who have little or no access to the arts.

UrbanTheater Company is committed to centralizing the power and talents that are innate in every person to tell their communities stories. We serve as a pipeline for a diverse and culturally specific collective of Chicago actors, designers, and producers who embrace the responsibility to create an environment full of honesty, integrity, representation, and acceptance. We create innovative and accessible theater that challenges Eurocentric styles and training.

Steppenwolf operates as a not-for-profit organization relying on community support to produce or presents up to 16 plays and nearly 700 performances, readings and other events every year on our three stages. The theater’s artistic and educational programs draw a multi-generational audience of nearly 200,000 from the greater metropolitan Chicago area, while our impact reaches well beyond this region with productions that tour nationally and internationally.