Purple Crayon Players is a student-run theatre organization at Northwestern University that focuses on producing professionally written Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). PLAYground is Purple Crayon’s annual festival of new plays for young audiences. PLAYground fosters the development of each script through partnerships between professional TYA playwrights and Northwestern undergraduate directors and actors, whether it is the work’s first reading or its final workshops before publication or production. After a collaborative rehearsal process focused on the playwright’s development goals, we...

Purple Crayon Players is a student-run theatre organization at Northwestern University that focuses on producing professionally written Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). PLAYground is Purple Crayon’s annual festival of new plays for young audiences. PLAYground fosters the development of each script through partnerships between professional TYA playwrights and Northwestern undergraduate directors and actors, whether it is the work’s first reading or its final workshops before publication or production. After a collaborative rehearsal process focused on the playwright’s development goals, we...

Piven Theatre Workshop encourages a process of creative exploration that celebrates each individual’s unique voice through an ensemble-based, community-oriented approach to theatre training and performance

It is our mission to present powerful, thought-provoking, community-centered Theater Arts programming with a commitment to diversity and creative excellence. We are dedicated to providing a nurturing and creative environment for directors, playwrights, set, light, and costume designers, as well as for experienced and novice performers. In this positive environment, they can develop their skills and fully express their talents. The Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre is funded in part by the Illinois Arts Council, A State Agency.

The 2nd Act Players is the North Shore’s best-kept theater secret. We’ve been producing new works for the stage since 2013, featuring more than 40 new actors in those shows. We’re the place to come to see stories about how people deal with major 2nd acts in their lives such as divorce, heart disease, war, and caring for an aging parent, to name just a few of the topics we’ve tackled.

Chicago Writers Bloc is a play development group that focuses on presenting new plays developed in monthly sessions and regular new play festivals. Led by Joanne Koch, a widely produced playwright and noted Emeritus Director of the National Louis University Master’s in Written Communication Program, the not-for-profit Writers’ Bloc has brought over 250 new plays and musicals to Chicago area audiences, supported in part by grants and by festival attendees and contributors. Many of these plays have gone on to win local, national, and international prizes with productions locally and around...

A company committed to new collaborations and explorations of hyper-intimate theatre. The side project connects Chicago's most innovative and engaging writers, directors, designers, and performers in an ongoing exploration of the power of hyper-intimate theatre. Our projects develop out of relationships with artists, an appreciation of their work and processes, and an understanding of where they want to go. Our focus is not simply on world-premiere plays, but on world-premiere collaborations: creating never-before-seen teams of artists, each of whom has a body of work which speaks to the...

Babes With Blades Theatre Company uses stage combat to place women and their stories center stage. Through performance, script development, training, and outreach, our ensemble creates theatre that explores the wide range of the human experience, and cultivates broader perspectives in the arts community and in society as a whole.

Interdisciplinary study in the formation of adaptable theatre artists. By nurturing and educating actors, directors, administrators, playwrights, designers, and technicians, we prepare theatre artists to enter any aspect of the industry.

Interdisciplinary study in the formation of adaptable theatre artists. By nurturing and educating actors, directors, administrators, playwrights, designers, and technicians, we prepare theatre artists to enter any aspect of the industry.