Lookingglass Theatre Company Shares 2025 Performances, Post-show Discussion, Events, and More
Learn more about the lineup here!
Chicago’s Tony-Award winning Lookingglass Theatre Company has announced its current 2025 season including two mainstage productions, Circus Quixote, January 30 – March 30, and Iraq, But Funny, May 29 – July 20; a wide variety of Circus Quixote accessibility, education and community events including juggling workshops, a Latine Night and talkbacks in collaboration with Teatro Vista and Instituto Cervantes; performances by Lookingglass Theatre’s Young Ensemble: The Portrait of Madame X, March 2 - 4: a dream inspired unGALA on March 20 and coming this summer, the latest edition of Sunset 1919 on July 27 and Summergglass Camps, August 4 – 15.
The 2025 season includes the following programs, performances and special events:
Lookingglass Theatre Company presents Circus Quixote
January 30 - March 30
Based on Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quijote of La Mancha”
Adapted and Directed by Kerry and David Catlin
Circus by Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi
Produced in Association with Actors Gymnasium Circus School & Theatre Company
Featuring Michel Rodríguez Cintra, Micah Figueroa, Julian Hester, Laura Murillo Hart, Andrea San Miguel, Ayana Strutz and Eduardo Martinez
Previews: Thursday, Jan. 30 - Saturday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 2 at 1:30 p.m. and Wednesday, Feb 5 - Friday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Press Opening: Saturday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m.
Performance schedule for February 9 - March 30: Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7 p.m., Thursdays at 1:30 and 7 p.m., Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 1:30 and 7 p.m. and Sundays at 1:30 p.m.
Joan and Paul Theatre at Water Tower Water Works, 163 E Pearson St. at Michigan Ave.
Tickets are $35 - $80
For more than 400 years, Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quijote of La Mancha has inspired readers and cultures across the globe. Lookingglass’ production, first incubated at The Actors Gymnasium, brings this literary classic to life anew in 2025. Somewhere in La Mancha there lived a man who read so many books about chivalry that his brains dried up. In this world premiere, Lookingglass transports audiences tiltingly and acrobatically into the dreamy madness of Don Quixote and his impossible folly-filled quest to bring good-deed doing back into the world … whether the world wants it or not.
Circus Quixote Accessible Programming
Accessibility Performances:.
Mask Required Performance: Friday, Feb, 21 at 7 p.m.
Open Caption Performance: Wednesday, March 5 at 7 p.m.
Audio Described/Touch Tour Performance: Saturday, March 8 at 1:30 p.m.
Masked Required Performance: Wednesday, March 12 at 7 p.m.
Sensory Friendly/Relaxed Performance: Sunday, March 16 at 1:30 p.m.
An accessible entrance to Lookingglass is located at Pearson Street directly to the west of the main entrance at 163 E. Pearson Street using the wooden double doors.
Patrons may access The Joan and Paul Theatre at Lookingglass using the elevator or ramp located in the newly renovated lobby. Lookingglass offers accessible seating for all performances on the ground floor and balcony. These seats are accessible for all patrons who use a wheelchair, a scooter, walkers, other mobility aids or cannot use stairs. Lookingglass also has a variety of aisle seating options available.
Assistive listening devices are available for every mainstage performance at the box office free of charge. Attendees may pick up the device at the box office upon arrival.
Sensory Bags are available for every mainstage performance at the box office free of charge. Attendees may pick up the bags at the box office upon arrival.
Large print programs are available in electronic form at the box office.
If assistance booking is needed, please call 312.337.0665 or email box@lookingglasstheatre.org
More information on these performances at LookingglassTheatre.org/Accessibility.
A LookinggClass: Juggling 101
Wednesdays, Feb. 12 – Feb. 26 and Sundays, Feb. 23 and March 9 at 6 p.m.
Recommended for ages 8 years old and older
Tickets: $15
LookingglassTheatre.org/event/juggling-101-a-lookingclass/
This season, go behind the scenes of every Lookingglass show with workshops and classes designed to spark curiosity. During Circus Quixote, join Lookingglass and The Actors Gymnasium before select performances for a juggling lesson that will lift audiences’ spirits and get them ready to show off new party tricks.
Teen Takeover
Saturday, Feb. 15 at 1:30 p.m.
RSVP here to reserve your $5 ticket
Theatre loving, Chicago area teens are invited for pre-show pizza and Circus Quixote artist chat before heading into the theatre for the performance. Tickets are LIMITED.
Reflect Panel Discussion Series in partnership with Teatro Vista
“Chasing the Dream: Reclaiming Cultural Narratives”
Sunday, Feb. 16 at 1:30 p.m.
Free with Circus Quixote ticket, following the show
The REFLECT Panel Discussion Series draws on a theme or social issue inherent in the current production and gives space to speak on them and with each other.
Lookingglass Ensemble Member and Teatro Vista Producing Artistic Director Wendy Mateo and Teatro Vista Managing Director Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel examine Cervantes’ text as a tool for cultural colonialism and speak about their personal intersections as Latinas with “Don Quixote.” Lookingglass Ensemble Member and Creative Producer Kareem Bandealy hosts/moderates.
REFLECT takes place following the Sunday matinees and is held, after a short break, in the Joan & Paul Theatre.
Latine Night
Friday, Feb. 28 at 5:30 p.m.
Free with Circus Quixote ticket
Latine culture is the world. And the world is here in our Chicago.
The fiesta begins at 5:30 p.m. with a pre-show mixer featuring full bar service and a vast curation of Latine Music spun by a surprise guest DJ. The evening continues with the main event – the night’s performance of Circus Quixote. and concludes with a tri-lingual (Spanish, Portuguese, English) post-show discussion featuring the cast and hosted by Lookingglass Artistic Associate J. Salomé Martinez, Lookingglass Assistant Director of Development Carlos García León and Circus Quixote Dramaturg Gabriela Furtado Coutinho.
Reflect Panel Discussion Series in partnership with Instituto Cervantes
Dawn of Quixote: Iberia Pre & Post Reconquista
Sunday, March 9 at 1:30 p.m.
Free with Circus Quixote ticket, following the show
The REFLECT Panel Discussion Series draws on a theme or social issue inherent in our current production and gives us a space to speak on them and with each other.
Teresa Hernando Rojo (Gestora Cultural at Instituto Cervantes) and public media personality Narimon Safavi engage in a fascinating discussion on Iberia pre- and post- Reconquista and the diverse cultural influences that would have been a part of Cervantes’ Spain. Lookingglass Ensemble Member and Creative Producer Kareem Bandealy hosts/moderates.
REFLECT takes place following the Sunday matinees and is held, after a short break, in the Joan & Paul Theatre.
Young Ensemble Returns with The Portrait of Madame X
Lookingglass Young Ensemble
The Portrait of Madame X
Written by Ensemble Member Phil Smith based on an adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” by Tommy Rapley and Dennis Watkins
Directed by Ensemble Members Louise Lamson and Phil Smith
Sunday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Monday, March 3 at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, March 4 at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $35 (General Admission) and $10 (students)
LookingglassTheatre.org/young-ensemble/
Who is really holding the cards at Madame X’s high stakes Gaming Parlor? Find out as the one and only Lookingglass Young Ensemble unspools their feverish take of Alexander Pushkin’s unrivaled tale of gambling and the supernatural, “The Queen of Spades.”
Now in its 26th year, The Lookingglass Young Ensemble is a group of Chicago-area young adults, ages 13-18, committed to building their theater skills, lifting their voices and developing their creativity through collaborative creation. The 2024/25 Young Ensemble is composed of 16 teens from all over Chicago.
“There’s always something new I can learn and I have a very different understanding of what theatre meant,” said Young Ensemble Member Natasha Friedman. “Lookingglass is a place where everyone wants to learn and are so ready to put their whole selves in the process and that’s an important tool for growing your craft.”
The annual Young Ensemble production weaves together language, visual spectacle, music and the unique talents and contributions of the ensemble. Inclusive, rigorous, playful and endlessly creative, the Young Ensemble builds not only better artists, but better collaborators, thinkers, and leaders.
unGALA: DREAM
Thursday, Mar. 20 at 5:30 p.m.
The Casino Club, 195 E. Delaware Place, Chicago, IL
Tickets: $750 (Sponsorships begin at $2500)
LookingglassTheatre.org/event/ungala-dream/
Join Lookingglass for an unforgettable experience that takes guests on a dream-like journey through the first night of spring—featuring an epic pajama party.
This year’s unGALA invites all to join the Lookingglass Board of Directors, Ensemble, Artistic Associates and guest artists for an evening that pushes boundaries and defies expectations—celebrating creativity, artistic innovation and the shared experience of dreaming beyond the ordinary.
WORLD PREMIERE
Iraq, But Funny
May 29 – July 20
Written by Atra Asdou
Directed Dalia Ashurina
Joan and Paul Theatre at Water Tower Water Works, 163 E. Pearson St. at Michigan Ave.
Tickets: $30 - $80
LookingglassTheatre.org/event/iraq-but-funny/
A raucous satire about five generations of Assyrian women reclaiming their stories, as narrated by a British guy. Making its world premiere at Lookingglass Theatre, Ensemble Member Atra Asdou’s original dark comedy jauntily marches through the Ottoman Empire to modern-day U.S.A. exploring history, family and dysfunction.
Sunset 1919
Sunday, July 27 at 7 p.m.
Eugene Williams Memorial Marker
125 Fort Dearborn Drive, Chicago 60615
1/4 mile north of 31st Street Beach
Free
LookingglassTheatre.org/event/sunset-1919-2024/
Sunset 1919 is an annual community art ritual performed in honor of Eugene Williams, a Black teenager who was killed for crossing an imaginary racial line on the waves of Mishigami (from Ojibwa “Great Water”). Sunset 1919 was first curated and coordinated in 2020 by Ensemble Member and Creative Producer Kareem Bandealy and Ensemble Member and Mellon Playwright in Residence J. Nicole Brooks and it offers a communal moment to acknowledge our Indigenous roots and for Black artists to merge movement, music and word in a free, spirit-guided ritual.
Youth Ensemble Summergglass Camps
August 4 - 8 and August 11 - 15
Lookingglass Theatre, 163 E. Pearson St. at Michigan Ave.
Enrollment: $450
Early bird enrollment begins Monday, Feb. 3
LookingglassTheatre.org/summergglass-camp-2025/
Through drama and creative play, the experienced teaching artists of Summergglass will focus camp days to explore creative problem solving, collaboration, story structure, speaking directly to the audience and all the inventive visual storytelling that makes Lookingglass so special.
Mornings are spent working with teaching artists to learn many of the same theatre techniques and skills used to create Lookingglass shows. During the afternoons, campers will work on their drama skills as they create and adapt original stories to share on the final day of camp.
Paper Magic: Shadow Puppet Camp
August 4 – 8 from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Ages: 6 – 10
Lights. Paper. Magic! Create epic adventures with shadow puppets as campers design, build and bring puppets to life using storytelling traditions from around the world.
Through creative drama and movement games, this camp explores folk tales from around the world, inventing original heroes and villains and building magical stories to share! Learn the fundamentals of Lookingglass playmaking techniques, explore design and story structure and go to the park each day for lunch. By the end of the session, friends and family are invited to join campers on a magical adventure into, and out of, the shadows.
Mysterious City: Chicago Scavenger Hunt Camp
August 11 – 15 from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Ages 8 – 14
The Mysterious City Society needs your help! Together, campers will build a summer adventure demanding all of their creativity and daring-do. The mission: report to the historic Lookingglass Water Tower theatre for a scavenger hunt camp that will take campers through the Lookingglass, beyond the pumping station pipes and back in time through the pop culture, music and movements and milestones of Chicago’s not-so-distant past. Young adventurers will learn the fundamentals of Lookingglass playmaking techniques, explore the structure of scavenger hunts and choose “your own adventure” stories, search for clues on walking field trips and work with Lookingglass teaching artists to create an original scavenger hunt play to share with family and friends.
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