Lookingglass Announces New Artistic Director, Meets Its Yearly Fundraising Goal and More

Lookingglass Theatre Company shared updates and new initiatives that they have established since its June 2023 announcement of the pausing of operations. Since that announcement, Lookingglass has met with its staff, ensemble and board to review the past and look to the future.

The company has created a new business plan allowing the company to continue its mission of  presenting unique and original works and enhancing its outreach programs. This plan was announced at the company's annual unGALA: LEAP, Thursday, Feb. 29, at The Casino Club. Lookingglass shared that its current 2023 - 2024 fundraising goals have been met as well as information about the new business plan, new staff and ensemble additions. The evening also included the announcement of  the renovation to its lobby space in the Water Works and  upcoming Lookingglass productions, education and community programming.

“Lookingglass' home on Michigan Ave. is a location that is primed and ready to become a center for Chicago arts, history and social events,” said Lookingglass's new Artistic Director Kasey Foster.  “This historic landmark building survived a great fire, and now, we too, emerge from the ashes. To realize our mission to “change, charge and empower” while  providing Chicago and its visitors a place to gather, to learn, to experience theatre at its most theatrical and to have fun, today and into the future.”

NEW LEADERSHIP

Ensemble Member Kasey Foster was recently appointed artistic director after serving the past six months on the interim Artistic Leadership Team composed of Kareem Bandealy, J. Nicole Brooks, Foster and Phil Smith. This team, with the staff and board, assisted in the transformation of the company and the development of its new theatre business plan and programming.

NEW ENSEMBLE MEMBERS

In addition to the announcement of new Artistic Director Kasey Foster, Lookingglass shared

Atra Asdou, Wendy Mateo, Ericka Ratcliff and  Matthew C. Yee have joined Lookingglass as ensemble members.

ACHIEVING FUNDRAISING GOALS

In June 2023, Lookingglass set an annual goal of $2.5 million dollars for the next three years to secure the future of the company. As of March 2024, Lookingglass has met its goal for this year with contributions from major donors, foundations and individuals from Chicago and around the country. Lookingglass' fundraising initiatives and efforts still continue, building on the  momentum that has been established this year.

THE PATH FORWARD

Lookingglass, with its ensemble, staff and Board of Directors guided by David Schmitz and Doreen Sayegh of Amplify Leadership Advisors, has created a new theatre business plan for the organization. This plan creates a path forward strengthening its financial sustainability and focusing on the aspects that are uniquely Lookingglass. Some aspects of this business plan include

• Presenting two productions per year each winter and summer, with the 2024-2025 season being announced later this spring
• Building co-production relationships with complementary theatre companies
• Supporting new works with artistic development intensives and an artist in residence program
• Increasing its baseline audiences to extend beyond traditional theatre audiences
• Incorporating more education offerings to reflect programming and implementing additional youth and adult classes
• Expanding  its touring companies and productions of Lookingglass works. 

LOBBY ACTIVATION

In 2019, Lookingglass received a capital funding grant from the State of Illinois to re-envision and renovate the outer lobby space in the Water Tower Water Works building. The new lobby includes a bar, with alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages, and fare from local vendors. Lookingglass will use the space also to build community with programming reflecting its ongoing initiatives. The renovation of  this new gathering space will take place this spring with programming to begin November 2024.

CURRENT PROJECTS

Education Programming

Lookingglass continues itseducational programming engaging with students grade 3-12 from all over Chicagoland. Students in these programs have learned about ensemble building, devising, creative thinking, and general theater knowledge. Lookingglass's teen program, The Lookingglass Young Ensemble presents R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), written by Karel Čapek and adapted and directed by Ensemble Member Anthony Irons, March 15 - 17, at the Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan Ave. In addition to its current residency programs with Chicago Public schools and  Lookingglass Young Ensemble, Lookingglass' Summergglass camps will return and new Tuesday night classes for both young and adult age groups will be launched.

gglassworks New Work Development

Lookingglass has two New Work initiatives to nurture new artists and new works in its gglassworks new work development program. These include Artist Development Intensives, where artists meet with other artists to further develop their work and an Artist In Residence program, where artists will be paid to create and expand their ideas to create new works. Through these programs, as well as monthly check-ins with key Lookingglass members, the new works will be developed and may be presented by Lookingglass in future seasons.

50 Wards: A Civic Mosaic

50 Wards: A Civic Mosaic is Lookingglass' ambitious video project to bring Chicago together despite the lines that divide us. The short films highlight five of each of Chicago's 50 wards every year until all wards are included. The series presents a dazzling tapestry of hometown experiences, bridging the distance between neighborhoods and plotting the line from Chicago's fascinating history to its complex present on through to tomorrow's promise.

Sunset 1919

Launched in July of 2020, Lookingglass established Sunset 1919, an annual artistic ritual featuring music, movement, and word commemorating the start of the 1919 Chicago race riots. Incited by the tragic murder of Eugene Williams, a Black teenager stoned to death by a White man, George Stauber, after drifting into a “Whites Only” section of Lake Michigan.  Sunset 1919 is meant to honor the lives of Black people impacted by the deadly racial attacks that swept the nation that summer, the roots of which stretch back across centuries and the fruits of which one continues to pluck – a moment in an unbroken line.  Sunset 1919 will return this summer.  

ABOUT LOOKINGGLASS THEATRE

Founded in 1988 by graduates of Northwestern University, Lookingglass Theatre Company is a nationwide leader in the creation and presentation of new, cutting-edge theatrical works and in sharing its ensemble-based theatrical techniques with Chicago-area students and teachers through Education and Community Programs. Guided by an artistic vision centered on the core values of collaboration, transformation and invention, Lookingglass seeks to capture audiences' imaginations leaving them changed, charged and empowered.

Recipient of the 2011 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, Lookingglass has built a national reputation for artistic excellence and ensemble-based theatrical innovation. Notable world premieres include Mary Zimmerman's Tony Award-winning Metamorphoses, The Arabian Nights, and The Odyssey, David Schwimmer's adaptation of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Studs Terkel's Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel about the American Obsession, and David Catlin's circus tribute to Lewis Carroll, Lookingglass Alice. Lookingglass' work has been produced in more than a dozen US cities.

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