Pictured: Steven Strafford

16th Street Theater has announced the lineup, directors, and partial casting, for its 2019 season titled “Shadows and Light.”

The twelfth season will feature three new plays by Chicago authors Steven Strafford, Julie Ganey and Loy A. Webb, as well as a one-nighter of “The South Side” by WBEZ’s Natalie Moore and a new play series curated by 16th Street’s 2018-2019 National New Play Network Producer-in-Residence Nancy García Loza.

Artistic Director Ann Filmer has programmed the season to probe the questions: “Do we need to throw another under the bus in order to save ourselves? Ambition OR activism… and can we have both? In our fervor for our own kids to have the very best, have we lost shared community? The expression goes, ‘saving the best for last.’ But are we instead, saving the best for me and mine? What is lurking in the shadows of our American consciousness, and will we find the light again?”

16th Street Theater’s 2019 Season (from the press release): 

SMALL JOKES ABOUT MONSTERS
by Steven Strafford
directed by Kristina Valada-Viars
Starring Esteban Andres Cruz
Jan 10 – Feb 16, 2019
There are three different kinds of funny people: Godzillas, Mothras and Gameras. Three brothers arrive in a rented beach house after their estranged father’s funeral. Their father has left them an envelope to open after his death. When their mother arrives, truths are revealed and tempers flare. SMALL JOKES is about how we choose to deal with trauma, and how we use humor to cover it up. Featuring Esteban Andres Cruz, Eric Slater, Christopher Wayland Jones and Shariba Rivers.

THE SOUTH SIDE
A special evening with acclaimed author and WBEZ South Side Reporter Natalie Moore
at Lagunitas Taproom 2607 W 17th, Chicago.
Adapted/Directed by Ann Filmer
Monday, March 4 at 6:30 PM (Doors 5:30)
In this intelligent and highly important narrative, Chicago-native Natalie Moore shines a light on contemporary segregation in the city’s South Side; with a memoirist’s eye, she showcases the lives of these communities through the stories of people who reside there. THE SOUTH SIDE shows the impact of Chicago’s historic segregation – and the ongoing policies that keep the system intact. Actors perform excerpts from Natalie Moore’s book while 16th Street 100 Club Members enjoy craft beer from Lagunitas in the brewery where it is created.

GOOD ENOUGH
Written and performed by Julie Ganey
directed by Megan Shuchman
March 14 – April 20, 2019
How good is good enough? Sometimes life’s biggest questions confront you in seemingly mundane spaces: third period of a high school drama class, the sidelines of a soccer match, the middle of a busy Chicago intersection. Written by Chicago theatre/storytelling veteran and author of 16th Street’s 2012 LOVE THY NEIGHBOR… TIL IT HURTS, GOOD ENOUGH is Julie Ganey’s funny and brutally honest attempt to do right. Because you can be all about your community and the greater good, but when push comes to shove, you look out for your own kid first. A world premiere

HIS SHADOW
by Loy Webb
directed by Wardell Julius Clark
Sept 5 – Oct 12, 2019
A disgruntled college freshman tries to step out of his older brother’s towering shadow and make a name for himself on the football field. When tragedy strikes, the course of his career is challenged, and his life is altered. His Shadow is a story of ambition and activism: which one will emerge the victor when the two collide? A world premiere by the author of the 2018 hit THE LIGHT.

POP UPS 2019: THREE NEW PLAYS
Curated by Nancy García Loza
Plays, times and dates TBD
16th Street’s new NNPN producer-in-residence, Nancy García Loza, brings to 16th Street three new Chicago voices in three new play readings at venues in and around Berwyn. El teatro vive aquí!