Attending a university so close to a major American city means we students get access to a premiere and incredibly diverse world of arts, cuisines, and cultures.
Chicago Restaurant Week – a celebration of the city’s premiere culinary scene through pre-fixe brunch, lunch, and dinner menus – wraps up this weekend. Right on its tail is Chicago Theater Week.
From February 8th to February 18th, community members are able to experience performances at theaters across the city for a reduced ticket price. The shows range from musicals to comedy to drama, and all tickets are $30 or less.
DAVID CATLIN: Chicago is this really incredible place for theater. And part of it is because it has a relatively, compared to some of the other big cities, relatively low cost of living. So it’s a lot easier for artists, theater artists, to live here and make a life here. And the city thinks is really proud of Chicago theater. And so they have wanted to help market that, and so this -Chicago Theater week, it’s this opportunity to really get in and see a bunch of different theaters at a much reduced ticket price so that you can get a sense of all the amazing things that are that are happening on stages across Chicago.
That was David Catlin, an Associate Professor in Northwestern’s Theatre Department and Co-founder of the Lookingglass Theatre Company. According to Catlin, this annual Chicago tradition is an opportunity to get involved in some of the talent-filled art going on within the city.
Even more generally, it is an opportunity to get lost in a storyful world.
CATLIN: I’m somebody who loves stories. I love reading books. I love getting caught up in a book and getting lost in it, right? But to me, theater is like that except that instead of being alone reading – which is sometimes really nice right? To be by yourself and read and not have to be an extrovert. But it’s also really great to go into a theater and have this whole other world come alive in front of you.
For Northwestern students, theater can be a captivating way to escape the stress of the quarter system and our demanding schedules. It can be a way to put aside our studying and – for a moment – immerse ourselves in something different, something that expands our minds beyond this campus.
CATLIN: It could be something that’s really fun and silly, or it could be something that’s thought provoking that you can begin to make connections to to some of your coursework, some of the things that your professors are saying, some of the things that students have been talking about on campus.
Catlin specifically highlights “Antigone”, presented by Court Theatre during Chicago Theatre Week. “Antigone” is the third Greek tragedy in the Oedipus Trilogy written by Sophacles.
CATLIN: Just -thinking about Antigone, some of our work leads us to reading classic texts. So to be able to see a play that was originally by Sophocles done in a kind of new way at Court Theater and done really well, could be inspiring and make you think about it – think about some of those Classics in a different way.
Despite the magnitude of this opportunity and everything theater has to offer, Chicago Theater Week remains relatively unknown, at least to Northwestern students.
CATLIN: We eat two or three times a day, and so food is more immediate on our mind whereas theater is not necessarily. I do think that theater is essential, that it feeds the soul instead of the stomach. So I hope that it will gain the same kind of prominence.
Jun Park is a second year student studying political science and international studies. He came across Chicago Theater Week while looking at menus for Chicago Restaurant Week. Now, he says, he plans on going to a show or two.
JUN PARK: I’m thinking of going to the Seungjin Cho’s concert, possibly on the eighth with the CSO. Or I might go to one of the musicals, or I might even go to the Blue Man Group’s. Because in general, I like watching musicals and performers, so I think this is a good opportunity to watch those shows at a very reasonable price.
For anyone planning on taking their first steps into the theater world, Catlin suggests that Theater Week is a great opportunity to do so. He also recommends that students go to see whichever shows they feel pulled to, without inhibitions.
CATLIN: Whatever looks good to you, try it. Especially now because the price is completely reasonable. And theater is — you know sometimes it can feel like “Oh theater. It’s this hoity toity, I’ve got to dress up,” or it’s this really formal thing, But it’s not. And theaters want young audiences. They want people who are your age to be there. They want you to be there. There shouldn’t feel like there’s this barrier of this fancy cultural elitism. It is not that way at all.
There’s still more than a week left until Chicago Theater Week begins. So, dear Northwestern Community, what are you waiting for? Go and get your tickets! As Catlin says, this is a chance for us to
CATLIN: Activate the empathy centers in our hearts and brains and enjoy that. And have it not be a solitary experience but a communal experience where we’re laughing together. We start breathing together. We sometimes gasp together. And all of that I think is just, to me that’s why -theater is essential. That’s how it feeds the soul. It’s that we are together – as a group – experiencing a story, being moved by it, being changed by it, being empowered by it.
For WNUR News, I’m Michelle Hwang.
