Writers Theatre

Artistic Programming:The 2022/23 Season engaged a growing audience with critically acclaimed productions, a new holiday tradition with Manual Cinema, and a Chicago premiere. Tiger Style! by award-winning playwright Mike Lew opened the 2022/23 Season in September, directed by Brian Balcom and ran from September 29 - October 30, 2022. Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol returned to Writers Theatre for the in-person premiere of their critically acclaimed online production. Manual Cinema's Christmas Carol ran from November 29 - December 24, 2022 and was featured in Chicago Tribune's Top 10 Best Chicago Theatre of 2022 and has become a new WT holiday tradition. Once, Directed and Choreographed by Katie Spelman and with Music Direction by Matt Deitchman, was extended to include an additional three weeks of performances to meet demand and set a Writers Theatre record for audience attendance and ran from February 16 - April 16, 2023. The Chicago premiere of A Distinct Society, written and directed by Kareem Fahmy, ran from June 22 - July 23, 2023 to close the 2022/23 Season.

Literary Development Initiative:Since 1992, Writers Theatre has produced 30 world premieres: 10 plays, 15 adaptations and 5 musicals. In 2004, WT launched the Literary Development Initiative (LDI) to revisit classic works, adapt celebrated literature for the stage and usher forward today's most innovative voices as the classics of the future. The LDI hosted three workshops in the 2022/23 Season, two of which concluded with a public reading. One Penny Down by Kirsten Greenidge, a new play inspired by the themes and legacy of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, is the newest commissioned project with the LDI and concluded its July workshop with a staged reading that utilized the public spaces of the Writers Theatre center.

WT Education expanded its reach to serve 2,018 students across programs and introduced new on-site engagement initiatives to connect the art onstage with the larger community. The Residency Programs and Student Matinees have collectively recovered 61% of pre-pandemic student reach since returning to in-person programming and we aim to continue the expansion of these core outreach programs. RESIDENCY PROGRAMSIn the 2022-23 school year, The Novel Series served 29 classrooms in 5 schools. 683 CPS students participated, a 66% increase from the previous year. WT Education has received a great deal of interest from teacher and school partners for residency opportunities, but limited staff resources have made it difficult to meet the demand. WT Education has made a concerted effort to train and hire new teaching artists to support our goal to reach 30 CPS classrooms in the following 2023-24 school year.The WRITE ON! residency is a customizable program that creates a bespoke project to meet the needs of the students and objectives of the partner organization, school, or teacher. WT Education was able to expand its WRITE ON! workshops in the 2022-23 school year thanks to awards from the Creative Schools Fund and Illinois Arts Council Agency to support specific projects with Alcott College Preparatory High School and Stephen Mather High School respectively at no cost to the school partners. WRITE ON! served 151 students with unique workshops in partnership with 9 classrooms in 6 schools and 1 community organization.STUDENT MATINEESWriters Theatre initially had planned 3 student matinee performances for the 2022/23 Season but was able to increase to 4 performances with an additional student matinee for Once to meet school interest. 782 students and teachers from 21 high schools attended student matinee performances in the 2022-23 school year. ACTIVATE, the wraparound residency offered in conjunction with student matinee performances, also returned after a 3-year hiatus and served 392 students with pre- and post-performance workshops.TOURING OUTREACHWT Education is currently developing a new Touring Outreach production to promote civic responsibility and social justice. WT Education's playwriting residency with Stephen Mather High School in Spring 2023, led by Kona Burks and Terry Guest, marked the first phase in development for Writers' next touring production. WT will commission Burks and Guest to co-write a two-person show inspired by their work with the Mather High School studentsONSITE CREATIVE LEARNINGFrom family playtime to school break adventures, WT Education has a full slate of enriching programming for young people and families. Approximately 500 members of the community engaged in our onsite creative learning opportunities including camps, Wake Up Words Family Playtime, and engagement events around our mainstage productions.