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American Theater Company is an ensemble of artists committed to producing new and classic American stories that ask the question: "What does it mean to be an American?"
They provide an intimate home for the community to experience meaningful stories and foster a nurturing environment for artists to take risks and create essential work.
American Theater Company (ATC) founded in July 1985 as American Blues Theatre, a company dedicated to exploring, nurturing, and developing theatre that addressed and affected the real working-class people of Chicago.
From 1986 to 1993, American Blues Theatre produced such critically acclaimed productions as The Hairy Ape; Rick Cleveland's Bad Moon; and Monsters and Monsters II, collections of commissioned monologues by Chicago playwrights including Douglas Post, Dwight Okita, David Mamet, and Paula Killen. The Hairy Ape was hailed by Richard Christiansen of the Chicago Tribune as one of the three best shows of the year.
In August 1993, the company leased a warehouse in the primarily working-class neighbourhood of Northcenter, and in 38 days, transformed it into an intimate 134-seat theatre.
From the beginning, the theatre was a community centre, playing host to Chamber of Commerce meetings and neighbourhood events. From 1994 to 1997, the theatre presented such critically acclaimed productions as On the Waterfront, the World Premiere of The Flight of the Phoenix (two Joseph Jefferson Citations), and Stalag 17 (five Jeff Citations).
In January 2008, ATC launched two comprehensive outreach initiatives, American Mosaic and The Chicago Chronicle. American Mosaic is a ninth grade residency in six Chicago Public Schools, focused on the literary and performance aspects of a play in their season. Over 600 students from Logan Square, the South Side, and North Center studied and performed scenes from True West and Top-dog/Underdog on the set of the professional productions and attended a student matinee. The Chicago Chronicle combined eight professional playwrights with teenagers from Chase Elementary to create a documentary style play from interviews with community members in Logan Square.
In March of 2009, members of the Ensemble left the organisation to reform American Blues Theatre. ATC recommitted to its mission of exploring a diverse and complex American identity the reflects our country today. In its first collaboration with About Face Theatre, Hedwig and the Angry Inch broke all previous box office records with two extensions, cultivating the audience of all ages, cultural backgrounds, and sexual orientations.
Season 25 celebrated the American Family with the Chicago Premiere of Yeast Nation (the triumph of life) the new musical from the Tony Award winning writers of Urinetown; the World Premiere of Welcome to Arroyo’s, and the Chicago Premiere of Lisa Loomer’s Distracted. In a historical commission from the Chicago Community Trust, ATC, Congo Square and the National Public Housing Museum began development on a documentary style play that explores the history of public housing in Chicago.
THE TEAM
PJ Paparelli, Artistic Director
Jason Gerace, Artistic Associate
Sandeep Das, Artistic Associate
Caitlin Kane, Assistant to the Artistic Director
Rebecca Spooner, Artistic Fellow
Samantha Breske, Casting Apprentice
1909 West Byron Street,
Chicago, Illinois 60613
USA
Info@atcweb.org
http://www.atcweb.org
Here are few videos reflect some of their work.