Lookingglass Theatre, the storied nonprofit Chicago theater in residence at the city-owned Water Tower Water Works (821 N. Michigan Ave.), said Wednesday that it has a new artistic director. The actor-director Kasey Foster has taken over those duties from Heidi Stillman, who has stepped down although she remains an ensemble member.
Longtime staffer Andy White also has recently left the staff but remains in the ensemble.
The company, which was founded in 1988 by a group of Northwestern University graduates and achieved national fame for its original theatrical works, has been struggling financially since the COVID-19 crisis and has seen its theater production activities dwindle
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. But its leadership team said it now has put together a new business plan intended to result in two productions a year (each winter and spring, according to the announcement) in its enviable Michigan Avenue home, which it occupies virtually rent-free as part of a long-standing arrangement dating back to the Daley administration.
Due to a recent capital funding grant from the State of Illinois, Lookingglass did have the funds to renovate the outer lobby area of its theater, adding a bar and other improvements. In a statement, the theater said it planned “to build community with programming reflecting its ongoing initiatives” in that space, beginning in November. Educational programming, which is mostly grant-funded, has continued at the theater, even as Lookingglass has faced something of an existential crisis when it came to mainstage productions.
The titles and dates of future shows have not yet been announced. But Lookingglass said it has added new names to an ensemble that still includes the famous likes of David Schwimmer and Mary Zimmerman: Atra Asdou, Wendy Mateo, Ericka Ratcliff and Matthew C. Yee are now part of the ensemble.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.