Theater for One at the Court Theatre

Theatre for One (T41) is a mobile state-of-the-art performance space for one actor and one audience member, created by the celebrated Broadway set designer Christine Jones. It was the experience of a magician performing just for her at a wedding that inspired Jones to recreate this intimate and personal exchange for a wider audience. Not knowing what to expect, actors and audience members encounter each other as strangers in T41’s intimate space, and experience in the course of the performance how the divisions and distinctions that separate us gradually dissolve. 

Marking the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th amendment, T41 commissioned eight female American playwrights of color to write plays created specifically for this venue's one-to-one relationship: Jaclyn Backaus, Lydia Diamond, Lynn Nottage, Stacy Rose, Nikkole Salter, DeLanna Studi, Regina Taylor, and Carmen Tropicana. For Court Theatre’s production, four Chicago-based female directors will direct two plays each, which will be performed by eight Chicago-based female actors. 

While the unique experience of T41 usually takes place in a physical mobile booth, Covid-19 necessitates pivoting to an online platform that is specially designed to approximate the intimacy and spontaneity of the original setting. Created by UChicago’s Marc Downie, the online booth facilitates three experiences: first, “waiting in line” with others, then the experience of the play, and, finally, a room for reflection on the spectator’s experience. 

Each performance is comprised of four plays, each play will be performed by one actor for one audience member at a time. Each audience member will get to see one of the four plays, which last 6-8 minutes, per evening. The viewer experience will last 15-30 minutes total including the waiting room pre-performance, the performance and the guest book post-performance. Students attending the performance will receive a dinner voucher ($20) for a Hyde Park restaurant of their choice. Tickets will become available on January 15 at noon for all four Saturday performances on the Court Theatre’s website: https://www.courttheatre.org/t41-students/

For more information please visit the reviews from the NY Times and New Yorker.

To learn more about Theater for One, visit the Court Theatre website.