from BJ Jones

It’s the week after the opening of Souvenir and our audiences and the critics appear to be most pleased.  It’s funny, charming and surprisingly moving, but what appears to fascinate our audience the most is that it is about a real person.

Over the years, work that reflects our human condition seems to resonate quite strongly.  Character driven, and quirky plays and musicals like last season’s Grey Gardens, or Side Show, the musical about the conjoined twins, always strike a chord with our subscribers and it’s one of the reasons I look for these interesting pieces when considering our upcoming seasons.

I like to find work that shakes up our perceptions of social and political issues, like Permanent Collection, Gee’s Bend, or Ground, a play that we commissioned and will premier at the Humana Festival this year in Louisville.

I mention this now, as I am in process of choosing next season and often I am asked by subscribers how I choose our seasons and how far in advance we work on it.  I tell them we are always looking for work that they will respond to.  We have had the rights to Souvenir for two seasons but we found other plays that felt more appropriate and timely, so we did those first.

The mixture is a curious chemistry set and there are no set rules or patterns that we follow.  When people ask me how I choose the work, the answer is so complex and fluid that I feel hard-pressed to simplify it into an “elevator speech.”  But in the last few weeks, I have put together a bit of a manifesto that might tell you what our ideal criteria would be.

• Will it challenge and engage our audience?
• Does it excite Northlight as an artistic institution?
• Will it further expand our reputation as one of Chicago’s leading artistic institutions?
• Will Northlight reach new constituencies and perhaps build on those encounters for longer and more meaningful relationships?
• Will the work reflect our community to the world…and
• Will this work bring the world to our community?

These are lofty ideals, admittedly, and we try to achieve them with every production.  It’s a lot to ask of 5 plays or musicals, but we succeed more than we fail, and year after year over 8,100 subscribers agree and tell us that our consistency is the key to their loyalty.  I hear it in the lobby at the intermission of Souvenir or after the show, and as you all know, I respond to your phone calls and e-mails should you reach out to share your thoughts.

There are several plays that we have thought about for a couple of seasons that might find their way into our season.  And there are some new works that have piqued our interest and may demand that we produce them right away.  If you attend Interplay, our reading series, you might catch a glimpse of what or who as playwrights we are interested in and even weigh in with your thoughts at the post-show talk-back.  Dec. 14th is the next one and it’s a new play called Saturday Night, Sunday Morning by Katori Hall. It’s a fascinating process, and we’d love to have you join us.

Next up is Amy Morton’s production of Awake and Sing!, and we fully expect it to fulfill each of our aesthetic criteria.

See you then.

More Anon,
Beej