Chicago Shakespeare Theater announces tickets on sale now for
Illinoise
A new kind of musical based on Sufjan Stevens’ acclaimed concept album
With music and lyrics by Sufjan Stevens
Story by Tony Award winner Justin Peck and Pulitzer Prize winner Jackie Sibblies Drury
Directed and choreographed by Justin Peck
Now slated to debut January 28–February 18, 2024
Chicago—October 30, 2023—Chicago Shakespeare Theater announces that tickets for Illinoise are on sale today. Previously scheduled to debut earlier in January under the title Illinois, this new kind of musical based on Sufjan Stevens’ acclaimed concept album is now slated to be presented in The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare, January 28–February 18, 2024, with a new title that references a song from the album, “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!”
Illinoise transforms Grammy and Academy Award-nominated Stevens’ landmark album into a genre-bursting theatrical experience that inspires hope. With a story crafted by Tony Award winner Justin Peck (New York City Ballet, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story) and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (Fairview), and original choreography by Peck, Illinoise glows around a campfire as virtuosic dancers, singers, and a live band take you on a mighty journey. Following a premiere presentation at the Fisher Center at Bard College in summer 2023, Illinoise will mark its official press opening at Chicago Shakespeare on Navy Pier, the gateway to the state alongside Lake Michigan. The production was originally commissioned, developed, and produced at the Fisher Center at Bard, is a co-commission of the Fisher Center at Bard, Park Avenue Armory, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Southbank Centre, TO Live, and the Perelman Performing Arts Center, and is produced in association with ArKtype/Thomas O. Kriegsmann.
In addition to Stevens, Peck, and Drury, the creative team includes Music Director and Supervisor Nathan Koci, Music Arranger and Orchestrator Timo Andres, Scenic Designer Adam Rigg, Lighting Designer Brandon Stirling Baker, Sound Designer Garth MacAleavey, Costume Designers Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung, Props Designer Andrew Diaz, Mask Designer Julian Crouch, Associate Director and Choreographer Adriana Pierce, Associate Music Director Sean Forte, Production Stage Manager Rick Steiger, Production Manager Brian Freeland, Executive Producer Nate Koch, General Management by NVK/Jenna Ready and Joanna Pisano, and Booking Agent ArKtype/Thomas O. Kriegsmann.
Single tickets start at $41 for performances beginning January 28 and are on sale now, with special discounts available for groups of 10 or more. For more information, visit www.chicagoshakes.com/illinoise.
ABOUT SUFJAN STEVENS
Sufjan Stevens is a singer, songwriter, and composer living in New York. His preoccupation with epic concepts has motivated two state records (Michigan and Illinois), a collection of sacred and biblical songs (Seven Swans), an electronic album for the animals of the Chinese zodiac (Enjoy Your Rabbit), a full length partly inspired by the outsider artist Royal Robertson (The Age of Adz), a masterwork memorializing and investigating his relationship with his late mother (Carrie & Lowell), and two Christmas box sets (Songs for Christmas, vol. 1–5 and Silver & Gold, vol. 6–10). BAM has commissioned two works from Stevens, a programmatic tone poem for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (The BQE) and an instrumental accompaniment to slow-motion rodeo footage (Round-Up). He has collaborated extensively with the New York City Ballet choreographer Justin Peck (Year of the Rabbit, Everywhere We Go, Countenance of Kings, Principia, The Decalogue, and Reflections). Stevens’ Planetarium, a collaborative album with Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, and James McAlister imbued with themes of the cosmos, was released in 2017 to widespread critical praise. Stevens also contributed three much-lauded songs to Luca Guadagnino’s critically acclaimed film Call Me By Your Name, including the Oscar and Grammy-nominated song “Mystery of Love.” In 2020, he shared Aporia, a collaborative new age album made with his stepfather Lowell Brams, and his eighth studio album, The Ascension, a reflection on the state of humanity in freefall and a call for a total transformation of consciousness. In early 2021, he released Convocations, a five-volume, two-and-a-half-hour requiem mass for present times. The most recent studio album by Stevens—A Beginner’s Mind—features songs inspired in part by popular films. It was released in the fall of 2021 and is a collaboration with singer-songwriter Angelo DeAugustine. In October 2023, Stevens’ tenth solo studio album, Javelin, was released.
ABOUT JUSTIN PECK
Justin Peck is a director, choreographer, filmmaker, and dancer based in New York City. He is the Resident Choreographer and Artistic Associate of the New York City Ballet, the second person in the institution’s history to hold this title. He has developed and created over 50 dance and theater works that have been presented on stages around the world, including Lincoln Center, the Palais Garnier, Sydney Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Broadway (most notably with his 2018 Tony Award-winning production of Carousel). His work has been performed by companies such as the Paris Opera Ballet, Australian Ballet, Dresden Semperoper Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Boston Ballet, Juilliard, National Ballet of Canada, Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, LA Dance Project, Dutch National Ballet, the School of American Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, and Houston Ballet among many others.
Peck works extensively as a filmmaker with credits including direction of music videos for The National, Chris Thile, and Dan Deacon; choreographing the 2021 film West Side Story in collaboration with director Steven Spielberg; and being commissioned by The New York Times to direct 10 films celebrating the best acting performances of the 2018 year, which included performances by Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Lakeith Stanfield, Glenn Close, Emma Stone, and Toni Collette.
Peck celebrates the art of collaboration and is honored to have worked across mediums with a wide array of luminaries, including Sufjan Stevens, Raf Simons, Elizabeth Moss, Steven Spielberg, Caroline Shaw, Jeffrey Gibson, Renee Fleming, Shepard Fairey, Sofia Coppola, Stephen Sondheim, Shantelle Martin, Humberto Leon, Bradley Cooper, Nico Muhly, John Baldessari, Dries Van Noten, Damien Chazelle, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Marcel Dzama, and Jody Lee Lipes. Peck danced with New York City Ballet from 2006-2019, eventually achieving the rank of soloist in 2013. He has performed a vast repertoire of works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Alexei Ratmansky, Lynn Taylor-Corbett, Christopher Wheeldon, and many others.
Peck’s honors include the Tony Award for Best Choreography for the Broadway production of Carousel (2018), the National Arts Award (2018), the Golden Plate Honor from the Academy of Achievement (2019), the Bessie Award for Outstanding Production for Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes (2015), and the World Choreography Award for the film West Side Story (2022).
ABOUT JACKIE SIBBLIES DRURY
Jackie Sibblies Drury’s plays include Marys Seacole (OBIE Award), Fairview (Pulitzer Prize), Really, Social Creatures, and We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as South West Africa, From the German Südwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915. The presenters of her plays include Donmar Warehouse, The Young Vic, Lincoln Center Theater's LCT3, Soho Rep., Berkeley Rep, New York City Players & Abrons Arts Center, Victory Gardens, Trinity Rep, Woolly Mammoth, Undermain Theatre, InterAct Theatre, Actors Theater of Louisville, Company One, Bush Theatre, and T: The New York Times Style Magazine. Drury has developed her work at Sundance, Bellagio Center, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Soho Rep. Writer/Director Lab, New York Theatre Workshop, Bushwick Starr, LARK, and MacDowell Colony, among others. She has received a PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award, a Steinberg Playwright Award, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a Jerome Fellowship at The LARK, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, and a Windham-Campbell Literary Prize in Drama.
ABOUT CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER
Regional Tony Award-recipient Chicago Shakespeare Theater produces a bold and innovative year-round season—plays, musicals, world premieres, family productions, and theatrical presentations from around the globe—alongside nationally recognized education programming serving tens of thousands of students, teachers, and lifelong learners each year. Founded in 1986, the Theater’s onstage work has expanded to as many as twenty productions and 650 performances annually. Chicago Shakespeare is dedicated to welcoming the next generation of theatergoers; one in four of its audience members is under the age of eighteen. As a nonprofit organization, the Theater works to embrace diversity, prioritize inclusion, provide equitable opportunities, and offer an accessible experience for all. On the Theater’s three stages at its home on Navy Pier, in classrooms and neighborhoods across the city, and in venues around the world, Chicago Shakespeare is a multifaceted cultural hub—inviting audiences, artists, and community members to share powerful stories that connect and inspire. www.chicagoshakes.com.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Upcoming Productions (as of press time)
JOYFUL CARIBBEAN-INFLUENCED COMEDY
Twelfth Night
by William Shakespeare
directed by Tyrone Phillips
Courtyard Theater
Now through November 26, 2023
SPELLBINDING FOLK MUSICAL FROM SCOTLAND
Islander
A WorldStage production from Scotland
conceived and directed by Amy Draper
associate direction by Eve Nicol
book by Stewart Melton
music and lyrics by Finn Anderson
Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare
November 29–December 17, 2023
STUDENTS IN CONVERSATION WITH SHAKESPEARE
Chicago Shakespeare SLAM
in high schools across the region and onstage
at Chicago Shakespeare
December 2023
A NEW KIND OF MUSICAL
Illinoise
music & lyrics by Sufjan Stevens
based on the album Illinois
story by Justin Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury
directed and choreographed by Justin Peck
The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare
January 18–February 28, 2024
RE-EXAMINING SHAKESPEARE’S INFAMOUS KING
Richard III
by William Shakespeare
directed by Edward Hall
starring Katy Sullivan
Courtyard Theater
February 2–March 3, 2024
ABRIDGED SHAKESPEARE FOR STUDENTS
Short Shakespeare! Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
adapted and directed by Mikael Burke
Courtyard Theater
February 22–March 20, 2024
RIOTOUSLY FUNNY WORLD PREMIERE STARRING JASON ALEXANDER
Judgment Day
by Rob Ulin
directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel
The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare
April 23–May 26, 2024
CAN YOU CRACK THE CODE?
The Enigmatist
written and performed by David Kwong
Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare
May 29–June 30, 2024
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