STREETSIGNS
CENTER FOR LITERATURE AND PERFORMANCE
StreetSigns is an award-winning professional performing arts and educational center. Founded in Chicago in 1991, StreetSigns has presented more than sixty productions in its twenty-plus year history. StreetSigns has worked in partnership with Northwestern University, the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Process Series: New Works in Development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Georgetown University, and Manbites Dog Theater, Durham, North Carolina, always dedicated to the development and presentation of new literary adaptations, company created theatrical works, innovative new plays, and bold re-imaginings of classics.
StreetSigns is committed to celebrating the region’s rich oral and written traditions, and to engaging cultural and political issues through performance.
Production photo from Vanishing Marion, 2005 (Photo by Nicholas Graetz)
PRODUCTION HISTORY
2024
Yes, and . . . Season with the Process Series, LandED by Aya Shabu, Changing Same: The Cold-Blooded Murder of Booker T. Spicely by Mike Wiley and Howard L. Craft
2023
Voices | Visions and Revisions Season with the Process Series
2022
Reckoning and Reconciliation Season with the Process Series, Cascade by Jim Grimsley
2019
The Talk written and performed by Sonny Kelly, in a co-production with Bulldog Ensemble Theater
2018
The Pattern at Pendarvis by Dean Gray, adapted and fictionalized from interviews conducted by Will Fellows as part of the research for his book A Passion to Preserve: Gay men as Keepers of Culture, a New Dog | StreetSigns production as part of the SubletSeries@HERE, HERE Arts, New York, NY
Temples of Lung and Air written and performed by Kane Smego, produced by StreetSigns and presented by PlayMakers Repertory Company in their PRC2 series
2017
Closer Than They Appear by Christine Evans (previously known as You Are Dead. You Are Here.)
2016
A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney by Lucas Hnath, produced in association with Manbites Dog Theater
2015
Freight: The Five Incarnations of Abel Green by Howard L. Craft in Chapel Hill, NC and as part of the SubletSeries@HERE, HERE Arts, New York, NY
Geomancy: Divination by Geography by Elizabeth T. Gray Jr. and Elisabeth Lewis Corley, co-produced concert reading at The Process Series: New Works in Development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a program of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities
Trojan Barbie by Christine Evans
2014
New Works Initiative Reading Series at Galloway Ridge
- The Tramp's New World, a new play by Rob Jansen adapted from a screenplay by James Agree, workshop performance directed by Joseph Megel
- A Simple Gift by T. Cat Ford, concert reading directed by Joseph Megel
If My Feet Have Lost the Ground by Torry Bend produced by StreetSigns as part of the Other Voices Series at Manbites Dog Theater, directed by Torry Bend
Remember This: Walking with Jan Karski by Derek Goldman and Clark Young, readings starring David Strathairn in Warsaw, Poland; Washington, D.C.; and New York City in association with the Karski Theater Project Committee,The Jan Karski Educational Foundation, the Laboratory for Global Performance (the Lab) and Politics, and Teatr Imka, directed by Derek Goldman.
2013
New Works Initiative Reading Series
- Can’t Complain by Christine Evans, directed by Joseph Megel
- The Fever by Wallace Shawn, directed by Jeanmarie Higgins
- A Simple Gift by T. Cat Ford, directed by Joseph Megel
- Wider than the Sky, adapted from Emily Dickinson by Bonnie Gould and Elisabeth Lewis Corley, directed by Joseph Megel and performed by Bonnie Gould
2012
New Works Initiative Reading Series
Election Central by Elisabeth Lewis Corley, concert reading of screenplay as part of the Other Voices Series at Manbites Dog Theater
Acts of Witness – Two Theatrical Events in Rotating Rep
- Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot, featuring Alphonse Nicholson and Lucius Robinson, directed by Joseph Megel
- Poetic Portraits of a Revolution by Kane Smego, Will McInerney, Sameer Abdel-Khalek, and Mohammad Moussa, performed by the Sacrifical Poets Kane Smego and Will McInerney
2004 – 2011
New Works Initiative Reading Series
- Phedre’s Blues, translated from the Racine and adapted by Elisabeth Lewis Corley with additional material and lyrics by Elisabeth Lewis Corley and music by Lightnin’ Wells, readings produced in association with The Process Series
- What We Can Carry, a collaboration with Chicago’s Midnight Circus and Georgetown University’s Davis Performing Arts Center, directed by Joseph Megel and Derek Goldman
My Swan: the Passions of F. Scott Fitzgerald, a new jazz-musical by Derek Goldman in collaboration with recording artist Nancy Harrow around her song-cycle Winter Dreams: The Life and Passions of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Derek Goldman’s adaptation of Studs Terkel’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith
2007
A Hamlet Story by Chris Chiron (with Wordshed Productions)
2006
New Works Initiative Reading Series:
Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Derek Goldman’s adaptation of Studs Terkel’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith at Memorial Hall with David Strathairn
2005
Vanishing Marion by Jeanmarie Higgins
White People by Jim Grimsley
Moliere’s The Miser, translated and adapted by Elisabeth Lewis Corley
2004
New Works Initiative Reading Series:
- Vanishing Marion screenplay by Elisabeth Lewis Corley from the play by Jeanmarie Higgins
- Everything that Rises by T. Cat Ford from stories and letters of Flannery O’Connor
- Tales of Doomed Love by Andrea Stolowitz from ancient stories and fairy tales
2003
Shakespeare’s R&J, adapted by Joe Calarco
As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Dream Boy by Jim Grimsley, adapted by Eric Rosen
Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, adapted by Derek Goldman
2002
Antigone by Sophocles, in a version by Bertolt Brecht, translated by Judith Malina
2001
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, adapted by Derek Goldman from the book by James Agee and Walker Evans
Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman, a co-production with The Open Door Theatre
Locally Grown: WORDSONG, new and adapted works by Lee Smith, Clyde Edgerton, and Bland Simpson, with additional original music by Greg Bell, Joe Newberry, Brent Wilson, and Mark Simonsen
Suitcases Packed, choreographed by Peter Carpenter
2000
The Lost Boy, adapted by Matthew Spangler from Thomas Wolfe’s novella
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Wave When You Pass, an intergenerational Chatham County performance project by Lynn Johnson, Peter Carpenter, Derek Goldman, and the Ensemble
Pop Sadness choreographed by Peter Carpenter
Close to Magic, a Public Art Performance Collaboration with Chicago’s Midnight Circus, created by Peter Carpenter and Ensemble
The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
Tongue of A Bird by Ellen McLaughlin
Locally Grown: An Allan Gurganus Evening, adapted from White People by Miki Whittles Shelton and Derek Goldman
1999
Reading on Your Feet by Jodi Kanter
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
1998
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, adapted from James Agee’s and Walker Evans’s book by Derek Goldman and produced in association with Northwestern University
Divine Days, adapted from the novel by Leon Forrest by Derek Goldman and produced in association with Northwestern University
1997
The Perjured City, or the Awakening of the Furies by Helene Cixous
Three Men In a Boat, adapted from Jerome K. Jerome’s novel by George Brant and Derek Goldman
Kaddish for Allen Ginsberg by Derek Goldman with Peter Carpenter
1996
Pieces Unpierced by Lynn Johnson and Youth Options Unlimited “Drama Ink” Ensemble
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, adapted by Derek Goldman from James Joyce’s novel
1995
Night of the Mime by George Brant
Tales of the Lost Formicans by Constance Congdon
Written on the Body, adapted by Derek Goldman from Jeanette Winterson’s novel and produced in association with Northwestern University
A Death in the Family, adapted by Derek Goldman from James Agee’s novel
1994
Rough for Theatre by Samuel Beckett
Love Me, Love My Head, choreographed by Peter Carpenter
Right As Rain, national touring version, by Derek Goldman with Peter Barrett
Rage Within/Without by Kathy Randels
The Public by Federico Garcia Lorca
1993
Act of Translation by Jennifer Keller
Mazel and Shlimazel, adapted by Derek Goldman from Isaac Bashevis Singer’s story
SmokeSignals: Voices From the L.A. Rebellion by Tony Perucci and Ensemble
Right As Rain: A New Play about Anne Frank and the Holocaust by Derek Goldman with Peter Barrett
1992
The Public by Federico Garcia Lorca
Twelfth Night, or What You Will by William Shakespeare
1991
Behind the Front: A Response to the Ongoing AIDS Epidemic by Derek Goldman and Ensemble