top of page

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.

Nicholas Graetz

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

 

bottom of page