Lookingglass has defined regional theatre through more than 35 years of groundbreaking work, with the mission to redefine the limits of theatrical experience. It is an ensemble-based incubator, integrating a physical and improvisational approach with training in performance, dance, music, and acrobatic arts. After more than twenty years at home on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, Lookingglass reopens its doors having expanded its public-facing footprint, to nurture creative expression in the form of a growing, vital, and inclusive arts platform. Driven by a fast-paced timeline fueled by grant funding, the expansion marks a transformative moment for the company within this historic and cultural landmark, uniting mainstage and city with a vibrant street front lobby, and front of house support spaces including café and bar, flexible rehearsal, education and community outreach space.

The terrazzo floor, a foundational gesture for the project, is inscribed with paths referencing ancient celestial maps designed to help all navigate from points of entry, past old public utilities, new public amenities, to the inner lobby and mainstage beyond. At the lobby’s core stands a glowing amber volume referencing the flexible ‘machine for theatre’ realized for Lookingglass in 2003. Part scrim, part lantern, the hand-cast amber fiberglass invites all to move through and around the essential program contained within including box office, coat check, and universal restrooms. It forms the backdrop for expanded programming: A full café and bar provide the promise of a new revenue stream, as does the entire street-facing lobby which can for the first time, accommodate the full 240-person audience for pre and post functions, as well as independent programming for purposes of rehearsal, education, and community outreach.

Art and technology merge to play a key role in Lookingglass Theatre’s new public-facing identity. A centrally located projection surface provides the imperative to interact with a floor-to-ceiling billboard celebrating work by Lookingglass and the community supporting its mission. Artfully placed neon glows with the name of the company and the donors for which the mainstage is now named. They foreground the warmth of the renovated space expressed in each new material from floor and signage-infused wall surface, to bar face and furnishings, to the glowing core at the center of this project. Each is intended to embrace both patron and player, in an expression of this beating theatrical heart in Chicago.