by Katrina Dion | Mar 25, 2026 | Uncategorized
Free Street Youth Ensemble Each year, Free Street trains young people from across Chicago — from Bronzeville to Buena Park — at our Pulaski Park location. They arrive with all levels of theater experience and leave with something larger: the skills to use performance...
by Bella Pelz | Feb 26, 2026 | Uncategorized
On Building A Bridge Between Our Dreams & Our Reality: Every friendly neighborhood social justice theater company needs a resident “woman behind the screen” and at Free Street that’s me, Managing Director Isabella Pelz. I might not have the high tech that an...
by Elizabeth Nungaray | Nov 21, 2025 | News
UPDATE! Do you want to support our rent rally and interact with visionary storytellers shaping Chicago’s narrative? Join us for a conversation with four Chicago writers (Natlie Moore, Luis Urrea, José Olivarez, and Megan Steilstra) as we collectively imagine a...
by Katrina Dion | Oct 8, 2025 | Events, News
Free Street Theater has never been one to have a “season announcement.” Just as much as we believe in environmental, economic and racial justice, we also believe in flexibility, care, and responsiveness. If we want to truly be in partnership with our community...
by Free Street Theater | Feb 15, 2020 | Uncategorized
You’re invited to join us for our annual de-commercialized love fest honoring Free Street’s work and our beloved communities (because love can be found all year round in so many ways). Start out the evening with small bites and an open bar serving beer...
by coya | Jun 5, 2019 | Uncategorized
Ready to go Live for 50x50? Day(s) : Hour(s) : Minute(s) : Second(s) Free Street turns 50 this year, so we decided to celebrate by performing in ALL fifty wards of the city… IN ONE DAY! On June 23rd, we will be showing up in a neighborhood near you! We have 10...
by coya | Oct 29, 2018 | News
Amores, this morning Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune published an article on the Green Line Performing Arts Center Grand Opening. It came with an outrageously misleading headline: “Finally, a Chicago-style Storefront for the Southside,” which received...
by coya | Oct 8, 2018 | Events, News
Call for collaborators! Free Street is looking for people to work on *still here: a manifesto for survival*. This ensemble piece, which will tour public spaces throughout the summer of 2019, draws on speculative fiction and acts of radical imagination to ask what the...
by coya | Sep 21, 2018 | News
At Free Street, we joke that we have THE WORST business model in the world. We pay everyone that works with us (theater is a job) AND we offer all of our programming for free/pay-what-you-can (theater isn’t a luxury). We are committed to finding ways to break down the...
by coya | Aug 9, 2018 | Stories
For a long time, I have been OBSESSED with the notion of “papelitos guardados” (secret/guarded little bits of paper.) I first read about it in the Latina Feminist Group’s anthology and it really resonated it with me- the idea that most of us will...
