Theater Oobleck

No director. New works. Free if you're broke. Twenty-two years. Theater Oobleck is a Chicago-based company, 22 years old this year. Over those 22 years, Oobleck has launched 50 productions of idiosyncratic new works, all created and developed by members of the ensemble, working in concert to create a collective vision without an overseeing director. Oobleck has received consistent critical acclaim locally, nationally (Theater Journal, American Theatre, the New York Times, Village Voice), and internationally (The Guardian and the Times in London, Maska in Slovenia, and elsewhere). This summer the Department of Cultural Affairs presented Oobleck’s Strauss at Midnight at the Storefront Theater, to rave reviews. In 2008 the company’s hit production of Mickle Maher’s The Strangerer moved to New York for a successful six-week Off-Broadway engagement at the Barrow Street Theatre. Oobleck has traveled three times to the New York International Fringe Festival, with one production being named “Outstanding Comedy.” Theaters in London, Helsinki, Hamburg, Houston, New York, and elsewhere, as well as The Actors Gang and the Zoo District in Los Angeles have produced revivals of Oobleck’s plays. Theater Oobleck is funded through grants from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, and through the generous support of its audiences.