What we do
Founded in 2004 with the goal of unleashing an actor-creator physical theater philosophy onto a wider realm of theatrical tradition, The Building Stage is a theater company creating smart, visual, inventive, and highly crafted pieces that celebrate the unique possibilities of live performance.
In the four years since the opening of our space in Chicago's West Loop, we have made a variety of pieces and promoted a theatrical practice based on immersion, investigation, transformation, construction, and play. Our creations have ranged from new versions of classic plays to adaptations of novels, translations of paintings, historical moments, cinematic genres, and often feature a juxtaposition of styles and forms.
We believe theater is made not written. And while every project has its own unique process of creation, each is driven by the spirit of investigation: to ask, through the action on stage, how a piece functions, how it is constructed, and what must be done to make it work. Whether applied to the staging of an original idea, the adaptation of literature and other media, or the reinterpretation of a pre-existing dramatic text, it is this approach to the work that defines us.
