Tour Guides: The Chicago No One Ever Puts on a Postcard

Chicago is… the lake I love/still can’t believe it ain’t an ocean. Chicago is… bipolar as projects next to million dollar condos. Chicago is… masochists and character builders knee deep in snow…

Amores, The Americans closed on Saturday night and today I’m jumping in to tech for TOUR GUIDES v.3, which opens on Friday. Wait a second, wait a second! some of you might be thinking… didn’t you do TOUR GUIDES last year? Haven’t I already seen this show?

Yes. And No.

TOUR GUIDES is a project of the Poetry Performance Incubator at the Guild Complex,which brings poets from across the city to collaborate together on making theatrical work. We did a one weekend version of it three years ago, a three weekend run of it last December, and we decided to bring it back one more time before moving on to our next new piece (Unnatural Spaces, coming next fall!). TOUR GUIDES is a love letter to Chicago, and like the city we write about, the show changes every time we put it up. This version (v.3) features a new cast, new stories, but the same great show so many people loved.

We’ll be going up at the Arts Center, Logan Square – Avondale (which also hosted The Americans.) The Arts Center is a new space and very interested in having conversations about what arts spaces can do in, and to, a community. We know that the arts can be central to community building, can heal rifts, can energize, can revitalize. But we also know that new art spaces often facilitate neighborhood change in ways that exclude or push out long term residents. TOUR GUIDES – a play created by writers from largely marginalized communities describing their experience of living in this city- is part of an attempt to open up conversation about these topics and more. At the same time, it is funny. Sweet. Honest. A review of the previous iteration of the show noted that we find “ways to push boundaries and draw audiences in to a place that feels both like home, and completely new.” Sound like something you want to see? Pos, come on over!

TOUR GUIDES

Fridays, Saturdays at 7pm

October 14-November 6.

Arts Center, Logan Square-Avondale

2800 N. Milwaukee

$10 in advance, $15 at the door

For tickets and information visit guildcomplex.org