City Lit Theater’s 45th season will resume in February with the Chicago premiere of the historical political drama CHANGING CHANNELS, by Chicago actor and playwright John Reeger. Based on real events, the play is set in 1952, during the McCarthy-era “Red Scare,” backstage of an immensely popular weekly comedy TV show. The play, which follows a television comedy actress who is suspected of having ties with the Communist Party, adroitly captures both the exhilaration of live television in its formative years as well as the anxiety among entertainers that their careers could be derailed by blacklisting. Chicago actor and freelance director Kevin Theis will helm the production. CHANGING CHANNELS will open on March 7, following previews from February 27, and play through April 12.
Playing the actress Maggie Carlin, a popular TV comedienne whose opportunity for even greater fame and financial success is threatened by the Red Scare, will be Kat Evans. Evans’ many appearances with City Lit Theater include her performance last year as the lamp named Only in GLASSHEART. Appearing as Maggie’s husband Peter, an actor whose career is similarly in jeopardy, will be Skyler Tipton, seen recently in BERNHARDT/ HAMLET with The Resident Theatre at Edge of the Wood. Eddie Gilroy, the brash and popular TV comedian who is star of the TV show on which Maggie is a regular co-star, will be played by Orion Lay-Sleeper, seen last year in THE TEMPEST with Idle Muse Theatre. Completing the cast are Johnny Moran as Gilroy’s agent Bullets Bloomquist and Andrew Pappas as Kenny, a young studio assistant. Moran’s recent credits include WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN by Blue in the Right Way. Pappas recently played Roger in RENT for Rose Theatrics.
The production team includes Joe Larkin (Scenic Designer), Emily McConnell (Costume Designer), Liz Cooper (Lighting Designer), Petter Wahlbäck (Sound Designer), Aubrey Pierce (Carpenter), Tseela Sokolin-Maimon (Stage Manager), C.J. Day (Dramaturg), Mark Brown (Production Electrician), and Bruce Bennett (Scenic Charge).
Tickets may be purchased now online at www.citylit.org or over the phone by calling 773-293-3682. Tickets are $32 for previews and $40 for regular performances. Senior prices are $5.00 off regular prices. Students and military are $17.00 for all performances.
LISTING INFORMATION
CHANGING CHANNELS
By John Reeger
Directed by Kevin Theis
Chicago Premiere
February 27-April 12, 2026
Previews February 27 – March 6
Press opening Saturday, March 7 at 7:30 pm
Regular run March 7 – April 12
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm (no performance on Easter Sunday, April 5)
Mondays, March 30 and April 6 at 7:30 pm
Tickets are $32 for previews and $40 for regular performances. Senior prices are $5.00 off regular prices. Students and military are $17.00 for all performances.
Tickets available online at www.citylit.org or by phone at 773-293-3682.
All performances at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, on the second floor (accessible via elevator) of the Edgewater Presbyterian Church.
Based on actual events, CHANGING CHANNELS is set backstage at the DuMont Television Network in New York City in 1952. It is the peak of the “Red Scare,” and 151 actors, authors, and journalists are put on the Red Channels list, with alleged ties to communism. As Cold War hysteria sweeps the nation, actress Maggie Carlin finds herself accused just as her hit comedy show is taking off.
BIOS
John Reeger (Playwright) is a Chicago playwright and actor. John and his long-time collaborator, the late composer/lyricist Julie Shannon, received the 1996 After Dark Award for “Outstanding New Work” when their musical THE CHRISTMAS SCHOONER premiered at the Bailiwick Repertory. THE CHRISTMAS SCHOONER is licensed by Music Theatre International and has received more than 200 productions in theatres throughout the country and in the UK. John and Julie previously collaborated on the musical STONES, which premiered in 1989 at the St. Louis Black Repertory. John and Julie’s third collaboration, LET THE EAGLE FLY, THE STORY OF CESAR CHAVEZ, was produced in concert version by Goodman Theatre, as part of the 2004 Latino Theatre Festival. Their most recent collaboration THE MAN WHO MURDERED SHERLOCK HOLMES (with music and lyrics co-authored by Michael Mahler) opened at Mercury Theatre Chicago in 2016 and received the Jeff Award for “New Work.”
As an actor, John has appeared in more than 160 productions in Chicago venues including the Goodman, Court, Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, Writers, Northlight, Marriott and Drury Lane. He has appeared regionally in productions at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Kennedy Center, Goodspeed, Fulton Theatre and at the RSC’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. In 2015, the Jeff committee honored John and his wife actress Paula Scrofano with a special Career Achievement Award for their contribution to Chicago theatre.
Kevin Theis (Director) is thrilled to return to City Lit, having directed six previous shows with the company including TARTUFFE, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST and JEEVES AND THE MATING SEASON (Jeff nomination). Kevin has been a director and actor in Chicago for over thirty years, having staged shows at Lifeline Theatre, CT20 Ensemble, Seanachai Theatre, Oak Park Festival and Timber Lake Playhouse. Favorite shows include THE FAIR MAID OF THE WEST (CT20), NOISES OFF (Timber Lake) and MONSTROUS REGIMENT (Lifeline).
Brian Pastor (Executive Artistic Director) is a trans/non-binary director, actor, playwright, and Jeff Award-winning producer (AUGUST WILSON’S SEVEN GUITARS), and the Executive Artistic Director of City Lit Theater. Brian previously spent ten and a half years on staff at City Lit, including nine as Managing Director. From 2019 to 2024, Brian served as City Lit’s Resident Director, where they directed THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD, ARMS AND THE MAN, J.B., and their own acclaimed adaptation of Robert Kennedy’s THIRTEEN DAYS. Most recently, Brian directed the World Premiere of Bo List’s R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) and the Chicago Premiere of Reina Hardy's GLASSHEART. Brian is a founder and Emeritus Artistic Director of Chicago’s Promethean Theatre Ensemble, where they directed THE LION IN WINTER, THE WINTER’S TALE, and GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE (all Broadway World Award Nominated- Best Director), as well as HENRY V and THE DARK SIDE OF THE BARD. Brian also directed the world premiere of THE BLACK KNIGHT by Angeli Primlani, the inaugural show for Lifeboat Productions. As an actor, Brian has worked with Strawdog, Raven, WildClaw, Promethean, Accomplice, and City Lit, among others. Brian is the former Executive Director of Sideshow Theatre and the former Executive Director of Raven Theatre. They also served as a board and company member of The Mime Company and as a founding company member of Chicago dell’Arte. A Pittsburgh native, Brian has called Chicago home since their graduation from Northwestern University in 2003.
ABOUT CITY LIT THEATER COMPANY:
City Lit is the eighth oldest continuously operating theatre company in Chicago, behind only Goodman, Court, Northlight, Oak Park Festival, Black Ensemble Theatre, Steppenwolf, and Pegasus theatres. It was founded in 1979 with $210 pooled by Arnold Aprill, David Dillon, and Lorell Wyatt. For its current season, its 45th, it operates with a budget slightly over $200,000. It was the first theatre in the nation devoted to stage adaptations of literary material. There were so few theatres in Chicago at the time of its founding that at City Lit’s launch event, the founders were able to read a congratulatory letter they had received from Tennessee Williams.
For four decades and counting, City Lit has explored fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoirs, songs, essays and drama in performance. A theatre that specializes in literary work communicates a commitment to certain civilizing influences—tradition imaginatively explored, a life of the mind, trust in an audience’s intelligence—that not every cultural outlet shares.
City Lit is located in the historic Edgewater Presbyterian Church building at 1020 West Bryn Mawr Avenue. Its work is supported in part by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events CityArts program. An Illinois not-for-profit corporation and a 501(c)(3) federal tax-exempt organization, City Lit keeps ticket prices below the actual cost of producing plays and depends on the support of those who share its belief in the beauty and power of the spoken written word.