Chicago’s Tony-Award winning Lookingglass Theatre Company is proud to share new summer programming tied to Iraq, But Funny, May 29 – July 20; the second world premiere in Lookingglass’ reopening season. Iraq, But Funny accessibility, education and community events include improv workshops; special events and talkbacks for Emerging Artists, Women and Femme Artists, Chicago’s SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) community; and more. And other summer events include the fifth annual Sunset 1919 on July 27; Summergglass Camps, August 4 – 15; free Ice Cream Circus! performances in neighborhood parks throughout Chicago, August 17 – 24, and Lookingglass’ inaugural new works festival: GglassFest, September 5 - 13. Details are included below and may also be found at LookingglassTheatre.org.
This continuation of the 2025 season includes the following programs, performances and special events including:
Lookingglass Theatre Company presents
Iraq, But Funny
May 29 - July 20
Joan and Paul Theatre at Water Tower Water Works, 163 E. Pearson St. at Michigan Ave.
Written by Ensemble Member Atra Asdou
Directed by Dalia Ashurina
Featuring Susaan Jamshidi, Gloria Imseih Petrelli, James Rana, Sina Pooresmaeil and Atra Asdou
Previews: Thursday, May 29 - Saturday, May 31 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 1 at 1:30 p.m. and Wednesday, June 4 - Friday, June 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Opening Night is Saturday, June 7 at 6 p.m.
Performance Schedule (June 8 - July 20): Wednesdays at 7 p.m., Thursdays at 1:30 and 7 p.m., Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 1:30 and 7 p.m. and Sundays at 1:30 p.m., with additional Tuesday performances at 7 p.m. on June 17 and July 1. There will be no performances on the holidays of Juneteenth (Thursday, June 19) and the Fourth of July (Friday, July 4).
The estimated running time is two hours and 15 minutes including one intermission.
Joan and Paul Theatre at Water Tower Water Works, 163 E Pearson St. at Michigan Ave.
Tickets are $30 - $90
A raucous satire about five generations of Assyrian women reclaiming their stories, as narrated by a British guy. Making its world premiere at Lookingglass Theatre, Ensemble Member Atra Asdou’s original dark comedy jauntily marches through the Ottoman Empire to modern-day U.S.A. exploring history, family and dysfunction.
"When you think of Iraq, you don't usually think of comedy. I started writing Iraq, But Funny four years ago because I needed a place to put my family's stories and wanted to share a side of my people audiences rarely see: their sense of humor,” said Playwright Atra Asdou. "Iraq, But Funny explores the cyclical nature of mother/daughter and familial/generational relationships and how they relate to the cyclical nature of invasions, war and world history.
And who better to give voice to Assyrian women than a British guy who narrates the whole thing. I'm also in the cast of Iraq, But Funny and we hope to make you laugh, learn and feel like you're part of the family, too. Who knew colonialism could be so fun!"
Iraq, But Funny Accessible Performances:
Lookingglass provides accessible performances throughout the run. More information on each of the performances is available at LookingglassTheatre.org/accessibility.
● Mask Required Performance: Friday, June 13 at 7 p.m and Wednesday, July 2 at 7p.m.
● Open Caption Performance: Friday, June 27 at 7 p.m. .
● Audio Described/Touch Tour Performance: Saturday, June 21 at 7 p.m.
● Relaxed Performance: Sunday, July 6 at 1:30 p.m.
An accessible entrance to Lookingglass is located at Pearson Street directly to the west of the main entrance at 163 E. Pearson Street using the wooden double doors.
Patrons may access The Joan and Paul Theatre at Lookingglass using the elevator or ramp located in the newly renovated lobby. Lookingglass offers accessible seating for all performances on the ground floor and balcony. These seats are accessible for all patrons who use a wheelchair, a scooter, walkers, other mobility aids or cannot use stairs. Lookingglass also has a variety of aisle seating options available.
Assistive listening devices are available for every mainstage performance at the box office free of charge. Attendees may pick up the device at the box office upon arrival.
Sensory Bags are available for every mainstage performance at the box office free of charge. Attendees may pick up the bags at the box office upon arrival.
Large print programs are available in electronic form at the box office.
If assistance booking is needed, please call 312.337.0665 or email box@lookingglasstheatre.or
Iraq, But Funny Education and Community Programming:
Pride Night
- Thursday, June 5 at 6 p.m.
Join Lookingglass before the show for drag performances from Luv Ami-Stoole, Fantasy Banks and Spirit Apothrosis, curated by Dim Sum & Drag. Meet members of the Center on Halsted staff in the lobby and learn about their healthcare and advocacy work. Throughout June, sales from a special drink at the bar will support Queer healthcare.
Emerging Artist Night
- Wednesday, June 11 at 6 p.m.
Industry rate and complimentary drink ticket included
Lookingg to find your artistic home? Want to meet other early career artists? Join Actors Gymnasium and Lookingglass at 6 p.m. for Emerging Artist Night. Early career and new-to-Chicago artists may participate in a free pre-show workshop, see Iraq, But Funny at the industry rate and stick around after the show for a meet & greet with folks from Lookingglass and Actors’ Gym.
Women and Femme Artists Night and Post-Show Discussion
- Tuesday, June 17 at 7 p.m.
Before Iraq, But Funny, explore the art in the Lookingglass lobby gallery and meet the women and femme artists representing and reshaping cultural traditions from across Southwest Asia and North Africa. After the show, join artists Cristal Sabbagh, Myra Su and Nejla Yatkin and Iraq, But Funny playwright and performer Atra Asdou for a panel discussion celebrating women in the arts–past, present and future.
A LookingClass: Improv 101
- Wednesday, June 18 at 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, June 25 at 6 p.m.
- Wednesday, July 2 at 6 p.m.
Tickets: $15
Go behind the scenes of every Lookingglass show with LookingClass workshops and classes designed to spark curiosity. During Iraq But Funny, join Lookingglass and John Gregorio before select performances for an introduction to improv that will leave a laughing impression. Showcasing skills and developing public speaking skills in the latest edition of LookingClass.
SWANA Night
Southwest Asia and North Africa: Crossroads for the World
Thursday, July 10 at 6pm.
The SWANA community in Chicago is vast and diverse. Cause enough to congregate around our production of Iraq, but Funny and celebrate its People. Join Lookingglass for a pre-show mixer featuring live music and scrumptious bites. Stick around after the performance for some “qawah” (coffee), a REFLECT Panel on “Indigeneity Displaced” and a SWANA dance party afterwards.
Tickets: 20% off with code REFLECT
Other Summer Programming and Special Events:
Lookingglass Presents
Monday, June 9 at 6 p.m.
Lookingglass Bar and Café, 163 E. Pearson St. at Michigan Ave.
Tickets: Pay What You Can (suggested donation: $20)
Get to know Chicago in this fun-filled evening of variety entertainment and conversation with the inaugural offering of Lookingglass Presents. This month the evening includes Brian Babylon (comedian and fashion designer), Ensemble Member Atra Asdou (writer and performer) and Third Coast Chorus, a 40-person choir.
Sunset 1919
Sunday, July 27 at 7 p.m.
Eugene Williams Memorial Marker, 125 Fort Dearborn Dr.
1/4 mile north of 31st Street Beach
Free
Now in its fifth iteration, Sunset 1919 is an annual community art ritual performed in honor of Eugene Williams, a Black teenager who was killed for crossing an imaginary racial line on the waves of Mishigami (from Ojibwa “Great Water”). Sunset 1919 was first curated and coordinated in 2020 by Ensemble Member and Creative Producer Kareem Bandealy and Ensemble Member and Mellon Playwright in Residence J. Nicole Brooks and it offers a communal moment to acknowledge our Indigenous roots and for Black artists to merge movement, music and word in a free, spirit-guided ritual.
Chicago Public Library Workshop Series
Mysterious City: A Family Scavenger Hunt
- Saturday, June 14 from 10 - 10:45 a.m.
- Saturday, June 21 from 10 - 10:45 a.m.
- Saturday, July 12 From 10 - 10:45 a.m.
- Saturday, July 19 from 10 - 10:45 a.m.
Lookingglass Theatre, 163 E. Pearson St. at Michigan Ave.
All ages welcome.
FREE
Lookingglass Theatre Company and the Water Works Library Branch present a family drama workshop that celebrates the Chicago Public Library’s annual summer reading program. The mission: report to the historic Water Tower Water Works for a family scavenger hunt that will take families through the Lookingglass, beyond the pumping station pipes and out and around the neighborhood. Working together as a family, participants make clues, discover secrets and play together. All ages welcome.
Summergglass Camps
August 4 - 8 and August 11 - 15
Lookingglass Theatre, 163 E. Pearson St. at Michigan Ave.
Enrollment: $450
Enrollment available at LookingglassTheatre.org/summergglass-camp-2025/
Through drama and creative play, the experienced teaching artists of Summergglass will focus camp days to explore creative problem solving, collaboration, story structure, speaking directly to the audience and all the inventive visual storytelling that makes Lookingglass so special.
Mornings are spent working with teaching artists to learn many of the same theatre techniques and skills used to create Lookingglass shows. During the afternoons, campers will work on their drama skills as they create and adapt original stories to share on the final day of camp.
Summergglass Camp: Paper Magic: Shadow Puppet Camp
August 4 – 8 from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Ages: 6 – 10
Lights. Paper. Magic! Create epic adventures with shadow puppets as campers design, build and bring puppets to life using storytelling traditions from around the world.
Through creative drama and movement games, this camp explores folk tales from around the world, inventing original heroes and villains and building magical stories to share! Learn the fundamentals of Lookingglass playmaking techniques, explore design and story structure and go to the park each day for lunch. By the end of the session, friends and family are invited to join campers on a magical adventure into, and out of, the shadows.
Summergglass Camp: Mysterious City: Chicago Scavenger Hunt Camp
August 11 – 15 from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Ages 8 – 14
The Mysterious City Society needs your help! Together, campers will build a summer adventure demanding all of their creativity and daring-do. The mission:report to the historic Lookingglass Water Tower theatre for a scavenger hunt camp that will take campers through the Lookingglass, beyond the pumping station pipes and back in time through the pop culture, music and movements and milestones of Chicago’s not-so-distant past. Young adventurers will learn the fundamentals of Lookingglass playmaking techniques, explore the structure of scavenger hunts and choose “your own adventure” stories, search for clues on walking field trips and work with Lookingglass teaching artists to create an original scavenger hunt play to share with family and friends.
Ice Cream Circus!
in partnership with Actors Gymnasium and Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks
- Sunday, Aug. 17 at 5:30 p.m., Gill Park, 825. W. Sheridan Rd.
- Tuesday, Aug. 19 at 5 p.m., Seneca Park, 220 E. Chicago Ave.
- Thursday, Aug. 22 at 6 p.m., Trumbull Park, 2400 E. 105th St.
- Friday, Aug. 22 at 6 p.m., Kennicott Park, 4434 S. Lake Park Ave.
- Sunday, Aug. 24 at 3 p.m., Actors Gymnasium, 927 Noyes St., Evanston
Free
Lookingglass Theatre and Actors Gymnasium team up once to again, as part of the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks, to bring an original, circus-infused story that showcases the transformative magic of a simple act of kindness. Conveyed without spoken language, and through dance, clown and circus, Ice Cream Circus! is designed for all generations and for all language backgrounds.
Young Ensemble Auditions
Audition Registration begins August 18
Lookingglass Theatre, 163 E. Pearson St. at Michigan Ave.
Tuition: $300, with full and partial scholarships available.
The Young Ensemble, for teens 13- 18 years old, develops creativity and theatre skills through collaboration. For its 27th season, Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman directs the Young Ensemble in an immersive new play with public performances at The Joan and Paul Theatre, December 12 - 14.
GglassFest
New Works Festival
- Friday, Sept. 5 at 6 p.m. - Season Proposal #1
- Saturday, Sept. 6 at 11 a.m. - Season Proposal #2
- Saturday, Sept. 6 at 6 p.m. - Season Proposal #3
- Saturday, Sept. 13 at 11 a.m. - Season Proposal #4
- Saturday, Sept. 13 at 6 p.m.- Season Proposal #5
Lookingglass Theatre, 163 E. Pearson St. at Michigan Ave.
For the first time in Lookingglass’ history, audiences are invited to go behind the scenes and experience its new play development program, gglassworks, with the inaugural GglassFest. Attendees will have the opportunity to see how the Lookingglass Ensemble proposes new work to one another, to preview stories coming to the Lookingglass stage, and to participate in the process by sharing their thoughts and experiences around the material with Lookingglass staff.
Lookingglass has produced 70 world premiere plays to date, the majority of which were created by ensemble members and artistic associates through its year-round new play development program, gglassworks. Created by the ensemble, shepherded by many makers through many years, gglassworks is currently guided by Ensemble Member and Creative Producer – New Engagements Kareem Bandealy and ushers new productions through a multi-phase process.
“What is it we do here at Lookingglass? The simplest way I can say what I think it is? ‘We Make New,’” said Ensemble Member & Creative Producer – New Engagements Kareem Bandealy. “ I think that’s what we do. It’s a succinct summary of our core values: Collaboration, Invention and Transformation.”
ABOUT NIGHT OUT IN THE PARK
Lookingglass Theatre’s Ice Cream Circus! is presented as part of the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks series, supported by the Mayor’s Office and Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. For more than 10 years, the Night Out in the Parks program has presented cultural events year-round in neighborhood parks throughout the city. The Chicago Park District in partnership with over 100 local artists and organizations, present engaging events and performances that enhance quality of life across Chicago and amplify the artistic and cultural vibrancy in every neighborhood. Through multiple disciplines, which include theater, music, movies, dance, site-specific work, nature programs, and community festivals, the series aims to support Chicago-based artists, facilitate community-based partnerships and programs, cultivate civic engagement and ensure equity in access to the arts for all Chicagoans. For a complete list of Night Out in the Parks and other Chicago Park District events, please visit NightOutintheParks.com.
ABOUT LOOKINGGLASS THEATRE COMPANY
Founded in 1988 by graduates of Northwestern University, Lookingglass Theatre Company is a nationwide leader in the creation and presentation of new, cutting-edge theatrical works and in sharing its ensemble-based theatrical techniques with Chicago-area students and teachers through Education and Community Programs. Guided by an artistic vision centered on the core values of collaboration, transformation and invention, Lookingglass seeks to capture audiences’ imaginations leaving them changed, charged and empowered.
Recipient of the 2011 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, Lookingglass has built a national reputation for artistic excellence and ensemble-based theatrical innovation. Notable world premieres include Mary Zimmerman’s Tony Award-winning Metamorphoses and The Odyssey, J. Nicole Brooks' Her Honor Jane Byrne, David Schwimmer’s adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Studs Terkel’s Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel about the American Obsession, Matthew C. Yee's Lucy and Charlie's Honeymoon and David Catlin’s circus tribute to Lewis Carroll, Lookingglass Alice, which was captured by HMS Media and reached 1.6 million PBS viewers.Looking Alice is now available to more than four million students worldwide through Digital Theatre+. Work created by Lookingglass artists has been produced in Australia, Europe and dozens of cities throughout the United States.
Iraq, But Funny production sponsors include MAP Fund and Venturous Theatre Fund with Manilow Suites, production supporter.
The 2024 - 2025 season sponsors are the City of Chicago, The Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation, Hearn, HMS Media, Illinois Arts Council, Joan & Paul Rubschlager, Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, Waldorf Astoria and Steve & Lorrayne Weiss.