Ghostlight Ensemble - Season 8
History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme
Ghostlight Ensemble’s eighth season is underway and I am proud to present our 2024-2025 season line-up of productions and events.
Season 8: It’s About Time
Alabama Story by Kenneth Jones
Directed by Holly Robison
September 27 - October 20
“As the Civil Rights movement is brewing in Montgomery, Alabama, a segregationist senator and the state librarian clash over the content of a children’s book about bunny rabbits. Meanwhile, a reunion of childhood friends — a Black man and a woman of white privilege — provides a private counterpoint to the public events swirling in the state capital. Political foes, star-crossed lovers and one feisty children’s author inhabit a Deep South of the imagination that brims with humor, heartbreak and hope.”
For more information, please visit: https://www.ghostlightensemble.com/alabama-story
Holiday Spirits by Maria Burnham
in collaboration with the Driehaus Museum adapted from stories by Andrew Haggard, Lillie Harris, Frederick Manley and Anonymous
Directed by Holly Robison
December 2024
“Holiday Spirits: A collection of Victorian Yuletide Ghost Stories is a multi-story and multi-storied immersive, site-specific adaptations of classic Victorian ghost stories. Three distinct stories will unfold over three floors of the museum. Some seating will be provided, but be prepared to move with the actors as they uncover these otherworldly visitors.
During the Victorian era, newspaper and magazine publishers printed ghost stories during the Christmas season for chilling reading by the warming fireplace. The most famous example of such tales is A Christmas Carol, but Charles Dickens did not invent the Victorian Christmas ghost tradition — he was just the one to recognize its potential for commercial success.”
For more information and updates, please visit: https://www.ghostlightensemble.com/victorian-ghost-stories
The Invasion of Mathmatica by Nick Conrad
as part of Nightlight, a Theater for Young Audiences series
Directed by Maria Burnham & Nick Conrad
February 2025
“On the planet of Mathmatica, math and science are revered above all else, but their culture has advanced without artistic expression and with a fear of outsiders. The planet has shut itself off from other worlds, figurative and literally.
But when three outsiders crash on the surface bringing with them music, art and dance, the princess of Mathmatica begins to question the logic of their isolationist tendencies and the history she’s always been taught.”
For more information and updates, please visit: https://www.ghostlightensemble.com/invaders-of-mathmatica
Drink the Past Dry by Maria Burnham
World Premiere
Spring 2025
“The nondescript neighborhood bar in the middle of Chicago looks like every other bar in every other neighborhood in the city. A few regulars sit sipping drinks, making small talk, doing the things people always do in bars. But this bar has a secret. It can take you anywhere in time….
…but only once and only within the walls of the bar, so it turns out it’s not as popular a place as one might think.
But there are some souls who still need to reach out to the past – or to the future – and this is where they come when they do.”
For more information and updates, please visit: https://www.ghostlightensemble.com/drink-the-past-dry