411: Play a Day

In 2002, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks set out to write 365 different plays every day for the following year. She succeeded in completing each piece and beginning on November 13 theaters in nearly a dozen cities in the United States—including Chicago—will showcase each play for the duration of the year to follow, ending on November 12, 2007. “[The festival is a] celebration of the creative act of playwriting… and a celebration of the nation’s theater makers. If you’re going to celebrate the dynamism of the theater-making community, it was pretty important that Chicago play a major role,” Jason Loewith, the Chicago organizer for 365 Days/365 Plays, says. While seven of Chicago’s top theaters, including Congo Square Theatre, Goodman Theatre, The Hypocrites, Next Theatre Company, Steppenwolf Theatre, Uma Productions and Writer’s Theatre make up the Chicago “hub” for the project, anyone who is interested in producing a week’s worth of shows that will go on simultaneously with productions around the country can meet with Parks and producer Bonnie Metzgar to learn more about becoming part of 365 Days/365 Plays (visit www.365chicago.org). “[The festival is] designed from a national point of view to  be grassroots and be from a community that collaborates. [Producers] can be anybody who has a history of presenting or producing work. I think that the biggest challenge we face is that we have more than fifty-two companies willing to participate,” Loewith says.