Ghostlight is a finalist for Best of Chicago 2019!

Ghostlight is honored and excited to be nominated in two categories for the Reader's Best of Chicago 2019: Best established theater company and Best off-Loop theater company.

We'd love if our supporters would follow this link to vote for us. And you can ask your friends and family to do so as well, as there are no restrictions on voting. (Also you don’t have to fill out all the categories if you’re only interested in voting for a few of the categories.)

BUT while you're voting for us, please consider also these other Ghostlight affiliated folks:

Our Co-Artistic Director Maria Burnham is nominated for both Best Director and Best Playwright.

Stefanie Johnsen is nominated for Best Designer. Stefanie designed the costumes for our production of An Ideal Husband.

And Improvised Jane Austen is nominated for Best sketch/improv troupe. Ensemble Member Holly Robison is a member of IJA and the group has performed at a number of our past events.

We appreciate the continued support of the community and we’re so thrilled to be a finalist for Best of Chicago.

Why Theatre Matters To Us: Holly Robison

Holly Robison, second from left, at a production meeting for Ghostlight's 2016 festival of new works, "Six Authors in Search of a Character."

Ghostlight is sharing our personal stories of why theatre is so important to us and, in turn, to others. We hope you'll feel inspired to support the arts now and forever more.
 

Holly Robison, Co-Artistic Director, Ensemble Member

"When I was in the second grade, I played a bunny who choked on a cookie.  I remember that I prepared. We didn't have to memorize our lines, but I was the only kid who did. While it seemed all that was expected was to step forward and read our lines, I thought about how to create the moment, how to choke on the cookie — how to bite the cookie like a rabbit would, the timing of the bite, when to say my line, when to start coughing, etc. I was a painfully shy kid and usually went out of my way to avoid attention  — to avoid talking to people at all, really  — but, man, was I into creating that character. All that scary stuff went away because I had to be a bunny, and I had a cookie to choke on, darn it. I loved it. (OK, full disclosure: repeated teacher-sanctioned cookie consumption may have contributed to my 8-year old joy. But really, that is still part of the joy — those silly, fun, crazy things you get to do and learn as actor. ) 

"Even though it was many, many years before I fully realized and embraced that part of myself, I know now that this was probably the first sign that I was a 'theatre person' at my core. It's my first memory of a love for performance, for crating a character, for telling a story."

Why Theatre Matters To Us: Lisa Uhlig

Ghostlight is sharing our personal stories of why theatre is so important to us and, in turn, to others. We hope you'll feel inspired to support the arts now and forever more.

Lisa Uhlig (far left) as the Stage Manager in Ghostlight Ensemble's production of "Six Characters in Search of an Author."

 
Lisa Uhlig, Director of Operations, Ensemble Member

"I was always a ham, the goofball, the candy-crazed kid growing up. Then I hit middle school, and that was TOUGH (we've all got our stories). So by the time I made it to high school, I was still that goofball/candy freak, but only to a select few. Otherwise I was that shy kid in the corner. That's where theatre came in. I found I had a knack for set design and an eye for stage pictures (directing). It was my high school technical director who gave me my first chance to push my comfort zone, to try something new within a safe space. He handed me a list one day and said 'I think you can organize getting all this done.' The faith he had in me encouraged me to excel. I was teaching others the ropes of the shop in no time.

"So I guess that's what theatre has often done for me, and what I believe it does/can do for others, show us what we're really capable of and encourage us to embrace and utilize it — a sense of agency."

http://www.ghostlightensemble.com/get-funding-fundraiser

VIDEO: Meet the director of our Season 1 Holiday show

Reading is nice, but sometimes it's better to hear things directly from the directors mouth.

So we've put together a little teaser of Nutcracker Nightmare — part of Gingerbread Grindhouse that goes up this December at the Greenhouse Theater Center — and what your support means to this show.