THE ALMOST EMPEROR OF THE UNOFFICIAL DEESTRICK OF LAKE MICHIGAN

Winner of the 2020 Judith Barlow Award

2023 Broadway World Chicago Theatre Nominee for Best New Play

CAST & COMPANY:

Director – Kristin L. Schoenback

Design & Production Manager – Rachael Nuckles

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Ky Anderson – Poppy

Kelsey Busboom – Ma Streeter

Viv Delgadillo – Niles West

Keenan Odenkirk – Potter Motherfucking Palmer

Ryan Tang – Cap Streeter

SYNOPSIS:

It is the 1920s in Chicago, and The District of Lake Michigan is thriving. Led by Cap and Ma Streeter, the lakefront plot of land that houses The District is occupied by a ragtag group of Chicagoans living outside the law. They have been allowed to live there, pretty much undisturbed, for decades, but now they are in the way of millionaire Potter Palmer’s master plan to expand his holdings onto Lake Shore Drive. Not one to do his own dirty work, Palmer sends his puppets (The Judge, Sargeant O’Malley, and N.A. Warpbank) to remove Streeter and his followers from the land once and for all in this DaDa adaptation of a Chicago legend.

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“Streeterville won’t never have a chamber of commerce until it has a cabaret. This is a frontier town and its got to go through its red-blooded youth. A church and a WCTU branch never growed a town yet. Yuh gotta start with entertainment.“

– Captain George Wellington Streeter

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

We as Cats Cradle Theatre and a company of artists, no matter where we work, acknowledge the original owners of that land. This event will take place at The Understudy Coffee & Books, which resides within the traditional homeland of a few indigenous nations including The Peoria and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ tribes as well as many other tribes who traversed this land.

It is our responsibility as individuals who benefit from colonization to understand and support the indigenous communities whose lives were destroyed and whose stories were erased in the name of this nation. Chicago is home to one of the largest urban Native communities with members of tribes from across the content. It’s important to not only look back at the communities that called this land home before us, but to understand that we are still living alongside peoples for whom reparations must be made.

Click here to learn about some of the tribes whose land you currently reside on.

CATS CRADLE THEATRE

Cats Cradle Theatre is a project-based producing collective of artists and advocates. We are dedicated to developing new work and new industry practices that center on themes of empathy, inclusion, and social justice. We believe in the power of community. Through workshops, readings, productions, events, and philanthropic work, we strive to cultivate unique and actionable partnerships. Each project we pursue has a clear purpose in developing civic relationships, always looking for new ways “to citizen.”

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Our through-line as a company is not found in our continued season or program planning, but instead is centered on how we work. By looking deeply at the underlying structures and practices in our industry, especially in the decision-making processes, Cats Cradle seeks to identify, investigate and develop new ways of working that align with and serve the needs of our community, and investing in a new generation of artists.