Our 2025-2026 Season
A 29TH SEASON TO MEET THE MOMENT
TimeLine is thrilled to announce our milestone 2025-26 season, featuring three shows more timely than ever, led by three powerhouse Chicago directors, and culminating in a landmark event years in the making: the inaugural production in our long-awaited new home at 5035 N. Broadway in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood.
This season brings three urgent plays to the stage, each confronting the political and personal stakes of our time. From a world premiere by a Chicago “triple-threat” playwright, to a biting satire of fractured community, to a fresh take on a searing classic, TimeLine’s 29th season is about meeting the moment head-on—and meeting you in our new artistic home.
“This collection of stories furthers our belief in the importance of uplifting everyone’s history, while creating a space for contemplation and respectful discourse about complex issues. Individually and collectively, these plays—led by three of Chicago’s most accomplished directors— showcase the power of three playwrights working at the top of their craft. These are probing stories about how communities engage with one another, navigating thorny issues amidst periods of historic significance. With this collection of new, provocative, and timely plays, we are proud to embark on an exciting next chapter for TimeLine.” — Artistic Director PJ Powers
MEET THE MOMENT WITH A TIMELINE FLEXPASS
Be there for this milestone season! The TimeLine FlexPass offers impressive flexibility, savings of up to 25% OFF regular-ticket prices, free exchanges, and VIP customer service from TimeLine’s Audience Services team. LEARN MORE …
or call the TimeLine Box Office at 773.281.8463 x6
A captivating Chicago-set world premiere that shines a light on American identity.
Like millions of Americans, Clara is doing her best to hold everything together—working hard, raising her tween daughter Stella, caring for an aging father, and supporting her under-employed ex-husband. But when she applies for U.S. citizenship ahead of a mother-daughter trip to Paris, her application is unexpectedly flagged, exposing minor infractions in her past and threatening the only home she’s ever known. Blending grounded family drama with otherworldly wonder, this Chicago-set world premiere is a moving and provocative exploration of our country’s most fundamental values.
Originally commissioned by the Chicago Park District’s Theatre on the Lake In the Works project, in partnership with The Chicago Dramatists, previous development of Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars included stagings as part of Goodman Theatre’s New Stages Festival in 2018 and Northeastern Illinois University’s thINKtank Series, co-produced in partnership with Teatro Vista, in 2024.
Hundreds and Hundreds of Stars runs October – November 2025, hosted by Lookingglass Theatre Company in the historic Water Tower Water Works, 163 E. Pearson St. at Michigan Avenue, Chicago
A sharply funny Broadway hit satire of progressivism, parenting, and public health.
At Berkeley, California’s ultra-progressive Eureka Day School, every decision is made by consensus. But when a mumps outbreak hits, the school’s carefully cultivated culture of inclusiveness spirals into chaos. As parents and board members clash over vaccines, personal freedoms, and viral misinformation, a community built on open-minded ideals implodes. Winner of the 2025 Drama League Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play, this Chicago premiere tackles one of the defining questions of our time: how do you build consensus when no one can agree on the truth?
Acclaimed as “a powder keg of debate, liberal niceties, and hidden agendas” by The Daily Beast, Eureka Day is that rare combination—a “gaspingly funny” (New York Magazine) satire that captures the absurdity of modern discourse in ways that are intelligent, insightful, and real.
Eureka Day had its world premiere at Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, Calif., in 2018. The play premiered Off-Broadway in 2019 and at the Old Vic in London in 2022, before returning to New York City and Broadway via Manhattan Theatre Club in 2024. The Broadway production has received five 2025 Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Play.
Eureka Day runs February – March 2026 at a venue to be announced
A fresh, Tony Award-nominated take on the historic masterwork about citizens standing up to power.
When a respected doctor in small-town Norway makes a deadly discovery that threatens the health of the entire village, he raises the alarm. But as local leaders—including his own brother, the mayor—scramble to protect their own interests, the truth becomes inconvenient, and the doctor finds himself the target of the very community he’s trying to protect. Winner of the 2024 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Adaptation, this vibrant new version of Ibsen’s thunderous masterwork asks: what happens when doing the right thing means losing everything?
Hailed by The New York Times as “crackling and persuasive … a bitter satire of local politics that soon reveals itself as a slow-boil tragedy of human complacency,” Amy Herzog’s new Tony Award-nominated version of An Enemy of the People is “brilliant” (The Daily Beast) and “a rousing adaptation of a story that carries a discomforting contemporary relevance” (The Guardian).
An Enemy of the People had its premiere on Broadway at Circle in the Square Theatre in March 2024, in a star-studded and headline-grabbing production directed by Sam Gold and featuring Jeremy Strong (Succession) and Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos), among others.