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Free Street Theater's 40th Anniversary Celebration
"I am frequently asked 'What is the Free Street Theater - just what do you do?' I am always stymied by this question because the Free Street Theater is not a static object that can be codified and catalogued." - Patrick Henry, Founding Artistic Director 1969 - 1989
"Four decades later, it is still not easy to precisely define Free Street because the very nature of our work makes us indefinable. When the work Free Street is doing becomes comfortable, Free Street moves into the unknown. Patrick Henry started Free Street in 1969 with the revolutionary idea that theater should be available for more than the 3% of the population who attended traditional plays. Once it was radical for a multi-racial company of professional artists to perform free shows in homogeneous neighborhoods. Now we continue with the radical idea that youth from all of Chicago's neighborhoods can be the authors of their own futures.
Free Street has evolved into a laboratory for the development of creativity as an essential language. For the past two decades Free Street has worked with youth, simultaneously developing new works of art and new artists. Developing virtuoso artists doesn't start with acting exercises - it starts with virtuoso creative humans. Free Street theater technique begins with the idea that talent can be taught and that talent-enhancing skills are the same skills that enhance success and happiness." - Ron Bieganski, Free Street Artist since 1985, Artistic Director 1995-2011
"Four decades later, it is still not easy to precisely define Free Street because the very nature of our work makes us indefinable. When the work Free Street is doing becomes comfortable, Free Street moves into the unknown. Patrick Henry started Free Street in 1969 with the revolutionary idea that theater should be available for more than the 3% of the population who attended traditional plays. Once it was radical for a multi-racial company of professional artists to perform free shows in homogeneous neighborhoods. Now we continue with the radical idea that youth from all of Chicago's neighborhoods can be the authors of their own futures.
Free Street has evolved into a laboratory for the development of creativity as an essential language. For the past two decades Free Street has worked with youth, simultaneously developing new works of art and new artists. Developing virtuoso artists doesn't start with acting exercises - it starts with virtuoso creative humans. Free Street theater technique begins with the idea that talent can be taught and that talent-enhancing skills are the same skills that enhance success and happiness." - Ron Bieganski, Free Street Artist since 1985, Artistic Director 1995-2011