CHICAGO READER
by Catey Sullivan
September 16, 2022

A new downtown location offers more room for community engagement.

…After five years in the works, plans seem to be falling together. This summer saw the demolition of a long-vacant Thai restaurant on the 87,500-square-foot parcel at 1012-16 Church Street where Jones plans to build the new Northlight, a three-story building slated to start construction in October 2023.

But new construction is hardly the only building driving Northlight’s Evanston-based endeavors. The theater’s teaching artists and educators have spent years building connections with Evanston, tending the theater’s local roots even as its brick-and-mortar presence remained out of town.

“We don’t have a conservatory. We don’t teach acting to professionals. Our programming is about helping people use theater in everyday life,” says Christina Lepri-Stringer, Northlight’s director of education and community engagement.

By the theater’s count, outreach efforts engaged some 4,000 people in 2021, including hundreds of students from Evanston’s public schools through programs ranging from playmaking workshops in elementary school classrooms to creative writing classes for grandparents.

Read the full article.