Prop Thtr will probably never produce Stephen Sondheim’s Follies. Yet somehow, the news earlier this month that they will be moving out of their longtime two-venue space in Avondale by October made me envision Carlotta the aging showgirl, crooning “good times and bum times, I’ve seen them all. And, my dear, I’m still here.”
So what happened? COVID.
Prior to the COVID shutdown, Lilley was working on Diary of an Erotic Life, a devised piece derived from proto-Expressionist Frank Wedekind’s writings, including his famous “Lulu” plays. Those also formed the basis for the 1929 film Pandora’s Box, starring black-haired siren Louise Brooks and Brun’s grandfather, Austrian actor Fritz Kortner. Lilley has also produced site-specific work in the past, including an adaptation of Faust with the Runaways Lab Theater that played in various living rooms around the city.
Several years ago, I wrote a chapter about Prop for a book project on Chicago’s “established alternatives”: companies that have been in operation for decades without ever feeling the need to grow into larger institutions with spiffy new facilities. That project never got published, but the picture that emerged from the research I did at the time was of a company that wanted to make space for theater artists and audiences who didn’t necessarily feel like they belonged anywhere else. Some of that openness undoubtedly also came from their long association via Curious with Rhino Fest, which has always provided opportunities for people who don’t have tons of previous experience writing for the stage, but still have interesting voices and aesthetic viewpoints.
Says Lilley, “COVID has allowed us to do a lot more meetings and thinking and processing and we are a very, very strong and united force now. Prop has always been very much about the people—the people creating that space and the community. So is Prop a building, or is Prop what happens between people? I think it’s the latter.” v
