The Side Project

A wonderful, small theater! I just watched «Silent Sky», by Three Crows. It was an exquisite play about scientific passion, women’s rights and the fight for them, and ultimately about inspiring a novel view of the world and beyond. Carefully staged, beautifully played, it really amazed and inspired me! A great venue for theater lovers, highly suggested!

I rented to shoot a project from The Side Project for a day and found the staff to be very helpful and easy to get a hold of. The space isn’t huge but we were able to use the theater and the lobby which was perfect.
The rates were great and the parking in that area was really easy for cast and crew and it’s close to public trans.
I would highly recommend this space to rent.

The Side Project puts on compelling programming. Unfortunately, the venue itself is not professionally staffed. My husband and I purchased tickets online the other night for the current performance and drove to the theater using standard directions from our home on the other side of the city. Although warnings were posted online about the Jarvis red line stop being closed, no mention was made at all of the Sheridan road closures during the weekend. Needless to say, it shut down at 7 and we found ourselves stuck in complete chaos. None of the news stations reported on it, I haven’t seen it in the paper and there were no police to assist in directing traffic. We lost hope of arriving on time for the 8pm performance but somehow made it by 8:12. Thinking that perhaps we could get in at intermission or exchange our tickets for another performance, we walked up to the door of the venue. Two women were sitting in the lobby. One stood up, walked to the door and and stared at me. It was completely weird and fairly rude! There was also a sign on the door that said there were no late admissions. It included a phone number, which we called but it was disconnected. We don’t know if there was an intermission or what kind of a theater this actually is (is it more of a café?) but we found the whole thing really irritating and unprofessional. Were it not for the fact that one of our friends is acting in the play, we would never have even tried to go. It would have been really kind if someone would have posted the Sheridan closing or at least come out and talked to us about our situation.

This is a tiny storefront, black box theater in Rogers Park. It seats about 30 people and does a lot of newer, independent shows, but I have also seen classics done by some other companies in this space. It is pretty no-​frills, but it’s a great way to see new, interesting theater.
The current show is a set of shorts, some of which are interesting and some of which are simply confusing. It’s generally what one expects from tiny theater and gives you something to talk or think about later.
The staff is friendly and helpful and the programs almost always have coupons and discounts for other neighborhood businesses, which make the trek up to Rogers Park worth it.