Pride Takes Center Stage in Ghostlight Ensemble Theatre Co's 9th Season
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CHICAGO - illiNews -- Ghostlight Ensemble announces its Season 9 lineup in a season focused on celebrating otherness and uplifting Queer characters and voices.

"The climate we find ourselves in right now demands action. We cannot be passive in our support or love for communities that find themselves at risk. We, as a theatre company, are in the unique position with our art to center community building," Co-Artistic Director Justin Broom said.

The 2025-2026 season will feature two mainstage productions, a play for young audiences, staged readings, a three-part cabaret experience and ongoing collaborations with Chicago area museums.

"This is a thrilling season from Ghostlight, with bold and compelling artistic programming," Co-Artistic Director Holly Robison said. "Now, more than ever, art is essential, and I hope our season will challenge, inspire, move and comfort our audiences. Art at its best can do all these things and more."

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Kicking off the season is Ghostlight's fall production, Angry Fags written by Topher Payne and directed by Jack Bowes at Lifeline Theatre in Chicago. The play asks how far is too far to protect your community? Where is the line between helping and making things worse? The production runs November 6-23, 2025.

In mid-December, Ghostlight and the Driehaus Museum are excited to announce the return of Holiday Spirits: A Collection of Victorian Yuletide Ghost Stories, a multi-story and multi-storied immersive, site-specific adaptation of classic Victorian ghost stories at the museum.

In February, our Nightlight young audience series returns with The 8th Dwarf. The new work by Olivia Sieck tells the story of Binky, an outsider dwarf who, inspired by the kindness and motherly affection of Snow White, longs to find the courage to join the most special of their kind.

Ghostlight will close out its season in the spring of 2026 with The Dover Road by A.A. Milne (of Winnie-the-Pooh fame). The 1921 comedy is a not-so-subtle dissection of romantic love, but buried beneath is a less obvious commentary on the homosexuality, bisexuality and gender nonconformity that has always existed in society if you knew where to look.

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In addition, Ghostlight will produce Ensemble Member Khnemu Menu-Ra's semi-autobiographical three-part cabaret experience, 3 Stages of Love. The company also plans a staged reading of Lady Lazarus by Haley Basil and will continue its popular Live Movie Reading Series periodically throughout the season, as well as the For Your (Re)Consideration staged reading series, which explores the works of historically overlooked female writers.

Details about the entire 2025-2026 season and Ghostlight Ensemble are available at GhostlightEnsemble.com. (http://ghostlightensemble.com/)