S.O.S. Save Our Stage

& Support The Future of Lifeline Theatre

About Us

For 42 years, Lifeline Theatre has produced award-winning stage adaptations, served as an anchor for the arts in Rogers Park, and played a vital role in Chicago’s theater scene. We depend on and need to expand our community of supporters who share our mission and can be our lifeline to a vibrant and sustainable fine arts organization.

Our Mission

Lifeline Theatre explores, interprets, and reimagines books and other literary works to create stories that move us beyond the margins of our own lives.

Our Vision

To contribute to a society guided by compassion, empathy, and a willingness to change.

It All Starts With YOU

We are sending out an S.O.S.. Since 2020, Lifeline Theatre has faced rising expenses due to inflation and our commitment to pay equity. Despite our 42-year history of excellence, these costs have resulted in a deficit budget. Our Spring Benefit gave us a strong start, but we need to meet a larger fundraising goal to launch our new season. We now turn to our community to help us reach $200,000, ensuring we can manage inflation, pay our staff and artists fairly, and secure our future. Learn more about the impact of your donation below.

DONATE

Sending Out An S.O.S. Alert

Be A Lifeline For Lifeline Theatre

Help us reach our goal to secure our future and keep our stage alive!

  • $200,000 1% 1%
DONATE

Why Every Donation Counts...

Our Community
  • We love and greatly value being in Rogers Park, where we have been based since our founding in 1982. We provide an affordable, accessible, community-based theatre experience, contributing to the quality of life in Rogers Park and the surrounding neighborhoods. We believe in the importance of arts education, offering free theatrical education to over a dozen of area elementary schools and Sullivan High School annually. Our KidSeries shows bring beloved children’s books to life on stage at family-friendly prices. Each season, we offer affordable Drama Summer Camps, Stories Come Alive! Workshops, and days at local libraries for children to interact with teaching artists. We present strong, impactful stories that inspire, entertain, challenge, and unite people in community. We believe in the importance of live performing art as a powerful human experience that everyone should access, and we are asking our community to help us in that endeavor.
Our Legacy
  • Produce critically acclaimed and beloved plays for adults and children, garnering 54 Joseph Jefferson Awards and Jeff nominations over the years, along with over 20 After Dark Awards.
  • Create adaptations of classic and modern literature, as well as new plays, in a rigorous, ensemble-driven development process, resulting in 144 world premiere productions, which have been restaged in 468 subsequent productions in 48 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, seven Canadian provinces, Australia, England, Ireland, Guatemala, South Africa, Turkey and Wales.
  • Provide free theater education in historically under-resourced public grade schools — serving students in Rogers Park public grades schools and Sullivan High School.
  • Offer post KidSeries (Stories Come Alive!) workshops and Drama Summer Camps modeled on our play development process  in which children are adapters, creators, storytellers and performers.
  • Conduct an Annual BIPOC Adaptation Development Workshop and Showcase, established in 2021, to support the development of stage adaptations by writers who are Black, Indigenous, or other people of color.
  • Employ Chicago theater artists, including over 50 in the 2023-2024 season, and provide a foundation for young and emerging artists building careers in Chicago’s theater and performing arts scene.
  • Launched accessibility programming in 2014 to provide touch tours of the stage and audio descriptions of performances, open captioning, and sensory- and autism-friendly modifications. Including low cost accessibility ticketing options. 
  • Co-founded and managed the Glenwood Avenue Arts Festival in 2002 and shepherded the festival to become an independent nonprofit arts organization in 2018.
  • Assumed the stewardship of Fillet of Solo storytelling festival when Live Bait Theater closed in 2010 — showcasing over 120 storytellers in the 2023-2024 season.
  • Helped to develop and pilot Chicago Theatre Standards, published in 2017, which includes practices and tools to prevent and respond to the everyday challenges in arts environments related to communication, safety, respect and accountability.
    Our Needs

    • Since 2020, Lifeline and other mid-size theatres have faced increased expenses due to inflation and the need for pay equity. Despite our 42-year history of excellence, rising costs have led to a deficit budget. In 2020, our Board committed to fair compensation for actors, crew, and staff. However, we need new sources of income to uphold this change thorughout Lifeline’s future. Traditional foundation funding has shifted away from the arts, leaving us and many others with a deficit budget for several years. We must secure new and recurring funding to start the new season. We turn to our community to help us reach our $200,000 goal to manage inflation, pay our staff and artists fairly, and secure our future.

    Levels of Sponsorship

    WRITER

    $500
    • (2) Complimentary tickets to Season 43
    • (2) Complimentary vouchers to Lifeline’s next special fundrasing event.
    • Name recognition or company logo in digital programs
    • Name recognition or company logo on donor lobby display

    POET

    $1,000
    • (4) Complimentary tickets to Season 43
    • (2) Complimentary vouchers to Lifeline’s next special fundrasing event.
    • Name recognition or company logo in digital programs
    • Name recognition or company logo on donor lobby display
    • Name recognition or company logo on Lifeline’s website

    NOVELIST

    $2,500
    • (8) Complimentary tickets to Season 43
    • (4) Complimentary vouchers to Lifeline’s next special fundrasing event.
    • Name recognition or company logo in digital programs
    • Name recognition or company logo on donor lobby display
    • Name recognition or company logo on Lifeline’s website
    • Advertisement listing in digital programs for the season

    PLAYWRIGHT

    $5,000
    • (10) Complimentary tickets to Season 43
    • (6) Complimentary vouchers to Lifeline’s next special fundrasing event.
    • Name recognition or company logo in digital programs
    • Name recognition or company logo on donor lobby display
    • Name recognition or company logo on Lifeline’s website
    • Advertisement listing in digital programs for the season
    • Company logo or donor name inclusion on season e-blasts