ESSENTIAL, an interactive performance from the Free Street Storyfront Youth Ensemble

In ESSENTIAL, teens from Back of The Yards, West Englewood, Auburn Gresham, Gage Park, and McKinley Park offer their collective epistemology and vision for the future of labor in their communities and in their lives. Essential is an invitation to reject colonial, patriarchal, racist, and nativist ideas about what essential labor is and can be. We pose the questions: whose work is made invisible, and why is that so? Whose work makes our lives possible? comfortable? Liveable? Through the medium of an interactive choose-your-own-adventure quest we hope ESSENTIAL is a play where players can discover a vision for what labor can be.

There are four performances for this show: August 28, August 31, September 4 (with Spanish-language talk back), and September 7. All at 7:00pm CDT.

Thank you William Estrada for the cover image!

Created by: Aaliyah Stottlemeyer, Aniya Walton, Britney Quiroz, Daisy Castillo, Lesly Diaz de Leon, Roxy Soria y Vic Mercado.

Keren Díaz de León, Co-Director
Sebastian Arboleda, Co-Director
Ry Douglas, Production Manager
Nat Quayle Nelson, Coder
Stefania Bulbarella, Video Designer and Transcriber
Eduardo Curley, Sound Designer