Mission and History

Pillsbury House Theatre's mission is to create challenging theatre to inspire choice, change and connection. Through the mainstage season and community engagement programs, Pillsbury House Theatre (PHT) illuminates the differences that make each person unique and the similarities that bring people together, within an artistically engaging context that promotes understanding and leads to positive action.

Pillsbury House Theatre was launched in 1992 as a professional arts institution committed to the Settlement House tradition of creating art in collaboration with community. Uniquely housed within an inner city community center, Pillsbury House Theatre (PHT) is a diverse company of artists working in partnership with diverse audiences to create transformational arts experiences. As part of Pillsbury United Communities, a large and respected human service agency committed to building relationships to strengthen the core city, PHT upholds the tradition of the arts as part and parcel of the life of all communities.

The Mainstage Season consists of three productions per year that advance the mission; three rosters of Non-English Speaking Spoken Here: The Late Nite Series; and two weekends of performances by emerging performance artists in Naked Stages. Now in its nineteenth season, PHT has garnered great critical acclaim for its provocative staging of both classical texts by celebrated playwrights and more and more new work by emerging artists.

The theatre's innovative and award-winning community engagement programs are Breaking Ice and the Chicago Avenue Project. Breaking Ice is a multi-racial, socio-political improvisational theatre program that develops performances and workshops around issues such as racism, homophobia, sexism, and domestic violence for schools, corporations and community groups. The program has both an adult performing company and a youth arm, which creates peer education shows around issues such as tobacco-use and violence prevention. The Chicago Avenue Project, based on the 52nd Street Project, is a theatre-mentoring program that brings youth together with adult, professional artists to create original theatre.