Gallery 400 (Venue Partner)
400 S Peoria St
312.996.6114
This event has passed.
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Yoni Goldstein
- When
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Wednesday Feb 29 (7–8:30pm)
- Where
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Directions: Just north of "UIC-Halsted" stop on CTA Blue Line
- Price
- Links
“The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition is still well remembered in Chicago; the Art Institute occupies one of the former buildings, and the bestselling The Devil in the White City revisited the event from a spine-chilling angle. Less well remembered perhaps is the smaller tale of Steele MacKaye, the businessman whose attempt to build the world's largest theater resulted in failure, bankruptcy, and shortly thereafter, death. The Tower of Babel-like story is retold and reenacted as a performance, a part of the World Finder exhibition at Gallery 400.”
Abraham Ritchie, Flavorpill
For the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Steele MacKaye endeavored to build the world’s largest theater, the Spectatorium, with 25 stages and seating for 8,000 people. Using real water, real plants, and a cast of thousands, the featured theatrical production would have told one of history's greatest stories — Columbus' voyage to America. Pocket Guide to Hell, along with Martin Billheimer, Sid Cook, and Max Wastler, dramatize MacKaye's rise and fall in a performance that features a combination of music, oratory, and pantomime.
