Joshua Dachs, recognized as one of the world’s leading theatre consultants, has led Fisher Dachs Associates’ consulting practice for more than 30 years. Fascinated by the way new theatre practices emerge and flourish, and then are replaced, Dachs investigated how this cycle relates to the spaces they inhabit in the main feature in our package on theatre architecture. “There’s a cyclical nature to theatrical innovation, and it seems to repeat over and over across the centuries,” he says. He finds that “successful artistic approaches march steadily from innovation to imitation to standardization, at which point they are deemed too constraining, and the cycle begins anew.”

Longtime Chicago arts journalist and critic Kerry Reid says she usually goes to Navy Pier when she’s “playing tour guide for out-of-town guests with kids or I’m seeing a show at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.” After talking to the folks behind the Yard, the company’s new “state of the imagination” venue, Reid suspects those reasons will intersect more often. “The Yard promises to bring a different spin to Shakespeare and to the incredibly vibrant international offerings—including family-friendly shows—that Chicago Shakes has been producing through their World’s Stage series,” Reid enthuses. “And the new lobby still lets us enjoy one of the best views of that beautiful Chicago skyline.”