Ashland Avenue is on stage through October 12.
I started writing Ashland Avenue after a visit to Chicago in the summer of 2023. It was on this trip that I sadly realized many of my old college haunts were no longer in existence. Although I hadn’t thought of them in years, I was instantly nostalgic for places like The Threepenny Cinema, Taco Burrito Palace #2 and the legendary Lounge Ax. But my longing gave me an idea, and by the time I’d returned to Los Angeles three days later, the seeds of Ashland Avenue had been planted.
As a way to begin writing each morning, I would allow myself to get nostalgic for my days living in Chicago, back when the Goodman Theatre was at the Art Institute.
I recalled one particular morning in the mid 1990s, when I rode my bicycle past two boarded-up, forgotten theaters on Dearborn. Curious, I parked my bike and snuck through a fence, eventually finding a way into the theaters. I remember standing in the middle of one of the theaters and looking at the stage, gutted and peeling with neglect.
Eventually, I finished Ashland Avenue, and the play was accepted to be part The Goodman’s New Stages Festival. On the initial day of rehearsal, as I approached the new Goodman Theatre for the first time, I was astonished to notice the exteriors of two old theaters, the Selwyn and Harris, had been preserved and blended into the design of the current building. The same two theaters I had snuck into decades ago.
As I write these words, and I think about my play being performed by this historic company, at this historic moment, in this historic city, on this historic stage, I’m humbled. And just like those memories from my college days, I’m already feeling nostalgic for it.
Lee Kirk
Playywright
