We are raising $5000 to bring the FIRST EVER Ol'Factory Festival of Physical Theatre to Chicago in December 2023! Our new, original adaptation of Shakespeare's Tempest will be the center piece of the Ol'Factory Fest and physical theatre artists from Chicago and all over the USA will join us for this exciting community celebration.

We are Proboscis Theatre Company, one of the scrappiest, hardest working ensembles in Chicago. Our mission is to ignite the imagination of our audiences. We bring enchanting and relevant stories to neighborhood stages that make deep impressions and resonate on every level.

As theatre companies in Chicago and all over the country are forced to close, cut back, or compromise their artistic values, Proboscis is growing, moving forward and creating vital, original work for our ever expanding audience.

And we acknowledge that Theatre has been on the edge of extinction for 100 years. But somehow, it keeps coming back for more.

Some people say that maybe theatre should be left to die, because there’s clearly not enough Market demand for it. We believe this is poisonous thinking. We believe that live performance is one of the most effective antidotes to the social isolation that breeds so much fear and division. We believe that live theatre immunizes us against the threats of virtual reality and artificial intelligence. This is because live theatre requires human beings to come together, be present and engage our human superpowers- our intellect, intuition, emotional acumen and creativity- toward understanding our world and making it a better place.

If you’ve come to this site and read this far, we know you want to be involved in this endeavor. We are small and flexible and don’t carry the institutional burden that many great Chicago companies do. But making great theatre requires resources. Even on a small scale, materials, space rental, marketing and transportation costs money. And we are committed to paying our artists, designers and production staff because they deserve to be compensated for their work.

And that’s where you can help. Please make a tax deductible contribution of $100 right now to help us bring our theatre festival to chicago in December 2023. If $100 is too much for you at this time, any amount will help us with our mission. We thank you in advance and we can’t do it without you!!

Proboscis Fall Fundraiser

Ol'Factory Festival of Physical Theatre

Team Members