Everyone Has a Story to Tell. Share Your Story.
When selecting projects to partner with, we look for:
big-hearted and universal stories,
told in innovative, engaging and accessible ways,
that we hope spark conversation and inspire change.
In our largest project to date, we’ve partnered with Chicago Playback Theatre Ensemble to create Stories Connect Us, the first phase in a new multi-year story-sharing program.
Created through the shared ideals of The Connected Routes Project and Chicago Playback Theatre Ensemble, this ambitous and exciting project will become our flagship production.
Stories connect us
SUPPORTed in part by a grant from the League of Chicago Theatres and comed
Created by chicago playback theatre ensemble and The connecting routes project
directed by allison sokolowski
Stories Connect Us is a new multi-year collaborative project between The Connecting Routes Project and Chicago Playback Theatre Ensemble. This project has been supported in part by a grant from the League of Chicago Theatres and ComEd Powering the Arts to present 4-6 performances to communities on Amtrak and Metra routes within ComEd’s service area.
Chicago Playback Theatre Ensemble is a group of performing artists dedicated to building community using Playback Theatre, an interactive improvisational theatre form that brings true audience stories to life on stage. Unlike other improvisational theatre in Chicago, Playback Theatre focuses on capturing a wide range of human experiences—whether joyful, sorrowful, or somewhere in between—without emphasizing comedy. The goal is to honor and reflect these stories, creating a moving experience that can be both healing and perspective-altering for the storyteller and the audience.
Both The Connecting Routes Project and Chicago Playback Theatre Ensemble firmly believe that sharing stories together builds community and ignites dialogue. Through this united mission, we’re embarking on the first phase of this collaboration together. We will tour their ensemble by train, and invite audience members to share stories with not only their own community but also other communities connected along the same railway network that unites our nation.
The program offers an engaging story-sharing event at your organization, with multiple components:
- PERFORMANCE: Everyone has a story to tell. What if you could see that story come to life before your eyes? Chicago Playback Theatre Ensemble’s performance of Together We Rise invites the audience to share stories about what it means to come together as a community, then see those stories performed on stage through improv, movement and music. Through personal stories, the ensemble of seven will reflect on the beauty and complexity of community with the audience - exploring how we rise together in moments of strength and rebuilding.
- POST-SHOW SOCIAL / RECORDING STATION: Following the performance, we will offer an opportunity for community members to mingle with the cast, and continue sharing their stories together, or at a recording station, where those stories may be not only shared with friends and family, but also added to our Story Archive. (We are currently looking into a partnership with StoryCorps for this component!) This project’s next phase will transform stories in our archive into a new piece of theater we’ll bring back on tour!
- ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES (Optional): We will also offer two Story Circles and an Intro to Playback Theatre Workshop throughout the tour. Please let us know if you’d like more information about these additional opportunities.
We are touring Stories Connect US from February to May 2026.
please reach out if you’d like us to travel to a train stop near you!
Wherever you are in the world, we invite you to share your story!
Please fill out this form to add your written tale to our story archive!
*By filling out this form, you give consent for us to add your story to our archive and potentially adapt it into our play-in-progress.
SUPPORTed in part by a grant from
the League of Chicago Theatres and comed
Stories Connect us is an evolution of our previous program, round trip.
Please Enjoy stories from story circles we held with round trip in 2020!
