The Actors Gymnasium

Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St.
Evanston IL 60201

Phone: 847-328-2795
Fax: 847-328-3495
Contact: Chris Hodak
Email: [email protected]

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Description:
The Actors Gymnasium is a circus and performing arts school founded by theater writer and Evanston resident, Tony Adler; Chicago actor, Caryl Coash; actor, director, Northwestern alumnus and Lookingglass Theatre co-founder, Larry DiStasi; and circus performer, choreographer and master teacher, Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi. Since its founding in 1995, The Actors Gymnasium has made Evanston its home; The Gym is part of the thriving arts community in Noyes Arts Center, owned and managed by the City of Evanston. In March 2010, Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl honored The Actors Gymnasium with the 2009 Mayor’s Arts Organization Award. 2010 – 2011 is The Actor Gymnasium’s fifteenth anniversary year. Since its founding in 1995, The Actors Gymnasium has served as a catalyst for the development of ground-breaking circus theatre in Illinois. This relatively new branch of theatre integrates the unique physical skills of a circus artist (hand-balancing, stilt-walking, aerial acrobatics) with traditional storytelling, resulting in crowd-pleasing productions like the “highly original” Flying Griffin Circus. Co-Artistic Directors Larry DiStasi and Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi, are active creators, performers and teachers of physical theater art. Their critically acclaimed collaborations with Lookingglass Theatre (La Luna Muda, The Baron in the Trees, Hard Times, Lookingglass Alice and this past season’s Icarus) have been recognized with Joseph Jefferson recommendations, nominations and awards. They have created and produced over a dozen shows, including the highly inventive Flying Griffin Circus, described as “down-home magic” in the Chicago Reader.