Forts!
Build Your Own Adventure
Co-created with Eleanor Kahn, Jeffrey Levin, Christian Libonati, Andrew Marikis, and Carley Walker
Forts: Build Your Own Adventure is an entirely audience-driven theatrical installation that invites multigenerational audiences to design and inhabit space. Supported by a lighting and sound design that evolves with the performance, two adventure guides who facilitate play, and a few theatrical surprises, Forts has delighted thousands of audience members since its premiere in 2018.
PerformInk Chicago
"Director and creator Julie Ritchey is either totally in tune with her inner child or has children whose faces she’s seen light up when opening gifts and holding the empty boxes with joy at the prospect of what they can do...There are two play ambassadors introducing new elements to the room periodically, but other than that there are no actors, there are no smoke and mirrors and much ado, no expensive costumes and make-up—just the potential of unlimited worlds created by you and your children. "
Creative Team and Production History
Commissioned in 2018 by Filament Theatre in Chicago, IL.
Originally produced by Christian Libonati.
Original Designs by Andrew Marikis, Eleanor Kahn, Jeffrey Levin, and Carley Walker.
Remounted 2019, 2020, 2022.
Re-imagined in 2023 by Filament Theatre at Writers Theatre in Glencoe, IL.
Produced by Reji Simon and Caroline Watson
Lighting design by Joel Zishuk and sound assistance by Tyler Hughes