Hidden behind the neon storefront is a room with a past and a space with a future. It is filled with life, filled with mystery, the perfect space for a theater.
 
Particularly, it is a perfect location for the type of theater that National Pastime brings to Chicago. We push ourselves to the limit, and our audiences as well. We aspire to bring people into the work, not just into the theater: we want to create terror, awe. We want to sell dreams, not just tickets.
 
National Pastime is theater with a mission. It's not just another theater company, but a company with a new reason for theater: setting to rights the jaded viewpoints of a generation weaned on passive entertainment forms.
 
Live theater is an incredibly effective way to grab a new generation of theater audiences and drag them–perhaps kicking and screaming, perhaps cheering–into a more active role in their world. Through dramatic interpretation we can bring them closer to the events of the day with a better understanding of the underlying human issues.
 
Our mission: to begin filling thousands of empty theater seats with a generation of New Audiences and to stop these audiences dead in their comfortable tracks.