Chicago’s Theater of the Mind in the historic Reid Murdoch building in River North was co-created by Grammy, Academy, and Tony award-winning musician and artist David Byrne and philanthropist Mala Gaonkar, whose work explores the intersection of neuroscience, storytelling, and human perception. Byrne and Gaonkar worked with 39 neuroscientists from two continents to develop Theater of the Mind.
The immersive theatrical experience is directed by Andrew Scoville; it invites participants through a sequence of rooms designed to engage multiple senses and challenge assumptions about how people understand the world around them. Attendees travel through a personalized, 15,000-square-foot, 360-degree installation—meaning no two participants will have the same experience. Groups can book up to 16 tickets per 75-minute performance. Theater of the Mind, which The Goodman Theatre created and the city of Chicago supported with development funding, runs through mid-July.
“Theater of the Mind is a world-class, immersive theater experience offered exclusively in Chicago,” says John Collins, executive director of The Goodman Theatre. “For a century, The Goodman has served as Chicago’s flagship resident theater. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate 100 years of a theater built on reinvention, in the city built on reinvention, [than with Theater of the Mind].”
