Nearly three decades ago, Lee Kirk strolled Ashland Avenue as a DePaul Theatre School student. Recently, he returned as a successful actor, director and playwright.
This iconic Chicago road, he said, never left his mind or his heart. Those memories led to a play that’s been extended twice at the Goodman Theatre: “Ashland Avenue.” The play stars Jenna Fischer, Kirk’s wife and best known as Pam on the American version of the television comedy “The Office.”
“I had so much fun writing it, and in my mind, going to a cold day in February, it was my way of being back in Chicago,” Kirk said.
Fischer plays Sam, the daughter of Pete, who owns Pete’s TV and Video. Once a thriving video rental empire for over 40 years, its lone surviving location on Ashland Avenue is struggling to keep its doors open in a world that is abandoning DVDs and VHS tapes. Pete, played by actor Francis Guinan, holds on, but Sam, his heir apparent, and her husband have a different dream.
Kirk revisited The Theatre School on Sunday, Sept. 21, for a Q&A with Kat Zukaitis, director of new works at the Goodman Theatre, moderated by head of The Theatre School Martine Green-Rogers.
For Kirk, the inspiration came during a visit to Chicago in 2023. While on a plane back to Los Angeles, memories of his favorite city spilled onto the page and became what is now “Ashland Avenue.”
Kirk said his time acting at The Theatre School in the 1990s prepared him well for his career. But when the acting phone stopped ringing, he pivoted and found a new passion in writing.
“The full circle moment means so much,” Kirk said. “This school has meant a lot to me, to come back not only to the school but the city, with a show playing at the Goodman, it’s so special.”
“Ashland Avenue” serves as an ode to the old-world Chicago Kirk remembers, with nostalgic references and sets that echo a bygone era. He said he aims to harness the history of a city he still thinks of as his “favorite in the world.”
“In LA, it feels like every time you get in your car, your life is on pause. Here, you walk out your door and you’re right in the city. You feel a part of the history of the city all the time,” Kirk said.
While writing, Kirk envisioned “Ashland Avenue” as a site-specific storefront show, perhaps somewhere on the actual Ashland Avenue. But a friend suggested he send the play to a contact at the Goodman Theatre.
“In some stroke of a miracle, he opened the email, and then opened the play,” Kirk said.
Not long after, “Ashland Avenue” appeared as a developmental production at Goodman’s 2023 New Stages Festival. This year, it kicked off the theater’s centennial season.
Kirk, who typically writes for film and television and is best known for “Ordinary World,” “The Mechanical Man” and “Pants on Fire”, didn’t write the show with any message in mind. He said his primary focus was telling a good story, one that makes paying the price of a night at the theater worth it.
“I just really want to write something entertaining,” Kirk said. “And if it also resonates, that’s even better.”
He hopes audience members will relate to characters dealing with the passage of time, aging and the inevitability of change.
The audience watches as tension builds as Pete realizes that he doesn’t have much time left, while Sam must begin taking the lead. Each character grapples with the question “Can we change?” differently and — without giving too much away — the story’s ending gently responds, “Well, maybe,” said Kat Zukaitis, director of new works at the Goodman at the panel event.
Kirk’s play is one that “embraces humanity in its complexity, the city, and this moment we’re living in,” Zukaitis said.
Martine Green-Rogers, the dean of The Theatre School and event moderator said The Theatre School is proud of Kirk’s success at the Goodman and beyond.
“To have one of our alum writing a ‘love letter’ to Chicago, having it produced at the Goodman (where The Theater School was born), and have it star such a stellar cast is a proud example of the reasons why we are still here 100 years later,” Green-Rogers said in a written statement.
First-year Theater School student Aaron Sadowski was in attendance and loved hearing what other audience members had to say about the production.
“Seeing someone who was once in my shoes talk about his path to putting up a play in the Goodman was not only inspiring but super motivating,” Sadowski said. “Those deeply personal connections emphasized the impact that theater has on the community.”
“Ashland Avenue” is showing at the Goodman through Oct. 19.
Related Stories:
The DePaulia is DePaul University’s award-winning, editorially independent student newspaper. Since 1923, student journalists have produced high-quality, on-the-ground reporting that informs our campus and city.
We rely on reader support to keep doing what we do. Donations are tax deductible through DePaul's giving page.
Support Student Journalism!