Play Matters

As a self-described “high school theater nerd,” Julie Ritchey ’07 believed there were only two ways to pursue a career in theater: Become a Broadway star or become a high school drama teacher. 

Luckily, she says, at Northwestern “I learned there’s more to theater than that.” 

After taking professor Rives Collins’ course on theater for young audiences, Ritchey found a niche that allows her to work in theater while championing a cause she cares about.  

“Young people are losing the ability … to just go outside and play freely with their friends,” says Ritchey. “I wanted to create a space where young people have the agency to do what they choose in a world where they have so few opportunities to truly make decisions about their time.” 

Theater-making felt like an obvious answer. “Storytelling is inherent in humans from a very young age,” she explains. “Dramatic play and theater really are the language of children.”  

In 2007 Ritchey and fellow alum Christian Libonati ’07 co-founded Chicago-based Filament Theatre with the goal of creating an “anti-oppressive space” for youth. As artistic director, Ritchey started out producing narrative-driven and immersive plays. Then, in 2017, she had a radical idea: “What if we truly turn the whole space over to young people and see what happens?” 

The result was Forts: Build Your Own Adventure, an immersive, hour-long experience in which participants enter a room filled with cardboard boxes, sheets and clotheslines. Launched in December 2017, Forts offers participants unstructured, unscripted playtime — a chance to make up their own stories. Filament’s facilitators stand by, quietly providing more building materials and ensuring participants’ safety without interfering in their storytelling.

Participants play during a Forts performance held at Writers Theatre in Glencoe, Ill. Credit: Joe Mazza at Brave Lux, 2023

The first time she produced Forts, Ritchey was surprised by her own impulse to steer participants. “So many choices we make in theater are about controlling behavior,” she says. “We as adults think we know the correct way to experience a work of art.” She gives an example of a child who built a tiny fort over a floor heating vent and sat inside, reading a book for the entire hour. “I think an old version of me would have seen that and been like, ‘Come on, get up! You’re missing it!’ ” says Ritchey. “But that’s exactly the perfect way to use that time. 

“My favorite definition of ‘play’ is anything that is freely chosen, self-directed and intrinsically motivated.”  

Today, Ritchey is neither a Broadway star nor a schoolteacher — and she couldn’t be happier about it. “When 8-year-old Mabel says, ‘This was the best day of my entire life!’ — that’s on my resume,’ ” she says, beaming.

Forts isn’t just a hit with young audiences. “We started adults-only nights because so many adults asked for it,” Ritchey adds. “I think it shows there’s no age limit on the benefit of a kind, gentle, creative space to play.” 

This year Forts traveled for the first time, with shows in Minneapolis and Toronto.