A new play captures the longing of children in Chicago foster care
Alex in Windyland, running through May 23, 2025 at Filament Theatre, feels authentic because it is: Foster children co-wrote the script and developed the characters.
You can read the original post on WBEZ Chicago’s website here.
The immersive and interactive Alex in Windyland starts when you walk through the front door of Filament Theatre. Someone at a front desk in a railroad cap hands you a key with the ominous tagline, “Expires soon.” You’re told to hold onto the key because the conductor may collect it from you at any moment.
The play, which opens Saturday and runs through May 23, offers an artistic look at the experiences of young people in Chicago’s foster care system — a system that currently is responsible for 2,428 children, according to Illinois Department of Children and Family Services data. Written in collaboration with LYDIA Home, a nonprofit that provides housing for children in the foster system, the production feels authentic because it is: Foster children co-wrote the show and came up with the characters.
Alex in Windyland tells the story of Alex, an 11-year-old girl who gets separated from her younger sister the night before her birthday. After a storm, Alex is taken to a magical, liminal train called Windyland. The play explores her adventures as she learns to navigate the train system — a fantastical allegory for learning to traverse the “in-between” nature of foster care.
“We talk a lot about adoption and the end and the forever home, but we don’t talk about the in-between and the liminal and that these are these kids’ real lives,” said Abby Thompson, the production’s director. “We don’t talk about the realities of what it means to be in that middle space and in that waiting period, and just the reality of the older that you get, the less statistically likely it is that you’ll be adopted, especially males, for a variety of reasons.”
Alex in Windyland tells the story of Alex, an 11-year-old girl who gets separated from her younger sister the night before her birthday.
The play expresses that “in-between” with Alex moving among various cars on the train and building relationships with others. Amid her adventures, she maintains hope she will be reunited with her sister one day.
Professional actors play the characters, but at least one cast member has lived the show’s content. Actress Jade Gray, who plays Alex’s little sister, was removed from her family’s care multiple times throughout her childhood and ended up being adopted at 16. The questions raised by the young characters in the play resonate with her.
“Why you’re being separated from your family? What’s wrong with you? Why does nobody want to take care of you? I think you grow up and you become an adult, and you know, I’m working and I’m professional or whatever,” Gray said. “At the end of the day, those questions still reside deeply in anybody who’s gone through the displacement that youth in the foster care, or people who have been adopted later in life, have gone through.”
At various points in the show, the conductor collects the keys handed out to audience members at the beginning. Actors pull viewers out of their seats throughout multiple points in the show to help with the action on the performance floor.
Foster children co-wrote and created characters for Alex in Windyland.
LYDIA Home declined to allow any children who participated in the show to speak with WBEZ, citing Department of Children and Family Services regulations.
But Imelda Gonzales, a LYDIA Home residential coordinator, said the experiences of the kids she works with were poignantly depicted in the show.
“Our children don’t have a voice. They go through life, just like [the characters] did, believing that they’re lost, they’re forgotten, they’re left behind, and nobody ever comes to pick ‘em up,” Gonzales said, through tears, after a preview performance earlier in the week.
Thompson estimates that, over the two-year creation of the production, she worked with 40 kids on the show. She selected cast members with experience in the foster care system or experience as teaching artists.
The production presents a fantastical allegory for learning to traverse navigate the “in-between” nature of foster care.
One facet of the production is that audiences have opportunities, post-show, to engage with the issue. Organizations that work with foster youth throughout Chicago, such as LYDIA Home and One Hope United, set up tables for conversations with audiences at the end of each show. The goal is for people to learn about opportunities to help children in the foster care system, from volunteering to help give foster parents short breaks to becoming a mentor.
“I try to find mentors so it’s one on one, they can trust adults again, and then I hope that those mentors will stay connected to them, because our children are only with us between six months to a year, depending on their age when they come in,” Gonzales said. “But I’m hoping the mentors will stay with them.”
If you go: Alex in Windyland runs May 17 to May 23 at Filament Theatre, 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave. Tickets are from $25 and available here.
Adora Namigadde is a contributor to WBEZ. Follow up with her on this story at madebyadora@gmail.com
You can read the original post on WBEZ Chicago’s website here.