EDGE Theater to Host First Annual Charity Chicago Muggle Quidditch Tournament

by · June 22, 2016

The Esteem Development Through Greater Expectations (EDGE) Theater in Chicago has hosted many fantastical and magical events, such as Macsith and A Klingon Christmas Carol, and this week the theater is taking on the Potter fandom with a Muggle Quidditch tournament.

EDGE is an organization based in Chicago that aims to advocate for non-violent and civic social change while using theater as a means of entertainment that also acts as a voice for this change. The organization’s mission statement says,

We believe that giving a participant performance opportunities elevates them in status to their community. That status gives power, and that power can be wielded to evoke change.

Muggle Quidditch is a sport that unifies people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds. On Thursday, June 23, the theater will host the tournament, where the cost of entry is a donation of your own choosing. (Unfortunately, Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts will not be accepted.) Living up to the title of Charity Quidditch Tournament, all proceeds will be donated to UPS for DownS and Down in the Southland, two organizations that help to support those with down syndrome.

Orion Couling, the EDGE Theater Artistic Director, talked with Chicago Now about the event. In the interview, Couling discusses the various outdoor spring classes they have offered for kids, including NERF zombie apocalypse, and how Quidditch became the spring class for this year. Couling states,

Our mission is to create classes that our inner 9-year-olds would love and to use creativity and theatre [sic] to make a change in our communality. This project served both.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

The tournament will take place this Thursday, June 23 at Independence Park in Chicago. You can find directions here. The tournament begins at 5 p.m. and ends at 8:30 p.m.

Are you planning on attending the event? Let us know in the comments below!