Actress Margaret Kustermann is standing on a square of linoleum tile in the Steppenwolf Studio Theatre. There is a small thatched roof hanging about ten feet above her head. The tile is surrounded by a large stretch of AstroTurf, which is in turn surrounded by two rows of folding chairs.

“This,” she says to the audience as she gestures to the motionless actors around her, “is a museum of true stories.”

Kustermann, along with most of the production’s 17-member cast, was one of 87 listed contributors to “No Place Like Home,” the kaleidoscopic performance piece created and directed by Northwestern alumna Jessica Thebus.

“It’s not a play,” said Thebus, who earned a doctorate in Performance Studies in 1997. “It’s a different experience.”

Told through a series of true vignettes, the performance is an exploration of home and family, with the narration leaping from actor to actor in a Greek chorus-style. The performance space expands and contracts; set pieces are whisked on and off with fluid movements.

At one moment, five actors stand neatly on the five squares of linoleum tile, underneath five perfectly tiled hanging roofs. At the next, the stage is black and lights shine on the floor like twinkling stars.