“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions,” observes Claudius in Hamlet. And for Chicago theater artists, the last two weeks of November were particularly sorrowful, as three actors who helped shape and define the work that emerged here in the late 1970s and beyond—Marc Silvia, Debra Rodkin, and Ernest Perry Jr.—died […]
Category: Ghost Light
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Remembering Linsey Falls
You may not have known Linsey Falls’s name, but if you spent much time in the audience at Chicago non-Equity and storefront theaters over the years, you almost certainly knew his face and his voice. His expressive features, big eyes, and mischievous grin lit up the stage in comic roles, and his malleable voice and […]
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George Bailey and American Blues Theater get a new home
Sometimes you gotta take glimmers of hope where you find them when the news is consistently horrifying. And despite all the recent anxiety-inducing bulletins about the state of live performance, there are some positive signs on the horizon. (For an in-depth view of the local scene, I’d also suggest this recent American Theatre essay by […]
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In the wake of a new study, the city declares Theater Season
Fall is traditionally the start of the performing arts season in Chicago (and elsewhere), but in the wake of so many stories about the precarious state of theater companies around the city and the nation, it feels even more important to highlight the work happening onstage right now. Last week, Mayor Brandon Johnson, Choose Chicago, […]
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Charlique Rolle takes over at African American Arts Alliance of Chicago
Charlique Rolle knows what it takes to keep a strong vision going in challenging times. The executive director of Congo Square Theatre Company came into that role in the summer of 2020, when nobody even knew when it would be safe to return to live performance. Rolle worked with artistic director Ericka Ratcliff and the […]
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‘Don’t just say it—do it’
On Tuesday, September 12, Enrich Chicago released the results for its first racial equity report for the arts sector in the city: “Work Remains To Be Done: A Baseline Survey of Chicago’s BIPOC Arts & Culture Workers.” Enrich Chicago, founded in 2014, is a collaborative composed of arts and culture organizations and funders (nearly 40 […]
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Artemisia and Congo Square celebrate Inda Craig-Galván
Writer, performer, and Second City vet Inda Craig-Galván has been away from Chicago for a dozen years. But she’s having a homecoming celebration of sorts with two shows—both set in the Chicago area—opening on local stages. This week, Artemisia Theatre opens Craig-Galván’s A Hit Dog Will Holler at the Den Theatre. Next week, Congo Square […]
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Equity Jeff Awards announce nominees
Amid the wave of stories about multiple crises and closings in the regional theater world, the announcement of the nominations earlier this week for the annual Equity Joseph Jefferson Awards (but you can just call them “the Jeffs”) is a welcome reminder of how much great work has been created on Chicago stages over the […]
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Jackalope makes way for migrants
In 2020 during the nationwide protests against police violence and white supremacy sparked by the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, there was a concurrent “Open Your Lobbies” push from theater artists. They advocated for performing arts venues (temporarily closed by the COVID-19 pandemic) to make their public spaces available to protesters for shelter […]
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Chicago Shakespeare announces new leadership team
Changes at the top of Chicago theaters large and small have been a constant for the past three years—we have definitely been experiencing the biggest shift in leadership I’ve seen in the decades that I’ve been writing about the scene here. Not coincidentally, these changes are happening as regional theaters across the country wrestle with […]
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Lookingglass goes on hiatus, and Raven gets a new artistic director
The return of Chicago theater (theater everywhere, really) since the pandemic continues to be a white-knuckle experience for many companies. Last Friday, 35-year-old Lookingglass Theatre (winner of the 2011 Tony Award for best regional theater) announced that they were putting all programming on pause until at least spring 2024 and cutting their staff by over […]
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Tommy takes flight
Goodman’s season closer, The Who’s Tommy, promises to be a blockbuster (it’s already extended through early August). But the story of the pinball wizard—first introduced in the Who’s 1969 double album, then seen in a 1975 film, and finally as a Broadway musical in 1993—isn’t just about the familiar anthemic songs. Dance and movement play […]
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Drunk Shakespeare goes union
While the Writers Guild of America strike goes on, there are signs that others in the entertainment industry (as in so many other sectors of the economy) are looking for union representation. The numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on union membership are a mixed bag, to say the least; while the absolute […]
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BoHo Theatre calls it quits
BoHo Theatre (founded in 2003 as Bohemian Theatre Ensemble around “the Bohemian pillars of Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Love”) started out with a production of Yasmina Reza’s Art in 2004, on the stage of the old Bailiwick Repertory studio. Bailiwick is long gone (Theater Wit took over the Belmont Avenue space). And now BoHo has […]
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Windy City Playhouse goes on the market
When Windy City Playhouse first opened on Irving Park Road in 2015, the company won nearly as much attention for its comfortable audience perks (swivel seats and food and beverage service, like a luxe movie theater) as it did for its programming, which for the most part focused on contemporary plays like Deborah Zoe Laufer’s […]