Ghost Light Archives - Page 2 of 6

Three shadowy figures caught in front of a red curtain.

Remembering Paola Coletto, Beth Murphy, and Vincent Williams

by Kerry Reid April 28, 2023May 2, 2023

Chicago’s theater community suffered a trio of losses this past month. Paola Coletto, Beth Murphy, and Vincent Williams all made major contributions to supporting local theater artists in very different ways. And while none of them had a high profile onstage (indeed, two of them weren’t known as performers at all), they all created vital […]

Audrey Francis, a white woman in blue jeans and a black jacket, is standing left, and Glenn Davis, a Black man in dark trousers and shirt, is standing right in front of the empty new theater at Steppenwolf.

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It’s season-announcement season

by Kerry Reid April 13, 2023April 14, 2023

The warmer temperatures, blossoming flowers, and budding trees aren’t the only harbingers of spring. It’s also the season of the season announcements, with the major Chicago companies letting us know what to expect in 2023-24 on their stages. The Goodman presents the first season selected by Susan V. Booth, who took over as artistic director […]

A group of six artists from Kokandy Productions's Sweeney Todd are pictured on the red carpet at the Non-Equity Jeffs. They are holding their awards. There are three men on the left, a woman in the center, and two men on the right.

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The return of “theater prom”

by Kerry Reid March 30, 2023August 16, 2023

The Non-Equity Jeff Awards, affectionately known as “theater prom,” came roaring back after a four-year hiatus at the Park West on Monday, March 27. And it’s safe to say the program, directed by Adrian Abel Azevedo, was a lovefest through and through. The awards show (coming on the heels of the packed opening of the […]

A middle-aged Middle Eastern woman with long brown hair and round wire glasses sits at a sewing machine. She is wearing a black blouse or dress with red embroidered flowers and a necklace of red beads.

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International Voices Project opens The Shroud Maker

by Kerry Reid March 16, 2023March 16, 2023

Since founding the International Voices Project in 2010, Patrizia Acerra and her artistic associates have brought playwrights from around the globe to the attention of Chicago audiences. The annual International Voices Project Festival presents staged readings (often in partnership with other cultural institutions and consulates) that introduce writers who are largely unknown in the U.S. […]

Melissa Lorraine, a white woman in a strapless black dress and black boots, with long blonde hair, stands in a light on the left, holding a microphone and reading from a notebook. A group of eight performers of different races, ethnicities, genders, and ages are moving offstage on the right. The setting is a concrete raw space with an orange ladder visible in the right rear corner and a chandelier visible overhead

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Home at last

by Kerry Reid March 3, 2023March 6, 2023

Theatre Y started searching for a permanent home in North Lawndale three years ago. As founding artistic director Melissa Lorraine puts it, “It’s been a little bit like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” The first place they considered, near the Pulaski Pink Line stop, was a little too small. The second, the Central Park Theater […]

A scene from Trial in the Delta. At left, a middle-aged bald Black man in shirtsleeves, suspenders, and tie stands behind a table covered with law books. He is pointing toward a white man seated at a table whose back is to the camera. Several other white men are also seated, facing the Black man who is testifying. On the right is a white attorney in a dark suit and tie, who is holding a portfolio or notebook of some kind.

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Chicago Theatre Week kicks off

by Kerry Reid February 16, 2023February 24, 2023

Update February 24: Chicago Theatre Week has been extended through March 5. “If you see our show, that’s at least two spots on your bingo card!” That’s what Jimalita Tillman, global director for the Harold Washington Cultural Center, said at the Chicago Theatre Week kick-off party Monday night at Wicker Park’s Den Theatre. She wasn’t […]

Three women are standing together, shot from below. There is a gray background behind them. They are unsmiling, staring into the middle distance. The woman in the middle has her arms crossed over her chest.

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Caryl Churchill gets some love from Chicago theaters

by Kerry Reid February 3, 2023February 6, 2023

British playwright Caryl Churchill is having a bit of a moment this month in Chicago. Court Theatre opens her rarely produced 1983 play, Fen, under the direction of Vanessa Stalling on February 10. And Curious Theatre Branch opens This Is Not a Churchill—four plays inspired by her work—this weekend at the Facility Theatre in Humboldt […]

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Olivia Lilley prepares to move on from Prop

by Kerry Reid January 20, 2023January 23, 2023

When Olivia Lilley took on the job of artistic director at Prop Thtr (one of the oldest off-Loop theaters in the city) in 2018, her DIY/punk aesthetic seemed like a good fit for taking the company into the next era. Even before assuming the AD role, Lilley had made a mark with site-specific, immersive productions […]

A group of six Black actors (three women, three men) crouch in a circle, their arms stretched out and supporting each other.

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Looking back at some of the best productions and biggest stories of 2022

by Kerry Reid December 13, 2022December 28, 2022

During 2020, my running joke was that, although there weren’t any plays happening, there was always plenty of drama to report on in Chicago theater. In fall of 2021, we started seeing some theater return, though the season was cut short by last December’s COVID surge. (Not to be confused with the one we’re currently […]

A triptych of headshots. On the left is Dusty Brown, a nonbinary white person. They have short dark hair, light-brown facial hair, and are wearing brown rimmed glasses, a light patterned shirt, and a dark blue plaid jacket. In the center is Michael Dias, a white man with dark gray hair and a gray beard and mustache. He is wearing a light blue v-neck T-shirt. At right is Eileen Dixon, a white woman with short red hair. She is wearing a black knit top with a v-neck.

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Redtwist names new artistic director

by Kerry Reid December 2, 2022December 6, 2022

This has been a year of tremendous changes at the top for Chicago theaters, with Susan V. Booth taking over at the Goodman after Bob Falls’s 35 years as artistic director and Braden Abraham, formerly the artistic director for Seattle Rep, poised to take over as AD at Glencoe’s Writers Theatre in February. Cody Estle, […]

Latinx man with dark hair, wearing a blue golf shirt, stands in front of a colorful mural.

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Jorge Valdivia takes the reins at Chicago Latino Theater Alliance

by Kerry Reid November 18, 2022November 20, 2023

The death of Myrna Salazar, cofounder and executive director of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA), in August, a month before the fifth annual Destinos: Chicago International Latino Theater Festival kicked off, was a huge blow to the performing arts community, including Jorge Valdivia, who worked closely with Salazar and CLATA in his role as […]

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Cody Estle flies north for his career’s Next Act

by Kerry Reid November 2, 2022November 3, 2022

The very first Ghost Light column I wrote back in summer of 2020, I interviewed Markie Gray, the incoming managing director for Raven Theatre. Gray was hired to work alongside artistic director Cody Estle, who assumed the job in November 2017 from founders (and married couple) Michael Menendian and JoAnn Montemurro. (The board’s decision to […]

A white woman in dark clothes stands left, her head bent one side and one arm upraised over her head. On the right in the background is an Asian man wearing a white shirt, holding a piece of paper in front of his face. It is a shadowy stage.

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Lucky Plush helps two artists deal with their Unfinished Business

by Kerry Reid October 18, 2022October 18, 2022

Kurt Chiang and Melinda Jean Myers (known to friends as Mindy) have wanted to collaborate for years. But it took a pandemic for the former Neo-Futurist artistic director and the Lucky Plush ensemble member to finally develop a full-length piece together. Unfinished Business, the fruit of that longed-for collaboration (much of it conducted remotely, and […]

Two Black men sit at a table. The man on the left holds a bottle of beer, and is in a black T-shirt. The man on the right is in a purple jacket, drinking a clear cocktail, and is gesturing toward the table, as if explaining something.

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Farewell to Eclipse and Underscore

by Kerry Reid October 7, 2022October 9, 2022

Covering theater in Chicago is sometimes about writing valedictions for companies that have decided it’s time to fold up the tent. In the past couple of weeks, two such announcements came through. Underscore Theatre announced in late September that they were closing permanently. (During the pandemic, the company gave up their storefront rental space at […]

Marissa Lynn Ford, a Black woman, is photographed outside in front of a wall of greenery. She is wearing a patterned blouse with orange, black, and light green colors.

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Marissa Lynn Ford takes the wheel at the League of Chicago Theatres

by Kerry Reid September 23, 2022September 23, 2022

Amid the tidal wave of turnovers at theaters large and small in Chicago the last two years, we also learned this past February that Deb Clapp, the longtime executive director for the League of Chicago Theatres, was stepping away from her job in June. Last week, the League announced her successor: Marissa Lynn Ford, recently […]