No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks played to a packed house Saturday night. The play, commissioned by the Poetry Foundation to commemorate Gwendolyn’s Brooks centennial year, proved both ambitious and highly successful in its effort to express the breath of the poet’s impact on city of Chicago and the country. Staged in Harold …
You don’t need a Gatesian bankroll to make exceptional theater as Eclipse Theatre Company is proving with its current production of Breath Boom at the Athenaeum. Playwright Kia Corthron’s look behind the veil at how the young cope in the very violent world of our inner cities feels like an indictment of all of the …
If you’re approaching or firmly entrenched in your teens; or just have an acute weakness for romance, you’ll probably dig Gladius James’ upcoming release Revelation. Although the promo cut, Too Bad, has something of the rouge injected into its soul as he taunts his girl about not following through on a date, the other tracks …
Curious minds love the unexpected. Visiting a new story is chance to be surprised. If you’re lucky you’ll even be moved. If you’re exceptionally lucky, you’ll also laugh. All those things and more sloshed through Raven Theater’s production of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy. Fresh as a sunrise, the hour and a half play made …
A pizza town always has room for one more player; especially one with bona fides directly from Rome. Bonci arrives with tons of cred, a boatload of creativity and a delectable crust. You won’t be alone if you walk in and fall into instalove as soon as you look down at that long row of …
Despite the long association the Symphony Center has had with the jazz community, Friday night’s bill seemed particularly unique. Perhaps because the style of jazz being presented stood so far from the type of music you’d expect on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra stage. New Orleans jazz, in its current and perennial form, seems to predate …