All’s forgiven if it slipped your mind that we have a National Picnic Month. It’s July of course, the most appropriate month of all when summer is at full flower. And perhaps the unlikeliest of suspects has created an ingenious way to celebrate al fresco dining at its purest. For the past few years, the …
Autobiography as performance art can be dangerous territory. Keeping an audience’s rapt attention while recounting the events of one’s life is not the habitat of the ordinary man or woman. But as we saw Friday night at Skokie’s North Shore Center of Performing Arts, Renée Taylor is far from ordinary. Resilient, talented and according to …
Renée Taylor Brings a Taste of Vintage Hollywood to the North Shore Read More »
You’d think the meaty new production, The Recommendation, currently playing at Windy City Playhouse was tailor made for immersive theater. With a few accommodating revisions from playwright Johnathan Caren, director Jonathan Wilson and his creative team fused a suspenseful story of trust and friendship on a kinetic “living” stage; making the combined effect more powerful …
Windy City Playhouse Takes Immersive Theater to the Next Level with The Recommendation Read More »
It’s hard to imagine that Beyond Therapy, the delightfully outlandish farce Eclipse Theatre now has running at the Athenaeum, could be nearly as endearing under the charge of any other director. Rachel Lambert in her staging of Christopher Durang’s 1981 lampoon on the dating game has overseen the production of a little jewel. Originally …
Eclipse Theatre’s Beyond Therapy Delivers Farce that Sparkles Read More »
Some things you merely enjoy and there are other things you feel very fortunate having experienced. Entering its final weeks within Wrightwood 659’s captivating galleries, About Face: Stonewall, Revolt and New Queer Art, falls firmly in the second category. The show, which revitalizes our appreciation of the psychological power of art and challenges us to …
About Face: Stonewall, Revolt and New Queer Art in a Class of its Own Read More »
Pssssst. What do you like most about summer in the city? Beautiful surroundings. Top flight music. A cold beer or a nice refreshing glass of wine on a beautiful summer night. Good food. A vibrant crowd. Sinking into a polished vibe. It’s all there every summer Tuesday night in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s backyard. …
Tolstoy had it right. Happy families are all the same but every unhappy family has its own special brand of sad. He didn’t mention the broad middle ground. That space where families skew one way or the other but can’t truly be called either happy or unhappy. Because of their unpredictability, these are the families …