Onstage
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Onstage, Gay, Performing Arts Performance Explores Transgender Identity
Posted by Albert Williams on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 9:57 AM
- Trans Form
A year ago, I wrote about transgender performance artist Rebecca Kling when she appeared in Charged Bodies, an evening of solo works at Links Hall. Kling presented an excerpt from Trans Form, then a work-in-progress. "I got involved with this project because I'd been looking for a way to access queer identity," she said. "Transitioning [from male to female] is a very gradual process, [and] trying to process the gender transition through solo performance made a lot of sense to me."
Friday, November 13, 2009
Onstage, Free Shit, Performing Arts 11/14-11/20—Free Events From Chicago Opera Theater
Posted by Sam Adams on Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 9:28 AM
As part of National Opera Week, Chicago Opera Theater offers two one-act operas and a variety of street performances over the next week.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Onstage, Visual Art, Free Shit, Performing Arts 11/9—"Site Unseen" at the Chicago Cultural Center
Posted by Sam Adams on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 5:01 PM
Monday from 6 to 9 PM the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington, wheelchair accessible entrance on Randolph) will host Site Unseen 2009: (Dis)abling Conditions, featuring "performances, installations, and video works consider[ing] issues around disability . . . created specifically for the rooms and architecture of the Chicago Cultural Center."
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Onstage, Performing Arts At Chicago Shakespeare for Just Five Days
Posted by Tony Adler on Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 5:55 PM
- The Walworth Farce
Enda Walsh's 2006 play starts out weird and very funny. An Irishman and his two grown sons bounce off the walls of the seedy London flat where they apparently squat, acting out an elaborate farce in which a contractor pretends that the mansion he's been working on belongs to him, then resorts to fancy maneuvers when the real owners show up. The acting style is vaudevillian by way of Bugs Bunny and Charles Ludlam. One son wears a dress and switches flouncy wigs depending on which devious slut he's playing. The other keeps the top of his head shaved and holds his mustache on with an elastic band. And Dad?
Onstage, Performing Arts Ivanov Against All Odds
Posted by Justin Hayford on Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 12:41 PM
Anyone who's ever tried to mount a play knows that screw-ups, accidents and misfortunes tend to mount as opening night approaches. But Sinnerman Ensemble's current production of Anton Chekhov's Ivanov seemed especially cursed just before its Thursday October 1 opening. In light of Sinnerman's backstage story, supplied by the company's executive director, Calliope Porter, it's amazing that the tricky, two-and-a-half-hour show turned out to be one of the best of the year. Porter's litany:
Friday, October 23, 2009
Onstage, Gay, Politics, Performing Arts, Comedy Gays to Daley: Privatize Us!
Posted by Tony Adler on Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 5:33 PM
This just in from Gayco, the gay sketch comedy troupe, which starts previews Friday 11/6 for their new show, The Audacity of Nope, or How I Fell for a Pansy Scheme:
Gays to Daley: Privatize Us!
In the face of Chicago's $350 million budget deficit, the 'gay community' announced today that they are willing to let Mayor Daley privatize them.
"I would be delighted to be privately owned!" exclaimed Lakeview resident, R.L. Dinkley, a dental assistant and gay submissive, "To know that I'm helping to keep flowers planted along Lake Shore Drive in summer or decorate Michigan Ave at Christmas would be really meaningful."
"Mayor Daley has often praised the gay community as dynamic civic leaders. It just stands to reason that he would want to harness the power inside them, like corn," said 53rd Ward Alderman, Ed Bus.
In recent days, the Mayor's Office floated a trial balloon about the concept. In responding to concerns about future revenues, an official at the City of Chicago stated that the GLBT community was "a fabulous untapped resource; unlike parking meters and lakefront parkland, we have yet to bulldoze or sell them to a foreign company in the wee hours of the night."
Ultimately, the unified Chicago GLBT's recognize Mayor Daley's strong, passionate support for the community and want to do their part in these difficult economic times.
Allies have also expressed support. Gold Coast heterosexual couple, John and Linda Bachman, suspect their five-year-old daughter is very, very lesbian, and would be happy to privatize her if it means they can afford their property tax.
Critics argue that gays are traditionally high maintenance and will ultimately end up costing the city.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Onstage, Politics, Performing Arts, Dance Landesman to Play Peoria
Posted by Albert Williams on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 4:10 PM
Last summer, in an interview published shortly after his confirmation as National Endowment for the Arts chair, Rocco Landesman told the New York Times, "I don’t know if there's a theater in Peoria, but I would bet that it's not as good as Steppenwolf or the Goodman." The comment ruffled feathers and raised questions about whether Landesman, a veteran Broadway producer, was truly committed to the NEA's mission of "bringing the arts to all Americans [in] all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases." Now, according to a press release from the NEA, Landesman plans to hit the road to promote his message that "art works"—and his first stop, on Friday, November 6, will be Peoria.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Onstage, Performing Arts, Dance Othello's Closing Weekend
Posted by Deanna Isaacs on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 5:36 PM
A dozen years after it was first produced, Chicago's finally getting to see the three-act ballet version of Othello by native son Lar Lubovitch. This Joffrey Ballet production uses the exquisite original sets by George Tsypin, which juxtapose great slabs of glass with a gilt-framed sky to conjure an abstracted version of Renaissance Venice.
Onstage, Performing Arts Jeff Equity Award Winners
Posted by Tony Adler on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 8:00 AM
The Jeff Awards ceremony was held Monday night. Here's the complete list of winners, out of 141 Equity productions attended by Jeff judges in the season ended July 31, 2009.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Onstage, Performing Arts, Dance The "Surprise" Performance at Water Tower Place
Posted by Tony Adler on Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 4:10 PM
Took a walk in the rain over to Water Tower Place this afternoon, to see the "surprise flash mob" performance about which the media were alerted yesterday. If you've checked this blog in the last 24 hours, you were alerted, too.
And sure enough, the alerted were in evidence on the second floor of the mall: more than one camera crew, and a bunch of civilians looking around with an air of expectation. Led, probably, by agent provocateurs in their midst, they'd begun to form a ring around what would turn out to be the performance area.
At 2 PM, a pair of beautiful young people met in the middle of the ring and started dancing a sort of 50s modified jitterbug to "Do You Believe in Magic." Other beautiful kids joined them (severely depleting the beauty in the audience), and by the time they switched to robotic synchrony there was a mob on the dance floor, as anti-advertised.
