Events Search
Eat This! Stories for the Love of Food!
Wed., Jan. 23, 8 p.m.Food Events
This gathering brings Chicago chefs and foodies together for a night of storytelling and free samples. $10
773-251-1539
WithInSight: The Fall Show
Through 5/30:Galleries
Group show featuring work by local photographers. Opening reception 11 AM-6 PM.
The Planetary Defense Force: Rise of the Dinosaurs
Mondays, 8 p.m.Theater & Performance
Easy communication and a sharp wit may be the foundations for good improv, but if you want to see what a troupe is really made of, take a look at how they handle a shaky premise. Having watched cast members sustain this Links Hall/Chicagoland Games show while rolling around in Nerf gear to avoid a tyrannosaurus rex made of PVC pipe, I'm pretty sure they've got it. Amiable host Aaron Amendola ushers an audience member through a series of onstage challenges geared toward overcoming a megalomaniac hell-bent on ushering in a dino-apocalypse. The obstacles—which may involve brushing a Wiffle Ball off somebody's shoulder—are too slight to provide any real stakes. It's clear, though, that this crew has the crowd and stage skills to create something special. —Dan Jakes $5
Freakwater, Nora O'Connor
Mon., Jan. 21, 8 p.m.Rock, Pop, Etc
The music industry is notorious for chewing up artists and spitting them out—starting a band rates pretty low as a career decision. That’s why bands built on friendship, fun, and love of the craft often last the longest. Janet Bean and Catherine Irwin, who both grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, started singing together in their late teens for the joy of it—they’d break into song while, say, washing dishes—and in the late 80s they formed Freakwater. They haven’t released a new album since 2005 and both are active to varying degrees with solo projects, but they still come together every now and then, and this week they’ll perform in Chicago for the first time in more than seven years, supported by longtime bassist Dave Gay and guitarist Jim Elkington (Bean’s partner in the Horse’s Ha) and focusing on material from 1994’s Feels Like the Third Time. In all likelihood the distinctive weave of their voices, broken in after so many years like a favorite pair of jeans—Bean’s is refined, Irwin’s relatively coarse—will make it feel like no time at all has passed. Old friends just fall back into their groove. —Peter Margasak Nora O’Connor opens.
King Day Celebration
Mon., Jan. 21, 10:30 a.m.Other Stuff
To celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Dusable Museum of African American History hosts its annual celebration of his life and accomplishments. There will be dance performances, films, and poetry readings to commemorate not only King's legacy, but the many others who took part in the civil and human rights movement. Festivities begin with a public screening of the second inauguration of President Barack Obama.
$5-$10
Chicago Barn Dance Company
Mon., Jan. 21, 7 p.m.Folk & Country
Barn dance featuring Kathy, Patt & Mark with caller Big Bill Sudkamp.
Cleave
Mon., Jan. 21, 7 p.m.Theater & Performance
In this fantasy, the lives of conjoined twin girls bound together by their hair are turned upside down when one of them falls on love. Part of the Inconvenience's staged reading series, Fresh Meat.
Essay Fiesta
Mon., Jan. 21, 7 p.m.Literary Events
Readings of first-person nonfiction essays. With a raffle to benefit writing and tutoring center 826CHI.
The Seduction Community
Mon., Jan. 21, 7:30 p.m.Theater & Performance
Route 66 Theatre presents this staged reading of a comedy about a guy who begins to stray from his four-year relationship. $5
Backyard Cohort, Michael "Magoo" McGohan, Chris Buehrle, Dave Hamilton
Mon., Jan. 21, 8 p.m.Rock, Pop, Etc
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