Performing Arts, Chicago Reader

It's Gertie Garbage's world

Hannah Gold — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

The sixth installment of Garbage World, Eileen Lillian Doyle's anarchic performance festival, is May 25. by Hannah Gold School of the Art Institute graduate Eileen Lillian Doyle (aka Gertie Garbage) started Garbage World in 2009, enlisting friends to help her create a performance festival characterized by "more allowances than limitations," based on personal responsibility and trust. Six cycles in, with versions both here and in Philadelphia, the project has remained consistent—no rules or themes, just fun with freedom.…

The Misanthrope in black and white

Tony Adler — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Charles Newell's production of Moliere's The Misanthrope sends a confused racial message. by Tony Adler There are two sets of palettes at work in the new Court Theatre staging of The Misanthrope. One emphasizes black and gold, especially in the exuberantly filigreed costumes created by Jacqueline Firkins.…

Striding Lion rediscovers a German avant-gardist in Dada Gert

Laura Molzahn — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Striding Lion rediscovers a German avant-gardist in Dada Gert. by Laura Molzahn Annie Arnoult Beserra, head of Striding Lion Performance Group, fell in love with Valeska Gert in 2005, when, as a grad school student, she saw recently released archival footage of Gert's dance solos. "She was so raw and riddled and vibrant," Beserra says.…

Barbara Gaines goes all auteur on Henry VIII

Tony Adler — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Henry VIII is undone by overdoing. by Tony Adler Barbara Gaines is a great leader, no doubt about it. She took a little Lincoln Avenue storefront theater—not even a storefront, really, but a rooftop-patio-over-a-bar theater—and built it into a big-name, big-budget, high-prestige cultural institution with a well-earned reputation for connecting Chicago to the international theater community through its World's Stages program, which I dearly love and sincerely respect.…

Last night I dreamt I went to Indie Boots Theatre Festival again . . .

Jena Cutie — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Nine short plays have "Rebecca" in the title at the inaugural Indie Boots Theatre Festival. by Jena Cutie The first annual Indie Boots Theatre Festival, produced by the arts company Mudgeonsoul, has a unifying theme: Rebecca, the title character in each of nine short plays, whom organizers chose as a prompt to encourage writers to come up with stories about women. The full lineup, ranging from rom-com to absurdist critique, will run each of three nights in a 95-minute block.…

Disability is the elephant in the room in Ganesh Versus the Third Reich

Tony Adler — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Disability is the elephant in the room in Ganesh Versus the Third Reich. by Tony Adler Suppose I told you that Australia's Back to Back Theatre works with "intellectually disabled" actors? What would you expect from one of their shows?…

Comic Relief Zero is everything you hate about stand-up

Molly Adams — Tue, 14 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Found-footage collective Everything Is Terrible! offers a sneak preview of Comic Relief Zero: everything you hate about stand-up. by Molly Adams Like most work by the video collective Everything Is Terrible!, a new film zooms in on the nastiest bits of slime that gather at the bottom of humanity's media Dumpster. Comic Relief Zero is what people are thinking of when they say they don't like stand-up, an art that can really bring out the worst in people.…

Music + Movement Showcase rocks the Auditorium

Laura Molzahn — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

Six dance troupes boogie to live music at the Music + Movement Showcase. by Laura Molzahn If you've never seen footworking done with a live band—and who has?—here's your chance. In a culmination of the Auditorium Theatre's months-long Music + Movement Festival, the hip-hop arts organization Kuumba Lynx performs with jazz-and-blues-oriented band Urban Aspirations in Braid Tales . . .…

Second-act troubles afflict By the Way, Meet Vera Stark

Tony Adler — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Promising at first, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark falls apart after intermission. by Tony Adler For certain kinds of people, achieving the American dream has always been a stealth operation. Coming up during the Depression, for instance, my dad obscured his Ashkenazic roots by Latinizing his first name (Maurice, from Moishe), classicizing his middle name (Alexander, after Alexander the Great) and Teutonizing his surname (Adler, from, well, something that wasn't Adler).…

The art of disability on display at Bodies of Work

Aimee Levitt — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:00:00 -0500

The Bodies of Work Festival puts people with disabilities on the stage, on the screen, behind the mike, and in the audience. by Aimee Levitt If the Bodies of Work Festival succeeds in its mission, the arts community in Chicago will start thinking about artists and audiences with disabilities. Not think of them in a whole new way.…

Rick Cluchey performs a bunch of Krapp by Samuel Beckett

Tony Adler — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:30:00 -0500

Rick Cluchey stars in Samuel Beckett's one-man one-act Krapp's Last Tape. by Tony Adler There's no denying the drama-nerd thrill of seeing Rick Cluchey in Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape. Cluchey first performed the one-man one-act in 1977, under the direction of Beckett himself.…

What's so funny, David Misch?

Aimee Levitt — Mon, 06 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

In Funny: The Book, longtime comedy writer and stand-up David Misch explains his craft. by Aimee Levitt The best way to kill a joke, of course, is to explain what makes it funny. This puts David Misch in a bit of a tight spot—his Funny: The Book purports to explain "everything you always wanted to know about comedy."…

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark pulls the mask off old Hollywood

Aimee Levitt — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Lynn Nottage's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark pulls the mask off old Hollywood. by Aimee Levitt In the mid-1920s, Vera Stark, a beautiful, talented vaudeville actress, left New York for Hollywood, land of dreams, where anything was possible, even decent parts for black women. In 1933, after several years working as a maid for the movie star Gloria Mitchell, aka "America's Little Sweetie Pie," she landed her first screen role . . .…

Young guys attract old dolls in Pal Joey

Albert Williams — Thu, 02 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Rodgers and Hart's 1940 musical Pal Joey, now in revival by Porchlight Music Theatre, pushed Broadway's boundaries. by Albert Williams A rich, middle-aged socialite and a dumb but sexy young dancer exploit each other for fun and profit. Locked in a loveless marriage, the socialite wants a little something on the side; the dancer, a gold-digger with the morals of an alley cat, wants someone to pay the bills.…

Culture Vultures: Fawzia Mirza on Queer Comedy at Zanies

Thu, 02 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Chicagoans recommend Queer Comedy at Zanies, Robinson Alone, and Danger 5. Joshua Young, author of To the Chapel of Light, fuels his love of poetry with: Robinson Alone A good book of poetry is not hard to find—there's so much out there right now.…

The Lake Effect keeps the mold intact

Tony Adler — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:05:00 -0500

In The Lake Effect, Rajiv Joseph returns to his quirky/intimate style. by Tony Adler Playwright Rajiv Joseph is best known for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, which was introduced to Chicago last winter by the Lookingglass Theatre Company. A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2010, the play offers a dreamlike, absurd, yet morally and politically serious evocation of Dubya's Iraq war—narrated by the title cat, who's killed for biting off an American soldier's hand only to find himself walking the ruined streets of Baghdad as a ghost.…

Stages, Sights & Sounds sets its sights on fairy tales

Hannah Gold — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

The Chicago Humanities Festival's kid-friendly Stages, Sights & Sounds sets its sights on fairy tales. by Hannah Gold At Stages, Sights & Sounds, the Chicago Humanities Festival's annual spring fling, six European and North American theater companies present work that's innovative, entertaining—and kid friendly. The focus of this year's batch of plays, which includes Grimm's classics, murder mysteries, and happily-ever-afters at any age, is fairy tales.…

Emily Stein conducts Secret Experiments in Ballet #2

Laura Molzahn — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Emily Stein conducts Secret Experiments in Ballet #2. by Laura Molzahn For 25 years, Emily Stein has earned her daily bread teaching dance—currently at the rate of a dozen ballet classes a week. That's not uncommon, but no other choreographer I know has crafted her experience into a thoughtful, moving, fun evening-length show.…

Comedienne Jen Kirkman, funny minus the buzz

Gwynedd Stuart — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:00:00 -0500

"Drunk History" alum and Chelsea Lately writer Jen Kirkman the Hideout. by Gwynedd Stuart The first time most people met Jen Kirkman, she was drunk. She narrated two installments of the Funny or Die video series "Drunk History," in which people intentionally get slurry, spitty, and heavy-lidded to explain some aspect of history that will later be acted out, right down to the dialogue, by other really funny people in period garb.…

In the headlock of Big Love

Tony Adler — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Strawdog Theatre and Charles Mee's play Big Love make a terrific couple. by Tony Adler You've got to give a little, take a little And let your poor heart break a little —"The Glory of Love"…

DanceWorks Chicago throws young dancers in the deep end

Laura Molzahn — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:30:00 -0500

DanceWorks Chicago throws young dancers in the deep end—and they come out strong. by Laura Molzahn The 18- to 24-year-old performers of DanceWorks Chicago are in a "magic stage of life," says artistic director Julie Nakagawa. "They're finding themselves, believing anything can happen."…

Alzheimer's from the inside out

Zac Thompson — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:00:00 -0500

Christine Mary Dunford adapts Still Alice, Lisa Genova's novel about early-onset Alzheimer's, to the stage. by Zac Thompson The most succinct first-person account of living with Alzheimer's disease remains the one provided by the first person diagnosed with it. Auguste Deter was 51 years old and otherwise healthy when she was brought, in 1901, to Dr. Alois Alzheimer's clinic in Frankfurt, Germany, with a strange case of what looked like premature senility characterized by confusion, volatile behavior, and severe memory lapses.…

Wake up for The Blackout Diaries

Kevin Warwick — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:00:00 -0500

The Blackout Diaries, Sean Flannery's boozy showcase, is worth stumbling into. by Kevin Warwick A holiday hangout in your grandparents' basement in the wee hours, with inebriated uncles and cousins telling tales of woe and failure (they were drunk then too)—it's a little like that. Comedian Sean Flannery's The Blackout Diaries returned to the 70s-style Lincoln Lodge this past January, having begun there with a short run two years ago before moving to a monthly gig at the Beat Kitchen.…

Culture Vultures: Improv performer Pat Ivansek on Rod Serling's Night Gallery

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 04:30:00 -0500

This week's Culture Vultures recommend Rod Serling's Night Gallery and Jeffrey Gusfield's Deadly Valentines. Pat Ivansek, improv performer, satiates his unwavering hunger for The Twilight Zone with episodes of: Night Gallery If you're like me, you grew up obsessed with the original Twilight Zone, each episode a completely different story, with the inevitable plot twist and Rod Serling's slick voice-over, all in glorious black-and-white.…

At Steppenwolf, a flawed work signals a major talent

Tony Adler — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Tarell Alvin McCraney's Head of Passes puts a payment down on future masterpieces. by Tony Adler With his trilogy "The Brother/Sister Plays," Tarell Alvin McCraney announced himself as a talented young writer wielding a big vision. He also staked out a territory.…