|
|
|
By Kerry Reid
| Theatre
|
|
11:04 AM, Dec 30, 2010 |
|
Toward the very end of the press performance of Steppenwolf’s spellbinding current production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, as Tracy Letts’ surprisingly fearsome George approached Amy Morton’s Martha to drop a blanket over her hunched, defeated shoulders, something unbelievable, yet perhaps inevitable, happened: a cell phone began ringing in the audience.
Once I got over my first feral instinct (“Find cell phone owner – dismember cell phone owner!”), I realized that it was a pretty good metaphor for theatre in Chicago in 2010. Some absolutely gorgeous memories and heartening news, interrupted by nagging irritations and rumblings of discontent. Oh, and heartbreaking loss, too.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
|
By Kris Vire
| Theatre
|
|
11:03 AM, Dec 30, 2010 |
|
As I write this, a few days before Christmas, what may turn out to be one of the year’s biggest stories is still fogged in uncertainty: the mass shifting of positions from the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs to the nonprofit Chicago Tourism Fund. Office of Budget and Management spokesperson Peter Coombs—the man to whom seemingly every press inquiry has been redirected—is staying on message that the DCA layoffs are a simple technicality and won’t affect programming.
We’ll see, but two aspects of the move strike me as ominous for the incredibly valuable DCA Theater program: the apparently permanent departure of longtime director of theatre Claire Geall Sutton (who’s remained tightlipped so far) and the symbolic connotation of the Tourism Fund umbrella. Is vital arts programming a service for Chicago’s citizens, or just a revenue stream for the tourism industry?
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
By Jonathan Abarbanel
| Theatre
|
|
11:00 AM, Dec 30, 2010 |
|
It’s been a mostly-quiet year: a few major changes-of-the-guard in the works (
Victory Gardens
,
Remy Bumppo
,
Porchlight Music Theatre
); some general belt-tightening as the 2008 economic collapse finally caught up with non-profits; the usual number of bricks-and-mortar stories (the Mercury Theater sold, Black Ensemble breaks ground for new arts center, eta Creative Arts doesn’t, Profiles takes over former Stage Left space); the usual number of deaths in the family (James Deuter, Robert Thompson and George Keathley among them). But by-and-large 2010 has been free of scandal or sensation. I don’t even think there’s been a good feud!
And then, in December, with the year almost over, two stories broke of more than usual interest: the virtual dissolution of the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and the barely-announced withdrawal of Frank Galati from the
Goodman Theatre
.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
By John Beer
| Theatre
|
|
10:52 AM, Dec 30, 2010 |
|
John Keats in noble verses praised
The buzz he got from Chapman’s Homer;
We’ll start off, if more humbly phrased,
With local genius David Cromer,
Whose Streetcar, with Natasha Lowe,
And Stoltz, and Matt, was very good;
Who in a feat of rare brio,
Led forty-nine in Cherrywood.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
By Carrie L. Kaufman
| Theatre
|
|
12:02 PM, Oct 22, 2010 |
|
In late 2008, just as the mortgage market and the economy took a plunge and American consumers went into panic mode, the leaders of Actors’ Equity calmly saw an opportunity. Real estate had helped them build a nice nest egg. They had owned their building at 165 W. 46th St. in New York. When they sold it a few years ago, they kept the land.
“That has been a very profitable experience,” said Steve DiPaola, Equity’s national director of finance and administration.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Page 1 of 9 |
Features
