ACT OUT OPENING: 13TH Annual Sketchbook at Collaboraction

Do you like to see creative, thought provoking new works before anyone else?   Hop on board the blue line, green line, brown line, and black line at Collaboraction for a slew of world premiers.   We'll be checkin' out and reviewing the blue and green line shows today.   Last year we did a one day theatre immersion where we saw ALL the Sketchbook plays in one day and it an intense, altering experience.   Highly recommended. 

Flat Iron Arts Building 1579 N. Milwaukee, 3rd Floor Chicago  14 world premiere works of theater    Over 150 participants      Four programs to choose from    Each "line" on the transit map constitutes   a complete mind-blowing theater experience SUNDAY, JUNE 9: THE MARATHON See all 4 Programs in One Day with your Festival Pass! Price Point                            12:00pm  Pentagon   Get Tickets Now! Hospital & WeatherVane 2:00pm Room300   Get Tickets Now! Snapshot & Deadpan Melodrama     5:00pm Pentagon   Get Tickets Now! The Shorts: 9 Destinies with Musical Guest  Antony and the Tramps  7:00pm Room300   Get Tickets Now! Planning on catching the entire festival? Get a Festival Pass and see all 4 programs as many times as you want! Click here to get yours today The Green Line A full-length devised piece   Price Point Co-devised by the ensemble members of Honey Pot Performance:   Felicia Holman, Aisha Jean-Baptiste, Abra Johnson and Meida McNeal Pictured ( clockwise from top left):  Felicia Holman, Abra Johnson, Meida McNeal and Aisha Baptiste-Johnson  Price Point explores notions of fairness and balance, or the lack thereof, in today's economic landscape through a mixture of the tragic and comic. The work combines movement, theater, song and image to examine the state of the American Dream. The Blue Line Two one-act plays with an intermission Hospital Conceived by Sarah Illiatovitch-Goldman and Diana Rose and created by Sarah Illiatovitch-Goldman, Diana Rose and Robin Toller  & WeatherVane devised by Carolyn Hoerdemann, filmmaker Ann Sonneville and Tony Werner, written by Tony Werner, with creative consultant Jess McLeod    Pictured (from left): Sarah Illiatovitch-Goldman, Ann Sonneville, Carolyn Hoerdemann  Hospital A stay at a hospital is a strange and scary theatrical experience. At our most vulnerable moments of losing physical control of our bodies we are asked to surrender emotional and intellectual control, and give our trust to a group of strangers. Hospital brings the audience into the private world of one patient as she journeys through the bizarre and surreal world of the medical system.     Weathervane Christina and Nicole are both outsiders in a system that demands assimilation and loyalty. They married into a powerful family, and Nicole has been guiding her through the process. When Christina's husband goes missing, she goes into hiding. Can she trust the more adapted Nicole and survive the onslaught of the established order?    The Black LIne Two one-act plays with an intermission Snapshot by Brett C. Leonard, directed by Anthony Moseley & Deadpan Melodrama by Bob Glaudini, directed by Scott Illingworth Pictured (from left): Chris Meister, Karl Pontliff, Morgan McCabe, Susan Jamshadi Snapshot The family of a contract killer faces its demons in a battle between amnesia and revenge in this provocative new play by the author of Guinea Pig Solo and The Long Red Road.  Deadpan Melodrama What do parents owe their children? How does a child live up to the expectations of their parents? At 40, Rogers and Trish continue to struggle with who they are and how to live in this world. Their confusion clashes violently with the immobility and inflexibility of their parents.     The Brown Line The Shorts: 9 Destinies Nine short plays of 7 minutes or less Featuring live musical guests every night    Pictured (from left):   Kiley Moore and Aja Wiltshire  The Sorrows of Young Werther  by The Q Brothers, directed by Kimberly Senior featuring Eric Swanson, Torian Miller, Kiley Moore and Mike Hahalyak Young Werther is unlucky in love. He turns from one failed love to pining after an engaged woman. This update on Goethe's classic pokes fun at Werther's misfortune through the lens of his increasingly melodramatic and irrational letters to his friend.    Native American Princess  by Stanley Toledo, directed by Elana Boulos featuring David Seeber, Alex Stage and Aja Wiltshire All relationships start in fantasy. Some fantasies are more extreme than others - as Native American Princess suggests. Believing in fate and true love, Joel follows the signs of the universe, ignoring warnings at every turn.    Everything is Permitted  by Chelsea M. Marcantel, directed by Mignon Stewart featuring Derek van Barham, Ben Gojer, Kanome Jones and Jackie Koester A group of students have constructed their own Dreamachine - a device that can stimulate the brain and induce episodes of lucid dreaming. However, in the hands of these young and inexperienced students, the Dreammachine stimulates greed and obsession as well. Darkness  by Adam Joshua Seidel, directed by Sarah Gitenstein featuring John Crothswaite and Barbara Figgins After 300 years trapped in darkness, Grace is cynical and abrasive. When faced with abandonment by her spiritual advisor, she must determine if her protective outer shell is more important than being honest with herself.    Minus You  by Jennifer Barclay, directed by Paige Riley, featuring Jane Brody and Walter Brody There are those we truly cannot live without, and life without them is distinctly missing something. In the wake of an accident, Lennox and Gracie struggle to reach out for each other and hold on to what they have lost.      Survey No. 5  by Alex Lubischer, directed by John Rooney, featuring Nick Timmons and Lorraine Freund   The audience is polled and drinking games enacted in this sprint across the minefield of breakups and bisexuality.    Shuffle Off  by Gregory Hardigan, directed by Danny Bernardo  featuring Aurora Adachi-Winter, Garrett Lutz, Charlie Oh, Charlie Rasmann, Ray Rehberg, Angelica Roque and Matt Tassell Earl is dying on the side of the highway. His iPod is stuck on shuffle, replaying random moments from his life, trying to find the perfect song to end on, but music can be like life - random and cruel.     Theater McGuiver  co-devised by Jenny Lynn Christoffersen and Jaci Entwistle featuring Jaci Entwistle and Dan Krall Inspired by everyone's favorite TV resourceful Rube Goldberg-esque inventor, one man will enter the theater. Given a task and a box of miscellany he will, through the magic of theater, accomplish his task. The fate of the world is in his hands.    The Most Delicious Little House for Beginners (Clip Her Small to Fit the Boards)  devised and performed by Kelly Rafferty and Heather Warren-Crow Tinkerbell is on uppers, and Wendy is a drunk, desperate housewife who now lives inside the teevee. Together they pine after Peter and sort through the media traces of colonialism that perpetually overwhelm their home in Neverland.

Save the date.   The Decades Project is going to be epic!  June 21 & 22 only.

ACT OUT EXTENDED: Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Othello: The Remix Now Playing Through July 27, 2013

Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Othello: The Remix

Extended a Second Time

Now Playing Through July 27, 2013

ChiIL Live Shows caught Othello: The Remix, on their opening night in Chicago and LOVED it.   This production is so relevant and accessible, it may just turn on a whole new generation to the genius of Shakespeare.  Stick this show on the top of your must see list.  We're also stoked to see The Q Brothers again at Kidzapalooza, where they're annual regulars.   

We heard from some insiders at Chi Shakes that this show was originally written for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad’s ‘Globe to Globe’ festival at Shakespeare’s Globe where countries were given Shakespeare's plays to produce in a number of languages.   Originally, the US wasn't going to enter as England had English covered.   But the fest made a special exception and designated Hip Hop as it's own unique language... and a hit was conceived! 

Othello: The Remix rocks!    Recommended for mature tweens and up.   Click here to check out ChiIL Live Shows & ChiIL Mama's past coverage.

Jackson Dora, GQ, Postell Pringle and JQ star in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s production of "Othello: The Remix." | Photos by Michael Brosilow

Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s (CST) Othello: The Remix, the 90-minute hip-hop adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy, spun out and lyrically rewritten over original beats, has been extended a second time through July 27, 2013. Written, directed and with music by the Q Brothers, Othello: The Remix is receiving rave reviews from audiences across Chicago, playing to sold-out houses and nightly standing ovations. The high energy, cross-genre production is stimulating theater attendance from under-represented audiences in Chicago with noticeable increases in multi-generational and culturally diverse audiences. 

The production continues to break records for Chicago Shakespeare’s longstanding CST for $20 program, which offers $20 tickets for CST productions to students and young professionals under the age of 35. 

Following the extended run of the American premiere in Chicago, Othello: The Remix will return to London (where the production first performed last fall as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad’s ‘Globe to Globe’ festival at Shakespeare’s Globe). The three-week engagement at London’s Unicorn Theatre will take place September 11–28, 2013. 

Chicago Shakespeare’s full 2013 summer programming schedule also includes: Piccolo Teatro di Milano’s Inner Voices from June 25–29; Shrek The Musical from July 13–September 1; Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks performing The Comedy of Errors from July 26–August 25.

The Q Brothers, GQ and JQ, are siblings born and raised in Chicago, who started their professional careers in the off Broadway hit, The Bomb-itty of Errors. Commissioned by CST and written, directed and with music by the Q Brothers, Othello: The Remix is the first Shakespeare tragedy and second collaboration with CST Creative Producer Rick Boynton. Boynton was also involved in the creation of the Q Brothers’ award-winning CST commission, Funk It Up About Nothin’, which received critical acclaim in its world premiere at Chicago Shakespeare and subsequent international tour to New York, Australia and the UK. In addition to the Q Brothers, the cast of Othello: The Remix includes Jackson Doran and Postell Pringle and DJ Clayton Stamper. Othello: The Remix is produced by Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Richard Jordan Productions Ltd.

Othello: The Remix has been extended through July 27, 2013, in the theater Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare. Tickets are on sale now for $20–$35, with CST for $20 tickets offered for patrons under 35. Performances now through June 15 are Wednesday–Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 3 p.m. Performances beginning  Thursday, June 20 are Thursday–Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 3 p.m. Except Saturdays, July 20 and 27 where performances are at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. All patrons receive a 40% discount on guaranteed parking in Navy Pier garages. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact the CST Box Office at 312.595.5600 or visit the Theater’s website at www.chicagoshakes.com/othello

Largest Pop-Up Art Loop gallery opens TONIGHT, June 6 17,000-square-foot space located in Block Thirty Seven

WHO:  Hundreds of art lovers and artists, along with Chicago Loop Alliance Executive Director Michael Edwards and Chicago Design Museum Executive Director Tanner Woodford…

WHAT:   Celebrate the official opening of Chicago Loop Alliance’s 17,000-square-foot Pop-Up Art Loop gallery on the third floor of Block Thirty Seven, featuring Chicago Design Museum’s 2013 exhibition “Work at Play.” The opening is part of Chicago Loop Alliance’s monthly First Thursdays gallery walk, featuring new exhibitions in Pop-Up Art Loop galleries throughout the Loop along with complimentary wine and live music (a roving cellist).

WHEN:   TODAY, June 6, from 5-8 p.m.

WHERE:               108 N. State Street (Block Thirty Seven), third floor

MORE:  Block Thirty Seven is one of Chicago Loop Alliance’s strategic partners for the Pop-Up Art Loop program, which transforms vacant storefront space downtown into vibrant temporary art galleries open to the public. CLA negotiates for new spaces for Pop-Up Art Loop on an ongoing basis to enliven public space throughout the Loop and draw attention to available storefronts. 

For more information, please visit www.PopUpArtLoop.com. Additional walk-in galleries opening on June 6 include:

·         Monuments and Ruins, 108 N. State St. (Block Thirty Seven, first floor)

·         Photography of Clare Britt, Anna Reich and Jim Zimpel, 42 S. State St. (Blick Art Materials, second floor)

·         Works by Barron Storey and Robb Stone, 8 S. Michigan Ave. (Bert Green Fine Art, Suite 1220)

·         Selected works by Brent Fogt, 18 S. Wabash Ave. (Carhartt)

·         Single File: A Group Show, 23 E. Madison St.

ART OPENING: Chi, IL Live Gallery Shows On Our Radar--Organic Synergy at Morpho Gallery

WIN a FREE Pair of Tickets to Summer Party Power of Choice ($120 value) #Personal PAC #abortionrights #giveaway #ad

You've gotta fight for your rights with a party...

Seems like women's rights should be a given in this century, yet every day we hear about more scary attacks on our rights to choose, rights to our own bodies, rights to sound medical information and more!   Step up and help ensure that US stays out of your uterus.

Meet up with others who care about keeping this choice between a medical provider and the woman involved.  If you want to keep abortion safe and legal for Illinois women, please share this link and enter below for your chance to win two tickets to Personal PAC's fundraiser.

Come join us for the party of the summer! This year's Power of Choice will be bigger and better than ever- with food trucks, craft beers, music, and an AWESOME auction! Come party for your rights!

Thanks to Personal PAC for donating tickets for our giveaway and for us to attend.

Click the Rafflecopter link below for your chance to win 2 free tickets ($120 value)  Enter through midnight 6/6.   Please help us spread the word.  Sharing rocks and the more you share the better your odds or winning.    

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It’s the Party of the Summer .. Come Party for Your Rights!

Chicago, Illinois May 2013

Come out and support women’s reproductive rights while enjoying a great evening. Here in Illinois women have the Power of Choice but that isn’t the case in many other states where women’s reproductive rights fall under attack.

Today’s younger generation is too quiet, not expressing their opinion one way or another. Young people need to get involved in order to protect their future rights in the state of Illinois.

A great way to get involved is by coming out to Personal PAC’s Power of Choice event Party for Your Rights on June 14th.

The event is at a new venue, the posh Gallery 1028 located at 1028 N. Hooker St.

The Party starts at 5:30pm and will last until 8:30 with plenty of free parking. Tickets start at $60 and all proceeds go directly to supporting the work of Personal PAC.

Guests will enjoy live music, live art, craft beer & drinks and delicious edibles by a variety of food trucks. There will be raffles, silent and live auctions throughout the event.

Prizes include: Round trip airline miles for 2, Vacation House in Cabo San Lucas, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox Sport Packages, Choice of 3 Dream Vacations: New Orleans, New York or Napa Valley.

Personal PAC, a bi-partisan political action committee dedicated to preserving abortion rights in Illinois by electing pro-choice candidates to state and local office.

Your donation helps support the efforts of Personal PAC and the Power of Choice!

Personal PAC

For More Information Click Here 

Disclosure:   Personal PAC donated tickets for our giveaway and for us to attend in exchange for promoting this fundraiser.   All opinions are our own.

TODAY: Lani Hall Alpert Book Signing at Foodease in Water Tower Place 1-2:30 FREE E-Book HERE

Grammy-winning Vocalist Lani Hall Alpert Signs Her Book

"Emotional Memoirs & Short Stories"

at Chicago's Foodease, Tuesday, June 4, 1-2:30 p.m.

For the month of June 2013, complimentary e-book

versions can be downloaded at lanihall.com.

Lani Hall Alpert "Emotional Memoirs"

book signing

Tuesday, June 4

1-2:30 p.m.

Foodease

835 N. Michigan Ave. (Water Tower Place, Mezzanine)

Chicago, IL 60611

Light refreshments

Chicago-born Lani Hall Alpert, the Grammy Award-winning vocalist, brings the passion of her voice to the printed page in her recently authored "Emotional Memoirs & Short Stories" - ten short works of fiction and non-fiction alike, all set against the living, breathing backdrop of Chicago.

The characters crackle with energy: intelligent, modern women struggling to navigate the uncertain waters of adultery, therapy, cosmetic surgery, postpartum depression, and even their own sexuality. Lani's prose is uncommonly fearless; laying herself bare with energy and honesty. Each short story is woven into the next via a winding personal narrative, as the author takes a refreshingly honest look back at her own life. Lani gives us a rare glimpse at the double-edged sword that is the life of an artist.

Lani, accompanied by her husband Herb Alpert, will be signing copies of her new book "Emotional Memoirs" on Tuesday, June 4, 1-2:30 p.m. at Foodease Restaurant Market (Water Tower Place - Mezzanine Level, 835 N. Michigan Ave. Chicago, 60611

Hard copies of "Emotional Memoirs & Short Stories" can be purchased at amazon.com and barnsandnoble.com. For the month of June 2013, complimentary e-book versions can be downloaded at lanihall.com.

Lani and her husband Herb Alpert, the eight-time Grammy Award-winning jazz icon, were in concert this past Sunday at Park West performing songs from their next album, "Steppin Out" to be released later this year. They were also recently showcased on WBEZ's 'Morning Shift and " WCIU's "You & Me in the Morning."

Lani Hall started her professional career as the original lead singer with Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66. Known for her emotional vocal interpretations, she helped propel the group to international stardom with her distinctive vocals on the infectious Brasilian tune "Mas Que Nada." It was in 1966, while singing with the group in an audition for A&M Records, that she met her future husband, music legend Herb Alpert. They were married in 1973 and since then their lives and musical gifts have mingled. Lani has enjoyed a distinguished solo career, having recorded some 14 solo albums (variously in English, Portuguese and Spanish). In 1983, she sang the title song of the James Bond movie, "Never Say Never Again," starring Sean Connery, and won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance for her album Es Facil Amar in 1986. She also has credits as a lyricist, producer, arranger, writer and editor. Written over the course of more than 30 years, "Emotional Memoirs & Short Stories" marks Lani's debut into the world of literature. Writing has always come just as naturally to her as music. Even as a young girl she was already a passionate poet. As she moved through her life experiences, she traveled with pen in hand, expressing her private feelings and thoughts as a vehicle of release.

http://lanihallalpert.com/

https://lanihall.herbalpertpresents.com/

Spring Awakening Music Festival June 14-16th

React Presents

SPRING AWAKENING MUSIC FESTIVAL 2013

***Schedule Released

***More After Parties Announced

***Soldier Field Teaser

Friday, June 14th, through Sunday, June 16th, Spring Awakening Music Festival takes over Chicago's historic Soldier Field with Bassnectar, Calvin Harris, Moby, and more! The 2013 schedule has also been released and can be found here. Spring Awakening Music Festival has two more stellar after parties to release at Primary Nightclub, and another teaser video featuring a unique look inside Soldier Field.

Be sure to grab your three day passes to Spring Awakening Music Festival at Clubtix.com!

Check out the full daily schedule here.

On Saturday, June 15th, Spring Awakening Music Festival is thrilled to welcome Fool's Gold Records' OLIVER to Primary Nightclub! Get your tickets here.

Sunday, June 16th, React & SMOG Present Bass Kitchen: Spring Awakening Edition with 12th Planet and Friends. Expect some surprise guests. Get your tickets here.

Video recap from SAMF 2012

Ticket link HERE

Spring Awakening Music Festival 2013

June 14 - 16, 2013

Soldier Field

1410 South Campus Drive

Chicago, IL 60605

Noon | All Ages

www.springawakeningfestival.com

www.reactpresents.com

www.clubtix.com