WIN 2 Lisa Loeb Adult Tixs/ Blow Out & No Chip Mani at Pickle's Playroom & Salon (2 winners) and/or SOLD OUT Kids Show Tixs & CD!

WIN 2 Pairs of Lisa Loeb Adult Tickets 

AND 2 No Chip Manicures & Blow Outs From Pickle's Playroom & Salon! 
(2 Winners)
and/or 2 Lisa Loeb SOLD OUT 

Kids Concert Tickets and CD (1 Winner) 

ChiIL Mama's ChiIL Picks List:

Here at ChiIL Mama and ChiIL Live Shows, we've been covering Chicago's CIMMfest for years. It's one of our annual favs, combining two of our passions, music AND film! This year we're partnering up with Lisa Loeb, Pickle's Playroom Salon, and Old Town School of Folk Music (a special stage for CIMMfest) and running 2 great giveaways, one family friendly and one for the big kids (AKA: adults)! 

Disclosure: Thanks to Lisa Loeb, Jennifer Kim, owner at Pickle's Playroom & Salon, and Old Town School of Folk Music for partnering up with ChiIL Mama to offer our readers this fabulous giveaway. As always, all opinions are my own.

ENTER EITHER OR BOTH FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN!

CLICK HERE: 

*ADULT TICKETS/SALON PACKAGE

*SOLD OUT KIDS SHOW/LATEST CD

Both giveaways are open through midnight on Thursday 4/14. Enter early and often. All winners will be chosen randomly via Rafflecopter. All information remains confidential.

Adult Night Out (2 winners):

• ChiIL Mama is giving away 
  
  

  2 pairs of tickets ($56/pair) 

  to Lisa Loeb Sunday, April 17, 7pm Old Town School of Folk Music,  4544 N. Lincoln Ave Presented in partnership with PicklesPlayroom.com Radio

  
  

  
  

AND

• 1 Hair Blow Out & 1 No Chip Manicure provided by Pickle's Playroom & Salon with each pair of tickets ($125 Total Value, appointment will be required) 

Grammy®-nominated singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb was launched into the limelight in 1994 with her platinum-selling Number 1 hit song “Stay (I Missed You)” from the film Reality Bites. Since then, she has enjoyed a successful career encompassing music, film, television, voice-over work, and children’s recordings. 

She will be performing two shows during CIMMfest on Sunday, April 17th, co-produced by PicklesPlayroom.com Radio and the Old Town School of Folk Music: an 11am Kid’s Concert featuring her children’s recordings and a 7pm Evening Concert for her "grown up" fans. Both shows are all ages.

Chris Corsale, a Chicago-based singer/songwriter, Old Town School opens the 7pm evening performance. 

Pickle's Playroom & Salon is a multi-service children's facility in Chicago that recently launched its very own digital family radio station, PicklesPlayroom.com Radio, which is played in-store and can also be accessed worldwide. The station features music for every generation, and serves as a platform for local and national "kindie" musicians. LISTEN NOW!

 Lisa with kids (by Juan Patino)

SOLD OUT KIDS SHOW (1 winner):

• ChiIL Mama is giving away 1 pair of tickets ($30) to Lisa Loeb's SOLD OUT kids show Sunday, April 17, 11am Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln Ave Presented in partnership with PicklesPlayroom.com Radio for Kids. 

AND

• 1 CD ($12.99): "Nursery Rhyme Parade" 

Lisa's new album (exclusively on Amazon Music), has been winning awards from Kids First! and the American Library Association. She has a number of cute new videos on her YouTube channel. Check 'em out, then enter for your chance to WIN! 

Lisa Loeb was the first artist to have a number one single in the United States while not signed to a recording contract. Her five studio CDs include her debut album and gold-seller Tails, followed by the Grammy-nominated gold-seller Firecracker. Loeb will perform music selections from her album and book Lisa Loeb's Silly Sing-Along: The Disappointing Pancake and Other Zany Songs and her new release with Amazon Music: Nursery Rhyme Parade!

CIMMfest 2016

ChiIL out with ChiIL Mama & ChiIL Live Shows. We're back again for 2016 with comprehensive CIMMfest coverage, news, reviews and interviews before, during and after the fest. So check back like we vote in Chi, IL... early and often. It's rewarding! Check out the full schedule for CIMMfest right HERE. We highly recommend getting your individual tickets and fest passes in advance. 

We'll be ChiILin' with CIMMfest in Chi, IL from opening night at Music Box and METRO through the last of the fest.

For the best deal, snag a 4-Day Fest Pass!

Disclosure: Thanks to Lisa Loeb, Jennifer Kim--owner at Pickle's Playroom & Salon, and Old Town School of Folk Music for partnering up with ChiIL Mama to offer our readers this fabulous giveaway. As always, all opinions are my own.

LAST CALL: The Bachelors at Cole Theatre

COLE THEATRE PRESENTS NEW PLAY

 THE BACHELORS 

AS ITS SOPHOMORE PRODUCTION

Erica Weiss directs a pitch-black comedy on the madness of modern masculinity

March 17-April 10 at the Greenhouse Theater Center

ADULT NIGHT OUT: This one's definitely NOT for the kids, but this world premiere is a fascinating piece where some of the most reprehensible, juvenile examples of MANkind are breathed into being and directed by women (Playwright, Caroline V. McGraw & Director Erica Weiss)! This is a quirky gem of a production which flays our ideas of glorified bachelorhood and what it means to be a young, adult male. Kevlar, Henry, and Laurie are energetically and capably played by Nicholas Bailey, Boyd Harris, and Shane Kenyon so these men still come off with sympathetic qualities, despite their deeply flawed and even criminal relationships to the women they encounter. Catch this thought provoking show while you still can! Definitely recommended.

After launching in 2014 with Mike Leigh’s English comedy Ecstasy, Cole Theatre is proud to announce its second production will be the Midwest premiere of The Bachelors, a new dark comedy with an all-male cast by Caroline V. McGraw.  Erica Weiss (A Twist of Water, The Downpour) directs a dangerously fast one-act that cunningly explores three stunted young men’s behaviors toward women, and the wreckage caused to both in the wake of a long-lived patriarchy. The Bachelor runs March 17-April 10, 2016 at The Greenhouse Upstairs Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. 

The Bachelors

A new play by Caroline V. McGraw
Directed by Erica Weiss

March 17-April 10 at Greenhouse Upstairs Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.

Tickets, $25 at www.coletheatre.org

Inside a house on a fraternity row live three roommates far past their college days. It’s Friday evening, and Laurie (Shane Kenyon) has just returned from a business trip, buddy Kevlar (Nicholas Bailey) is already wasted and cellular biologist Henry (Boyd Harris) is just getting started to party. A thousand girlfriends come and gone, a thousand drinks downed, a thousand parties crashed – every night the same, until now. There’s a party tonight, but it is not the blaring music that makes sleep impossible. Tonight, these bachelors will understand what their choices have really gotten them.

“The Bachelors is a sharply funny and disturbingly thrilling portrait of seemingly privileged guys, each differently stunted, who detonate in hilarious, haunting and tragic ways," says Harris, Cole Theatre’s founder and artistic director.

"It really surprised me," reveals director Erica Weiss. "I would not have thought that my next passion project would be a play about three men – and then Caroline's creation hit me with razor sharp wit and empathetic insight into the perils and pitfalls of contemporary masculinity. Not only is it incredibly entertaining, this play is incredibly relevant to my interest in featuring the voices of female perspectives and challenging preconceived notions about what topics women can take on. It makes me laugh, it makes me gasp, and it makes me grapple with my capacity for empathy. Caroline V. McGraw is a playwright Chicago needs to know, and I am beyond thrilled to make this introduction."

“I wanted it to be gross and funny and really milk the boys-will-be-boys tropes, but have an unabashedly feminist perspective always lurking under the surface,” says McGraw of her one-act play. “I wanted this to be a night at the theater that's enjoyable in a lot of ways, but where the characters' damaged relationships with women cause the play world to open up in unexpected ways."

The production will feature work by Bethany Arrington (assistant director), Eric Backus (sound design),  Matthew Bonaccorso (assistant stage manager), Alarie Hammock (costume design), Cori James (stage manager), Dillon Kelleher (actor cover), Richard Latshaw (prop design),  Rachel K. Levy (lighting design), Grant Sabin (scenic design), Martha Templeton (master electrician), and David Woolley (fight choreography).

About the Playwright:

Caroline V. McGraw’s plays include Believeland, Ultimate Beauty Bible, Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys, The Vaults, Debut Track One Chord One Verse One (or, The Shed), The King is Dead and Baby No More Times (a pop musical co-written with Mary Birnbaum and Melissa Lusk). Her work has been produced and developed at theaters around the country, including the Cherry Lane Theatre by Young Playwrights Inc., New Georges, Washington Ensemble Theatre, The Yale Cabaret, AracaWorks, Naked Angels, Washington National Opera/The Kennedy Center, Second Stage, Studio 42, Page 73, IAMA Theater Company, and Ars Nova ANT Fest. She has been in residence at Portland Center Stage’s JAW Festival, Wordbridge Playwrights’ Lab, and SPACE on Ryder Farm.  She is an alum of the New George’s Jam, Interstate 73 and the Civilians R&D Group, and a member of the Primary Stages Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group. She is working on a new play commission from Yale Rep. Caroline was the 2013 Page 73 Playwriting Fellow.  She is a graduate of the Playwriting MFA program at the Yale School of Drama, where she studied under Paula Vogel.

About the Director:

Erica Weiss is a Chicago-based theatre and film director and an ensemble member with The Gift Theatre Company. She has a background in new play development and dramaturgy, and has been privileged to work with fantastic companies of all sizes in the Chicago Theatre community, including Victory Gardens Theatre, Steep Theatre Company, Bailiwick Chicago, and Route 66 Theatre Company, where she was the Associate Artistic Director from 2011-2015. She made her off-Broadway directing debut in 2012 at 59E59, and was the 2013-2014 Michael Maggio Directing Fellow at The Goodman Theatre. She is a nominee for the 2014-15 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Director and Best Production. She and creative partner Caitlin Parrish are the founders of Teleporter Productions, and recently completed their first feature film, The View From Tall.

About Cole Theatre

Cole Theatre Company, established in 2013, works with thrilling, under-sung artists to make theatre illuminating joy, horror, humor, sadness, triviality and injustice. For more information about Cole Theatre’s productions and programs, visit www.coletheatre.org, call  (773) 747- 6821, or email boyd@coletheatre.org

EXTENDED: House Theatre's The Last Defender Now On Sale Through June 12!

THE HOUSE THEATRE OF CHICAGO 

THE LAST DEFENDER 

EXTENDS THROUGH JUNE 12

To say we're super stoked about this show here at ChiIL Mama & ChiIL Live Shows is a colossal understatement! I played when they first opened, with my son and a couple of his friends, all high school freshmen. 

We ran out of time and blew up the world, but had a blast! During the first wave of shows in February, we were also excited to partner up with The House and give away 2 pairs of these highly sought after tickets to our readers. The rest is history.

 The Last Defender Production Photo by Johnny Knight

The initial run and extension sold out super fast and my son, Dugan, loved the show so much we bought 6 tickets so he could come back with more friends and play again for his 15th birthday. This series of puzzles is crazy tough to crack (only 22 out of the first 100 teams did it!!) and on Dugan's birthday they were 1 task short of solving it the 2nd time around when they had to strike a "costly compromise" with under 10 seconds to total annihilation. The game was a huge hit for all involved, and one of the most memorable birthdays ever. Oh so highly recommended! 

Dugan & his birthday entourage got to play the ONE HUNDREDTH GAME, on Easter, & have a birthday party too!

Check out our full set of Dugan's Last Defender Birthday shots in the slideshow here and more favorites embedded below:

We're elated about the latest extension because EVERYONE should have a chance to play this live action room escape puzzle. It's great for guys, girls, and geeks ages 14+ and it's SO much fun we're hoping a room escape show becomes part of The House Theater's line up every season. 

We played on Easter afternoon so it was oddly fitting to be following black rabbits down the hole into an alternate near apocalyptic reality. They even left Easter eggs (of the candy filled variety, not the hidden code easter eggs of video game fame) around the playing space as an extra treat and the birthday boy got one in his locker. House Theatre ROCKS!

We even made Dugan a Last Defender 15th Birthday Cake & shared it with cast & crew.

The Last Defender is great for a group of friends, date night, or family fun for high school kids through adults. It's addictive and players are returning in droves to play again and again. Book your tickets NOW before the clock ticks down and all you see on site are the sad words SOLD OUT! Don't miss THIS!

  The Last Defender Production Photo by Johnny Knight

WHAT:              

The House Theater of Chicago is adding 86 new performance times, extending to June 12

WHERE:          

The Chopin Theater Downstairs, 1543 W. Division St.

WHEN:            

Extension Dates: April 24 - June 12

The regular performance schedule is now as follows: Wednesdays at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m., Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays at 7 and 9 p.m., Saturdays at 2, 4, 7 and 9 p.m.

Through April 17: Sundays at 4:30 and 7 p.m.

Starting April 24: Sundays 4:30 and 6:30 p.m.

These added dates and extension go on sale to the public on Monday April 4

                     

MORE:             

A total of 86 performance times have been added for this live action game after selling out over 90% of the existing playtimes. 

The Last Defender Production Photo by Johnny Knight

ABOUT THE LAST DEFENDER 

Artistic Director Nathan Allen and Company Member and D.C. Comics artist Chris Burnham, have teamed up with some of Chicago’s best loved puzzle and game designers in this world premiere. Together, they created a wholly new experiment in immersive story and stagecraft call The Last Defender.  It’s part performance, part puzzle hunt, and part live action game.

Set during the Cold War, The Last Defender draws on the era's sense of paranoia, and fear of nuclear attack to give audiences a one-of-a-kind storytelling experience. Audience members become the

heroes of the story in The Defenders' underground headquarters. The United States and The Soviet Union are still mired in the Cold War. Artificial intelligence has been deployed alongside 8 bit

arcade-style computer technologies to control our nuclear weapons.

The game will present teams of players with a classic "trolley problem” resulting in three possible endings based on their choices and actions: Nuclear War, which is easy to achieve. Nuclear Peace, which is very difficult, and a costly compromise scenario for teams who fail to reach Nuclear Peace but wish to avoid Nuclear War. Players will navigate their own paranoia, as well as the stresses of Mutually Assured Destruction to do the job of The Defenders. Everyone will work as a team to gather information, solve puzzles, and make increasingly difficult decisions in real time. All to complete The Defenders' mission and save the world.

Photo Favorites: Dugan's Last Defender Birthday 

Dugan and I both bought these rockin' Last Defender tee shirts after we played in February! And everyone who plays get a free surprise packet to take home.

The geek in me loves that they're keeping game stats & standings:

OPENING: The Broadway Hit, Nice Work If You Can Get It, at Theatre at the Center

Theatre at the Center presents 

Nice Work If You Can Get It

Munster, IN – Theatre at the Center announces the Chicagoland premiere of the Broadway hit Nice Work If You Can Get It. This new musical features a book by Tony Award winner Joe DiPietro, and a treasure trove of George and Ira Gershwin's most beloved, instantly recognizable tunes (Let's Call the Whole Thing Off, Someone to Watch Over Me, 'S Wonderful).  Nice Work If You Can Get It runs May 5 through June 5 at Theatre at the Center. 

Ashley Lanyon (ensemble), Justin Brill as “Jimmy Winter”, Kayla Kennedy (ensemble).  Photo by Guy Rhodes.  Courtesy of Theatre at the Center.

Set in the Roaring Twenties, Nice Work If You Can Get It is the story of charming and wealthy playboy Jimmy Winter, who meets rough female bootlegger Billie Bendix on the weekend of his wedding.  Jimmy is embarking on his third or fourth marriage, this one to a narcissistic modern dancer named Eileen. Billie learns that the couple will be out of town and devises a plan to stash cases of alcohol in the basement of Jimmy’s mansion.  When Jimmy, Eileen and Eileen’s prohibition family suddenly arrive at the mansion for the wedding, Billie and her gang pose as the serving staff, with hijinks as the end result.

Jeff Award winning director William Pullinsi will join forces with Jeff Award winning choreographer Danny Herman to co-direct Nice Work If You Can Get It, just as they did for last season's hit production of All Shook Up at Theatre at the Center.  

Justin Brill (All Shook Up at Theatre at the Center and All Shook Up on Broadway) stars as Jimmy along with Erica Stephan (White Christmas at Drury Lane and The Little Mermaid at Chicago Shakespeare Theater) who plays Billie Bendix.  Laura Freeman (The Fox on the Fairway at Theatre at the Center and Into the Woods national tour) plays Estonia Dulworth, The Duchess of Woodford. Jeff Award winner Stef Tovar (The Christmas Schooner at Mercury Theater Chicago and Big Fish at Theatre at the Center) plays Cookie McGee.  Additional cast include Julie Baird as Eileen Evergreen, Rick Rapp as Senator Max Evergreen, Annelise Baker as Jeannie Muldoon, Jake Stempel as Chief Berry, John Stemberg as Duke Mahoney and Debbie DiVerde as Millicent Winter, the mother of Jimmy.

The Nice Work If You Can Get It production team includes musical director Bill Underwood, Jeff Award winning scenic design team Jackie and Richard Penrod; costume design is by Brenda Winstead, lighting design is by Guy Rhodes, sound design is by Barry Funderburg.  Brittney O’Keefe is the props designer. The production manager is Ann Davis with Dennis Galbreath as assistant technical director. Matt McMullen is the stage manager. Richard Friedman is general manager and Linda Fortunato is Theatre at the Center’s new artistic director.  

Founded in 1991, the 410-seat Theatre at the Center is a year-round professional theater at its home, The Center for Visual and Performing Arts, 1040 Ridge Road, Munster, Indiana.  Theatre at the Center is the only professional theater company in Northwest Indiana, offering downtown caliber performances in an accessible venue with plenty of free parking.  Theatre at the Center is located off I-80/94, just 35 minutes from downtown Chicago. 

Performances are 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Sundays; and select Thursday and Sunday evenings and Saturday matinees. Individual ticket prices range from $40 - $44. To purchase individual tickets call the Box Office at 219-836-3255 or Tickets.com at 800-511-1552. Group discounts are available for groups of 11 or more and gift certificates are also available. For more information on Theatre at the Center, visit TheatreAtTheCenter.com.

REVIEW: Christina, The Girl King

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar

Last Call: Christina, The Girl King 

Must Close April 9th

**Note: Christina, The Girl King is for adult audiences only. Contains sex, full nudity (both female and male), violence and blood.**

Move over Game of Thrones! Cor Theatre's Christina, The Girl King has it all... smart, powerful women, plotting men, a lesbian love affair, torture, abdication, and more, live on stage, in an intimate little venue! They even have some sweet, local microbrews from Temperance Beer Company in Evanston you can take to your seat and enjoy during the show. Each purchase directly benefits the theatre! 

From the moment we entered Jackalope Theatre's territory, The Frontier Theater, to see the actors stretching and doing vocal warm ups right on stage, as the audience filtered in, we were hooked! Cor Theatre's production choice meshed so well with this quirky space and is a boon for both companies. Cor Theatre was chosen for a residence as part of Jackalope Theatre's Pioneer Series. These up and comers did their hosts proud with a daring, edgy piece of historical theatre, based on the true life of Queen Christina of Sweden, professionally and passionately enacted by Toya Turner. The entire ensemble was excellent at bringing this timely tale back to life.

Even the title "The Girl KING" speaks volumes of a gender bending, norm shattering woman, ahead of her time. This production touched on the terrible price she had to pay to be true to herself, from the bawdy barroom songs and taunts of her subjects to the torture of those she loved most. 

The writing is also superb, with plenty of thought provoking turns of phrase and situations that are still all too familiar in our current political and social climate. Christina, The Girl King is highly recommended. Don't miss this!

Chicago's Cor Theatre is the first U.S. theater to present Linda Gaboriau's new translation of French playwright Michel Marc Bouchard's 2012 play Christine, la reine-garcon, which premiered in an applauded, extended run at the 2014 Stratford Festival. 

Cor Theatre, in residence with Jackalope Theatre's Pioneer Series at The Frontier, 1106 W. Thorndale in Edgewater, presents Christina, The Girl King through April 9, 2016.

Remaining show times through April 9 are Wednesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. 

Tickets are $25; $10 students and industry. For tickets and information, visit CorTheatre.com or call (866) 811-4111. 

After 30 years of war, Christina, the Girl King of Sweden, armed by the power of her crown and whip-smart intellect, is pushing her people to become a forward thinking nation. But when an unspeakable passion begins to burn underneath her androgynous visage, the Girl King's power is put to the test. Should she meet the demands of her country and birth its next heir? Should she fight the established patriarchy to rule as her own woman? Will she change? Or will she change the world around her? One thing is certain: the choice she makes will change her identity forever, and could mean certain death for the woman that she loves.

Cor Theatre, hailed for "Most Promising Debut" last season by Time Out Chicago, plans to surprise and amaze Chicago theater fans with its U.S. debut of Christina, The Girl King next month. 

Christina, The Girl King is a daring, sensitive reintroduction to the enigmatic 17th century European monarch, flamboyant intellectual and feminist before her time.

Cor Theatre Artistic Director Tosha Fowler directs the play's U.S. debut. The cast features Toya Turner as Christina, with Laura Resinger as Ebba, Adam Gutkin as Karl Gustav, Will Von Vogt as Johan, Tony Bozzuto as Axel, Meg Elliott as Maria Elenora, Danny Taylor as Descartes, Bridget Schreiber as Erika and Scott Shimizu as Chanut. 

Designers are Elyse Balogh (set and props), Alarie Hammock (costumes), Eric Vigo (lights), Jeffrey Levine (sound), Adam Gutkin (technical director), Elyse Cowles (dramaturg), Janelle Bourdreau (stage manager) and Stefin Seberl (production stage manager).

Tosha Fowler (director) is co-founder and artistic director of Cor Theatre, where she directed last season's A Map of Virtue and acted in Love and Human Remains. As a result, Fowler debuted on New City's "Player's 2016 The Fifty People who really perform for Chicago" list as "the fearless leader of Chicago's most dangerously sexy new company." Fowler also produced and starred in Cor's acclaimed Skin Tight in 2012, under the direction of Victoria Delorio, and co-produced, wrote and performed in her original solo show, Mami, Where'd my O go?  She has produced theatre for almost ten years for companies including Mary-Arrchie Theatre, The Chicago Fringe Festival, Academy Theatre in Atlanta, and her founding company, Fowl Brick in Savannah, Georgia. Other directing credits include A Doctor's Stories, Poof! and Bash and Bully Breakdown in HD. As an actress, Fowler has performed in Chicago with Lifeline Theatre, Emerald City, MPAACT, Cock & Bull and Circle Theatre. She has worked as a playwright with American Theatre Company's "Chicago Chronicle Project," the DePaul University Diversity Initiative and the Academy Theater. She is an adjunct professor in Theatre at DePaul University, and holds an MFA in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul.

Sweden's Queen Christina has already been the subject of theatrical and cinematic speculation. Greta Garbo portrayed her in the 1933 film Queen Christina. So did Liv Ullman in 1974 in The Abdication.  History remembers her best for helping end the 30 Years War and for making Stockholm a major European capital. 

Toward the end of her reign, Queen Christina summoned René Descartes to share his new ideas about science and philosophy at the time. His radical ideas about free will and reason appealed to Christina, who was struggling to reconcile tensions between her rational self and emotions she dared not name. 

Rather than conform, the 26-year-old queen chose to abdicate her throne and convert to Catholicism, rendering her ineligible to rule. Was it an act of madness? Or a bold gesture of autonomy by a modern woman born ahead of her time? 

Christina, The Girl King underscores Cor Theatre's mission to explore the inner truth of the human experience through storytelling that defies convention, and to engage audiences by telling stories that take courage to tell.

Cor is also proud to have been selected by Jackalope Theatre Company to receive a prime time, four-week, rent-free run of Christina, The Girl King in The Frontier through The Pioneer Series, Jackalope's continuous initiative to cultivate bold new theatre in Chicago.

SAVE THE DATES:

Up Next: The Good Person of Szechwan, August 11-September 11 at 

A Red Orchid Theatre

Cor's second production in 2016 will be The Good Person of Szechwan by Bertolt Brecht, translated by Tony Kushner. Ernie Nolan will direct, and ensemble member Will Von Vogt will defy traditional casting in the title role of Brecht's parable of good and evil. Performances are August 11 through September 11 at A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells Street in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.

About Cor Theatre

Cor Theatre (cortheatre.org) debuted in September 2012 with a vision to create theatrical experiences that are rarely presented in Chicago by artists who seek to defy expectation. 

The company's first production, Skin Tight by Gary Henderson, produced by Tosha Fowler and Victoria Delorio, was rewarded with enthusiastic audiences, critical acclaim and made just enough money to establish a not-for-profit corporation. The company named itself Cor Theatre, deriving its name from the Latin root of courage - meaning heart.

In 2015, Cor expanded to a two-show season launched by an acclaimed production of Erin Courtney's A Map of Virtue, named Most Promising Debut by Time Out Chicago, and nominated for several Time Out Chicago Theatre Awards including Best Supporting Actress (Scottie Caldwell) and Best Design (Tierra G. Novy, set; Stefin Steberl, costumes and props; Eric Vigo, lights; and Jeffrey Levin, sound.) 

Cor's second 2015 production, Love and Human Remains, the first professional staging of Brad Frasier's controversial play in Chicago in 20 years, played to numerous sold-out houses and was listed as one of the top plays to see by Windy City Times and New City.

Today, Cor is one of Chicago's newest and most ambitious Chicago professional theatre companies with a growing board and strong experience behind it. Cor Theatre company members are Chris Brickhouse, Elyse Cowles, Tosha Fowler, Adam Gutkin, Claire Meyers, Ernie Nolan, Stefin Steberl and Will Von Vogt.

For more information, visit cortheatre.org, like Cor Theatre on Facebook, follow the company on Twitter, @CorTheatre, or call (866) 811-4111.

FREE Theatre: 7th International Voices Project Brings Nine Readings to Victory Gardens Biograph Theater 4/9-25

Chi, IL LIVE Shows On Our Radar:

INTERNATIONAL VOICES PROJECT ANNOUNCES 2016 DATES AND LINEUP OF STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD AT THE VICTORY GARDENS BIOGRAPH THEATER, APRIL 9 – 25

The Seventh Season Includes Nine Readings Featuring Plays from 

Britain, Italy, Poland, Austria, Norway, Germany, Pakistan, and Lebanon Performed by Lookingglass, Akvavit, Rasaka, TUTA, Vitalist, Trap Door and More

Here at ChiIL Live Shows, we're greatly anticipating this year's International Voices Project (IVP)! Chicago is so fortunate to have such a rich, international collection of stories coming to us, with concert-style readings by some of the top local companies. As if that's not exciting enough, shows are FREE with RSVP! So go already. What are you wating for?!

International Voices Project (IVP) is proud to present the seventh season of play readings by playwrights from around the world. The series is presented in collaboration with consulates and cultural institutions throughout Chicago. The 2016 engagement’s represented countries include Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Austria, Canada, Norway, Germany, Pakistan, Lebanon.  

The readings take place at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, McVay Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave, April 9 – 25  Saturdays at 3 p.m. and Sundays — Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. A reception follows each evening’s reading. The International Voices Project is the largest event of its kind in the country and introduces Chicago audiences to some of the most exciting voices on the international theater scene. Performances are free to the public and reservations are requested. For more information about IVP, or to reserve your seat, visit IVPChicago.org or call 773.250.7055.

Presented in collaboration with each country’s consulate general and/or a country’s cultural institution, the International Voices Project celebrates the voices of international playwrights with nine premiere concert-style readings. A professional cast performs each play to allow audience members’ imaginations create the world of the play. After each reading, there is a post-performance discussion with the cast and audience, followed by a reception.

IVP 2016 Schedule is below and can also be viewed by clicking here.

Saturday, April 9 at 2 p.m.:

From Great Britain, IVP presents John Hollingworth’s Multitudes, presented in collaboration with Vitalist Theatre, and directed by Liz Carlin-Metz.

On the eve of a Conservative Party Conference the country is in turmoil and one of its most multicultural cities awaits a visit from the Prime Minister.

Sunday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m.

From Italy, IVP presents Saverio La Ruina’s Dust, translated by Thomas Simpson, directed by Anna Bahow.

In a sequence of short scenes between two characters, Dust tracks the development of an abusive relationship between a man and a woman, focusing especially on the violence hidden in the silences behind apparently banal words and actions.

Monday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m.

From Poland, play Trash Story by Magda Fertacz presented in collaboration with Trap Door Theatre, translated by Benjamin Paloff, and directed by Monica Payne.

An award-winning anti-war play, Trash Story is the harrowing tale of a Polish family living on land that once belonged to Germany. Told through the eyes of a 10-year-old girl, the play poses important questions about violence, both present and past, and the secrets it leaves behind.

Tuesday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m.

From Austria, IVP presents Ewald Palmetshofer’s the unmarried woman, presented in collaboration with TUTA Theatre, translated by Neil Blackadder, and directed by Andy Hager.

Three women, three generations, an unresolved past that stinks of betrayal and blind obedience: the unmarried woman connects April 1945 with the present. The woman is old and has an alienated daughter and a grand-daughter whom she feels closer to, even though the young woman is digging through her past. A female chorus of four completes the ensemble through which Palmetshofer uncovers who might have done what, and why.

Monday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m.

From Norway, IVP presents Fredrik Brattberg’s The Returning, presented in collaboration with Akvavit Theatre, translated by Henning Hegland and directed by Breahan Pautsch.

In The Returning we meet a mother and a father grieving the loss of their son, Gustav, whom they assume to be dead. The funeral is breath-taking, where they have filled the coffin with tings reminding them of Gustav. After a while daily life returns. The parents manage to go on with their life. One day there is a knock on the door…

Tuesday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m.

From Germany, IVP presents Woman in Berlin, presented in collaboration with Lookingglass Theatre, adapted by Eva Barr, and directed by Tracy Walsh.

The memoir, A Woman in Berlin, by Anonymous, is one woman's account of her experiences during the first eight weeks of the Russian invasion of Berlin in April, 1945.  This adaptation visits the material as if it is in the process of being staged as a play with a three-person acting company and a director some twenty years after the events described, and six years after its original publication, and subsequent suppression, in Germany in 1959.  The memoir was first published in the United States in 1954.

Sunday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m.

From Pakistan, IVP presents Iftikar Hassan’s Voiceless Melodies, presented in collaboration with Pakistani Consul General and Rasaka Theatre, adapted by Judy Veramendi and directed by Puja Mohindra. 

Shazia, a lovely young Punjabi girl with a determined vision of how her life must unfold, moves through light and shadow before coming into her glory. Experience her story, and her world, through songs, dances and celebrations of love and marriage, interwoven with the Voiceless Melodies of her ancestors.

Monday, April 25 at 7:30 p.m.

From Lebanon, IVP presents Issam Mahfouz’s The Dictator, translated by Robert Myers and Nada Saab, and directed by Warner Crocker.

Absurdist political play by Lebanon’s most renowned playwright Issam Mahfouz. Takes place during an offstage, and perhaps imaginary, coup directed by a general and his faithful assistant, Saadoun.

International Voices Project (IVP) is proud to present the seventh season of play readings by playwrights from around the world. The series is presented in collaboration with consulates and cultural institutions throughout Chicago. The 2016 engagement’s represented countries include Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Austria, Canada, Norway, Germany, Pakistan, Lebanon. The readings take place at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, McVay Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave, April 9 – 25 Saturdays at 3 p.m. and Sundays — Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. A reception follows each evening’s reading. The International Voices Project is the largest event of its kind in the country and introduces Chicago audiences to some of the most exciting voices on the international theater scene. Performances are free to the public and reservations are requested.  For more information about IVP, or to reserve your seat, visit IVPChicago.org or call 773.250.7055.