AUSTRALIAN GARAGE PUNKS CABLE TIES ANNOUNCE FALL U.S. TOUR DATES WITH SUPERCHUNK

 

AUSTRALIAN GARAGE PUNKS CABLE TIES ANNOUNCE FALL U.S. TOUR DATES WITH SUPERCHUNK THIRD ALBUM ALL HER PLANS ARRIVES JUNE 23, 2023 VIA MERGE RECORDS Photo credit: Kalindy Williams “At once pliable and willful, [McKechnie’s] voice might morph from a biting howl to a striking vibrato in the span of a verse.” - Pitchfork “Cable Ties’ songs wrap a clear purpose—its raucous anthems tackle gender inequality, environmental devastation and the flickers of hope that somehow shine through anyway— in speedball ragers that only gather velocity as they barrel along.” - NPR “Far Enough takes the most exhilarating form of resistance, much more than riot grrrl's DIY aesthetic, akin to a harder-rocking Sleater Kinney with a similarly wailing centrifugal force in singer/guitarist Jenny McKechnie.” - MOJO “At its loudest and most brash, the album is fun and cathartic on par with any good high-energy rock band. In the moments when punk vitriol meets reflective, thoughtful expression, Far Enough grows more intriguing and compelling.” - AllMusic Australian garage rock trio Cable Ties is thrilled to announce a run of U.S. tour dates supporting North Carolina indie greats Superchunk. Beginning on September 8 in Richmond, VA, the tour will make several stops across the Northeast before culminating at New York City’s famed Bowery Ballroom on September 16. See below for the full list of dates. The band recently announced their third album All Her Plans (June 23, Merge Records), which received a great deal of global praise from the likes of Stereogum, BrooklynVegan, NME, The Line of Best Fit and more, including a home-turf shout from Rolling Stone. The announcement was bolstered by the soaring new track “Time For You” and an official music video, both of which are streaming now.  LISTEN TO “TIME FOR YOU” / PRE-ORDER ALL HER PLANS WATCH THE VIDEO When public support systems fall short, who ends up carrying the burden? The question courses through All Her Plans, the third album from Naarm/Melbourne rock ‘n’ roll trio Cable Ties.  The band’s most sonically confident work yet, All Her Plans builds on Cable Ties trademarks: taut garage rhythms, perfectly wiry guitar lines, incandescent vocals. Bassist Nick Brown’s and drummer Shauna Boyle’s kraut-inflected grooves pulse reliably behind the post-punk jag of Jenny McKechnie’s guitar. Thrumming with the same intensity as the band’s previous releases, the record offers more concentrated, personal lyrics from lead vocalist and guitarist McKechnie as she traces themes of addiction, mental health, and Australia’s flagging healthcare system, with much drawn from the experiences of her own family.  “Perfect Client” vents the frustration McKechnie has felt watching someone close to her remain at the mercy of a flawed mental healthcare system. You can practically hear her blood boiling in “Silos” as she takes aim at privatization and the carceral state. Change laments how slow social progress can feel. “‘Change’ is about the trauma left by the violence of the patriarchy, and how to keep surviving and fighting even when it feels like we’re going backwards,” says McKechnie. Alongside the album’s fury, there are bright spots too. “Time for You” honors the solace found in the love of a partner and the anthemic chorus of “Crashing Through” is a testament to picking yourself up after being blindsided by something completely out of your control.  “I found the idea of writing a new album a little terrifying after all our touring plans got canceled just after we released Far Enough in 2020,” McKechnie says. “It felt as though that album had been lost. I thought I needed to write another album like that again, which wouldn’t be lost. This of course wasn’t true. I needed to write whatever album came out of me at this moment in time.” On “Mum’s Caravan” – the track from which the album’s title is drawn – McKechnie reaches into her folk background to pull out sweeter vocals and delicate storytelling, recognising the sacrifices her own mother has made to care for loved ones when mental health and aged care services failed to do so.  Boyle takes the lead vocal reins for the first time with “Thoughts Back,” delivering a fierce take on the toll of mental health challenges. “I wrote this song mostly centered around my own experiences with mental illness,” she says. “It also plays into the themes of the record, such as care-giving and mental workload. So often people give up their own lives to help others and, as a result, rarely have their voices, their experiences or their history acknowledged.” All Her Plans was recorded in June/July 2022 by long-time collaborator Paul Maybury at A Secret Location Studio in Fairfield. Fellow Melbourne-based legend Michael Beach cameos on piano and organ on “Too Late" and acoustic guitar and piano on “Mum’s Caravan." The album artwork riffs on the theme of relinquishing control: Emme Orbach and Noah Spivak’s work uses chemical reactions to create unique, evolving patterns.  Brown says, after a tough few years, the writing process for All Her Plans was liberating. “There was just a sense of enjoying being back together doing what we love. No pressure to make it good – just to make what felt good. With that came a freeing and in turn a playfulness; the re-sparking of why we started jamming together in a shed seven years earlier. The themes might be heavy, but the hands feel unburdened by the world outside our little practice space.” Formed in 2015, Cable Ties quickly became mainstays of Melbourne’s feminist punk scene. They released their second album Far Enough in March 2020 (Poison City, Australia/New Zealand; Merge Records, internationally), which won Best Rock/Punk Album at the 2020 Music Victoria Awards.  No strangers to international stages, Cable Ties supported Jen Cloher on her 2017 UK/EU tour, and played The Great Escape and UK shows with Tropical Fuck Storm and Amyl & the Sniffers in 2019. In Australia, they’ve played alongside artists including Sleaford Mods, Joan Jett, and The Kills.  CABLE TIES U.S. TOUR DATES 2023 Sep 8 - Richmond, VA - Richmond Music Hall # Sep 9 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar # Sep 10 - Ardmore, PA - Ardmore Music Hall # Sep 12 - South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground # Sep 13 - Portland, ME - SPACE Gallery # Sep 14 - Hamden, CT - Space Ballroom # Sep 15 - Woodstock, NY - Colony # Sep 16 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom # # - w/Superchunk CABLE TIES ALL HER PLANS (Merge Records) Release Date: June 23, 2023 Tracklist: 1. Crashing Through 2. Perfect Client  3. Time For You 4. Too Late 5. Mum’s Caravan 6. Thoughts Back 7. Silos 8. Change 9. Deep Breath Out CONNECT WITH CABLE TIES: FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | BANDCAMP

ART BEAT: WRIGHTWOOD 659 OFFERS RARE OPPORTUNITIES TO MEET THE INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS BEHIND SPRING/SUMMER EXHIBITIONS

Chi, IL Live Shows On Our Radar

Wrightwood 659 presents Trio of Exhibitions, 

April 14 – July 15, 2023:

Kongkee: Warring States cyberpunk / Shahidul alam: singed but not burnt /

Patric McCoy: Take My Picture

London-based artist and animation director kongkee leads tour of electronic arts exhibition, warring states cyberpunk, with curator abby chen, saturday, April 15th, acclaimed bangladeshi photographer/activist Shahidul Alam shares his vocabularies of resistance, plus Burnt but not singed book signing, at south asia institute, tuesday, April 18th, an artful evening offers exhibition tour with chicago photographer Patric McCoy at wrightwood 659, plus festive reception at casati’s modern italian, thursday, May 4th.

In support of its upcoming trio of Spring/Summer exhibitions opening April 14 –Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk, Shahidul Alam: Singed But Not Burnt, and Patric McCoy: Take My Picture – Wrightwood 659 is proud offer a series of rare and insightful meet-the-artist opportunities:  

 

Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk exhibition tour with artist and curator

Saturday, April 15, 12:30-1:30pm.

Through multi-screen videos, wall projections, neon installations, vibrant graphic works, narrative texts, and ancient Chinese objects, Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk tells the story of legendary poet Qu Yuan, who lived during the Warring States Period (c. 481-221 BCE), as his soul journeys from the ancient Chu Kingdom to a retro-futuristic Asia where he is reborn as an android in a psychedelic cyberpunk landscape. Originally conceived by Kongkee as a comic series in 2013, the exhibition transports viewers into an imaginary world where past and future collide. Join artist Kong Khong-chang, known as Kongkee, and Abby Chen, Senior Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, which organized the exhibition, for a unique and intimate tour of this illuminating work.

Tour included with standard $15 exhibition tickets; online reservations required by visiting https://tickets.wrightwood659.org/events

 

Shahidul Alam on Vocabularies of Resistance

Tuesday, April 18, 6-7:30pm.

South Asia Institute, 1925 S. Michigan Avenue

Direct from Bangladesh, Shahidul Alam, a humanitarian activist, institution builder, and prominent South Asian photographer will introduce Vocabularies of Resistance. Following the War of Independence in his home country of Bangladesh, Alam witnessed the effects of political upheaval, from the rise of an autocratic general to the displacement of indigenous groups and the burgeoning Rohingya refugee crises. Alam makes visible the resilience of those living in the world’s densest regions while empowering people to use photography to reveal their own stories. Following the lecture, Alam will sign copies of his new photo book, also titled Singed But Not Burnt, available for purchase on-site.  

The South Asia Institute, under the direction of founders Shireen and Afzal Ahmad, aims to cultivate the art and culture of South Asia and its diaspora through local and global collaborations, curated exhibitions, innovative programs, and educational initiatives that aim to engage diverse communities.

Tickets are $10, and available by reservation at https://tickets.wrightwood659.org/1906/vocabularies-of-resistance or at the door.  Ticket price includes the lecture and a reception with the artist.  

 

An Artful Evening with Patric McCoy

Thursday, May 4, 5:30-8:30pm.

This sophisticated evening of art and apps starts off at Wrightwood 659 (659 W. Wrightwood Ave.), for viewing the galleries of three newly opened exhibitions including Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk, Shahidul Alam: Singed But Not Burnt, and Patric McCoy: Take My Picture. At 6pm, Chicago photographer Patric McCoy will lead a tour of his exhibition and share behind-the-scenes stories of the 1980s Black gay scene he captured in photographs.  Starting at 7pm, guests are invited to enjoy a festive champagne reception at nearby Casati’s Modern Italian (444 Fullerton Pkwy.)  Note: last entry to Wrightwood 659 will be 6:45pm.

Tickets are $40 (all-inclusive for gallery entry and reception), and are available by advance reservation only https://tickets.wrightwood659.org/1903/cyberpunkchampagne

 

More about Spring/Summer Exhibitions at Wrightwood 659, 

April 14-July 15, 2023:

Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk 

Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk features the work of London-based Chinese artist and animation director Kong Khong-chang, known as Kongkee. Through multi-screen videos, wall projections, neon installations, vibrant graphic works, narrative texts, and ancient Chinese objects, the exhibition tells the story of legendary poet Qu Yuan, who lived during the Warring States Period (c. 481-221 BCE), as his soul journeys from the ancient Chu Kingdom to a retro-futuristic Asia where he is reborn as an android in a psychedelic cyberpunk landscape. Originally conceived by Kongkee as a comic series in 2013, the exhibition transports viewers into an imaginary world where past and future collide.

Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk is organized by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, where it debuted in November 2022, and curated by its head of contemporary art, Abby Chen.

 

Patric McCoy: Take My Picture

In the 1980s, Patric McCoy traveled around Chicago on his bike, always with his camera. From the lakefront to the Loop, McCoy found no shortage of Black men who wanted their picture taken. Over a ten-year period, he shot thousands of images at his subjects’ request.  Patric McCoy: Take My Picture is a selection of some 50 black and white and color photographs from this rich document of 1980s Black gay Chicago. McCoy’s subjects are neither posed nor directed; each has agency over how he is seen, elevating the subject’s humanity, inverting and subverting the gaze.  HIV/AIDS hit Black men especially hard. Thousands would die before the end of the decade, including many of McCoy’s friends, lovers—and subjects. Take My Picture can be seen as a marker of place, time, and memory. It is an altar to those lost. 

The exhibition is curated by Juarez Hawkins, artist, educator, and curator, who noted, “McCoy and his camera fulfilled an unspoken need for Black men to be seen. Seen by someone who did not objectify them as ‘Other’, but an insider who allowed them, to paraphrase Langston Hughes, to be their ‘beautiful black selves’.”

Shahidul Alam: Singed But Not Burnt

“As journalists, we need to feel the heat, stand close to the fire, and risk being burnt. Take one step back, you become ineffective. The trick, therefore, is to get singed but not burnt.” – Shahidul Alam

Shahidul Alam: Singed But Not Burnt surveys the four-decade career of the renowned Bangladeshi photographer, writer, activist, and former Time magazine Person of the Year, as he documents the consequences of catastrophic weather, repressive regimes, and political upheaval in his home country. Through select projects and more than 80 searing photographs, Singed But Not Burnt showcases art, education, and institution building as forms of resistance. Using the photographic image, Alam illuminates discrepancies in everyday life, from early attempts to oppose military rule to autocratic rulers. At a time of rising autocracy, and with freedom of expression under threat worldwide, this exhibition sheds light on the resilience of those who continue to resist. 

Singed But Not Burnt draws on an exhibition currently touring in India which was first organized by curator and art writer Ina Puri. As an award-winning documentarian, she has chronicled the lives of India’s most distinguished art practitioners.

These exhibitions are presented by Alphawood Exhibitions at Wrightwood 659.

New Hours of Operation

Thursdays 1-8 pm; Fridays 12 noon-7 pm; Saturdays 10 am-5 pm

 

Tickets

Admission for all three exhibitions is $15 and available online only at https://tickets.wrightwood659.org/events. Please note, admission is by advance ticket only. Walk-ups are not permitted.

COVID NOTE: All guests are required to be fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19. By entering Wrightwood 659, you warrant to us that you are fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19. We reserve the right to ask guests to produce evidence of their vaccination. Masks are required throughout the gallery. https://wrightwood659.org/terms-and-conditions/health-safety/

About Alphawood Exhibitions

Alphawood Exhibitions is an affiliate of Alphawood Foundation, a Chicago-based, grant-making private foundation working for an equitable, just, and humane society. 

About Wrightwood 659

Founded in 2018, Wrightwood 659 is a private, non-collecting institution devoted to socially engaged art and architecture. Wrightwood 659 was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando, who transformed a 1920s residential building with his signature concrete forms and poetic treatment of natural light. Located in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood and acclaimed as “a hidden treasure,” Wrightwood 659’s expansive and light-filled galleries offer both intimate and monumental experiences as visitors engage with the pressing issues of our time. Exhibitions are presented by Alphawood Exhibitions at Wrightwood 659. For additional information: https://wrightwood659.org.

Kongkee – London-based artist & Abby Chen, Curator and Head of Contemporary Art, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, of Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk, an immersive futurist fantasy combining ancient poetry and modern anime.

Shahidul Alam – Bangladesh-based photographer, writer, a Time magazine Person of the Year in 2018, and artist of Shahidul Alam: Singed But Not Burnt, a retrospective of the renowned photojournalist and human-rights activist.

Patric McCoy – Artist and Chicago resident & Juarez Hawkins, Curator, artist, and educator, for Patric McCoy: Take My Picture, an exhibition of poignant images of 1980s Black gay Chicago.

INFO: This trio of Spring/Summer exhibitions is presented by Alphawood Exhibitions and are on view from April 14 through July 15, 2023. Read more: www.wrightwood659.org/exhibitions

Image credits:

Installation view of Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk, 2022 © Asian Art Museum

Kongkee headshot photo credit: Art Director: Kongkee@penguinlab/Fashion Director: Mayao & Yoyo Kwan @Fameglory/

Photographer: Jason@chanaphotostudio/Venue Sponsor: Seyami Studio/Sponsors: First Initiative Foundation@fif.hk, Leo & Xaviour@Number 2 Ltd

Alam headshot photo credit: Rahnuma Ahmed

McCoy headshot photo credit: Isadore Howard

 

Cast Announced for NEW FACES SING BROADWAY 1984 With Host Honey West April 25-26, 2023

 ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar

PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE ANNOUNCES THE CAST FOR 

NEW FACES SING BROADWAY 1984, 

FEATURING HOST HONEY WEST, 

TUESDAY, APRIL 25 AT EVANSTON SPACE AND 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26 AT THE DEN THEATRE

The Popular Series Returns this Spring. New Faces Sing Broadway 1984, Directed by Tommy Novak and Music Directed by Micky York, Takes Audiences Back in Time to the 1984 Broadway Season with Chicago’s Newest Talents Performing Songs from the Hit Shows La Cage Aux Folles, Sunday in the Park with George, Baby, The Rink and others

Porchlight Music Theatre announces the roster of new faces starring in its latest 2022 – 2023 season offering, New Faces Sing Broadway 1984, hosted by Honey West*, directed by Tommy Novak^ with music direction and arrangements by Micky York+. New Faces Sing Broadway 1984 takes place Tuesday, April 25 at 7:30 p.m. at Evanston SPACE, 1245 Chicago Ave. in Evanston and Wednesday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m. at The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. There will be a pre-show lobby gathering at The Den Theatre beginning at 6:30 p.m. with complimentary appetizers and a cash bar. Tickets are $37 and are now on sale at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org. I'll be catching the show on the 25th, so check back soon after for my full review. 

Now in its eighth season, Porchlight Music Theatre’s New Faces Sing Broadway series returns, taking audiences on a musical journey from the start to the finish of an entire Broadway season in 90 minutes. Host Honey West will introduce the audience to the next generation of Chicago music theatre artists while serving as the guide to the stars, songs and stories of the past. New Faces Sing Broadway 1984 includes hit songs from the seminal age of Broadway musicals including La Cage Aux Folles, Sunday in the Park with George, Baby, The Rink and others.

(L to R) The  New Faces Sing Broadway 1984 cast

The cast of new faces includes, in alphabetical order, Teddy Gales+ (national tour of The Spongebob Musical (Nickelodeon));  Isabel Garcia^/+(Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Kokandy Productions)); David Gordon-Johnson+ (And Neither Have I Wings to Fly (First Folio Theatre)); Mai Hartwich* (Avenue Q (Music Theater Works)); Nikki Krzebiot* (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Kokandy Productions)); Justin Grey McPike^ (Disney Deep Dive (The Beautiful City Project)); Nora Navarro* (Songs for a New World (Theo)); Patrick O’Keefe+ (Jeff Award winner - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Kokandy Productions)); Lincoln J. Skoien= (Merrily We Roll Along (CCPA)) and Luiza Vitucci* (The Threepenny Opera (Theo)).

Pronoun Key: + (he/him/his); * (she/her/hers); ^ (they, them, theirs). = (any with respect)

Many of the artists who have appeared in Porchlight’s New Faces Sing Broadway series have continued their careers on television, and local and national stages including Neala Barron (Porchlight's Merrily We Roll Along), Frankie Leo Bennett (Porchlight's In the Heights), Dawn Bless (Waitress-national tour), Katherine Bourne (School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play at Goodman Theatre), Kayla Boye (Call Me Elizabeth-national tour), Anna Brockman, Tim Foszcz, Haley Gustafson, Josiah Haugen, Cam Turner, Jerod Turner and Evan Wilhelm (Porchlight's Cabaret), Lydia Burke and Molly Kral (Jeff Award winners [ensemble] - Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies), Darilyn Burtley and Max Cervantes (The Light in the Piazza at Lyric Opera of Chicago), Kyrie Courter (Broadway's Sweeney Todd), Maddison Denault and David Moreland (Jeff Award-nominees, Cruel Intentions), Gilbert Domally (Broadway's The Lion King), Andres Enriquez (Jeff Award nominee-Porchlight’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder), Nik Kmiecik, Ziare Paul-Emile and Alix Rhode (Porchlight's Rent), Theo Germaine (Showtime’s “Work in Progress”), Lucy Godinez (Jeff Award nominee-Oliver), Emily Goldberg (Jeff Award nominee-Porchlight’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder), Nicole Michelle Haskins (Jeff Award winner-The Color Purple), Michelle Lauto (Jeff Award winner-Spamilton), Yando Lopez (Broadway’s Wicked), Henry McGinniss (Book of Mormon-national tour), Brandy Miller and Bryce Ancil (Jeff Award-nominees She Loves Me), Chloé Nadon-Enriquez (Broadway's Bad Cinderella), Anthony Norman (The Prom on Broadway, Dear Evan Hansen-national tour), Patrick Rooney (Les Miserables-national tour), Aalon Smith (Porchlight’s Gypsy), Katherine Thomas (Jeff Award winner-Ragtime), Aeriel Williams (Oedipus Rex at Court Theatre) and Nicole Lambert, Courtney Mack, Mallory Maedke and Samantha Pauly (SIX on Broadway).

The 2023 season of New Faces Sing Broadway concludes with New Faces Sing Broadway NOW, coming this summer. Tickets go on sale May 2 at 12 p.m.

(L to R)  New Faces Sing Broadway 1984 host Honey West director Tommy Novak and music director Micky York. 

ABOUT HONEY WEST, host

Honey West (she/her/hers) was most recently seen in Clue and as “Bernadette” in Priscilla Queen of the Desert at Mercury Theater Chicago, (the role she previously received a Jeff Nomination for Best Supporting Actress, in addition to a Best Actress award from BroadwayWorld.com.)  La Cage Aux Folles as “Jacqueline/U/S Albin'' at Music Theater Works, “Danni” in Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn at Drury Lane Theater and “Mrs. Cratchitt/Electra'' in Gypsy at Porchlight Music Theatre. She starred in Dirty Dreams Of A Clean-Cut Kid, Vampire Lesbians Of Sodom, Diva Diaries, Jerry’s Girls, Tony And Tony’s Wedding, As You Like It and Pussy On The House. She was a 2012 inductee into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. Currently she is working on a new cabaret act and an autobiographical one woman show. She also landed a co-starring role on Fox's “Proven Innocent.” 

ABOUT TOMMY NOVAK, director

Tommy Novak (they/them/theirs) is a non-binary Chicago-based theater artist, international director, vocal coach and movement specialist. They return to Porchlight where they were seen in Billy Elliot The Musical and Porchlight Revisits Do Re Mi. They directed The Spongebob Musical For Young Audiences (First Stage), Romeo and Juliet (Arkansa Shakespeare Theatre), Songs for a New World (Carthage College) and Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Coastline Theater). Additional credits include Fiddler on the Roof (Lyric Opera of Chicago), The Producers (Night Blue; Jeff nomination); Little Shop of Horrors (Mercury Theater Chicago), Hairspray (Skylight Music Theatre), Love’s Labour’s Lost, King John (Utah Shakespeare Festival), The Music Man and Taming of the Shrew (Arkansas Shakespeare Theater), Rudolph In The Red-Nosed Reindeer™: The Musical and Robin Hood (First Stage). Novak is represented by Paonessa Talent Agency. 

ABOUT MICKY YORK, music director

Micky York’s (he/him/his) Chicago theatre credits include Porchlight Revisits Call Me Madam (Porchlight), Whisper House and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (Black Button Eyes Productions), Happy End (2007 After Dark Award - Outstanding Music Direction) and Jacques Brel (Brown Couch, RIP) and a variety of musicals over the past 20 years for other theatres that no longer exist. He's a current member of Dancing Queen: An ABBA Salute and can likely be seen at a street festival near you.

ABOUT PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE

Porchlight Music Theatre, now in its 28th season, is the award-winning center for music theatre in Chicago. Through live performance, youth education and community outreach, we impact thousands of lives each season, bringing the magic of musicals to our theatre home at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts in the Gold Coast and to neighborhoods across the city. Porchlight has built a national reputation for boldly reimagining classic musicals, supporting new works and young performers, and showcasing Chicago’s most notable music theatre artists, all through the intimate and powerful theatrical lens of the “Chicago Style.”

Porchlight's history over the last 27 years includes more than 70 mainstage works with 15 Chicago premieres and five world premieres. Porchlight’s commitment to the past, present and future of music theatre led the company to develop the Porchlight Revisits and New Faces Sing Broadway program series, both quickly becoming audience favorites. 

Porchlight's education and outreach programs serve schools, youth of all ages and skill levels and community organizations, most notably the ongoing collaboration with Chicago Youth Centers. Porchlight annually awards dozens of full scholarships and hundreds of free tickets to ensure accessibility and real engagement with this uniquely American art form. 

The company’s many honors include 178 Joseph Jefferson Award (Jeff) nominations and 49 Jeff awards, as well as 44 Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) nominations and 15 BTA awards. In 2019, Porchlight graduated to the Large Theatre tier of the Equity Jeff Awards and has been honored with seven awards in this tier to date including Best Ensemble for Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies (2019) and Best Production-Revue for Blues in the Night (2022). 

Through the global pandemic, Porchlight emerged as one of Chicago’s leaders in virtual programming, quickly launching a host of free offerings like Sondheim @ 90 Roundtables, Movie Musical Mondays, Porchlight by Request: Command Performances and WPMT: Classic Musicals from the Golden Age of Radio. In 2021, Porchlight launched its annual summer series, Broadway in your Backyard, performing at parks and venues throughout the city. 

Porchlight Music Theatre announces the roster of new faces starring in its latest 2022 – 2023 season offering, New Faces Sing Broadway 1984, hosted by Honey West*, directed by Tommy Novak^ with music direction and arrangements by Micky York+. New Faces Sing Broadway 1984 takes place Tuesday, April 25 at 7:30 p.m. at Evanston SPACE, 1245 Chicago Ave. in Evanston and Wednesday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m. at The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. There will be a pre-show lobby gathering at The Den Theatre beginning at 6:30 p.m. with complimentary appetizers and a cash bar. Tickets are $37 and are now on sale at PorchlightMusicTheatre.org. 

The New Faces Sing Broadway series is sponsored by Elaine Cohen & Arlen D. Rubin

Porchlight Music Theatre is partially supported by generous contributions from Allstate; Michael Best & Friedrich LLP; Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation; Elegant Event Lighting; Glimpse Vision; James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation; Hearty Boys; A.L. and Jennie L. Luria Foundation; The MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity and the Arts at Prince; the Pritzker Traubert Foundation; Ryan and Spaeth, Inc.; Daniel and Genevieve Ratner Foundation; The Saints and Dr. Scholl Foundation.

The season program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency, and by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events. 

Porchlight Music Theatre wishes to thank members of the Matching Gift Corporate Program including Abbvie; Allstate; Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; Peoples Gas; Pepsico; Polk Bros Foundation and The Saints. 

THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE Via AstonRep Theatre Company April 28 – May 28, 2023 at The Edge Off Broadway Theatre

Chi, IL Live Shows On Our Radar 

AstonRep Theatre Company

Concludes 15th Anniversary Season with

THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE

By Julia Cho

Directed by Dana Anderson

April 28 – May 28, 2023 at The Edge Off Broadway Theatre 

Pictured (left to right) Aja Alcazar, Génesis Sánchez, Erin O’Brien, Jorge Salas and Sean William Kelly. AstonRep Theatre Company’s production of The Language Archive. Photo by Derek Bertelsen.

 

AstonRep Theatre Company is pleased to conclude it 15th and final season with The Language Archive, Julia Cho’s insightful play about language and love, directed by Company Member Dana Anderson*, playing April 28 – May 28, 2023 at The Edge Off-Broadway Theatre, 1133 W. Catalpa Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are now on sale at www.astonrep.com or by calling (773) 828-9129. 

The cast includes Company Members Aja Alcazar*, Sean William Kelly* and Erin O'Brien* with Jorge Salas and Génesis Sánchez. Understudies include and Kelley Holcomb and James Reilly.

A quirky, comic drama about communication – its potential and its limits – this romantic parable for our times features a linguist at a loss for words, especially the vocabulary of the heart. Balanced delightfully between affection and adversity, it is the whimsical, life-affirming chronicle of a brilliant scientist who fights to preserve the dying languages of far-flung cultures, only to neglect the promise and passion of his own. Winner of the 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Playwrighting.

Comments Director Dana Anderson, “As AstonRep’s last production, this play is a special send-off about connecting with others on a level that goes beyond just words. It is my hope that the themes of this show amplify and reflect the legacy of our company, built on lasting friendships and the desire to express our truest selves.

The production team includes Jeremiah Barr* (Scenic and Props Designer Technical Director), Andrés Mota (Costume Designer), Becca Venable (Lighting Designer), Robert Tobin* (Sound Designer, Producer), Bethany Hart (Dialect and Vocal Coach), Kelley Holcomb (Assistant Dialect and Vocal Coach), Derek Bertelsen* (Producer), Samantha Barr* (Production Manager), Anna Vu (Production Stage Manager) and Miguel Salgado, Jr. (Assistant Production Manager, Stage Manager).

COVID safety: While in the theater, masks are highly recommended and encouraged, but not required. Disposable masks will be available to patrons who request one. If you are immunocompromised or at higher risk, please consider wearing a mask at indoor public settings where vaccination status is unknown.

*Denotes AstonRep Company Members.

Cast (in alphabetical order) Aja Alcazar* (Emma), Sean William Kelly* (George), Erin O'Brien* (Mary) with Jorge Salas (Resten, Ensemble) and Génesis Sánchez (Alta, Ensemble)

Understudies: Kelley Holcomb (u/s Mary, Emma) and James Reilly (u/s George).

Location: The Edge Off-Broadway Theatre, 1133 W. Catalpa Ave., Chicago

Dates: Preview: Friday, April 28 at 7:30 pm

Press performance: Saturday, April 29 at 7:30 pm

Regular run: Sunday, April 30 – Sunday, May 29, 2023

Curtain Times: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm; Sundays at 3 pm.

Tickets: Previews: $10; Regular run: $20. Student/seniors discounts available. Tickets are now on sale at www.astonrep.com or by calling (773) 828-9129.

 

About the Artists

Julia Cho’s (Playwright) plays include Durango, The Winchester House, The Architecture of Loss and 99 Histories. Her work has been produced at The Vineyard Theatre, The Public Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, South Coast Repertory, New York Theatre Workshop, East West Players, The Theatre@Boston Court, Theater Mu and Silk Road Theatre Project, among others. Honors include the 2005 Barrie Stavis Award, the 2005 Claire Tow Award for Emerging Artists and the 2004 L. Arnold Weissberger Award. She was also a two-time finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award. An alumna of the Juilliard School and NYU’s Graduate Dramatic Writing Program, Julia also served as a resident playwright at New Dramatists.

Dana Anderson (Director) is an educator, director and actor based in Chicago. With AstonRep, she has worked on The Lonesome West, Laramie Project and 1984. Other directing credits include Wife Material (Underscore), Belle of Austin (Rhinofest) and Little Miss (Davenport’s). She has worked with Theo Ubique, Kokandy, The New Colony, Shawnee Summer Theatre, Stage Door Fine Arts and Chicago Dramatists. She is currently the drama teacher at Chiaravalle Montessori School, program manager at Storycatchers Theatre and the Associate Artistic Director of Shakespeare Corrected. 

 

About AstonRep Theatre Company

AstonRep Theatre Company was formed in the summer of 2008. Since then, the company has produced numerous full-length productions, along with their annual Writer’s Series. They are currently in residence at The Edge Theater. AstonRep Theatre Company is an ensemble of artists committed to creating exciting, intimate theatrical experiences that go beyond the front door to challenge audiences and spark discussion where the show is not the end of the experience: it is just the beginning. 

Chicago Premiere of HATEF**K May 5 – June 10, 2023 at The Den Theatre

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar 

First Floor Theater

Presents the Chicago premiere of

HATEFUCK

By Rehana Lew Mirza

Directed by Arti Ishak

May 5 – June 10, 2023 at The Den Theatre

 

PHOTO CREDIT: The cast of First Floor Theater’s Chicago premiere of Hatefuck 

includes (left to right) Aila Peck and Faiz Siddique.

 

 First Floor Theater is pleased to conclude its Tenth Season with the Chicago premiere of Rehana Lew Mirza’s Kilroys’-lauded hit Hatefuck, directed by Arti Ishak, playing May 5 – June 10, 2023 at The Den Theatre (2B), 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are now on sale at firstfloortheater.com. I'll be out for the press opening May 11th, so check back soon for my full review.

Passions ignite when Layla, an intense literature professor, accuses Imran, a brashly iconoclastic novelist, of trading in anti-Muslim stereotypes. But as their attraction grows into something more, they discover that good sex doesn't always make good bedfellows. Conflicting cultural identities collide in this thornily clever antidote to a meet-cute romance.

Comments Director Arti Ishak, “As an actor I’ve experienced first-hand how Muslim stories get filtered through the lens of whiteness, whether it’s pining to prove we’re ‘just like you,’ playing up the exotic other, or blatantly leaning into stereotypes. Muslim Americans deserve nuanced representation that asks us to wrestle with our intracommunity issues while tangled in a story about messy human connection. Rehana Lew Mirza’s Hatefuck is the modern Muslim love story I’ve been waiting for and I’m ready to help bring that story to Chicago as my directing debut.”

The production team includes Paloma Locsin (Scenic and Props Designer), Isaac Pineda (Costumes Designer), Ben Carne (Lighting Designer), Troy Cruz (Sound Designer), Samantha Kaufman (Fight and Intimacy Director), Layla Bahmanziari* (Assistant Director/Dramaturg), Shelbi Weaver* (Production Manager), Anastar Alvarez* (Director of Production) and Devonte Washington (Stage Manager).

*Denotes FFT company members

Cast: Aila Peck (Layla) and Faiz Siddique (Imran)

Understudies: Ben Matthew (Imran) and Donya Rahimi (Layla)

 

Location: The Den Theatre (2B),1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago

Dates: Previews: Friday, May 5 at 8 pm, Saturday, May 6 at 8 pm, Sunday, May 7 at 3 pm and Wednesday, May 10 at 8 pm

Press Performance: Thursday, May 11 at 8 pm

Regular Run: Friday, May 12 – Saturday, June 10, 2023

Curtain Times: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm; Sundays at 3 pm. Please note: there will be an added performance on Saturday, June 10 at 3 pm

Industry Nights: Monday, May 22 at 8 pm and Monday, June 5 at 8 pm

Understudy Performance: Wednesday, May 31 at 8 pm

Tickets: Previews: $0 - $20. Regular Run: $0 – $35. In the spirit of bringing accessibility to the theatre, a limited number of free tickets are available for each performance. Use the code FREE to unlock 1 complimentary ticket (subject to availability). Tickets are now on sale at firstfloortheater.com.

 

About the Artists

Rehana Lew Mirza (Playwright, she/her) is a playwright, writer and creator. Her plays include: Hatefuck (WP/Colt Coeur); A People’s Guide to History in the Time of Here and Now (Primary Stages Toulmin commission); Soldier X (Ma‐Yi); Tomorrow, Inshallah (Living Room Theater; Storyworks/ HuffPost commission); Neighborhood Watch (NNPN/InterAct commission) and Barriers (Desipina, Asian American Theater Company).

With her husband Mike Lew, she shared a Mellon Foundation National Playwright residency administered in partnership with Howlround at Ma‐Yi Theater, where they co‐wrote The Colonialism Project (La Jolla Playhouse commission) and the musical Bhangin’ It, with composer/lyricist Sam Willmott (La Jolla Playhouse 2022; Richard Rodgers Award; Rhinebeck Writers Retreat; Project Springboard).

Additional honors include: 2021 Cape Cod Theatre Project Artist‐in‐Residence, 2020 Kleban Award, 2019 NYFA Fellow, HBO Access Fellow, Lilly Award (Stacey Mindich “Go Write A Play”), and a TCG/New Georges Fellowship. MFA: Columbia University; BFA: NYU Tisch. www.rehanamirza.com

Arti Ishak (Director, they/them) is an actor, director and community organizer, recently named a 3Arts Make A Wave Artist. Directing credits include short films Shukran Bas (Means of Productions), Sun On Ice (Jackalope), BaLa (HF Productions). Catch their upcoming directing work on stage with SAME SECTS! by Paul Michael Thomson, produced as part of Haven Chicago’s Directors Haven. Recent acting credits include The Best Decision You Ever Made (The Second City), KISS (Haven), Venus in Fur (Circle), Witch (Writers), Buried Child (Writers), Men on Boats (American Theater Company), Fantastic Super Great Nation Numero Uno (The Second City). TV: Southside (HBO), Dark Matter (NBC), Chicago Med (NBC). Arti is staff with The Chicago Inclusion Project, an instructor at Black Box Acting and an organizer with SWANASA Central. They are represented by Paonessa Talent Agency. www.artiishak.com

About First Floor Theater 

Founded in 2012, First Floor Theater has garnered a reputation for pairing some of the most cutting-edge scripts in Chicago and the American Theater with a signature innovative design style. Shortly after their inaugural season, FFT was named “Best New Theater Company” in the Chicago Reader. FFT was also honored to be recognized with the 2018 Francesca Primus Prize from ATCA for their production of Leah Nanako-Winkler’s Two Mile Hollow, and in Newcity’s Players 2019: “The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago”. Some of First Floor’s notable past productions include Hooded or Being Black for Dummies, Mike Pence Sex Dream, Two Mile Hollow, peerless and Plano. First Floor Theater is a Resident Company at The Den Theatre. 

REVIEW: Lyric Opera World Premiere of PROXIMITY On Stage Through April 8, 2023

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar

What you need to know about the world premiere of 

Proximity 

at Lyric Opera of Chicago

Chicago takes center stage in this trio of new American works united by the bold vision of director Yuval Sharon's groundbreaking production, March 24 – April 8, 2023

Review of Proximity: A Trio of New North American Operas at Lyric Opera

By Catherine Hellmann, Guest Critic 

I was a season opera subscriber for over ten years. I never heard an “f bomb” sung on the Lyric stage until the premiere of Proximity last Friday night. The word “bitch,” either. Wow. Contemporary for sure. 

There are three short operas in the cycle: The Walkers (music by Daniel Bernard Roumain and libretto by Anna Deavere Smith), Four Portraits (music and libretto by Caroline Shaw with Jocelyn Clarke also on libretto), and Night (music by John Luther Adams and libretto by John Haines). 

My favorite was The Walkers set in modern day Chicago around gangs. Opera is certainly dramatic, and what could have more drama than the antagonism among gang rivals? The opera examines the likelihood of violence begetting violence. One character has killed a young man at 17; his victim’s family, he notes, looked just like his own. These young people are constantly confronting trauma and trying to survive. (I taught in Englewood for a year; one of my students lifted his shirt to show me his bullet scars. Another young man was shot on his front lawn with his mom watching. Miraculously, after numerous surgeries, he survived.) 

The rival gangs still remember their leaders who went to jail in 1963: Jeff Fort and Larry Hoover. Their hatred against each other’s groups is deep-seated. The Preacher Man, sung by American baritone Gordon Hawkins, urges peace; he reiterates that he’s “got status.” But one of the gang members retorts,” Your theology ain’t my mythology.”  

An unexpected character was Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools and Secretary of Education (and basketball buddy) under President Barack Obama. (He had a snarky nickname in our household for never calling a snow day when I taught in CPS; I actually snickered when he appeared onstage.) Arne founded CRED (Create Real Economic Destiny) which “provides jobs, counseling, education support, job training, mental health, therapy,” according to librettist Anna Deavere Smith, better known as an actress on The West Wing and Nurse Jackie. Arne, played by Jeff Parker, has a few of the best quotes in the show: “You have to give people a reason to stop shooting…and put the guns down.” He also laments how “nothing gets solved.” 

Another devastating story was sung movingly by Chicago native and soprano Whitney Morrison as Yasmine Miller, a bereaved mother who lost her one-year old baby boy to gun violence. In June 2020, the 22-year-old mom and her toddler were driving home from a laundromat at 60th and Halsted. Shots fired from a nearby car killed Sincere. Ms. Miller delivered a powerful performance that conveyed the young mother’s heartbreak. The audience was very receptive to her compelling rendition. 

Four Portraits had much-needed humor in its storyline, poking fun at the technology in our lives that we now take for granted. One of the characters was named GPS, ably sung by Corrine Wallace-Crane. Yes, she sings the recognizable directions that lead us to work, home, shopping, and everywhere any more. There was laughter over the familiarity of being instructed to turn right, left, how many feet lie ahead, passing streets, etc. There were also chuckles as actors rode the CTA, and “doors closing” was announced. 

The giant screened set and projected graphics really benefited the show’s modern appeal. I liked the giant maps of Chicago expanding into the entire world. They were one of the best parts of the show. (I had wondered how the Lyric would handle having Carmen with its huge sets in the repertory.) Jason H. Thompson and Kaitlyn Pietras are to be commended as Production Designers for their clever, inspired graphics. 

Although the show overall was confusing with how the vastly different storylines jumped around (I would have preferred a more streamlined performance), the Lyric Opera is to be commended for trying to stay relevant with modern audiences. (There were quite a few empty seats after intermission which is a shame.) I admire them for expanding their horizons. Bravo! 

Catherine Hellmann is a teacher, daughter of an educator, and mom of a teacher and a librarian. Education is important in her family. :-)  She loves to explore Chicago neighborhoods, experience theater, try new restaurants, and read lots of books, especially historical fiction.   

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the second of two Chicago-set world premieres in its season: Proximity, a trio of new American operas that confront head-on some of the greatest challenges affecting modern society: the devastating impact of gun violence on cities and neighborhoods, yearning for connection in a world driven by technology, and the need to respect and protect our natural resources. In an innovative production by director Yuval Sharon that is searing in its intimacy, revolutionary in its structure, and groundbreaking in its technical wizardry, Proximity is on stage at the Lyric Opera House for five performances only, March 24 – April 8, 2023.

Curated since its inception in 2019 by Lyric's Special Projects Advisor Renée Fleming along with Lyric’s General Director Anthony Freud and Sharon, Proximity brings together some of the leading creative thinkers in American culture, all in their Lyric debuts. Daniel Bernard Roumain, the acclaimed Haitian-American composer, and Anna Deavere Smith, the legendary playwright and actress, have written The Walkers, an opera that gives voice to families grappling with gun violence in Chicago. Caroline Shaw, a Pulitzer and Grammy-winning composer, has teamed with writer Jocelyn Clarke for Four Portraits, an opera about the impact of technology on society. And Pulitzer and Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams has written Night, a short opera on the fragility of the natural world, set to a text by the late poet John Haines. 

The three operas are spliced and shuffled to create an entirely new work that zooms in and out from the scale of the individual to the community to the cosmic. Proximity, the synthesis of these three works, offers a compelling snapshot of 21st century life with all of its complex intersections and reveals our everlasting capacity for hope. 

A daredevil director’s bold vision. Familiar to Lyric audiences from his immersive drive-through production of Twilight: Gods in 2021 and its resulting film, director and Chicago-area native Yuval Sharon provides the unifying vision for Proximity. Sharon is a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship winner who is widely acclaimed for the work of his Los Angeles-based experimental opera company The Industry as well as Detroit Opera, which he has led as Artistic Director since 2020. Sharon is known for his unconventional body of work that seeks to expand the operatic form. “The ultimate irony in working on a project called Proximity is that most of it was made in the era of social distance,” says Sharon. “We chose the name Proximity because it succinctly captured one of the opera’s fundamental ideas: we are closer to our fellow humans than we are often made to feel.”

A creative team that expands what is possible in opera. The sweeping visual ideas of director Sharon are realized by Proximity's pathbreaking design team. Production designers Jason H. Thompson and Kaitlyn Pietras, who worked on Lyric’s Twilight: Gods, have created a stage design on a scale and complexity never before attempted in opera — a curved quarter-pipe video wall, 40 feet wide by 26 feet high, made of 140 LED panels and 240 black marble LED panels. Complemented by a robust on-set system of responsive cameras and other interactive features, the set design for Proximity affords audiences a new immersive way to experience opera.

Proximity also features the costume design of Carlos J. Soto, the sound design of Jody Elff, and the choreography of Rena Butler, all in their Lyric debuts.

Three distinct yet seamlessly woven sound worlds. Leading Proximity's musical forces is conductor Kazem Abdullah in his Lyric debut. Abdullah is a passionate advocate for new music who recently conducted Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels's Omar at LA Opera, where he was a member of its Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program. Abdullah will guide the 69 players of the Lyric Opera Orchestra in bringing to life the three unique soundscapes of Proximity's three composers. The 43 members of the Lyric Opera Chorus will be led by chorus master Michael Black.

The Walkers

Music by Daniel Bernard Roumain and libretto by Anna Deavere Smith

Composer Daniel Bernard Roumain is known for his signature violin sounds infused with myriad electronic and African-American musical influences. He is a composer of solo, chamber, orchestral, and operatic works, and has composed an array of film, theater, and dance scores. His previous work in opera includes the interdisciplinary chamber opera We Shall Not Be Moved, written with librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph, which premiered at Opera Philadelphia in 2017. He has worked with artists from Lady Gaga and Philip Glass to Bill T. Jones and Marin Alsop and has published more than 300 works.

Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright, teacher, and author. She is credited with creating a new form of theater by looking at current events from multiple points of view. Her theater combines the journalistic technique of interviewing her subjects with the art of interpreting their words through performance. Plays include Fires In the Mirror (a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize), Twilight: Los Angeles (nominated for two Tony Awards), House Arrest, and Let Me Down Easy. In 2012, President Obama awarded her the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal. Like Proximity director Yuval Sharon, she is a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship. The Walkers is her first opera.

After Lyric connected Anna Deavere Smith to Chicago CRED (Creating Real Economic Diversity), an anti-gun-violence organization co-founded by Arne Duncan and Laurene Powell Jobs, Smith created the libretto following a series of interviews with Chicagoans whose families had experienced gun violence. Several of the characters in the opera are people she interviewed, including Arne Duncan, CRED counselor and former gang member Curtis Toler, and Yasmine Miller, the mother of a toddler who was shot and killed only months before the interview took place. Other characters are an amalgam of real people who work as counselors and people who have been helped by the organization. Smith's libretto uses the actual words of people to create monologues and dialogue.

At the start of The Walkers, we hear about the history of Chicago gang violence from Arne Duncan and Curtis Toler and we meet Bilal, who has been released from prison and is experiencing PTSD. We meet the fictional character of Lil’ Bunchy Bates, a child who deflects attempts to be recruited to gangs until he is shot and killed while playing basketball. Violence breaks out at his funeral, targeting the suspected perpetrator. Across the city, Yasmine Miller is shot in a drive-by shooting that kills her toddler. The story ends with a message of cautious hope that the epidemic of gun violence and the related crises of segregation, police abuse, and gang violence will all one day end, and that the community will finally find peace.

Leading the cast of The Walkers are soprano Whitney Morrison as Yasmine Miller and baritone Norman Garrett as Bilal. Morrison is an alumna of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, Lyric's acclaimed artist-development program. Last season at Lyric, she starred in Terence Blanchard and Kasi Lemmons’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Garrett has appeared with Lyric in Fire Shut Up in My Bones and in the recent world premiere of Will Liverman and DJ King Rico’s The Factotum. The cast also features baritone Gordon Hawkins as Preacher Man, tenor Issachah Savage as Curtis Toler, soprano Kearstin Piper Brown as Chief’s Daughter #1, and mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams as Chief’s Daughter #2.

The cast also includes several current members of the Ryan Opera Center Ensemble: bass Ron Dukes is Chief’s Son #1, tenor Martin Luther Clark is Chief’s Son #2, and soprano Lindsey Reynolds is Very Loud Girl. Rounding out the cast are tenor Jamion Cotten as Lil' Bunchy Bates and actor Jeff Parker as Arne Duncan. The children's chorus in The Walkers features 20 members of Uniting Voices Chicago under the direction of Josephine Lee.

Four Portraits

Music by Caroline Shaw and libretto by Caroline Shaw and Jocelyn Clarke

Composer Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums; her recent work involves compositions for film, television, dance, and now opera. She was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Partita for 8 Voices and has received three Grammy Awards. She has written more than 100 works in the last decade, and has worked with artists as diverse as Yo-Yo Ma, Rosalía, Renée Fleming, and Nas. Her work as a vocalist or composer has appeared in the recent film Tár, the Showtime television series Yellowjackets, and the Netflix documentary of Beyonce’s Homecoming. Shaw's co-librettist Jocelyn Clarke is dramaturg at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. and has recently served in the writers room for the Starz television series P-Valley. His work abroad includes time with the Arts Council of Ireland and Dublin’s Abbey Theatre.

The first three of Shaw and Clarke's Four Portraits show a couple grappling with the disconnection of modern life — a fragmented telephone call with a bad connection, a crowded train of strangers, and a nighttime car trip with GPS. In the final scene, which begins with the first face-to-face conversation in the opera, spoken language recedes and acquiesces to the sonic landscape of the forest in a hopeful nod to a future unencumbered by technology.

Four Portraits stars countertenor John Holiday as A and baritone Lucia Lucas as B, both in their Lyric debuts. Holiday, winner of the Kennedy Center’s 2017 Marian Anderson Vocal Award, was recently seen in the Metropolitan Opera’s world premiere of The Hours and gained widespread fame for his appearance in Season 19 of NBC’s popular competition series The Voice. Lucas, an in-demand baritone who has sung at the Met, English National Opera, and across Europe, was featured in the recent documentary The Sound of Identity, which chronicled her journey as the first transgender woman to sing a leading role in a standard work at an American opera company.

Sopranos Kathryn Henry and Lindsey Reynolds, tenors Lunga Eric Hallam and Alejandro Luévanos, and bass Ron Dukes — current members of the Ryan Opera Center Ensemble — co-star as the Passengers, a group that also includes mezzo-sopranos Kathleen Felty (a Ryan Opera Center alumna) and Stephanie Sanchez and baritone Darren Drone. Mezzo-soprano Corinne Wallace-Crane sings the role of the GPS.

Night

Music by John Luther Adams and libretto by John Haines

John Luther Adams began his career as an environmental activist and transitioned into composing upon realizing that music had a better chance of changing the world than politics. Since that time, he has become one of the most widely admired composers in the world, receiving both the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Music and 2015 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Become Ocean, among many other honors.

For his contribution to Proximity, Adams was inspired by the work of his friend and longtime neighbor in Alaska, the late poet John Haines. One of Haines’s very last poems, Night offers a dark and troubling vision of the Earth's future, but Adams was drawn to its ultimate notes of hope and promise in the next generation, a theme that runs throughout each of Proximity's three works.

Night features mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams as an omniscient Greek sybil who launches the work's spiritual interrogations. Reams was seen earlier this season at Lyric as Ragonde in Rossini's Le Comte Ory.

Lyric strongly reinforces its commitment to new work. Following the extraordinary success of the world premiere of The Factotum earlier this season, Proximity continues to push boundaries for what is possible in and for opera. It brings a new kind of musical and theatrical experience to Lyric, to the city of Chicago, and to the world. Experience the world premiere of Proximity — only at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Important to know

·        Five chances to see Proximity: March 24, 26 (matinee), 29, April 5 (matinee), and 8.

·        A world premiere commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago: Proximity includes The Walkers, composed by Daniel Bernard Roumain with libretto by Anna Deavere Smith; Four Portraits, composed by Caroline Shaw with libretto by Caroline Shaw and Jocelyn Clarke; and Night, composed by John Luther Adams with libretto by John Haines.

·        Proximity addresses adult themes and contains some adult language.

·        Sung in English with projected English titles.

·        A total running time of 2 hours and 10 minutes, including one intermission.

·        Tickets and more information: lyricopera.org/proximity.

For updated information about Lyric’s ongoing health and safety protocols, visitlyricopera.org/safety.

Lyric’s world premiere of Proximity is generously made possible by an Anonymous Donor, OPERA America, and support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Lyric Opera of Chicago thanks its Official Airline, American Airlines, and acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

About Lyric

Lyric Opera of Chicago is committed to redefining what it means to experience great opera. The company is driven to deliver consistently excellent artistry through innovative, relevant, celebratory programming that engages and energizes new and traditional audiences.

Under the leadership of General Director, President & CEO Anthony Freud, Music Director Enrique Mazzola, and Special Projects Advisor Renée Fleming, Lyric is dedicated to reflecting, and drawing strength from, the diversity of Chicago. Lyric offers, through innovation, collaboration, and evolving learning opportunities, ever-more exciting, accessible, and thought-provoking audience and community experiences. We also stand committed to training the artists of the future, through The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center; and to becoming increasingly diverse across our audiences, staff, programming, and artists—magnifying the welcoming pull of our art form, our company, and our city.

Through the timeless power of voice, the splendor of a great orchestra and chorus, theater, dance, design, and truly magnificent stagecraft, Lyric is devoted to immersing audiences in worlds both familiar and unexpected, creating shared experiences that resonate long after the curtain comes down.

Join us @LyricOpera on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. #LongLivePassion

For more information, visit lyricopera.org