WIN A Pair Of Tickets (2 winners/ $80 value each) To The Man Who Was Thursday at Lifeline Theatre Through April 7, 2019

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

Lifeline Theatre Presents 

The Man Who Was Thursday,

Opens February 25

Performances with Open Captioning on March 2 and March 22

Performance with Touch Tour and Audio Description on March 9

Enter Below for your chance to WIN a pair of tickets (2 winners/ $80 value each) To The Man Who Was Thursday at Lifeline Theatre 

*(Winners choice of dates for the first weekend after opening -  Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, March 2 at 4 or 8 p.m. or Sunday, March 3 at 4 p.m.). 

The production runs approximately 2 hours with an intermission. The novel will be on sale in the lobby.

My teen son and I will be checking this production out at the press opening February 24th, so circle back soon for my full review. 

Lifeline Theatre presents The Man Who Was Thursday, adapted by Lifeline Theatre ensemble member Bilal Dardai and directed by Jess Hutchinson. Dardai and Hutchinson return to this 1908 satire after having first mounted it at New Leaf Theatre, where Hutchinson was the Artistic Director, in 2009 (Non-Equity Jeff nomination: New Adaptation) to re-explore this absurdist tale of identity and intrigue for a new decade. 

A shadowy cabal of anarchists has risen in London and Scotland Yard is determined to bring them down. When Gabriel Syme joins the undercover detail tasked with infiltrating the anarchists’ operations, he soon finds himself sitting on their Supreme Council with the code name “Thursday.” But as Syme unearths the Council’s true nature, it becomes clear that no one in this battle between law and chaos is as they seem. Challenge all assumptions and uncover the truth in this absorbing adaptation of the 1908 satire by G. K. Chesterton. 

The Man Who Was Thursday runs February 15 – April 7 at Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave. (free parking and shuttle; see below). Press opening is Sunday, Feb. 24 at 4 p.m. Opening night is Monday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. (Previews are Fridays, Feb. 15 and 22 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, Feb. 16 and 23 at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Feb. 17 at 4 p.m.)

Regular performance times (February 28 – April 7) are Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 4 and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 4 p.m. Ticket prices are $40 for regular single tickets, $30 for active and retired military personnel (with ID), $30 for seniors, $20 for students (with ID), $20 for rush tickets (available half hour before show time, subject to availability), and $20 for previews. Group rate for 12 or more is available upon request. Tickets may be purchased at the Lifeline Theatre Box Office, 773.761.4477, or by visiting www.lifelinetheatre.com.

Accessible Performances: The Saturday, March 2, 4 p.m. performance and the Friday, March 22, 7:30 p.m. performances will feature open captioning for patrons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. The Saturday, March 9, 4 p.m. performance will feature a pre-show touch tour of the set at 2:30 p.m. and live audio description for patrons who are blind or have low vision. For more information about Lifeline’s accessibility services, please contact our Accessibility Coordinator Erica Foster at 773.761.4477 x703 or at access@lifelinetheatre.com.

Eduardo Xavier Curley-Carrillo as Gabriel Syme; in Lifeline Theatre’s production of “The Man Who Was Thursday,” adapted by Bilal Dardai, directed by Jess Hutchinson, based on the novel by G. K. Chesterton; previews beginning Friday, February 15, 2019, opening Monday, February 25, and running through Sunday, April 7. Lifeline Theatre is located at 6912 N. Glenwood Ave. Chicago, IL 60626. For tickets call the box office at 773-761-4477 or visit www.lifelinetheatre.com. 

Photo by Suzanne Plunkett. 

The complete cast and production team for The Man Who Was Thursday includes:

CAST:     

Lifeline Theatre ensemble member Christopher Walsh (Gogol/Tuesday); with guest artists Allison Cain (Sunday), Eduardo Xavier Curley-Carrillo (Gabriel Syme),

Jen Ellison (Dr. Bull/Saturday), Linsey Falls (Professor de Worms/Friday), Sonia Goldberg (Familiar #2), Cory Hardin (Lucian Gregory), Marsha Harman (The

Secretary/Monday), Oly Oxinfry (Familiar #1), Corbette Pasko (The Marquis de St. Eustache/Wednesday). With understudies David Gordezky and Sarah

Scanlon.

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Lifeline Theatre ensemble members Bilal Dardai (Adaptor) and Elise Kauzlaric (Dialect Coach); with guest artists Amanda Beranek (Stage Manager), Lizzie Bracken (Scenic Designer), Kyle Bricker (Asst. Stage Manager), Jess Hutchinson (Director), Christopher Kriz (Sound Designer), Jennifer McClendon (Production Manager), Caitlin McLeod (Co-Costume Designer), Jenny Pinson (Props Designer), Greg Poljacik (Fight Choreographer), Joe Schermoly (Technical Director), Zev Valancy (Dramaturg), Eric Watkins (Lighting Designer), Jonah White (Master Electrician), and Anna Wooden (Co-Costume Designer)

Lifeline Theatre presents The Man Who Was Thursday runs February 15 – April 7 at Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave. (free parking and shuttle; see
below). 

Press opening is Sunday, Feb. 24 at 4 p.m. Opening night is Monday, Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m. (Previews are Fridays, Feb. 15 and 22 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, Feb. 16 and 23 at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Feb. 17 at 4 p.m.)

Regular performance times (February 28 – April 7) are Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 4 and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 4 p.m. Ticket prices are $40 for regular single tickets, $30 for active and retired military personnel (with ID), $30 for seniors, $20 for students (with ID), $20 for rush tickets (available half hour before show time, subject to availability), and $20 for previews. Group rate for 12 or more is available upon request. Tickets may be purchased at the Lifeline Theatre Box Office, 773.761.4477, or by visiting www.lifelinetheatre.com.

Lifeline Theatre is accessible by CTA (Red Line Morse stop/busses) and free parking is available at Sullivan High School (6631 N Bosworth Ave, lot located on Greenview Ave. just south of North Shore Ave.) with free shuttle service before and after the show.  Street parking is also available. Lifeline is accessible to wheelchair users and visitors who need to avoid stairs.



 Now in its 36th season, Lifeline Theatre is driven by a passion for story. Our ensemble process supports writers in the development of literary adaptations and new work, and our theatrical and educational programs foster a lifelong engagement with literature and the arts. A cultural anchor of Rogers Park, we are committed to deepening our connection to an ever-growing family of artists and audiences, both near and far. Lifeline Theatre – Big Stories, Up Close.

Lifeline Theatre’s programs are partially supported by Alphawood Foundation; A.R.T League Inc.; Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois; Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation; Chicago CityArts, a grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events; CIG Management; Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; FGMK LLC; FlexPrint Inc.; Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; The Michael and Mona Heath Fund at The Chicago Community Foundation; Illinois Arts Council Agency; Illinois Humanities Council; MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince; The PAV Grant Fund; The Polk Bros. Foundation; Rogers Park Social; The Saints; S&C Electric Company Fund; The Shubert Foundation; The Steele Foundation; Th Manufacturing; and the annual support of businesses and individuals.

Enter Here for your chance to WIN a pair of tickets (2 winners/ $80 value each) To The Man Who Was Thursday at Lifeline Theatre  

*(Winners choice of dates for the first weekend after opening -  Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, March 2 at 4 or 8 p.m. or Sunday, March 3 at 4 p.m.). Enter through midnight 2/25/19. Winners will be e-mailed, and announced here and on our social media outlets.

ENTER HERE

Disclosure: It's been our great pleasure at ChiILMama.com & ChiILLiveShows.com to partner up with Lifeline Theatre for years. They have provided complimentary tickets for our giveaways and review purposes. As always, all opinions are our own.

OPENING: DOUBT: A PARABLE Via The Gift Theatre at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre February 27 – March 31, 2019

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

The Gift Theatre Presents

DOUBT: A PARABLE

By John Patrick Shanley

Directed by Ensemble Member John Gawlik

February 27 – March 31, 2019 

at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre

Presented as a part of Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series

The Gift Theatre is pleased to launch its 18th season with a revival of John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning drama DOUBT: A PARABLE, presented as a part of Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series. Directed by Ensemble Member John Gawlik and featuring an all-ensemble cast, DOUBT will play February 27 – March 31, 2019 at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre, 1700 N. Halsted St. in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at steppenwolf.org through Steppenwolf Audience Services (1650 N. Halsted St.) or by calling (312) 335-1650. 

DOUBT: A PARABLE will feature Ensemble Members Cyd Blakewell*, Jennifer Glasse*, Mary Ann Thebus* and Michael Patrick Thornton*.

In this brilliant and powerful drama, Sister Aloysius, a Bronx school principal, takes matters into her own hands when she suspects the young Father Flynn of improper relations with one of the male students. Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play.

The production team for DOUBT: A PARABLE includes Arnel Sancianco (scenic design), Sanja Manakoski (costume design), Mike Durst (lighting design), Matthew Chapman (sound design), Maggie Andersen (dramaturg), David Preis (technical director) and Sarah Luse (production manager).

Cast (in alphabetical order): Cyd Blakewell* (Sister James), Jennifer Glasse* (Mrs. Muller), Mary Ann Thebus* (Sister Aloysius) and Michael Patrick Thornton* (Father Flynn).

Location: Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre, 1700 N. Halsted St., Chicago

Dates: Previews: Wednesday, February 27 at 8 pm, Thursday, February 28 at 8 pm, Friday, March 1 at 8 pm and Saturday, March 2 at 8 pm


Regular run: Thursday, March 7 – Sunday, March 31, 2019

Curtain Times: Thursdays and Fridays at 8 pm; Saturdays at 4 pm & 8 pm; Sundays at 3:30 pm.

Tickets: Previews $35. Regular run $45 – $55. Seniors $25. Students $15. Tickets are currently available at steppenwolf.org, through Steppenwolf Audience Services (1650 N. Halsted St., Chicago) or by calling (312) 335-1650.

*Denotes Gift Theatre ensemble member

 

About the Artists
John Patrick Shanley (Playwright) is the author of numerous plays, including Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Dirty Story, Four Dogs and a Bone, Psychopathia Sexualis, Sailor’s Song, Savage in Limbo and Where’s My Money?. He has written extensively for TV and film, and his credits include the teleplay for Live from Baghdad and screenplays for Congo, Alive, Five Corners, Joe Versus the Volcano (which he also directed) and Moonstruck, for which he won an Academy Award for original screenplay.

John Gawlik (Director) is an AEA/SAG actor and director. Favorite acting credits include: the world premiere of David Rabe’s Good For Otto and Broadsword with The Gift Theatre, Bill Sykes in Oliver at Drury Lane, Blizzard ‘67 with Chicago Dramatist, The Lonesome West and Beauty Queen of Lennane with the Gift Theatre and A Skull in Connemara at Northlight. Favorite directing projects include Thinner Than Water and The Royal Society of Antarctica for The Gift Theatre and the Chicago Premiere of When the Rain Stops Falling at Circle Theater (Jeff Award for Director and Production). He is an ensemble member of The Gift Theater.

About The Gift Theatre
Since 2001 and over 70 productions, The Gift Theatre has pioneered the frontiers of the American theatre via the most intimate professional Equity theatre in the country, leading to national acclaim and a cultural revolution on Chicago’s northwest side.

The Gift’s 18th season includes a revival of John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning drama Doubt: A Parable, directed by Ensemble Member John Gawlik (February 27 – March 31); the world premiere of Hansol Jung’s Wolf Play, directed by guest artist Jess McLeod (October 18 – November 24); as well as a soon-to-be announced third production (July 12 – August 18). Season subscriptions are available for as little as $75. The Gift subscribers ("Gifters") receive admission to three shows, free parking at Gale Street Inn, free admission to all Wednesday night “Natural Gas” improv shows and invitations to special subscriber-only special events. Subscribe at www.thegifttheatre.org or by calling (773) 283-7071.

About Steppenwolf’s LookOut Series
Housed primarily in the 1700 Theatre, LookOut is Steppenwolf’s performance series that presents the work of artists and companies across genre and form: emerging artists and performance legends, quintessential Chicago companies and young aspiring ensembles, familiar Steppenwolf faces and new friends. Greta Honold and Patrick Zakem are the producers for LookOut, which is presented year-round and announced on an ongoing basis. For more information, visit steppenwolf.org/lookout.

OPENING: World Premiere of 2 UNFORTUNATE 2 TRAVEL at Prop Thrt March 8 – April 15, 2019

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

Prop Thtr Presents the World Premiere of

2 UNFORTUNATE 2 TRAVEL

A new devised adaptation of

Thomas Nashe’s The Unfortunate Traveller

Adapated and Directed by Zach Weinberg

Devised by The Ensemble

March 8 – April 15, 2019

I'll be ChiILin' at the press opening of Prop Thtr's world premiere of 2 UNFORTUNATE 2 TRAVEL on March 11th, so check back shortly after for my full review.

Prop Thtr is pleased to continue its 2018-19 season with the world premiere of 2 UNFORTUNATE 2 TRAVEL, a late-night, cabaret-style evening of multi-disciplinary live performances and a biting look at privilege and the things we take for granted. This new devised adaptation of Thomas Nashe’s novella The Unfortunate Traveller is adapted and directed by Zach Weinberg and devised by The Ensemble. 2 UNFORTUNATE 2 TRAVEL will play March 8 – April 15, 2019 at 3502 N. Elston Ave. (near Kedzie and Addison) in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood. Tickets are currently available at www.propthtr.org. 

The 2 UNFORTUNATE 2 TRAVEL Ensemble cast includes Zoë DePreta, Callie Harlow, Jourdan Lewanda, Isa Ramos, Joseph Ramski, Schanora Wimpie and Taylor Wisham.

It’s a tough time right now. You deserve a vacation. Jack Wilton, self-appointed ally and recent returnee from travelling the world wants to give you one. He has transformed his recent vacation into a variety show depicting his adventures in a range of spectacular and crowd-pleasing styles, with everything from shadow puppetry to a live game show. He’s created a safe space where you can sit back, drink a free beer and enjoy an hour free from any political discussion. Over the course of the evening, the cracks begin to show in Jack’s stories, his conduct and the fabric of reality itself as the performing ensemble of five women work to bring Jack’s stories to life and struggle within both a play and a society that profits off of their silence.

Comments adapter/director Zach Weinberg, “This piece is an attempt by a cadre of young artists to have it all; to dive into a deeply collaborative process and create something at once personal and political, entertaining and troubling, engaging and alienating, challenging the established social order and revealing the futility in fighting it, rigidly structured and terrifyingly loose. In an era where we have been forced into political obsession and are desperate both to constantly fight for our rights and find some relief from the onslaught of bad news, I'm driven to create a piece of art that captures and exploits that duality.”

Artistic Director Olivia Lilley adds, “As the next show in my first season as Prop Artistic Director, I am so proud to introduce the cerebral and whimsical theatrical imagination of director/deviser Zach Weinberg and his devising ensemble. 2 Unfortunate 2 Travel promises to take us down a rabbit hole of the burning questions of our times, to entertain and to provoke hours of discussion afterwards.”

Cast: Zoë DePreta, Callie Harlow, Jourdan Lewanda, Isa Ramos, Joseph Ramski, Schanora Wimpie and Taylor Wisham.

Location: Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston Ave., Chicago
Dates: Previews: Friday, March 8 at 9 pm and Saturday, March 9 at 9 pm

Regular Run: Friday, March 15 – Monday, April 15, 2019
Curtain Times: Mondays at 8 pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 9 pm
Tickets: Previews: Pay-what-you-can. Regular run: $20. Industry, Student, group discounts available. Tickets are currently available at www.propthtr.org.

About the Playwright/Director

Zach Weinberg is a Chicago-based theater director, adaptor and administrator. He is interested in the creation of new, non-traditional works and finding the perfect medium for the message. Zach is a company member and grant writer at Red Tape Theatre, and a graduate of Oberlin College. Selected theatrical work includes serving as a Directing Apprentice with the late Redmoon Theatre, participating in the 2016 Director's Haven at Haven Theatre and premiering two original adaptations at Curious Theatre Branch's Rhinofest: Love in a Maze ('17) and MAY DAY ('18).

About The Prop Thtr
Prop Thtr strives to redefine what theatre is for the 21st century. Prop Thtr produces and incubates new work, which includes new plays, devised work, director-driven re-imaginings of classics, adaptations, and other alternative forms. Prop Thtr works with makers of all ages, races, gender identities, abilities, and backgrounds. In the spirit of Chicago storefront theatre, Prop Thtr is committed to ongoing relationships with individuals and organizations that create work in diverse and inclusive spaces. We break open how we make, what we are making, and who is making.

ART BEAT: Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Presents Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera February 23 to May 5, 2019

Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera

a major survey of the work of Laurie Simmons

Image credit: Laurie Simmons, Big Camera, Little Camera, 1976. Collection of the artist. Photo courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, © Laurie Simmons.

I'll be out for the press opening, February 22nd, so check back soon for my recap. As a photographer, feminist, and daily creator of social media content, this exhibit particularly fascinates me. I'm also intrigued by families full of artists and creatives. Laurie Simmons' husband is painter Carroll Dunham and her children are actress/writer Lena Dunham and writer/activist Cyrus Dunham.

This spring, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presents Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera, a major survey of the work of Laurie Simmons. This comprehensive exhibition showcases Simmons's career-long exploration of how image culture creates and perpetuates the myths of our society, and upends traditional ideas about photography as a medium. More than four decades of work by Simmons are on display, with her iconic photographs, sculptures, and films highlighting her importance both historically and as an active contemporary artist. Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera is on view from February 23 to May 5, 2019 and is organized by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and curated by Senior Curator Andrea Karnes. The Chicago presentation is coordinated by MCA Senior Curator Naomi Beckwith.

Simmons's exploration of archetypal female gender roles, for example, women in domestic settings, is the primary subject of this exhibition and is a topic as poignant today as it was in the late 1970s, when she began to develop her mature style using props and dolls as stand-ins for people and places.
  
The namesake work for this exhibition, Big Camera, Little Camera (1976), shows an actual camera juxtaposed with a miniature one, exemplifying Simmons's technique of manipulating scale. The actual camera in the image was given to Simmons by her father, a dentist who took up photography in his free time. Simmons explains, "I put the two cameras together for scale, and as a metaphor - real life versus fiction. It was also a statement about what I intended to do with the camera." Far from documenting the world as it is, her photographs represent the effects of fiction on reality.

Often isolating the dolls and photographing them situated in tiny, austere settings, in series such as Early Black and White (1976-78), Simmons uses fictional scenes that mirror and unsettle the American dream of prosperity and feminine domesticity. The resulting works turn a critical eye on tropes that dominated the era of her upbringing, including the 1950s housewife and the Wild West cowboy.

After graduating from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1971, then living in upstate New York and subsequently traveling through Europe while living out of her car, Simmons moved to a loft in the then-low-rent Bowery section of Manhattan. To make a living, she briefly worked as a freelance photographer for a dollhouse miniature company, and in her off hours she pursued her main ambition of becoming an artist. Influenced by her day job, as well as a cache of old toys she discovered at a toy store in the Catskills, Simmons began to photograph dolls and small plastic objects, particularly those from the 1950s, the era of her childhood.

Carefully chosen props, preserved by the artist over the years, are on display, including those used to create the early doll house imagery. This ephemera offers new insight into Simmons's process, revealing her continuing fascination with models and fleshing out her use of color-coding to organize vignettes into cohesive and precise imagery.

Monumental photographs from the series Walking and Lying Objects (1987-91), are on view in the exhibition. This iconic body of work features a variety of legs - from human scale to tiny metal Japanese fetish models - showing beneath familiar domestic objects. The poses create personified objects and objectified people, demonstrating how our culture defines, fetishizes, and flattens bodies - especially the female body - and material things.

The exhibition also presents Simmons's more recent series, such as The Love Doll (2009-11), which features high-end, life-size Japanese dolls in day-to-day scenarios. Just as Walking Objects represents a transition to monumental props, The Love Doll moves away from dolls in miniature, but the added element of strangeness is not unlike that evoked by the miniatures. Another recent body of work, How We See (begun in 2014), shows another iteration of the artist's longstanding interest in gender roles.

For these images, Simmons hired makeup artists to paint eyes that look open on her sitters' closed eyelids. Inverting her usual practice by making real people appear uncannily artificial, Simmons says, "Social media allows us to put our most perfect, desirable, funny, and fake selves forward, while naturally raising questions about our longings, yearnings, and vulnerabilities. In How We See, I'd like to direct you how to see while also asking you to make eye contact with ten women who can't see you."

In addition to her photography, there is a small selection of sculpture and three films in the exhibition. The Music of Regret (2006, 45 min) is shown in the gallery space, and is a three-part musical shot in 35mm by the cinematographer Ed Lachman. The Music of Regret grew out of three of Simmons's distinct photographic series: Early Interiors, Walking Objects, and Café of the Inner Mind. The theme of regret is underscored by vintage puppets that interact with actress Meryl Streep, who plays the lead role, and Alvin Ailey dancers dressed as oversized inanimate objects.

The film My Art (2016) was written and directed by Simmons who also stars in the lead role as Ellie Shine, an artist who wishes to reinvigorate her work and address her lack of recognition. In My Art, Ellie embarks on a new project where she reimagines shot-for-shot vignettes from her favorite movies, casting herself as the celluloid stars from the past. Art and life collide in the film as scenes mirror unfolding relationships in her life. The film debuted in September 2016 at the Venice Film Festival and premiered in North America at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, where it received high accolades.

A major scholarly catalogue, co-published by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and DelMonico Books-Prestel, accompanies the exhibition.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Laurie Simmons, born in 1949 in Queens, New York, began photographing at age six when her father bought her a Brownie camera. She received a BFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia and moved to New York. Simmons is an internationally recognized artist who has had solo exhibitions at P.S. 1, Artists Space, and the Jewish Museum in New York; the Walker Art Center in Minnesota; San Jose Museum of Art in California; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis; the Gothenburg Museum of Art in Sweden; and the Neues Museum in Germany. She received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1984, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1997, and a Roy Lichtenstein Residency in Visual Arts from the American Academy in Rome in 2005. She currently lives and works in New York and Cornwall, Connecticut. Her husband is painter Carroll Dunham and her children are actress/writer Lena Dunham and writer/activist Cyrus Dunham.


RELATED PROGRAMS

Talk: Laurie Simmons
Saturday, February 23, 3 pm, MCA Theater
Artist Laurie Simmons leads audiences on a journey through the history of anti-feminist films on the opening day of her exhibition.

Screening: Laurie Simmons
Sunday, February 24, 11 am - 5 pm, MCA Theater
A marathon screening plays a selection of Laurie Simmons's films.

Screenings of My Art 
February 26, March 26 and 31, April 7 and 9, MCA Theater
Screened as part of the exhibition, My Art is ­a feature-length film written, directed by, and starring Laurie Simmons who plays Ellie Shine, a single artist living in New York City. As her decades-old dream of a respectable place in the art world becomes more elusive, her frustration with her lack of recognition feels alarmingly urgent. When she is offered the summer house and studio of a famous friend she seizes the opportunity to hit the reset button on her life and work.

Curator Tour: Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera
Tuesday, March 19, noon, exhibition gallery
MCA Senior Curator Naomi Beckwith leads an in-depth tour of Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera and discusses the artist's practice.

Talk: Laurie Simmons with Genevieve Gaignard
Thursday, April 10, 6 pm, MCA Theater
Laurie Simmons has sometimes been cast as a "reluctant feminist." In this conversation, the artist brings together a panel of next-generation thinkers to consider the tension between personal politics and the making of feminist art in a moment when gender is increasingly deconstructed. They also address how the feminist reading of her work by younger artists has changed her own perspective and her work.

Lead support for Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris: Caryn and King Harris, Katherine Harris, Toni and Ron Paul, Pam and Joe Szokol, Linda and Bill Friend, and Stephanie and John Harris; Becky and Lester Knight; Zell Family Foundation; Julie and Larry Bernstein; and Cari and Michael J. Sacks. Major support is provided by Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson. Generous support is provided by Robert J. Buford; Anne L. Kaplan; Kovler Family Foundation; Jennifer and Alec Litowitz; Phillips; Carol Prins and John Hart/The Jessica Fund; Marilyn and Larry Fields; Efroymson Family Fund; Katherine and Judd Malkin; Ellen-Blair Chube; Susie L. Karkomi and Marvin Leavitt; One Bennett Park; Liz and Eric Lefkofsky; Salon 94 New York; Mirja and Ted Haffner; Vicki and Bill Hood; Susan D. Goodman and Rodney Lubeznik; The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, New York; and Penelope and Robert Steiner.

OPENING: Tango at Trap Door Theatre February 21-March 30, 2019

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

THE TRAP DOOR THEATRE is proud to present...

Tango

Written by: Sławomir Mrożek

Translated by: Ralph Manheim and Teresa Dzieduszycka Directed by: Emily Lotspeich

In this hilarious satire, the dangers inherent in contemporary society are inscribed in a universal story of how conformity, anarchy and formalism can come into conflict between generations. I'll be ChiILin' with Chi, IL's Trap Door Theatre in early March, so check back then for my full review.

Cast: Dennis Bisto, Adam Huizenga, Logan Hulick, Katelyn Lane, Joan Nahid, Emily Nichelson and Keith Surney.

Sɫawomir Mrożek (Playwright) was a Polish playwright born in 1930 in a small town near Kraków. He started his professional career as a cartoonist and journalist, and later on wrote many grotesque stories. His first play, The Police (1958) is a Kafkaesque parable, and was followed by a series of political, critical allegories cloaked in absurdist comedy such as Out at Sea (1961), Striptease (1961) and The Party (1963). His most famous play from this period is Tango which had its world premiere in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in January 1965. That same year a famous Polish critic Jan Kott observed that while Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz and Witold Gombrowicz, Mrożek’s dramatic predecessors, were ahead of their time, Mrożek has arrived right on time both in Poland and in the West. Some perceived Mrożek as a kind of “Polish Ionesco” as his plays poke absurdist fun at contemporary mores and life in the 20th century communist-dominated Poland. Mrożek emigrated to France in 1963 and lived in Italy and Mexico before returning to Poland after the fall of communism. While his plays were periodically banned in Poland, they were performed in the cities around the world including New York City where they were produced several times off Broadway and at La MaMa Theatre Club. Among other plays written by Mrożek are Vatzlav (1972—produced at Trap Door Theatre in 2014), The Emigrés (1974), The Ambassador (1981), Alpha (1984) and Love in the Crimea (1994). Mrożek died in France in 2013.

Emily Lotspeich (Director) Emily was born in Cincinnati where she was fortunate enough to attend the television noted School for Creative and Performing Arts from grades 4-12. There she majored in acting, directing, creative writing and oboe. She came to call Chicago home when she moved here to further her theater education at Depaul University. Emily is a Company Member and Development Director at The Trap Door Theatre. Trap Door Director credits include Universal Wolf and a staged reading of Made In Poland at last years International Voices Project. Trap Door Assistant Director credits include Beholder and the twentieth anniversary celebratory remount of R. W. Fassbinder’s Blood on the Cat’s Neck. Trap Door acting credits include Monseur D’eon Is A Woman, Sad Happy Suckers, Locketeer, Phaedra, Fantasy Island For Dummies, The Duchess of Malfi, AmeriKafka, 12 Ophelias and Anger/Fly. Trap Door Stage Manager credits include Ten Tiny Fingers, Nine Tiny Toes, and How To Explain The History Of Communism To Mental Patients which toured in Hungary and Romania. In addition to Trap Door, Ms. Lotspeich has worked with Prop Thtr, Silent Theatre Company, Polarity Ensemble Theatre and Cornservatory.

Set Designer Jacqueline Frole/ Costume Designer Rachel Sypniewski/ Makeup Design Zsofia Otvos / Sound Designer Danny Rocket/ Lighting Designer Richard Norwood / Violence Design Bill Gordon / Choreographer Jesse Hoisington/ Graphic Designer Michal Janicki/ Dramaturg Milan Pribisic/ Assistant Director Nora Lise Ulrey

When: 
Opens: Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 8PM 
Closes: Saturday, March 30, 2019 at 8PM 
Runs: Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8PM

Admission: $20 on Thursdays and Fridays, $25 on Saturdays, 2 for 1 Admission on Thursdays

Where: TRAP DOOR THEATRE 1655 West Cortland Ave. Chicago, IL 60622
For Information/Reservations: 773-384-0494 To purchase online www.trapdoortheatre.com

OPENING: Childhood Beauty at Trap Door Theatre March 3-25, 2019

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

THE TRAP DOOR THEATRE is proud to present as a part of the TRAP OPEN SERIES….

Childhood Beauty

Written by: Suz Evans

Directed by: Skye Fort

I'm eager to catch this show, as I too grew up in a small suburb of Cincinnati, like the playwright. Jane Fonda’s dance aerobics videos were even a disturbing gym class option in my high school. So I'm no stranger to the peppy "work that tiny body" refrain. I'll be out for opening night, so check back soon for my full review. 

What: Using the forms of theatre, performance art, and dance, Childhood Beauty is about reluctantly participating in Jane Fonda’s dance aerobics videos way-back-when. It is about monopolizing the thoughts that people think about your body. It is about awkward emotions and stool movements. Welcome to the show.

   
Suz Evans (playwright) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1990. They grew up in a small town, went to church twice a week and learned about the wrath of Hell alongside Jesus’s love. Their work questions the ideas that a Middle American upbringing convolutes around identity, hierarchy and divergence of the expected. As a non-binary queer, Suz is likely to twist gender roles and extend a genuine no-thanks to the cis-tem. Their writing is largely based in literary and field research, with a direct quotation style popular amongst contemporary German playwrights. They dream of a future in which humanoids have full autonomy over thought. Suz graduated with a BFA in printmaking and art history from Montserrat College of Art. Childhood Beauty is their first completed script.

Skye Fort (director)  spent her formative years  in small town New Mexico, but has called Chicago home for the past 7 years. She is a proud member of Trap Door Theatre, where she has previously worked as the assistant director on Old Woman Broods, Monsieur D’eon is A Woman, and Phedre. Skye is the company manager at Trap Door, and over the past six years has also had the honor of touring to Eastern Europe with Trap Door, and working as an actor and a stage manager. Having grown up dancing, Skye is drawn to any piece of theatre that has the possibility for extreme movement. Skye has a degree in theatre from The University of New Mexico and a is founding member of the performance art group So This Is Art. Skye likes to hang out on the line between performance art and theatre, and hopes you’ll join her there.

Costume Designer Josh Pennington/ Sound Designer Ty Easley/ Lighting Designer Gary Damico/ Multi-Media Specialist Ash Brayley/ Assistant Director Miguel Long / Production Assistant Anna Klos

 Cast: Maryam Abdi, David Lovejoy, Nora Lise Ulrey, Kellie Wyatt

When:
Opens:     Sunday, March 3rd, 2019 at 8PM
Closes:     Monday, March 25th, 2019 at 8PM
Runs:       Sundays and Mondays at 8PM

Admission:  $10

Where:  TRAP DOOR THEATRE 1655 West Cortland Ave.  Chicago, IL 60622

For Information/Reservations: 773-384-0494 To purchase online www.trapdoortheatre.com

About the Trap Open Series:  Whether it is a workshop of a bold new play, a daylong performance installation, or a collaboration with artists from other mediums; this series seeks to offer audiences thrilling, unexpected experiences while giving voice to the next generation of groundbreaking theatre artists.

CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR GOODMAN PRODUCTIONS OPENING IN MARCH: PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING SWEAT AND THE WORLD PREMIERE OF LOTTERY DAY BY IKE HOLTER

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR TWO UPCOMING GOODMAN PRODUCTIONS: LYNN NOTTAGE’S 

PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING 

SWEAT, 

DIRECTED BY RON OJ PARSON (MARCH 9 – APRIL 14) AND THE WORLD PREMIERE OF 

LOTTERY DAY BY IKE HOLTER, 

DIRECTED BY LILI-ANNE BROWN 

(MARCH 29 – APRIL 28)

Goodman Theatre proudly announces the casts for its Chicago premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Sweat by Lynn Nottage, directed by Ron OJ Parson, as well as its world premiere of Lottery Day—Ike Holter’s final work in his seven-play “The Rightlynd Saga,” directed by Lili-Anne Brown. Tickets are now available for both productions at GoodmanTheatre.org, by telephone 312.443.3800 or at the box office (170 N. Dearborn). The Goodman is grateful for the support of its sponsors: for Sweat, American Airlines and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are Major Corporate Sponsors; ComEd is the Official Lighting Sponsor; Conagra Brands Foundation is the Production Sponsor; and ITW is the Corporate Sponsor Partner. For Lottery Day, Laurents/Hatcher Foundation is the Institutional Partner.

Sweat
By Lynn Nottage
Directed by Ron OJ Parson

Cynthia……...Tyla Abercrumbie
Oscar………..Steve Casillas
Jason………..Mike Cherry
Evan…………Ronald Conner
Jessie………..Chaon Cross
Tracey……….Kirsten Fitzgerald
Stan………….Keith Kupferer
Chris…………Edgar Sanchez
Brucie………..André Teamer

Sweat marks the fourth Nottage play to be produced at the Goodman, following Crumbs from the Table of Joy (2006), Ruined (a 2008 world-premiere Goodman commission that earned the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (2013). A group of friends in a Rust Belt town has spent their lives sharing secrets and laughs on the factory floor. But when layoffs begin to chip away at their trust, they’re pitted against each other in a heart-wrenching fight in this collision of race, class and friendship at a pivotal moment in America. The creative team includes Kevin Depinet (Set Design), Mara Blumenfeld (Costume Design), Keith Parham (Lighting Design) and Richard Woodbury (Sound Design). Alden Vasquez is the Production Stage Manager.

Lottery Day
By Ike Holter
Directed by Lili-Anne Brown

Tori……………...Aurora Adachi-Winter
Mallory………....J. Nicole Brooks
Zora…………….Sydney Charles
Cassandra….....McKenzie Chinn
Robinson……....Robert Cornelius
Avery…………...James Vincent Meredith
Ezekiel………....Tommy Rivera-Vega
Nunley………....Tony Santiago
Vivien…………..Michele Vazquez
Ricky…………...Pat Whalen

“Thrilling Chicago writer” (Chicago Tribune) Holter concludes his acclaimed seven-play cycle, "The Rightlynd Saga,” by assembling his vibrant characters for a raucous theatrical bash. Long the matriarch of a quickly gentrifying neighborhood, Mallory invites the lonely residents, hardcore activists and starving artists of her block to what she hopes will go down as a legendary barbeque—thanks to a special surprise. But her mysterious plan to revitalize her community may be the very thing that tears it apart. Centering on a fictitious Chicago ward, Holter’s seven-play cycle also includes plays Red Rex (on stage through March 16 at Steep Theatre), Rightlynd, Exit Strategy, Sender, Prowess and The Wolf at the End of the Block. The creative team includes Arnel Sancianco (Set Design), Samantha C. Jones (Costume Design), Jason Lynch (Lighting Design) and Andre Pluess (Sound Design). Nikki Blue is the Production Stage Manager.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS AND DIRECTORS

Lynn Nottage (Playwright, Sweat) is the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk Award nomination) moved to Broadway after a sold-out run at The Public Theater. It premiered and was commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival American Revolutions History Cycle/Arena Stage. Her other plays include By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lilly Award, Drama Desk Nomination), Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, OBIE, Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics’ Circle, Audelco, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards), Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Play), Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine (OBIE Award), Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, Mud, River, Ston, Por’knockers and POOF! In addition, she is working with composer Ricky Ian Gordon on adapting her play Intimate Apparel into an opera (commissioned by The Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater). She is also developing This is Reading, a performance installation based on two years of interviews, which opened at the Franklin Street, Reading Railroad Station in Reading, PA in July 2017. She is the co-founder of the production company Market Road Films, whose most recent projects include The Notorious Mr. Bout directed by Tony Gerber and Maxim Pozdorovkin (premiere at Sundance Film Festival 2014), First to Fall directed by Rachel Beth Anderson (premiere at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, 2013) and Remote Control (premiere at Busan International Film Festival 2013, New Currents Award). She has also developed original projects for HBO, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Showtime, This is That and Harpo. She is writer/producer on the Netflix series She's Gotta Have It directed by Spike Lee. Nottage is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award, Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Columbia University Provost Grant, Doris Duke Artist Award, The Joyce Foundation Commission Project & Grant, Madge Evans and Sidney Kingsley Award, Nelson A. Rockefeller Award for Creativity, The Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, the inaugural Horton Foote Prize, Helen Hayes Award, the Lee Reynolds Award and the Jewish World Watch iWitness Award. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama.

Ron OJ Parson (Director, Sweat) returns to Goodman Theatre, where he previously directed Let Me Live. As an actor, he last appeared at the Goodman in Romance. He is a resident artist at Court Theatre, and former co-founder and artistic director of The Onyx Theatre Ensemble. Recent directing credits include Skeleton Crew and Detroit 67 at Northlight Theatre; Fences at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Five Guys Named Moe, Gem of the Ocean, Seven Guitars, The Mountaintop and Waiting For Godot at Court Theatre; East Texas Hot Links at Writers Theatre (where he is an associate artist); Paradise Blue, A Raisin in the Sun and Sunset Baby at TimeLine Theatre Company (where he is an associate artist), Apt. 3 A at Windy City Playhouse and The Who & The What at Victory Gardens Theater. Additional Chicago credits include Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Black Ensemble Theater, ETA Creative Arts, Congo Square Theatre Company, Teatro Vista (where he is an associate artist), Chicago Dramatists, UrbanTheater Company, Chicago Theatre Company, American Blues Theater and City Lit Theater. Regional and New York credits include Virginia Stage Company, Paul Robeson Theatre, Portland Stage, Studio Theatre, Studio Arena Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Morris A. Mechanic Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, The St. Louis Black Repertory, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, Geva Theatre Center, Signature Theatre (New York), Alliance Theatre, South Coast Repertory and Pasadena Playhouse. In Canada, he directed the world premiere of Palmer Park at the Stratford Festival. Parson is a member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA and SDC. Parson hails from Buffalo, New York and is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s professional theater program. RonojParson.com

Ike Holter (Playwright, Lottery Day) is a 2017 winner of the Windham-Campbell Prize, one of the highest awards for playwriting in the world. Holter is a resident playwright at Victory Gardens Theater, and has been commissioned by The Kennedy Center, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, South Coast Repertory and The Playwrights’ Center. His work has been produced at the Steppenwolf Garage, The Philadelphia Theater Company, off-Broadway at Barrow Street Theatre and Cherry Lane Theatre, The Lily Tomlin Center in Los Angeles, True Colors in Atlanta, Forward Theater in Wisconsin, Water Tower Theater in Dallas, 3oaks in Michigan and Jackalope Theatre Company, Teatro Vista, A Red Orchid and The Inconvenience in Chicago. He is the artistic director of The Roustabouts and is a regular performer at Salonathon in Chicago.

Lili-Anne Brown (Director, Lottery Day) is a native Chicagoan who works as a director, actor and educator, both locally and regionally. She is the former artistic director of Bailiwick Chicago, where she directed Dessa Rose (Jeff Award), Passing Strange (BTA Award and Jeff nomination for Best Director of a Musical), See What I Wanna See (Steppenwolf Theatre Garage Rep) and the world premiere of Princess Mary Demands Your Attention by Aaron Holland. Other directing credits include The Wolf at the End of the Block (16th Street Theatre), Marie Christine (Boho Theatre), Peter and the Starcatcher (Metropolis Performing Arts), The Wiz (Kokandy Productions),  Xanadu (American Theatre Company), Jabari Dreams of Freedom by Nambi E. Kelley (Chicago Children’s Theatre), American Idiot (Northwestern University); the national tour of Jesus Snatched My Edges; and Little Shop of Horrors, Hairspray, Unnecessary Farce, Cabaret, Sweet Charity, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story at Timber Lake Playhouse. She is a member of SDC, SAG-AFTRA and a graduate of Northwestern University.

ABOUT GOODMAN THEATRE

AMERICA’S “BEST REGIONAL THEATRE” (Time magazine), Goodman Theatre is a premier not-for-profit organization distinguished by the excellence and scope of its artistic programming and civic engagement. Led by Artistic Director Robert Falls and Executive Director Roche Schulfer, the theater’s artistic priorities include new play development (more than 150 world or American premieres), large scale musical theater works and reimagined classics (celebrated revivals include Falls’ productions of Death of a Salesman and The Iceman Cometh). Goodman Theatre artists and productions have earned two Pulitzer Prizes, 22 Tony Awards, over 160 Jeff Awards and many more accolades. In addition, the Goodman is the first theater in the world to produce all 10 plays in August Wilson’s “American Century Cycle;” and its annual holiday tradition A Christmas Carol, which marks its 41st production this season, has created a new generation of theatergoers. The Goodman also frequently serves as a production partner with local off-Loop theaters and national and international companies by providing financial support or physical space for a variety of artistic endeavors.

Committed to three core values of Quality, Diversity and Community, the Goodman proactively makes inclusion the fabric of the institution and develops education and community engagement programs that support arts as education. This practice uses the process of artistic creation to inspire and empower youth, lifelong learners and audiences to find and/or enhance their voices, stories and abilities. The Goodman’s Alice Rapoport Center for Education and Engagement is the home of such programming, most offered free of charge, and has vastly expanded the theater’s ability to touch the lives of Chicagoland citizens (with 85% of youth participants coming from underserved communities) since its 2016 opening.

Goodman Theatre was founded by William O. Goodman and his family in honor of their son Kenneth, an important figure in Chicago’s cultural renaissance in the early 1900s. The Goodman family’s legacy lives on through the continued work and dedication of Kenneth’s family, including Albert Ivar Goodman, who with his late mother, Edith-Marie Appleton, contributed the necessary funds for the creation of the new Goodman center in 2000.

Goodman Theatre leadership also includes the distinguished members of the Artistic Collective: Brian Dennehy, Rebecca Gilman, Henry Godinez, Dael Orlandersmith, Steve Scott, Chuck Smith, Regina Taylor, Henry Wishcamper and Mary Zimmerman. David W. Fox, Jr. is Chair of Goodman Theatre’s Board of Trustees, Denise Stefan Ginascol is Women’s Board President and Megan McCarthy Hayes is President of the Scenemakers Board for young professionals.