Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni. ✶ Thank you for your readership and contributions. ✶
African-American authors and illustrators who strive to reach the "heart and soul" of children and young adults just might be a lucky recipient of one of the Coretta Scott King Awards. The awards, named after the wife of slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and given in conjunction with the American Library Association, honor artists who "create outstanding books" for youth.
To celebrate the awards,The Art Institute of Chicago is currently exhibiting Heart and Soul: Art from Coretta Scott King Award Books. The exhibit, which runs through Sunday, Apr. 18, features illustrations from influential and memorable passages from the books of award recipients.
Heart and Soul is on display at the Ryan Education Center, 111 S. Michigan Ave. Museum hours and admission prices vary; contact 312-443-3600 for more information.
Playwright Christine Houston, who wrote 227 (from which the 80s NBC sitcom of the same name was based), will be teaching a playwriting course through the City of Colleges of Chicago's continuing education program.
Held at Kennedy King College, 6343 S. Halsted St., Houston will teach aspiring playwrights the basics of playwriting and making the transition to television.
The course will be taught on Mondays, 6pm to 8pm, from April 5 through May 24; tuition is $69.To register or to get more information, contact KKC's Continuing Education Department at 773-602-5042 or kkccontinuingeducation@ccc.edu.
The cast of the TV show, photo courtesy of The Factory Theater
Hey! Dancin'! is a simple play. It is not meant to change your life but to make you smile. It is very much about the 80s, and whether you look back on the decade with nostalgia or disdain, you will have trouble keeping a straight face at this performance.
Hey! Dancin'! takes place in 1986 at the studio where a public access television dance show of the same name, reminiscent of "American Bandstand," is recorded. Our protagonist is a teenie bopper named Halle (played by Melissa Nedell) who, if not for her slut-wannabe best friend Trisha (played by Catherine Dughi), is probably the show's #1 fan.
First off, let me admit- I occasionally indulge myself in a McDonald's cheeseburger and french fries, and when the Shamrock Shake made its 2010 Spring debut, I made a special trip for the frosty green milkshake.
But when I arrived at the Grand and State redline stop this afternoon, before I could even consider indulging in my McCraving, I was confronted by a Ronald McDonald-esque clown and a group of smiling activists armed with posters and petitions. These folks are part of Corporate Accountability International- a group of people that take action against corporate powerhouses to challenge abuse and protect people's rights. Their latest endeavor is the "Value the Meal" campaign, which is "challenging corporate abuse of our food." CAI is asking that McDonald's retire its cultural icon- Ronald McDonald, a character that is widely recognized by children around the world. They claim that McDonald's is directly targeting children by using Ronald McDonald, thus encouraging kids to eat unhealthy fast food. The flyer they were handing out lists some interesting facts about the impact that this clown character has on our youth, stating that "Ronald is one of the most recognized and effective icons in marketing to children, setting them up for a lifetime of unhealthy eating habits and ultimately, chronic disease."
We're all lonely, right? Sure we are. That's why it's so much fun to make fun of lonely people. Bruised Orange Theatre Company understands this, exploiting it to hilarious degrees with I Saw You, running weekly at Lakeview's Town Hall Pub (3340 N Halsted).
Photo by Cassandra Stadnicki
I Saw You lifts text taken verbatim from Chicago-area personal ads and places them into the mouths of a rotating slate of actors who bring these characters (and their sad, sad pleas) to life for our amusement. The show is broken into three parts, going from the cute innocence of I Saw You to the sadly serious Seeking to the almost unbearably perverse X-Matches (mature audiences only, please). The night I saw it gave us a professional wrestler looking for "something casual" and a "tall cowboy" looking for friendship (not to mention several X-rated fantasies that should never be repeated).
Join the Congo Square Ensemble at the Legacy Festival, a celebration of ten of their most popular shows. This two-weekend festival features performances and staged readings from shows such as The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, and Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
The Legacy Festival takes place at The Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 N. Green St. The festival dates are Friday-Sunday, April 23-25 and April 30-May 2; all Friday shows are at 7:30pm and Saturday and Sunday shows are at 3pm and 6pm. A $10 donation is suggested. For more information, call 773-296-1108.
Everybody knows Keanu Reeves has a special way of acting... a certain je ne sais quoi... so it makes perfect sense that he would be played by a slightly bewildered audience member reading lines off of cue cards in the stage adaptation of Point Break.
Within the first ten minutes of Point Break Live!, Reeves' character, Johnny Utah, is chosen from audience volunteers based on his (or her) ability to mimic Reeves' vacant stare and recall his most popular lines while doing jumping jacks.
In case you're not familiar with Point Break, it's a movie about surfers who are also bank robbers and it stars Keanu Reeves as an ex-jock/FBI rookie and Patrick Swayze as a ripped surfer guru with Gary Busey and Lori Petty (Tank Girl) in supporting roles. As you might imagine, it's pretty over the top, but in an awesome, action packed, 1991 kind of way.
[Editor's note: This article was submitted by freelance writer Thea Liberty Nichols.]
As its logo suggests, Rumble Arts Center's name is taken from a specialized trait of elephants — the contact rumble. Used like Morse code, the elephant's system of rumbling the ground with their feet sends out low frequency signals that reach other elephants miles away. It's become a metaphor for the way Director Brook Wolfe hopes word about Rumble Arts travels, radiating out from their North Avenue epicenter to other friendly, like-minded listeners across the city.
Rumble's mission as an all-ages, donation-based multicultural community arts center has expressed itself, in its first year and a half, by hosting dozens of classes, ranging from drawing to martial arts, pop 'n' lock to puppetry, yoga to DJing. The lean and nimble paid staff is composed solely of Wolfe; Edwin Perry, who serves as co-director; and Bree Johnson, Rumble's administrative assistant.
A painter and spoken word artist herself, Wolfe was born and raised in Chicago, and lived the same Humboldt Park neighborhood as the Arts Center. After changing majors four times at a total of five different undergraduate art schools she left Chicago for Oakland, accepting the fact that her exposure to multiple teaching methods and styles was a good enough education in and of itself. After moving back from her transformative stay out west, Wolfe took inspiration from the arts program called Art Esteem she had worked with in California, and used it to guide her development of Rumble itself.
Now in its 13th year, the Chicago Improv Festival will be kicking off on Monday, April 19 and running for a full week, showcasing the talents of 40 Chicago area improv groups, 24 from cities around the country and eight from outside of the United States.
Special events held in conjunction with the festival include the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Awards on Wednesday, April 21 at The Second City ETC. Recipients will include Harold Ramis, Dick Schall and Severn Darden (accepted by his widow, Heather Darden) and others.
Tickets to individual events range from $10-$20, and can be purchased online starting April 1.
Jill Pollack is proud to say she hasn't had a boss since 1991. When she turned 40, she left behind the "soul-sucking" Internet consulting business she started and sought out something more meaningful. Having a background in theater and writing, she decided to teach a creative writing class at Columbia College . But when that program was shut down, she used her entrepreneurial spirit to start StoryStudio Chicago, a center for writing and related arts.
As spring settles in, I have been drawn outside more and more, this week I headed to Hyde Park, where Laura Schaeffer is preparing to open her second Op Shop. Laura's Op Shops start as vacant store fronts or businesses that she transforms into creative retail spaces. With the help of local artists and visionaries Laura will be offering a space for artists and community members to come together and teach, learn, witness and connect, as well as buy, sell, display and observe. This sort of balance is not easy to maintain, but seeing as Laura is also the owner of the Home Gallery, and hanging the beautiful shows she has at Home, definitely qualifies her to make this an absolute success.
Her artistic eye scans everything as it comes together, artists run amuck in the 3,000-square-foot space of 1530 E. 53rd St., and Laura takes pictures and so she is sure to recount the process. In the short time I was there I found out that the space, built in the '30s, was a Walgreen's, a Kroch's and Brentano's bookstore, and a Hollywood Video, but according to a project being done for the Op Shop, the most influential incarnation of the space was the Hyde Park Federal Savings and Loan. Although Laura is directing the resurrection of the Op Shop for Saturday's opening, I would like express that this is an evolving space, the items and projects within the space will alter and grow throughout its existence, which will be until, at least, May 1.
Opening Reception: March 27, 6-10pm
Open Wednesday through Sundays 11am - 7pm
Closing Celebration: May 1, 6-10pm
Sometimes you admire a comedy because of its subtle wit and cleverness, because it keeps a sustained smile on your face that lasts the duration of the film. Other times, you fall head over heels for a comedy because it is balls-out the perfect combination of stupidity and intelligence, with a healthy serving of charm thrown in and a dash of the grotesque. Welcome to Hot Tub Time Machine, folks, a movie that almost dares you not to giggle your way into a frothy stupor. What put this film over the top for me was its complete and utter disregard not only for conventional logic and sensibility, but the film actually bothers to set up its own time-space continuum rules and then breaks them with a wanton disregard for the Butterfly Effect. On the plus side, Time Cop's essential rule about the same person from two different times occupying the same space is cited and dealt with quite effectively. But for God's sake, this isn't a movie about science; it's about partying '80s style, and who better to do that with than John Cusack?
The streets of Jersey City are littered with drugs, violence, and influences that could easily take a promising young man and swallow up his potential. That street ends at the steps of St. Anthony High School, where Bob Hurley has coached the Friars basketball team to 24 state titles in 35 years, and has sent all but two of the hundreds of players that cross his court on to college. The Street Stops Here, which held its Chicago premiere at the Chicago History Museum on March 24, is an uplifting documentary about a team that is fighting not only to win, but to succeed in the greater game of life. Lucky for them, they have a legendary coach who refuses to accept anything less.
If you're downtown and you're looking for something unusual to check out this evening, check out the new show at The (Con)Temporary Art Space (208 S. Wabash) tonight, starting now. Part time cab driver, artist, writer and sometimes homeless 60+ year old gentleman, James Bruce King is showing his hyper, surrealistic, Chicago-centric drawings with Bruner and Bay in the back room and Reuben Kincaid on Youtube karaoke. Click here for details.
Hull's "Night and Day", 2009, photo courtesy of Western Exhibitions
Be sure to check out local favorite Richard Hull's new work at Western Exhibitions tomorrow night. The opening reception is from 5 to 8pm and the show will stay up through May 1. Click here for more information.
Meet Charlie Megna. He is one of the multitudes of artists who have studios in the Flat Iron Arts Building in Wicker Park, but he's one of the scarce few who are always there. He got his BFA at Lewis University, and now he spends his days at work at Genesis Art Supply and his nights painting like a madman.
Right now he's preoccupied with painting bricks. Not the mortar, as most of us would draw, but the bricks themselves. This way, he has to randomly pick and choose which bricks should go where-- an activity he described as cathartic as he painted them, and I watched, in his studio yesterday. He likes making the rapid, random decisions of placement. "They represent choices," he said to me.
Don't schedule any meetings for this Friday at 10am, because you're going to need to be at your computer to purchase tickets for the Chicago debut of "Celebrity Autobiography," which is playing at the Royal George Theatre April 30 and May 1 at 8pm.
"Celebrity Autobiography" gives comedians and actors a chance to interpret the actual autobiographies of celebrities, many of which lend themselves nicely to unintentional hilarity. Past autobiographies read have included the works of Tiger Woods, The Jonas Brothers, Vanna White, Neil Sedaka, and more.
Comedian Damon Williams has been making audiences laugh for a long time; with an affable style that appeals to all ages, this Chicago-born comedian has appeared on BET's "Comic View" and "HBO's "Def Comedy Jam," and enjoyed a successful run as the opener for the "The Original Kings of Comedy" tour. Definitely considered one of the hardest working men in comedy, here, we see just why Williams' motto is "Don't stop and don't quit."
When did you know you were funny--when did you say, "I've got something here."
People always laughed at my observations, but actually, I didn't really know until I tried an 'open mic' night. And when [HBO's] "Def Comedy Jam" was on, opportunities to do open mic were available in Chicago. I taped mine and folks laughed. That was when I knew.
Describe the Chicago comedy scene--is there a certain "style?"
Well not so much a style, but I would say that Chicago comics shoot for big reactions from our audiences--we call those "blowups." Because so many comics are funny, you have to make a name for yourself by getting those blowups.
We all know the feeling. Job-hunting can be the most daunting, soul-sucking, ego-crushing activity that all must at some point endure- these days especially. Mike Nourse and Marta Sasinowska's collaborative project, Looking For: New Works, captures this tumultuous and timely experience through photographs of people looking for work, which have been transferred onto the glass of salvaged windows. Nourse and Sasinowska collected resumes from their subjects and asked one simple question- "what are you looking for in life?" In doing so, they managed to wade through the hopelessness of searching, to find and capture peacefulness in possibilities, and the thrill of eventually finding.
It starts whimsically enough: Frank Younger builds a robot named Ozma (Final Fantasy, anyone?). Ozma and Frank's wife, Harriet, become friends. She introduces him to TV. Ozma becomes its disciple.
Then tragedy strikes, sending Ozma on a hedonistic journey through sex, death, and revenge. Sounds like my kind of left turn.
Playwright and Tympanic Theatre artistic director Daniel Caffrey chose to set his play in 1991, calling it a "memory play for the digital age." As a child of the "Saved By the Bell" sect (which was peaking around that year), I'm expecting heaps and heaps of the kind of nostalgia us twenty-somethings know best.
Ozma and Harriet opens March 25 and runs through April 18 at Rogers Park's side project theatre (1439 W. Jarvis Ave.). Performances are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm. You can order tickets online or by calling 773-442-2882.
Cameron Esposito, Image Courtesy of Rich Hein, Chicago Sun-Times
Cameron Esposito is the one to watch. Nominated for Best Female Comic at the 2008 Chicago Comedy Awards, it seems everywhere I look, someone is writing something great about her stand-up comedy and gig as MC for El Circo Cheapo. Back in November, Michelle Peterson from Gapers Block wrote a piece about Esposito and I interviewed El Circo Cheapo founder, Shayna Swanson. In today's Sun-Times, Mark Konkol wrote a short feature about Esposito. Check out all the write-ups and more importantly, go check out Cameron Esposito!
Evanston's Next Theatre inaugurated its Dark Night Series earlier this season with an excellent evening of experimental puppetry from Theatre Zarko. The series, which focuses on non-traditional forms of performance, will reignite this weekend when it presents Neo-Futurists ensemble member Dean Evans' comic mime show, Magical Exploding Boy.
A completely wordless one-man show, Magical Exploding Boy presents several darkly comic vignettes using the mime and clown techniques he learned under the tutelage of legends Marcel Marceau and Stephen Niedzialkowsky.
Okay, I have to post this because it looks sort of odd: check out Phil Rosenthal's Tower Ticker post about Fox Chicago News. Rosenthal says that Nancy Loo is not going to get her contract renewed. Meanwhile, they will hire Joanie Lum. What's weird about that is it makes you wonder if there's a kind of expectation to hire a Chinese-American woman when they let another go. Do viewers now expect Asian women on newscasts, and does it really matter what someone's ethnicity is?
It just looks sort of weird, like the station is saying, "Hey--we're getting rid of one Asian-American woman, but look--we might hire another!"
I haven't met either of them, though I did see Joanie Lum interview Spike O'Dell a few years ago about experiencing loss. She looked cheerful and friendly. I should've at least said "hi" but I guess I hesitated because I have no idea if TV people get annoyed when a non-famous person approaches them.
Have you ever looked at something and thought "There is no reason in the world that this should be good" and even still, it is? Every now and again I see art that catches me by surprise, not because it is good but because, by all accounts, it should be bad. Think of thick paintings that utilize subdued color, images of bird and flowers, as well as collaged elements and sparse linear aspects, doesn't sound too great does it. Well, how wrong could I be. Nothing would of prepared me for the work of Marti Somers which is on display for the next three weeks at Addington Gallery in River North.
Marti has a grasp on her materials and what she is communicating. These paintings are light, although the process in which she is using to arrive at them is far from that. Soft edges and grayed color float on the surface and I haven't the slightest idea why these paintings aren't just falling apart. They invited me in and I was surprised to spend a few warm minutes with them, the whole time thinking, "These should be bad, but they're not". If you get a chance, check out this show, it is rather impressive, and if you have any idea why it all works, please, let me know.
Chicago is home to unpredictable spring weather and now it is home to avalanches, a 40-foot tornado, 80 mph wind tunnels and avalanches with the Museum of Science and Industry's latest exhibit, Science Storms.
Science Storms weaves modern technology (think instant replays and touch technology ala iPhone) with historic moments, facts and figures (think giant Tesla coil generating a 10-foot lighting bolt over your head) to educate museum goers about weather events and the science that is behind them.
Abigail Williams and John Proctor, played by Elaine Ivy Harris and Craig C. Thompson
Arthur Miller's The Crucible is the first full production of Infamous Commonwealth Theatre's 2010, redemption-themed season. The classic telling of the 1692 Salem witch trials, with political parallels drawn in response to the McCarthy Trials of the 1950's, is a fitting choice for the topic of redemption, and with some great performances, it was a quality kick-off for ICT's season.
Because school arts programs are virtually non-existent, keeping arts in the community is crucial for youth; it provides them with future opportunities and teaches them teamwork, social skills, and familiarity with other cultures--something that Mojdeh, President and Curator of Lethal Poetry, Inc., understands all too well.
Lethal Poetry is an interdisciplinary arts organization that goes "beyond entertainment and into the cause." "Our vision is to bring many Chicago artists together to activate them as social activists," says Mojdeh. "Also, we create a model that shows the benefits of for-profit organizations working with the nonprofit sector when it comes to the arts."
"Mystery Diagnosis" on the Discovery Channel (aka Discovery Health) will feature someone from Chicago this Monday, March 22 at 9 pm: Conor Heybach, who had the rare disease Prader-Willi Syndrome, which causes obesity. His parents, John and Sue Heybach, had to lock up the food in their house because the disease made him eat so much, that by 15 he was over 200 pounds when he just over five feet tall.
If you miss the episode, they show reruns and also have podcasts available--check out their site for lots of info.
Laura Shaeffer is on a mission to create a more cohesive and diverse community for the arts in Hyde Park -- and she needs your help. The Op Shop, which will open on March 26th at 1530 E. 53rd Street in Hyde Park, is "a transitory, experimental project space for contemporary art." Essentially, the Op Shop is for artists to use as they please, and it's a great opportunity for students and emerging artists to have their work shown. Check out their open call for work and volunteers. The Op Shop, which is about to begin its second run, is Shaeffer's way of creating an art-centric space for Hyde Park in which creativity can blossom, relationships can form, and discussion can center.
Like musical theatre, but hate that sacharin sweet fluff that keeps rolling through town? Then maybe "Flames and Blazes", playing tonight at 8 pm at The Annoyance (4830 N. Broadway), will be more up your alley. "Flames and Blazes" is set in the 1920s at an exclusive New Years Eve Party in a hotel that is in the process of burning to the ground. The blaze starts burning guests and servants left and right, but the revelers refuse to acknowledge that they might be in trouble.
Tickets are $15 and are available online, over the phone (773-562-HONK), or at the box office.
Hey everyone. So, I've been in Austin, Texas, for the last week or so attending the SXSW Film Festival. I've done 17 interviews and seen somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 movies (when you read this I'll be at the tail end of the my time at the fest). As a result, I've missed a few screenings of things opening in Chicago this weekend, including Repo Men, The Bounty Hunter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Neil Young Trunk Show at the Music Box, which might hurt most of all. And I'm not done traveling. I've got a couple more short jaunts that will force me to miss films like How to Train Your Dragon and Clash of the Titans. And while I've seen many other films opening in the coming weeks in advance, this week in particular I've been pretty useless to you, with one notable exception. Read on, and I'll see you when I have my feet on the ground.
The Runaways
As much as I'd been led to believe that The Runaways was going to be a document of the short-lived, all-female rock band seen through the eyes of its most famous member, Joan Jett (played with convincing edge by Kristen Stewart), the film is, in fact, told from two perspectives--Jett's and that of underage singer Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning in a career-altering performance). My knowledge of The Runaways is limited at best. There were two of the band's songs featured in the film I recognized, including their biggest hit "Cherry Bomb." But I believe that a bio pic or documentary to any musical performer should not be a love letter to that person or group. The job of a film like The Runaways is to convince those ignorant of their music (like me) that these are people worth paying attention to, exploring, and maybe even collecting. And for the most part, first-time feature writer-director Floria Sigismondi (whose background is in music videos, although the film thankfully doesn't take on that rapid-fire editing approach) has succeeded in crafting a thoughtful examination of a band that needed to exist in the 1970s landscape.
This is just a reminder... don't forget to go to the highly anticipated 50 Alderman/50 Artists show opening tomorrow night at Johalla Projects (1561 N. Milwaukee) from 7 to 11pm.
It should be a lively show-- 50 artists volunteered to make portraits of their alderman for it in an effort to raise awareness of local politics within the art world. Old Style is sponsoring the opening, too, so you can have a undeniably, unapologetically Chicago experience at this show. Don't miss it. If you do, though, the show will be up through April 2.
Starting at sunrise (6:45am) on Saturday, performance artist Stan Shellabarger will start walking down Chicago Avenue from the street's terminal point in Melrose Park. He will walk east on Chicago, toward the lake, through Oak Park, through the 'hood, through Ukranian Village, hoping to end up at the lake at the sun's transit at 12:58pm, when the sun will be directly overhead.
Then he'll turn around and walk all the way back.
This performance will be the latest in his series of Equinox and Solstice Walking Performances, in which he uses the tread of his boots to draw directly on the earth's surface, bringing the meaning of art making into the future by nodding to its distant past in pagan ritual.
To view Shellabarger during this performance, call Western Exhibitions at 312-480-8390. Viewers will be given Shellabarger's cell phone number so they can contact him for his coordinates. Or, just show up where Chicago Avenue hits the lake at 12:58pm.
See prior Solstice and Equinox Walking performances here and here. Click here for more information about Shellabarger and his work.
Local designer Jonathan Shaun has a bit of an on-again, off-again relationship with fashion design. Not so much because he doesn't love his job, having worked with eco-friendly designers Nau, Topo Ranch and Connect Chicago, but rather he's constantly in search of inspiration.
But in his journey, Shaun noticed something was missing.
He wanted a commuter-friendly dress shirt you could take from the bike to the boardroom, then maybe out later for drinks. The ultimate performance dress shirt. One that didn't compromise on aesthetics and high-end tailoring, but still offered freedom of movement and breathability.
"It's what I call a less-is-more philosophy," Shaun says. And that's what he created here in Chicago.
Rine Boyer's Animal Series opened last Sunday at Old Town Art Center's Triangle Association, which is tucked away on North Park Ave. in a hardly marked building on the north side of Old Town. Animal Series is a collection of ink on paper portraits. Some of the larger pieces are pasted to large slabs of wood and glossed over with resin. The models appear to be friends of Boyer's; they are all titled by the subject's first name but Boyer's artist statement reflects her interest in "painting strangers as friends and friends as strangers to explore common personalities" so ultimately, the distinction is lost. Each portrait is decorated with a free-hand print of an animal that, according to Boyer, depicts the subject's personality. "Christine" is adorned with owls, "Bruce," with moose, and "Gabrielle," with whales. The show has character and Boyer's fondness of her work and her subjects is evident and frankly, cute.
For Harvey Star Washington, modeling is more than just fashion, make-up and strutting on the runway--it is also about giving back. At "Paparazzi," held Sunday at Navy Pier's Grand Ballroom, this fashion show producer extraordinaire treated the audience to a high-energy show that was full of glitz, glamour and giving back.
Washington, a 30-plus year veteran in the fashion and modeling industry, has seen his fair share of changes, most notably with the presence of full-figured models. A staunch advocate for "women of size," Washington feels the time has now come to embrace them. "Full-figured women are more in the forefront now, and that is something that was overdue; it's time for people to really take notice of them," he said. "Just because you're full-figured, it doesn't mean you can't feel good about who you are."
Giving back is very important to Washington; in fact, he works pro bono with new models, allowing them an opportunity to create and build a work portfolio. "I like working with women who have never had the opportunity to model," he said.
This one is for everyone out there living your dreams.
I read two stories that blew my mind today, both of them shared the topic of asking the public to understand that because some people decided to follow their dreams they should make more money or be more "successful."
First I will start with Chris Brown. I don't know much about this kid, but I read that he is begging for more support. I guess radio stations aren't playing his music enough because he said "They're not being that supportive and I wouldn't expect them to." Really Chris? You know what, welcome to the club kid. Millions of artists out there have day jobs to follow their dreams, and trust me, just because you were getting paid doesn't mean you're all that great.
Anatomy in the Gallery is the rotating exhibition space at the International Museum of Surgical Science. From March 5th to May 21st, it will house two exhibits- Annie Heckman'sYou thought that you were alone but I caught your bullet just in time, and Laura Kalman's Blooms, Efflorescence, and Other Dermatological Embellishments.
Annie Heckman, installation detail
Annie Heckman's exhibit lies behind two heavy, black curtains. Pulling the curtains aside uncovers a dark room that feels like the damp basement of a horror movie torture scene. The floor is littered with glow in the dark bones and skulls, and a chandelier of bones hangs from the ceiling. The exhibit is on a timer that allows for a light to turn on every five minutes and recharge the glow in the dark paint. If you happen to catch the exhibit in its intended state, its effectively chilling. If, however, you pull back the curtains at a time when the lights are on (there is no way to tell before peeking in the room) the room feels more like a third grader's Halloween project. The bones and skulls are painted cutouts, and their 2-D reality is disappointing without the flowing effect.
I feel pretty confident in saying that there is no better director of realistic, complex action sequences working today than Paul Greenglass (United 93, Bloody Sunday, and the most recent two Bourne movies). He also has an uncanny ability of building unbearable levels of suspense and making sure an intelligent audience always knows exactly what is happening and what the specific geography of every sequence is. This may sound bizarre, but one of my biggest complaints about the current crap of action directors is that they simply toss the camera around, set off a shitload of explosions, and rattle off gunfire with very little care if the audience can keep track of where all of the players are and who they are attempting to capture or kill. But with Green Zone, Greengrass' dense and perfect military thriller set in the early weeks of the current war in Iraq, we are always perfectly clear who's after who and why. He almost makes it look easy.
For some, the historic election of President Barack Obama signaled an end--or at least, somewhat--to the issue of racial inequality in America. Despite this age of Obama, racial stereotypes about African-Americans still persist; in The Shipment, which comes to Chicago later this month, director/playwright Young Jean Lee explains why discussions about race shouldn't end and why they must continue.
Photo courtesy of Blaine Davis
In your mission, you note that you produce theater "that unsettles and challenges"--tell us more about this.
I don't like art where you see something and it reaffirms all your pre-existing beliefs [about things]. I prefer art that shakes me up a little bit, makes me questions myself and makes me think about things.
In your play The Shipment, the subject of race & stereotypes, mostly aimed at African-Americans, is thoroughly explored; however, many ethnic groups are stereotyped--what was it about African-Americans specifically that you wanted to tap into?
I started the show pre-Obama. During that time, people were nice when I talked about race. I also did an Asian-American show and people were still comfortable, but when racism against black people came up, they got defensive and weird.
On Friday, March 12 at 10 pm, Tali Farchi and Royce Deans will be painting to music performed by Wilbert de Joode (bass), Dave Rempis (reeds), and Mike Reed (drums) at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee, 2nd floor in Chicago. Suggested donation is $12.
If you like art and improv jazz, I highly recommend going there--it's a combo you probably haven't seen before and well worth it.
Last Friday I attended Carnival of Curiosity which consisted of works by the Priestesses of the Holy Mountain, which is a BDSM (bondage discipline/ dominance submission/ sadomasochism) temple. The problem I have with these sorts of shows is that, the idea of having a show like this is often better than the show itself. The work unfortunately didn't deliver enough insight nor did it utilize innovation in a way suitable for the subject matter.
Relationships can be easy to get into, but in some cases, they are hard to get out of. In the stage play Love Won't Let Go, premiering this week in Chicago, playwright Damian Hines tells why it isn't always easy to let go.
You have a very artistic background--writing, directing, and producing--have you always had a deep love for the arts?
Absolutely. It all started back when I was in grade school, where I first started acting. From there, I acted in high school and later, wrote music when I was in college. But writing has always been one of my strongest suits and it paved the way for a neat transition to writing stage plays.
You have your own production company, LaurDon Entertainment--how did you get started?
My partner Vernard Lomax and I have been friends for 15 years. We met right out of college when we both worked in a corporate America job. We both had acting aspirations and together, decided to leave the company. Later, we became involved with a local playwright here in Chicago and did work for his production. After a while, we both realized, "Hey, we can do this, too!"
And LaurDon Entertainment was born.
Yes. But I have to say that Vernard is on the business side of things and I handle the creative side.
Cora Vander Broek, Clayton Stamper and Anthony Peeples explore the meaning of mixed ancestry in The DNA Trail
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What happens when science meets theater? To find out, seven playwrights took Q-Tips to the insides of their cheeks, swabbed, and mailed the results to a DNA analysis company. Six weeks later the results were mailed back, and the playwrights set to work on creating original pieces of theater inspired by the experience.
Silk Road Theatre Project is a kind of DNA trail unto itself; founded in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, its primary mission is to create a greater understanding of Middle Eastern and Muslim people. This idea quickly expanded to encompass the geographical landmass known as the silk road, the ancient trading route that stretches from Japan to Italy, and was responsible for cultural exchanges as well as silk and other commodities. Among the many cultural artifacts that were traded along the route were stories, narratives and poems. Silk Road Theatre Project continues this tradition by showcasing the works of playwrights of Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean backgrounds.
Quennect 4 just started out as a space, nothing more. Just a place on North Avenue in Humboldt Park for people to use for concerts and parties. And that's what it was. But over time, somewhat serendipitously, it became something more-- not only a venue for art and music but for communication, harmony, and activism.
One of the many revelatory occasions that contributed to this transformation happened recently, during a benefit at Quennect 4 for the well-known taggers Evol and Afro, who died in a car accident on the highway last April. The circumstances surrounding their death were infuriating--a (probably) drunk cop was involved--so the attendance was immense. The large space was full and they had to stop letting people in at 10:30.
"It should go down in history," said one of the guys who runs Quennect 4, who asked to remain anonymous when I interviewed the crew of volunteers there in February. "Every tagging crew in the city was here. On the streets they're at war with each other but in here they all got along. You could feel the energy in the room. It was very tense. We were all nervous, but nothing happened."
[Editor's note: This feature story was submitted by reader A.Jay Wagner.]
Between Chicago and Division streets, just east of Clark sits an unassuming square of green, at its center sits a weathered fountain, its yellow paint flaking away. Spokes of sidewalk radiate from the fountain to the edges of the park. It marks the home of the majority of the trees in the neighborhood and also houses a handful of snowed over flower beds.
The park sits just south of the hulking Gothic mass of the Newberry Library, a privately owned research library that houses awe-inspiring special collections. The northeast corner of the park sits adjacent to the aqua accented spires of the now shuttered Scottish Rite Cathedral. The eastern and southern sides are bordered by modern office towers and tony apartment complexes.
A motley collection of folks occupy the park on a weekday afternoon. A trio of aging Polish women sit chatting on benches. A few business men clad in ties and khakis enjoy the unseasonably warm weather while having their lunches. A pair of homeless men have docked their shopping carts side-by-side and carry on an animated discussion. But Washington Square Park's current tranquil appearance belies it past as a home of kooks, communists, and everything in between.
It might seem odd for the masses to yearn for more of a six-hour adaptation of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung, but the Building Stage's production is well worth its running time. If you missed it the first time, or are dying for a repeat viewing, the show has been extended.
Added shows are Saturday, March 20 at 3 p.m. and Sunday, March 21 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $40 ($32 for students/seniors) and may be purchased here or by calling (312) 491-1369. The Building Stage is located at 412 N. Carpenter and free parking is available.
The show's trailer is below and you can read my review here.
John Hughes, director of Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986), Home Alone (1990) and National Lampoon's Vacation (1982)- as well as a plethora of other films celebrating the beauty of youth and the humor and significance of teen angst- was honored tonight at the 82nd Academy Awards. Hughes, a Chicagoan since age 12, died of a heart attack in August of 2009. A graduate of Glenbrook North High School, many of his iconic movies are set in Chicago and capture scenes that Chicagoans call home. Who can forget Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, being left in his family's North Shore home for a week of high jinks and booby traps in Home Alone? And of course, we've all imitated Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller on the top floor of The Sears Tower, leaning over the rail with forehead pressed to the glass.
The tribute this evening included many of the actors who Hughes worked with, including Molly Ringwald, Macaulay Culkin, Judd Nelson, and Anthony Michael Hall. His wife and children, clearly touched by the recognition, were thanked and applauded, and a brief montage allowed the audience to reminisce with his beloved body of work.
The buzzword of the night was "Launch:" Both "TAL" and TCIAF's new websites went live this week, Reality Radio hit shelves this month, and The Kitchen Sisters revealed their new project, "The Hidden World of Girls" that included a touching photographic slide show. All the presentations were moving and all the interviews were informative but the crowd didn't light up until the venerated idol of public radio storytelling, Ira Glass graced the stage. He recounted his climb to the top, even playing some embarrassing clips from his early days at National Public Radio. As on his celebrated radio show, Glass told captivating and poignant stories that had the crowd laughing and applauding.
The night concluded with all the guests squeezing into the onstage seating and interviewed by Macsai as a group. When asked if they enjoyed all the marketing and self-promotion that goes along with their radio careers, Glass propelled into an excited, emotional response that included an emphatic F-bomb, which, of course, sent the crowd into uproarious applause. This evening was the perfect nightcap to the day's celebration of audio documentary-making, storytelling and found sound.
There's a fine line between shock and intrigue. It's not necessarily the violence that makes people despise "torture porn" with such ferocity, it's that the creators have done nothing to earn the violence. Atmosphere and character is traded for string squeals and cocktail declarations, rendering the explosive moments of gore gimmicky and exploitative instead of visceral and cathartic. It's easy and lame and destroying the horror genre slowly but surely.
Trine Bumiller, who currently has a show Zg Gallery in River North, paints trees. You may think that that is nothing to write home about but I would beg to differ. Trine's paintings are more than just trees, they are meditations on nature. These paintings, which are made up of multiple panels, utilize memory and some very keen observational skills Trine transports us to another place entirely.
Skillfully using layers upon layers of paint, Trine recreates a stillness you may have experienced, just before you realized you strayed too far from your hiking party. That is the moment we are reminded, by something ethereal, that everything is going to work out, which is all too often just before you are thrust back into reality and panic sets in. The same attributes that created the stillness, multiple layers, soft edges and silhouettes also create movement within her work. Subtle, and ever so sexy, the paintings breath, shifting their color and mood to tug at our memory and allow us to settle into these images.
Up until April 10th you have plenty of time to experience this show, and I would defiantly recommend that you do. Zg gallery is located at 300 W Superior in River North and is open from 10a to 5:30pm Tuesday thru Saturday.
This is sort of odd: Eddie and Jobo, who made millions of dollars in radio and were ushered out before their contract was up (which means they were still making millions for not working), went on WGN-TV to promote the fact that they will be on the radio just one day next week. That's quite a big plug for such a tiny gig. Their PR people must be happy they got such exposure.
It's right and good that folks get excited each time director Tim Burton and his male muse Johnny Depp work together, but here's the worst kept secret about their creative partnering: the more special effects, make-up, and intentional wackiness they pile on to a particular film, the less successful it is as art. I don't think I'll get too much push-back on saying that Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands are their best (and earliest) collaborations. And since they made those two films, they've been trying to recapture some sort of elusive, creepy magic that usually results in something entertaining but not sustained greatness. I don't have an overwhelming need to revisit Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the way I do their initial pairings (perhaps unfairly, I'm excluding Corpse Bride, which I love, from this discussion). Sweeney Todd is probably the closest they've come to brandishing the kind of goth greatness audiences are hoping for, but Alice in Wonderland (barely based on the Lewis Carroll books) is an entirely different creature altogether, one that I both appreciate and struggled with. I'll tell you right off the bat, I'm split about as close down the middle on this film as I possibly can be. If you want to hear why, keep reading.
The eyes of the mentally ill are lost but not vacant, as they stare past visitors who enter Eugene Richards' exhibit at the Gage Gallery of Roosevelt University, titled A Procession of Them: The Plight of the Mentally Disabled. Through his volunteer work with the human rights organization Mental Disability Rights International, Richards experienced and photographed the nightmare of concentration camp like conditions, serving to hold the mentally ill in countries including Mexico, Argentina, Hungary, Paraguay, and Kosovo.
"There's an old woman who's been here about forty years, left over from the past," describes a grandmotherly woman who should be in a warm bed, surrounded by loving friends and relatives at the end of her life. Instead she stands alone in Richards' photo, completely forgotten by the outside world. Quotes from prisoners and others involved in the travesty of these institutions scatter the walls, and offer further emotional context to the incomprehensible reality confronted by this series of photographs.
Eugene Richards, an award winning documentary photographer, does not allow the trauma of this situation to escape the eyes and hearts of viewers. In one photo, he captures a young boy whose stump leg has been tied to a window and is unable to leave his bed. Another presents men being wiped down with a gloved hand as freezing water bathes them like dogs in the communal showers. They stand shivering and helpless, without towels to dry off.
A Procession of Them is frightening, but real. Although not a view of life that is enjoyable to experience, the effect that Richards succeeds in creating is powerfully unavoidable. The words of a patient capture the impact best- "I don't like it here. It feels like a prison that kills."
Eugene Richards' exhibit is up in Gage Gallery at 18 S. Michigan Ave until May 14th.
Pavement Group's production of punkplay namedrops Iggy, Rollins, Sid and Danzig, but an elitist punk would definitely take umbrage to this representation of his counterculture. For the rest of us, though, it's an accurate snapshot of how the world sees punk: angry, loud and perverse.
The show's illustrated - too infrequently - with punk anthems like Fear's Let's Have a War and The Ramones' Beat on the Brat, though New England playwright Gregory Moss specifically left out a lot of music, letting the dialogue tell his story.
The show's got some great scenes, including tripped out PeeWee's Playhouse type sequence, and it doesn't shy away from sex or violence. There's sometimes a disconnect between Moss's script, based on his own experience with punk, and how it comes off on stage. For example, calling a punk a cop - the C-word of the anti-establishment - might mean fisticuffs in the real world, but when it's from the bubblegum mouth of a kid in a tight T-shirt and rollerskates, it comes off like a minor threat.
Agon is a Greek word for conflict, or as Dream Theatre artistic director Jeremy Menekseoglu puts it: "The Argument." This month, the company will be opening Agamemnon, the first play in Menekseoglu's Agon Trilogy. The trilogy is a riff on Aeschylus' classic Oresteia, the Greek epic chronicling Agamemnon's death by his wife's hand upon his return from the Trojan War, and the revenge sought by his children, Orestes and Electra. Menekseoglu's retelling seeks to broaden these worlds by digging into the unexplored nooks of each story.
Set "in a nowhere time reminiscent of the 20's and 40's," his Agamemnon begins in the days leading up to Aeschylus' story, following the King as he discovers and imprisons Cassandra, the Trojan Princess with a clairvoyant streak. What follows, according to Menekseoglu, who also stars in the production, "is a harrowing story of betrayal, barbarity and banishment to the monkey house." Sounds rife with agon to me.
The play opens Thursday, March 11 and runs through Sunday, April 11, at Dream Theatre (556 W 18th St.). Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm. Tickets are $15 - $18 and can be reserved by visiting online or by calling 773-552-8616.
Electra, the second play in the trilogy, opens May 6 and Orestes, the final play, opens July 8. Reserve now. If you miss the first one, how will you ever catch up?
I know there must be some White Sox fans here (I'm one of the few who's switched allegiances), so here's some good news, though still puzzling for me, because of all the confusing blackout rules: according to Phil Rosenthal, the MLB network will broadcast today's spring training opener at 10 PM. It's six hours past the real time, which is better than nothing, but if you want to see it live, Rosenthal thinks that "it's available live nationally on MLB's online pay service and in Los Angeles on Fox Sports West (which also reruns it at 9:30 p.m. Chicago time)."
The Chicago Opera Theater's second annual YouTube contest gives fans a chance to sing for their opera tickets, provided they can drum-up a popular video reenacting this season's arias.
The theme of this year's submissions is to explain "How do YOU make opera less ordinary?" by interpreting one of the three 2010 Spring season operas: Rossini's "Moses in Egypt," Cavalli's "Jason" (Giasone) or Heggie's "Three Decembers." For synopsis and production info, click on the operas' accompanied link.
If you don't know the difference between a mammoth and a mastodon, this exhibition is for you. If you think it's preposterous that anyone wouldn't know the difference between a mammoth and a mastodon, well it's for you, too.
The Field Museum's newest exhibition, Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age, opens this Friday and is expected to be pretty popular. The museum has gone all out for this one, creating hands-on life-sized dioramas and virtual experiences for visitors to explore and imagine themselves as cavemen.
Dog and Pony Theatre Company's The Twins Would Like to Say starts in the lobby, as the audience is greeted by Mr. Nobody (charmingly played by Nick Leininger)--the imaginary friend of a pair of twins who only speak to each other and spend their free time writing stories of Pepsi addictions and California beach parties on typewriters.
After a brief introduction to a couple parrot puppets--also products of the twins imaginations--the audience is led into a cramped hallway, flanked by mirrored walls. At the end of the hall, the twins (June and Jennifer Gibbons, played by Paige Collins, Ashleigh LaThrop) suddenly appear, dressed identically and holding hands--creepily reminiscent of the "come play with us" twins in The Shining. The crowd that is the audience then abruptly parts and pushes back against the walls (and each other) as the twins begin to march toward them in perfect unison, toward their nagging nemesis, a pair of blond girls with shrieking Welsch accents. We are immediately led to sympathize with the twins... of course they don't want to talk to anybody when everyone around them is so awful!
The twins reading diaries, left to right: Teeny Lamothe, Ashleigh LaThrop, Paige Collins and Kathryn Hribar. Photo by Peter Coombs
On March 5, Lillstreet Art Center will be hosting Empty Bowls at their Ravenswood headquarters to fight hunger. Artists are making hundreds of ceramic bowls, which will be sold for 20 dollars a piece and put to use at Friday's event. Proceeds will benefit hunger-fighting organization First Slice Cafe, housed on Lillstreet's first floor. Jane Hanna, Director of Marketing and Communications, took some time from preparing for this event to take me on an energetic, in-depth tour of Lillstreet.
We began in First Slice, the community-supported organic-friendly cafe, led by Chef Mary Ellen Diaz, that will provide the soup for the event. Along with First Slice, Soup and Bread, The Hideout's weekly get-together that benefits the Greater Chicago Food Depository, is also a collaborator.
GB flickr pool contributor Rob Bernhard found the above installation on the Orleans Street Bridge, and Noah Vaughn noticed a similar setup on the Lake Street Bridge. Do you know who made the art and what s/he had in mind?
"Does anyone have a cigarette?! Does anyone have a cigarette for William Eggleston?!!," an assistant yelled to the masses of people waiting for Mr. Eggleston to sign their books. People desperately shot their hands up, hoping to give the icon a smoke. Eggleston, pioneer of color photography, was on hand at The Art Institute's Modern Wing on Saturday for the opening of his retrospective, Democratic Camera, Photographs and Video, 1961-2008.
William Eggleston. Photo by Whitney Stoepel.
The show is huge, exhibiting his early black and white photos, every image from William Eggleston's Guide, video, and paraphernalia from commercial projects like the album cover for Memphis band, Big Star. Eggleston is a legend. His imprint on art, photography, and American culture is so large, this enormous retrospective still doesn't do it justice. Although I didn't have a cigarette to give him, standing 15 feet from him felt pretty cool. Democratic Photos closes May 23, 2010.
As its logo suggests, 
Between Chicago and Division streets, just east of Clark sits an unassuming square of green, at its center sits a weathered fountain, its yellow paint flaking away. Spokes of sidewalk radiate from the fountain to the edges of the park. It marks the home of the majority of the trees in the neighborhood and also houses a handful of snowed over flower beds.
