Gapers Block has ceased publication.
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.
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TODAY
Tuesday, April 23
Slowdown
BY DAY
Wednesday, September 14 2005
Garrison Keillor at the Harold Washington Library Center
For some reason, Garrison Keillor’s civilized and civilizing daily five-minute public radio show, The Writer’s Almanac (in which he reads a poem and summarizes the day’s important birthdays and anniversaries), isn’t carried by WBEZ, but Keillor himself will be at the Harold Washington Library Center tonight. He’ll be reading from his new poetry anthology, Good Poems for Hard Times in the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium starting at 6 PM. This free event will be followed by a book signing. 400 S. State Street. For more information, check the website or call (312) 747-4050.
Win a Date with Joe & Mandy
Playground Theater member team, The Fling, presents an all new improv game show, Win a Date With Joe & Mandy, tonight. From The Fling: "Win a Date With Joe & Mandy is an Improvised Game Show where the audience can win a date with our lovely bachelorette, Mandy, or this guy, Joe. It is Love Connection meets Double Dare as audience members compete in a series of wacky challenges to win the affections of Joe or Mandy. The two audience-selected winners will be whisked away on all expenses paid dates with Joe & Mandy, complete with members of The Fling as chaperones. The dates will be filmed and clips will be shown to new audiences in subsequent weeks." Performances will be at 8pm at The Playground Theater, 3209 North Halsted, Chicago. Tickets are $10, call (773) 348-2209 for reservations.
WNEP Haiku Revue
WNEP Theater is holding The Haiku Revue at the Viaduct Theatre, tonight at 7pm. The event serves as a fundraiser for WNEP and features songs and novelty acts performed by WNEP members as well as an auction of haikus written by likes of William H. Macy, Steven Levitt, Gregory Maguire and others. There will also be a silent auction for items donated by local businesses and organizations. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door, and include a complimentary drink ticket. The Viaduct Theatre is located at 3111 N. Western. Call 773-755-1693 to purchase tickets and for more information.
Butoh Festival at the Chicago Cultural Center
Groping Towards Dance: Butoh and the Origins of Music, the only U.S. butoh festival that features emerging artists, begins tonight in the Sydney R. Yates Gallery of the Chicago Cultural Center at 7 PM. Butoh is an avant-garde dance form developed in Japan in the 1960s. “The first public performances were wild and primal and shocked the conservative Japanese dance community.” Performances in this free program will be followed by talk-backs with the artists. For more information, see the website or call 312-744-6630.
Mexican Folk at the Old Town School
As part of the Old Town School of Folk Music’s 10th annual Autumn celebration of Latin sound, Chicago Mexican folk bands Sones de Mexico Ensemble and Banda Manzanera are performing, starting at 8:30 PM. This program is in honor of Mexican Independence Day, September 16 (no, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day; it commemorates a Mexican victory over the French (a turning point in the fight for independence) in 1862). This event is free, but the Old Town School requests a $5 donation. 4544 N. Lincoln Ave. For more information, call 773-728-6000 or visit the website.
Radio Plays at the Chicago Cultural Center
If your idea of radio drama is Guy Noir on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion, you might want to expand your horizons by checking out this performance by the AFTRA/SAG Senior Radio Players, a group dedicated to “keeping alive the uniqueness of radio as the theater of the imagination." At tonight’s performances of Death Takes a Holiday (a romantic story) and A Good and Faithful Servant (a suspenseful one), you’ll have a chance to see sound effects people, as well as usually invisible actors, at work. At the Claudia Cassidy Theater in the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E Washington Street, 7 PM. For more information, see the website.
